musical fidelity x-10 v3 tube buffer

[WILLIAM C WALDECKER 3RD]

i bought this unit a few days ago from listen up.com for$399.00 and it shipped from denver to the baltimore metro area overnite for free. at first i did not notice much difference in the sound quality until the second day and then the sound of the unit started to open up. i have a very good system with 300wpc odyssey mono extremes for power amplification and odyssey tempest for preamplifier duty and a very expensive german made symphonic line vibrato cd player for a digital source. i placed the tube output buffer between the vibrato cdp and odyssey tempest pre amp with groneberg quattro reference ic cables. my loudspeakers are paradigm reference studio 100 v3,s also using groneberg quattro reference cables. i will audition the tube buffer stage for several weeks before deciding whether to leave it in my audio chain or to remove it.

[richmon]

I have the X10D (original version) in a system with Marantz CD67SE player, Adcom GFP750 preamp, Conrad Johnson MF2250 amp, driving Paradigm Studio 60's (v1) and lived in nearby Catonsville. Been overall happy with the X10, you have to leave it plugged in all the time for best sound. I've had this for several years and noticed that sometimes the thrill is gone, don't know if power gremlins are at fault or tube quirkiness, but sometimes the unit 'has it' and other times it sounds liked it isn't there. Haven't quite figured out why the sound quality is inconsistant.

[WILLIAM C WALDECKER 3RD]

i listened to the x-10v3 tube buffer between my cdp and pre amp for a week or so and decided to try it between my pre amp and monoblocks and i have come to the conclusion that i prefer listening to this configuration compared to the previous one. i also upgraded to groneberg ts premium ic,s just today and i could notice a immediate improvement over the groneberg quattro reference cables that i had been using which is suprising because the quattro reference cables sounded very good to begin with. i feel blessed with my current system because the synergy between all of my components is amazing. this is an experiment to introduce a little tube magic into my audio chain. so far so good......

[slbenz]

i listened to the x-10v3 tube buffer between my cdp and pre amp for a week or so and decided to try it between my pre amp and monoblocks and i have come to the conclusion that i prefer listening to this configuration compared to the previous one. i also upgraded to groneberg ts premium ic,s just today and i could notice a immediate improvement over the groneberg quattro reference cables that i had been using which is suprising because the quattro reference cables sounded very good to begin with. i feel blessed with my current system because the synergy between all of my components is amazing. this is an experiment to introduce a little tube magic into my audio chain. so far so good......

William,

Wanted to know if the difference was significant or minor when you changed the connection to the pre-amp to power amp configuration. I am deciding if the MF buffer would be worth trying in my Parasound pre-amp, power amp combination. I currently use a modded DVD player to listen to music and wonder if the MF buffer will make a difference. Thanks.

Slbenz