[Irwin]

Are any of you using Tube Buffers in your systems?What are your general impressions?Happy Holidays to all!

[Kim S.]

I had a old Musical Fidelity X10-D buffer which I had in a otherwise solid state system.  It was a definite improvement to CD playback.  It softened the sound making it less "digital".  At the same time I think I heard more detail and wider sound stage.  I switched to tubes and in the tube system I could hear no difference.  I sold the buffer to a friend with a mid-fi system and he raves about how his system sounds better with it.  I think if you have a SS system they are definitely worth looking at .

[jaywills]

An interesting and timely question for me.  Have moved to a solid state amp regime (Gallo's sub amp and a homebrew UcD 400 pushing Gallo Ref. 3.1's).  Had been using a TacT 2.2x for simply a DAC & room correction, with its analog outs going into a tubed Melos SHA Gold Reference Maestro preamp (using pinched-waist 6922's) for the express purpose of "warming" the sound.  A couple of days ago, I tried the system without the Melos, using the TacT as a preamp, and was a bit surprised at an audible increase in "clarity."  Still listening to it that way and am having second thoughts about using a tube buffer, which is the Melos in my system.  I suspect the phenomenon may be highly system dependent.  Of course, YMMV.  Cordially,

[TomS]

You might want to take a look at this thread on the Eastern Electric BBA. 

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=35232.0

Bill at Morningstar is also great to deal with if that's the direction you go.

[Wind Chaser]

I used the equivalent of a Decware zBox with great success.   Tube rolling made things even more interesting.

http://www.decware.com/newsite/zbox.htm

[bunnyma357]

I have one of the older Musical Fidelity X-10's that I use between the Pre-outs/Amp-Ins on my old Yamaha DSP A3090, and I think it helps tame some of the "digital harshness" I hear without it, but it is a fairly subtle difference. I think if I were going to try one today, I'd probably look at the Yaqin from Pacific Valve or on eBay.

I've read of some people who bought some of the cheaper ones from eBay which didn't have any transformers and they felt that it hurt the sound and the power supply couldn't properly drive the tubes to achieve decent results.

In a higher end system I don't think the buffer would add a lot, unless you feel you have some harshness or glare you need to try and minimize.

Jim C

[JIMV]

Are any of you using Tube Buffers in your systems?What are your general impressions?Happy Holidays to all!

I have an old Music Fidelity one between my parasound Zphono phono amp and Onkyo soldid state amp. I like the sound.

[Delacroix]

There's a review of the Grant tube buffer in the latest issue of Affordable Audio (see the AC forum for a link) and I'm currently reviewing the Audio Horizon's buffer for an issue in the very near future.

[Syrah]

Great news.  I look forward to the review.  I'm thinking of adding a buffer to my Bolder modded SB2.  There now appear to be quite a few on the market,

- Burson
- Yaquin (which I think is the same as a few other Chinese ones)
- Decware
- Musical Fidelity...

Bolder also has a tubed one in the works.

This is screaming for a shootout.

[bacobits1]

Eastern Electric BBA too, very good!
But not cheap.

D

[ctviggen]

I'm also interested in something that will go between my Squeezebox and my amp.  A tube buffer seems reasonable, but the prices seem to be all over the place -- from $300 to almost $900. 

[iGrant]

I'm also interested in something that will go between my Squeezebox and my amp.  A tube buffer seems reasonable, but the prices seem to be all over the place -- from $300 to almost $900. 

Grant Fidelity B-283 is on sale for $150, back ordered for about a week. Works very well with sqeezebox, etc.

http://grantfidelity.com/site/catalog/40/specials


Cheers,
Ian

[Syrah]

Sign me up.  I'll PM you.  For $150, totally worth a spin.  Is there any way it can be rigged to reverse phase?  The Bolder mods remove the SB 2&3 op amps, which reverses phase.  Pretty handy if the buffer can reverse it back again.

[iGrant]

Should be reversable and good idea !!, should be fun to bring the soundstage forward and do the change absolute phase to thing with it. All hand wired inside, so you should be able to add a switch.

We do a first come first serve so please place your order thru the site or use our NA toll free number if that works from the Caymen Islands, our last mod was doing dual voltage, so it is moving even quicker now.

Cheers,
Ian