I currently have a vpi scout with a shelter 901 (soundsmith retip) going through a blue Cinimag (Bobs Devices) and and a Minimax Stage into rogue pre and power and plan on making my own TT with some VPI parts in the future so I am switching the cart to a 501 and hope to use a ADL GT40 DAC/Phono for my secondary set up consisting of a minimax pre Onkyo 504 and Alison acoustics CD9 . I have resently purchased but not received a cheapo Chinese Buffer more for fun then function and was wondering what would the pros and cons be of adding such a buffer to the phono deck prior to the stage?
Has anyone here tried it ? if so please respond I would love to hear your take on such a set up.
If it works ok I may get the EE BBA .
This is a little confusing, where do you propose to use the buffer, in front of the GT-40 or between the SUT and Minimax, or experiment with both?
Either way it's probably a bad idea for phono. Hard to imagine a cheap buffer improving the tiny signal coming off a phono cart, especially a LOMC. Great potential for degradation there, assuming you're going straight into the GT-40. Is it a tube buffer? A buffer has no gain, but maybe you can add some noise just for fun.
If you're trying this between SUT and phono, at least the signal is boosted to MM level. Still, why? If there's a problem with SUT/pre match up, change the impedance on your phono pre, but putting a cheap buffer there has great potential to hurt, and little potential to help, except if you get a pleasing coloration.
neo
