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Jule Amps Monique part 5

#183
Baird6869 said:
I decided that my kids are already spoiled and therefore do not need Christmas gifts this year.;)

So i took my newfound wealth and drove over to see Dave at Club Bass and bought a brand spanking new Minnie.:hyper:

Looking forward to trying it tonight. I will be moving the Crown poweramp for sure.
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Eh...they got gifts last year, right...

:eek:
 
#188
Baird6869 said:
I decided that my kids are already spoiled and therefore do not need Christmas gifts this year.;)



So i took my newfound wealth and drove over to see Dave at Club Bass and bought a brand spanking new Minnie.:hyper:



Looking forward to trying it tonight. I will be moving the Crown poweramp for sure.
Click to expand...

It looks like I'm going to take the last one he has in stock after yours. I'm definitely looking forward to it as well :)
 
#189
Jeff Moote said:
It looks like I'm going to take the last one he has in stock after yours. I'm definitely looking forward to it as well :)
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Good plan. Pricing is at parity with the US when you add exchange, shipping and tax. And Dave is a good guy to chat with in his shop.

I fired it up and it is loud as hell. In my limited time with it, I love the size, love the weight and it looks great under my Monique Dove Cage. Better sounding than my Crest or Crown power amps? Not sure. Doesn't sound worse by any means, but I need to A/B them. It is likely a keeper.





Question for other Minnie owners.... I find Minnie noisy when I dime the volume and adjust my overall output with Monique. Is this normal? If I keep the Minnie under 12:00, it isn't noisy at all. The noise is definately a 60 cycle hum kinda thing. My Fodera was on dual coil mode but I was using a crappy cable between Minnie and Monique. Cab is a berg AE210. Thoughts?
 
#190
Baird6869 said:
Good plan. Pricing is at parity with the US when you add exchange, shipping and tax. And Dave is a good guy to chat with in his shop.

I fired it up and it is loud as hell. In my limited time with it, I love the size, love the weight and it looks great under my Monique Dove Cage. Better sounding than my Crest or Crown power amps? Not sure. Doesn't sound worse by any means, but I need to A/B them. It is likely a keeper.





Question for other Minnie owners.... I find Minnie noisy when I dime the volume and adjust my overall output with Monique. Is this normal? If I keep the Minnie under 12:00, it isn't noisy at all. The noise is definately a 60 cycle hum kinda thing. My Fodera was on dual coil mode but I was using a crappy cable between Minnie and Monique. Cab is a berg AE210. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

If the Minnie at 12 o'clock or less gives you the SPL you need with the rest of the system gain set for optimum tone & minimal noise, then you're golden.
I dare say the gain setting on the minnie module in the case of the DeMonique is probably not wide open; at least that would be my guess.
Optimally, you'd set the front end pieces based on tone & noise level, then adjust for the overall volume at the power amp.
At least that is what works for me (though I don't ~yet~ have a Minnie).
 
#192
Baird6869 said:
I decided that my kids are already spoiled and therefore do not need Christmas gifts this year.;)

So i took my newfound wealth and drove over to see Dave at Club Bass and bought a brand spanking new Minnie.:hyper:
Click to expand...

ScreenShot2013-12-10at101837PM_zpsa5077d9f.png
 
#193
lo-freq said:
If the Minnie at 12 o'clock or less gives you the SPL you need with the rest of the system gain set for optimum tone & minimal noise, then you're golden.
I dare say the gain setting on the minnie module in the case of the DeMonique is probably not wide open; at least that would be my guess.
Optimally, you'd set the front end pieces based on tone & noise level, then adjust for the overall volume at the power amp.
At least that is what works for me (though I don't ~yet~ have a Minnie).
Click to expand...

I run the line out around 3:00 and Minnie is typically around 9:00 to maybe 11:00. I prefer to hit the power amp harder and use Minnie's master.
 
#194
Hey guys, remember, the 'master' on a power amp (like the Minnie) has very little to do with the 'power' that the amp puts out. It is just another gain stage that allows a power amp to work a bit better with either very low or very high output preamps.

You can reach full power from a power amp at a variety of the 'Minnie Master' setting. When I finally thought about this, this is why it makes total sense that the integrated 'DeMonique' does not have that 'secondary volume control' that Demeter includes on the Minnie, since it is not needed because the output of the Monique is optimized for the input gain structure, impedance, etc. of the Minnie.

So, +1, set the master on the Minnie where you get the least amount of noise. I would assume that Jule or James could probably tell users of the components where to set the master volume of the Minnie to optimize performance and signal to noise levels, based on the DeMonique optimized link between the Monique and the Minnie.

In summary, don't confuse the master level on the Minnie as representing 'power output level'.
 
#195
I emailed Jule about this very same topic 2 days ago. Here are my questions and his responses. Perhaps this will clear things up.

------

Two questions for you. First, if I wanted to simulate what a
demonique would sound like, is it safe to assume that I should set the
Minnie at full volume and then just adjust the line out on Monique?
Would that be an accurate comparison?

Jule's answer: No. The De-Monique is purposely set with significantly lower sensitivity than a Minnie running wide open. Sounds better that way and it keeps noise down to professional standards. You can run your Minnie (when it arrives) full open, but you do not need to. There is no advantage to impedance matching or level matching to just run the Minnie full volume. Minnie sounds very good with Monique, even at very low settings.

But you will hear that soon.


Question 2, also in your opinion, would it be better to run Monique's
line out at full volume into the Minnie due to impedance / level
matching?

Jule's answer: No. That isn't how I prefer Minnie to be run. You can do so, but it I feel there is more flexibility as to what I want to play at lower settings on the Minnie and higher settings on the Monique output levels.

I know in the end it's up to my ears which I have only achieved
nothing but great tones out of Monique no matter how I twist the
knobs!

Jule's answer: Perfect. That is exactly what I was looking for.

I guess what I am asking what is technically more desirable even
though in the end my ears may make me do something else.

Jule's answer: Very much so, it is only your ears that matter. I still have fun seeing players get the idea that Monique is truly a bass players tool. Not a guitar piece re-made for bass, or like the wonderful Avalon's designed to make vocals fantastic. Bass matters - to Monique


Hope this helps clear things up.
 
#196
+1 As long as you don't think about that master on the Minnie as a 'power level' control, it becomes pretty clear.

It again would be nice if Jule or James would basically answer the question:

'What setting of the 'master on the Minnie' would most closely mirror the 'optimal' gain matching of the DeMonique?'

My guess is, that would be around noon.
 
#198
KJung said:
+1 As long as you don't think about that master on the Minnie as a 'power level' control, it becomes pretty clear.

It again would be nice if Jule or James would basically answer the question:

'What setting of the 'master on the Minnie' would most closely mirror the 'optimal' gain matching of the DeMonique?'

My guess is, that would be around noon.
Click to expand...

So far, with mostly passive basses, running Monique with the Sensitivity set to about 2 o'clock and the knob pulled out, I've been getting my best results with the Minnie set to about 3 o'clock, and then using the Line Output as my "master volume." Lots of other settings work well, too, but I'm digging this setting pretty hard. :cool:
 
#199
mothra2 said:
Just no crystal in this clear...
Click to expand...

Here is another way I think of it.

Think of the experience with driving the power section of an all in one amp with an external preamp through the effects return. If there is no 'post make-up volume' control, often one preamp will sound loud and another will hardly drive any volume at all, since the sensitivity of the power amp input is matched optimally with the internal preamp.

So, the internal Minnie in the DeMonique is like the internal amp in any 'all in one head'. The gain from the preamp is optimally matched to the preamp, hence, one 'master volume' control that just impacts the preamp level hitting the power amp after all the other preamp circuitry.

This is the situation with the 'level' control on the DeMonique.... it is equivalent to the master volume control on any amp, and can drive the internal Minnie to full power with optimum signal to noise, etc.

That ADDITIONAL master volume control on the 'stand alone Minnie' is basically a gain matching control for preamps that aren't specifically optimally matched to the input gain/impedance (whatever) of the Minnie. So, you might have to crank it or turn it way down with another pre to achieve the same optimal matching as the internal DeMonique.

On the other side of things, that is also why the Monique has that 'push/pull' boost setting on the level control.... to help it work with amps that are not optimally configured to work with it.

As Jule says, you can't really hurt anything by turning the knobs this way and that with the component Monique/Minnie rig, but at the extremes, it will add either noise (Minnie volume set high) or distortion (Minnie volume set too low).

The only thing that makes this 'unique' versus other PA amp/preamp component rigs is that the Minnie's input is optimally matched to the Monique, since Jule and James got together. So, a unique situation, and IMO why the Minnie sounds so amazing with the Monique! The DeMonique just sets the Minnie gain level optimally for you.
 

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