Hi Tony,

Thanks. My speaker wires are set up being split at the output end to accommodate bi-wiring going into external crossovers with the bass and treble feeds connecting to separate boxes. I've tried to up load you a photo but Photobucket has upgraded so much recently and it doesn't want to work for me at the moment, maybe because I'm using my iPad. I'll try it tomorrow from my PC.

So, I have a bi-wired speaker cable system at the moment being split at the crossover end, but conventially connected at the input/amp end being a pair of usual +tive and -tive wires and terminals. What I need to do to dual amp is to splice the wires at the input end which will be done in due course.......just need to find the time to do it. I use the CAT5 'Twisted Twin' cable design which may make this more understandable for you if you look at it.

www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/triple_t_e.html

In terms of interconnects, I will make my own being a pair of my prefered wires melded into one input RCA plug providing a pair of wires for output.

Personally I would not hook the Mini-1's with Velcro to the speaker cabinets. No matter how dense you think your speaker cabinets are, for sure they will be exhibiting some vibration and the Mini-1's in my opinion would operate better if close by but not connected to the cabinets in any way. Same reason why my crossovers are outside the chamber and sat immediately behind the boxes. Many others might poo my approach on this, but for me that is not a problem. I'm speaking from personal trial and experience. I build most of my own stuff and I would never in future build speakers with the crossovers incorporated inside the speaker chambers.

Greg, maybe construct a new box to house both crossover and amp in a single box?

Yep, I think you'll like it. Whether it as good compared to the 300B remains to be seen but once I've got that fixed, we can do a comparison. I have to acknowledge though, using the Capella as Pre and a single Mini-1 is really good. With Amanda away until tomorrow, the system is on all the time when I am at home. Let me get it sorted for dual amping and then we can have a session. Incidentally, with Nick's help, I got my signal wires fixed for the Audiomods arm so now am exclusively listening to vinyl. It took a while for the WAD PSU and Phono II to come back on song, but it's back up to standard now and I'm enjoying my new vinyl purchases and of course those you gifted me with.

More progress. I have found using the Ankar Astro Pro2 battery works very well driving the Beresford Capella/Caiman when the battery is fully charged but as soon as it starts to drain a bit, the sound softens and goes a bit flat. The Mini-1 is still driven with the basic albeit upgraded SMPS supply. I have therefore reverted to the Beresford SMPS for now for the Capella and Caiman because although it might be a bit sharp edged in comparison to a fully charged Anker, performance is consistent and doesn't need to be messed with regularly. That probable means the Anker will be relagated to laptop and phone charging when away from home. 

From my discussions with Nick Gorham at the Bristol show I have learnt that a linear power supply is not really needed to drive the Mini-1's or the Beresford items, but certainly well made PSU's with good quality components is the way to go with as many caps/inductors as you can fit after the rectifier for smoothing is a good option. In consequence, I'm not going with the eBay linear supply as used at the moment by Gary (Gazjam) and will construct something myself using some boards originally obtained by my mate Nick through Pinkfish a while back. I'm inclined to do one PSU for both Mini-1's and another for the Beresford items.

But that is all stuff for the future. I need to address the dual amping first. Playing the 'Blues Brothers' at the moment and loving it!

Yep, Ali, recognise that option. What I like about my current crossover set up is that with a three driver system, I have the tweeter and squarker filters in one box and the woofer filter in the other. The woofer filter consists of an inductor and two very large polyprop 60uF Solen caps. The two boxes are close coupled to the speakers and are readily hidden from view behind the speaker cabinets. Because the Mini-1 is so small and following Tony's suggestions, it would be easy to sit that on top of the crossover stack and retain the hidden visual dimension, not to mention the potential sound benefits, so I'm very grateful to Tony for his suggestions.

Loads to think about and apply here and at the moment I'm not at that stage but will get there in the end. Thanks for your suggestion.

Yep, can't argue with that.

Brian, sorry, no progress. Domestic things getting in the way but hope to have a go at converting the speaker cables this weekend and then dual amping. Rest assured, it'll get done, especially because my mate Nick is bringing down his Rasberry Pi music server next week for a listen 

OK, this is my update.

My system has been a bit of a disaster recently. The phono stage was sounding really good through the Capella into Mini-1 but then the diamond on my cartridge with absolutely no trauma dropped off the end of the cantilever (or possibly the cantilever snapped at the end near the stylus). It's an Ortofon KB and I have sent it to Dom at Northwest Analogue to see if he can do anything with it. Around the same time, my seriously tweaked Naim CD3 stopped working having been recently serviced at a cost of over £250. Considering it's age etc, I'm not prepared to invest in this further so it is either scrap or sale for parts. Anyone interested, let me know.

Nigel (vinylspinner) got me out of a hole by lending me a Sony CDP-B930E which I am now using as a transport with the Caiman II for DAC duties. At present, the Caiman and the Capella are powered by one Beresford SMPS module which seems to work well. I have experimented with my Ankar battery option but do not like the results with it presenting a softer sound (no doubt because of a 3vdc reduction going even softer on sound once it starts to discharge a bit) so I am personally convinced that a mains RPSU source is the way forward for me. I have therefore ordered a Nick Gorham Longdog PSU to supply the Beresford units.

I finally got around to splicing the speaker cables to facilitate dual amping and building a pair of dual output interconnects.

I am now running the Caiman into the Capella with output split to two Mini-1's per channel. Originally I was going to use one amp for low frequency input and the other for high, but on reflection I considered that as low frequency signal demands the greatest current, such a hook up would be unbalanced, so have settled for one amp per channel per speaker.

It sounds really good and no sign of clipping even with the volume up high with my 90dB easy load speakers. Today I deliberately challenged the system by playing some full on complicated music and this dual amp system was completely up for it, being much more capable and controlled compared with using one single Mini-1, so for me and no doubt others, dual amping is probably the way to go. If you are on a budget, this £200 combo is an absolute no brainer. To be specific, I challenged the system by played Beethoven's 9th Symphony which has full orchestra, soloists and mass choir and I detected no flattening of the sound image when the production became complicated. The whole sound remained very much 3D.

Now then, as much as this is all very good at a very nice price, as yet I am not a convert. Currently my Valve 300B push pull amp is in hospital and I await it's return. My gut reaction, acknowledging that audio memory is pretty fickle, is that the 300B offers more overall control and specifically authority to the sound and the mid range and treble is far more airy, transparent and involving. I could be wrong here so will not comment further before I get the 300B back to make a proper comparison.

Nevertheless, and regardless of my own experiments, the Mini-1 either solo or dualed is a remarkably cheap way of getting into quality sound. What has been a serious lesson for me in this experiment is that your speakers completely control the signature of your systems sound. A big valve amp or a T amp.....hmmmm, apart from some finesse, they basically sound the same through the same speakers. All in MHO of course.

Interesting progress ! Sorry to hear of your source woes... May I enquire what's up with the CD3 ? I might be interested in it PM me if you prefer.

Sorry to hear about the source issues.
Thanks for a very balanced update. I think a bit more to come with the Linear PSU it should take things even further