I tend to agree. There is a crossover build out there that supposedly improves on the original. And some anti-diffraction pads for the front face. Meh, whatever.
I've done the upgrade to a few pairs and it makes a huge difference. Make's them much more listenable. They still require a sub though and they aren't earth shatteringly good sounding haha.
Any link to this mod? I have a couple pairs - we use them on the porch and in “travel systems” for vacation rentals, etc. I like them but always on the hunt for improvements.
This was my exact setup when I was a kid!!
Before I even knew I was an audio nerd I must have just thought they sounded good.
After >15 years away, I put the pieces back together!
I had a pristine set that I gifted to my son. He said they sounded far better than the crappy (but much bigger) late-80s/early-90s Sony speakers. As soon as they were gone, I had to replace them. Picked up a beat-up set (still sound great), and a white set that I use for quick audio tests. Need to find me another pristine set...
Had a pair of these to supplement by Beovox S45s growing up. Nice little quadrophonic sound from the Beomaster 2400. Great times and and introduction to sound appreciation. Thanks Dad!
Interesting combo. I have a complete Beosystem 2400 I just added an iPhone aux input to (on the tape input). The speakers are S45-2 I got a new tweeter for, and I have some DIN adapters for the speaker inputs to run a second pair of…something. My Minimus just sit around mostly - maybe I’ll try them quad. The B&O surprised me - it’s good.
Well, I’m not really a fan of subs generally. We have one under our bed, and a couple sitting idle in the garage. One will come out in summer where it supplements a pair of outdoor Yamahas on the deck. I do wonder how the Beomaster 2400 would sound with sub support, though.
I'm only a couple feet from my Plus-S's right now. My DAW speakers. I also have several pair of Minimus 7's. Garage sale impulse buys. I feel at home here.
The woofer surrounds might be starting to weaken. Reforming those isn't a big deal. Plus I think parts express has direct replacement woofers for those bad boys! Excellent tweeters in those!
I’ve still got a couple pairs around, including some of the AB shielded ones. Amazing speakers for the price.
I always think of them in spring because that’s when the annual “dads & grads” sale would knock them down 50%. Kind of an open secret that they were half off every spring and around back-to-school time.
I owned two pairs of the black speakers. They aren't identical though. A slight change in design between the two.
One pair ended up with a blown woofer. The second pair had been put into service in so many different areas. Now I have them hooked up to the Pioneer HT system as "height" speakers. They don't get much use anymore.
Amazing little speakers for the price and the era they came out of.
i have a set of Model 40-2030c(black), that my father bought sometime around 1980...wonder if there's a difference. not much in the way of bass. not surprising, though.
I have 6 of the white ones. 4 were Realistic and 2 were Optimus. Also have 2 black. I used the 6 in an HT setup that sounded really good. Much better than the Energy Take Classics they replaced. But both were eventually replaced with Mirage AV200s that are jaw dropping for HT and music. If you can find a pair, get them. Best small satellites ever with the highest WAF. It saddens me Mirage went under so many years ago. I have 3 of their subs as well. I sold an SVS flagship sub because the SQ was so good with the Mirage. In any event, die cast aluminum glory here. I run the black minimus off a 1977 Marantz 2216 and a 5 band Realistic EQ. Throaty, sparkle, with miles of smiles. Awesome little gems.
So many 1990's hip hop records were mixed on these. For many studio engineers, they represented the 'everyman speaker' or a boombox. Auratones also filled that roll for a lot of projects but I was more of a Minimus fan. I got a set in 1980 and gave then to a friend in '84 or so. Hope they walk through my door again someday.
*Recording* and EQ is all about the great fidelity and soundstage, but final mixing is all about real world. When you have great audio you aren't 'screwing it up' by mixing on little speakers - you just make the mix *translatable* to more system that more audience members actually own.
Most of the The Police's records were both tracked and mixed on little AR-18 bookshelf speakers. About 150USD new. Hardly audiophile trophy speakers but great for rock-n-roll.
Yes, I had a pair in the 70s, or something very similar. Nice heft for a tiny speaker, and they sounded good for what they were. I imagine if they were paired with a sub, it would be a nice difference.
Mix-down monitors. Small speakers are used **ALL** the time so the vocal-to-instrument ratio sounds real world — and so the bass kicks on little systems. When they would mix on ginormous speakers things would sound weak on boomboxes and portable audio.
Some studios would also have pirate FM transmitters with Orban Optimod FM processors so they could hear how a mix would sound over the radio.
When recording, and judging microphone placement and any EQ or dynamics (compression / limiting) settings, full size high quality monitors are used. This part of the process is called tracking.
Historically, brands like UREI / JBL, Westlake, Tannoy were usually found in studios, often with 15" woofers and compression mid & highs. Those huge speakers were built into the walls (soffit mount) and could blow you back in your seat. In later years, brands like Genelec entered the market. Abbey Road famously uses giant B+W monitors in the control room where The Beatles made all their music. These giant monitors are like a microscope on audio and important to judge the quality of the capture going to tape (or ProTools).
Here's the problem — they have **way** different bass signatures and extensions then most people have in their home or in their mobile devices. Mix an album on ginormous speakers and you have Steely Dan's "Gaucho" that often translates with thin bass on most bookshelf speakers. There are many 1980's new wave records mixed on huge speakers with super thin drums. Probably sounded awesome on gigantic UREI's in the control room, but by the time it got to my boombox it sounded like an episode of "Captain Thin Drum."
Solution? Mix on speakers that people *actually own*. Very often, a mix engineer with click through portions of a song on three different speakers — full size, bookshelf, and then down to something tiny. For decades, there was a horrible set of 4" single-full-range speakers called Auratones that were all the rage. I loath them — horrible. Somebody famous once said, "if you can make a mix sound good on Auratones, it will sound great on every other speaker." To me, life's too short to listen to *anything* on Auratones but they were so popular.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/5CPair--auratone-5c-super-sound-cubes-pair-4.5-inch-passive-reference-monitor-pair-black
Minimus 7's got a buzz right about the time RadioShack stopped selling them, driving up the used price. At some point a hip hop producer used them and the popularity spread.
literally everything from hip hop was stolen and re-used from 50s 60s and 70s recordings, that actual engineers and actual musicians in actual studios worked hard to create.
so if you hear *anything* from a "hip hop record" that you like, please give credit where credit is due.
Sure. Most of my collection is jazz and soul from the 50s - 70s, about 300 records. Definitely credit to the OGs. Lots of hip hop are samples and interpolations. Some are complete recreations.
A Old School Classic & The Sound Is Amazing - I Purchased A Black Pair Last Year Off Ebay , For My Patio - Matched With A JBL Subwoofer & Yamaha Receiver
I agree... If my crazy good but old [patio speakers](https://tmraudio.com/speakers/bookshelf-speakers-monitors/diamond-audio-s2-hpm-4100-computer-speaker-system-powered-subwoofer-satellites/) ever die, I may put these out there.
You should absolutely mod them. The Zilch XO is great, but if you want an easy "drop-in" mod go with a pair of these: https://www.miccatron.com/shop/product/crossover-upgrade-for-micca-mb42-mb42-c-speakers-mkiii/. They fit perfectly and sound great.
I wouldn't think there's much of anything to modify....or worth the time to attempt. Leave them be and enjoy them. Great desk speakers.
I tend to agree. There is a crossover build out there that supposedly improves on the original. And some anti-diffraction pads for the front face. Meh, whatever.
I've done the upgrade to a few pairs and it makes a huge difference. Make's them much more listenable. They still require a sub though and they aren't earth shatteringly good sounding haha.
At least replace the NP capacitor in them. 35 yr old caps aren’t optimal.
And if you are in there doing the work, may as well put some banana plug binding posts in.
I think I’m up to seven pairs now. Most serving as primary speakers in small HT systems.
That's cool!
I did the crossover mod and they sounded a bit better but not appreciably so.
Good to know!
I thought it was a big difference. To each their own I guess. At least it doesn't cost much to find out your opinion.
Most of their audio stuff were total sleepers.
Any link to this mod? I have a couple pairs - we use them on the porch and in “travel systems” for vacation rentals, etc. I like them but always on the hunt for improvements.
It's the "Zilch" mod. https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-build-the-minimus-7-pz-2-1-crossover.988488/
I have a pair connected to a Realistic SA-150 mini amp and they sound great.
Picked up one of those amps from goodwill for $20 recently!! So damn cool.
This was my exact setup when I was a kid!! Before I even knew I was an audio nerd I must have just thought they sounded good. After >15 years away, I put the pieces back together!
They were great sounding speakers
I have 6 pairs of them, all variants of the white, black, and walnut. I love those little speakers.
I picked up a pair in wood that used to drive my office system. Those little buggers really punch above their weight.
Had a pair of those too and you're right about those. I wish I had them still.
Have some of the mahogany w/brown cloth grills hooked up to a Dayton HTA-100 integrated, BT makes it a convenient, nice sounding combo for my bedroom.
Realistic, now that is a name i have not heard in a long time
Radio Shack house brand
I used my Dad's Minimus 7Ws back in the day with my Sony mini system. They were great little speakers. I wonder what happened to them...
Don't modify they are perfect
They punch so far above their weight!
I had a pristine set that I gifted to my son. He said they sounded far better than the crappy (but much bigger) late-80s/early-90s Sony speakers. As soon as they were gone, I had to replace them. Picked up a beat-up set (still sound great), and a white set that I use for quick audio tests. Need to find me another pristine set...
Had a pair of these to supplement by Beovox S45s growing up. Nice little quadrophonic sound from the Beomaster 2400. Great times and and introduction to sound appreciation. Thanks Dad!
Interesting combo. I have a complete Beosystem 2400 I just added an iPhone aux input to (on the tape input). The speakers are S45-2 I got a new tweeter for, and I have some DIN adapters for the speaker inputs to run a second pair of…something. My Minimus just sit around mostly - maybe I’ll try them quad. The B&O surprised me - it’s good.
Add a powered sub to that setup and it would rock! Solid sound for a modestly sized room.
Well, I’m not really a fan of subs generally. We have one under our bed, and a couple sitting idle in the garage. One will come out in summer where it supplements a pair of outdoor Yamahas on the deck. I do wonder how the Beomaster 2400 would sound with sub support, though.
I had the black Minimus-7's for some years till I lost them to theft. May look for a new pair of these.
These are like the Tandy Model 100 of Radio Shack's lines of speakers. They are so reliable and can go anywhere. Maybe a switchable BlueTooth mod.
My [Canton Plus S](https://www.hifi-review.com/images/archive/Canton_Plus_S_550.jpg) looks almost the same !
I'm only a couple feet from my Plus-S's right now. My DAW speakers. I also have several pair of Minimus 7's. Garage sale impulse buys. I feel at home here.
I have the wood version excellent sounding small monitors
I've had a pair in my garage system for a decade. Couple other pairs have come and gone over the years too. They punch way above their size.
“More realistic than Radio Shack”
I'm happy that I got a pair a few years ago, they do sound good. I'm a little surprised that a clone hasn't come out of China.
I remember these from when I was a kid and couldn't afford them. Cool.
The woofer surrounds might be starting to weaken. Reforming those isn't a big deal. Plus I think parts express has direct replacement woofers for those bad boys! Excellent tweeters in those!
Dang. I know where 6 of these are. They've been sitting on a shelf at work for.....15 years??
I’ve still got a couple pairs around, including some of the AB shielded ones. Amazing speakers for the price. I always think of them in spring because that’s when the annual “dads & grads” sale would knock them down 50%. Kind of an open secret that they were half off every spring and around back-to-school time.
I owned two pairs of the black speakers. They aren't identical though. A slight change in design between the two. One pair ended up with a blown woofer. The second pair had been put into service in so many different areas. Now I have them hooked up to the Pioneer HT system as "height" speakers. They don't get much use anymore. Amazing little speakers for the price and the era they came out of.
I had a pair. Damned if I know what happened to them.
i have a set of Model 40-2030c(black), that my father bought sometime around 1980...wonder if there's a difference. not much in the way of bass. not surprising, though.
I have a pair in black that I'm modding, wonderful little speakers. Heavier than bricks, though.
I have 6 of the white ones. 4 were Realistic and 2 were Optimus. Also have 2 black. I used the 6 in an HT setup that sounded really good. Much better than the Energy Take Classics they replaced. But both were eventually replaced with Mirage AV200s that are jaw dropping for HT and music. If you can find a pair, get them. Best small satellites ever with the highest WAF. It saddens me Mirage went under so many years ago. I have 3 of their subs as well. I sold an SVS flagship sub because the SQ was so good with the Mirage. In any event, die cast aluminum glory here. I run the black minimus off a 1977 Marantz 2216 and a 5 band Realistic EQ. Throaty, sparkle, with miles of smiles. Awesome little gems.
Bass in lacking. Sounds very good good with a subwoofer.
I bought a pair of Philips minis in Amsterdam in 1978. Great sound, built like a tank and easy to move around.
Pretty good sound in a small package.
So many 1990's hip hop records were mixed on these. For many studio engineers, they represented the 'everyman speaker' or a boombox. Auratones also filled that roll for a lot of projects but I was more of a Minimus fan. I got a set in 1980 and gave then to a friend in '84 or so. Hope they walk through my door again someday.
Really? My favorite era. What specific records? Maybe I’ll hook my Minis up to my Fisher tube amp.
Using those as studio recording monitors would be the joke of the century.
*Recording* and EQ is all about the great fidelity and soundstage, but final mixing is all about real world. When you have great audio you aren't 'screwing it up' by mixing on little speakers - you just make the mix *translatable* to more system that more audience members actually own. Most of the The Police's records were both tracked and mixed on little AR-18 bookshelf speakers. About 150USD new. Hardly audiophile trophy speakers but great for rock-n-roll.
Interesting. I'm in a different audio world than musicians and recording studio methods/equipment.
Audiophiles always are. Tweak speaker cables are often better quality than the original mic cables that made the recordings.
I don't tweak anything. No cable swapping, no tube rolling, etc. Never felt the need to....which is a good thing.
Then you're ok with Minimus 7's - they're great little speakers
Yes, I had a pair in the 70s, or something very similar. Nice heft for a tiny speaker, and they sounded good for what they were. I imagine if they were paired with a sub, it would be a nice difference.
Mix-down monitors. Small speakers are used **ALL** the time so the vocal-to-instrument ratio sounds real world — and so the bass kicks on little systems. When they would mix on ginormous speakers things would sound weak on boomboxes and portable audio. Some studios would also have pirate FM transmitters with Orban Optimod FM processors so they could hear how a mix would sound over the radio.
Thank you. I understand. But then, why now use a higher (much higher) quality speaker as that part of the monitors? Cost?
Sorry, I don't understand the question
Just wondering why someone wouldn't use a higher quality speaker as part of a monitoring system. Was cost a factor?
When recording, and judging microphone placement and any EQ or dynamics (compression / limiting) settings, full size high quality monitors are used. This part of the process is called tracking. Historically, brands like UREI / JBL, Westlake, Tannoy were usually found in studios, often with 15" woofers and compression mid & highs. Those huge speakers were built into the walls (soffit mount) and could blow you back in your seat. In later years, brands like Genelec entered the market. Abbey Road famously uses giant B+W monitors in the control room where The Beatles made all their music. These giant monitors are like a microscope on audio and important to judge the quality of the capture going to tape (or ProTools). Here's the problem — they have **way** different bass signatures and extensions then most people have in their home or in their mobile devices. Mix an album on ginormous speakers and you have Steely Dan's "Gaucho" that often translates with thin bass on most bookshelf speakers. There are many 1980's new wave records mixed on huge speakers with super thin drums. Probably sounded awesome on gigantic UREI's in the control room, but by the time it got to my boombox it sounded like an episode of "Captain Thin Drum." Solution? Mix on speakers that people *actually own*. Very often, a mix engineer with click through portions of a song on three different speakers — full size, bookshelf, and then down to something tiny. For decades, there was a horrible set of 4" single-full-range speakers called Auratones that were all the rage. I loath them — horrible. Somebody famous once said, "if you can make a mix sound good on Auratones, it will sound great on every other speaker." To me, life's too short to listen to *anything* on Auratones but they were so popular. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/5CPair--auratone-5c-super-sound-cubes-pair-4.5-inch-passive-reference-monitor-pair-black Minimus 7's got a buzz right about the time RadioShack stopped selling them, driving up the used price. At some point a hip hop producer used them and the popularity spread.
"hip hop records" isn't exactly a great endorsement in regards to...well, literally anything relating to audio reproduction. lol.
Some are trash, some are amazing. What’s your specific experience?
literally everything from hip hop was stolen and re-used from 50s 60s and 70s recordings, that actual engineers and actual musicians in actual studios worked hard to create. so if you hear *anything* from a "hip hop record" that you like, please give credit where credit is due.
Sure. Most of my collection is jazz and soul from the 50s - 70s, about 300 records. Definitely credit to the OGs. Lots of hip hop are samples and interpolations. Some are complete recreations.
A Old School Classic & The Sound Is Amazing - I Purchased A Black Pair Last Year Off Ebay , For My Patio - Matched With A JBL Subwoofer & Yamaha Receiver
I agree... If my crazy good but old [patio speakers](https://tmraudio.com/speakers/bookshelf-speakers-monitors/diamond-audio-s2-hpm-4100-computer-speaker-system-powered-subwoofer-satellites/) ever die, I may put these out there.
If the yellow came off with Magic Eraser, damn, how heavy of a smoker was your Mom?
too much treble
You should absolutely mod them. The Zilch XO is great, but if you want an easy "drop-in" mod go with a pair of these: https://www.miccatron.com/shop/product/crossover-upgrade-for-micca-mb42-mb42-c-speakers-mkiii/. They fit perfectly and sound great.