Musical Fidelity X-10V3 Tube Buffer An Audio Change that Made Night & Day Difference

[EdwardGein]

Haven't been on this site much lately but I thought I let people know that after 3 years, I've found my Holy Grail that made a night & day difference in my audio sound for CD's without changing my speaker system at all. Based on things I read online, I purchased a Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 Tube Buffer that I got new from the online company Music Direct, here's the link www.musicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=AMUFIX10V3 for $330 including shipping at a discount from the $399 plus shipping retail price. Somehow & I don't know how or why, it absolutely totally changed my audio sound magically to a night & day improvement. Music on CD now sounds like performances not recordings as if the group is playing right in front of me. Instruments have shifted places, there's more clarity especially in the seperation of instruments & vocals, the sound is deeper, fuller, more detailed, crisper & I know longer have to increase the volume to get an increase in dynamics. I've tried tube CD players before, various other $500-$1500 CD players, various DAcs by themselves & all of them sounded worse then my existing system- this thing changes mine completely. You can also somehow use this on 2 front speakers for home theater sound while still getting the 5.1 sound, I don't quite understand how & am not about to spend my time figuring out how now. The way this works is you simply connect the analog outs on your CD player by cable to the X-10 V3 analog ins & then connect the analog outs on it to your receiver. You need 4 cables, they should be the exact same ones not a mixture. While my Pioneer PD-59 CD player has an excellent transport & I love its digital sound when I use an optical cable to my Denon 3801 Receiver, quite frankly its internal DAC sucks & produced mediocore at best analog sound. But when I connect the X-10 V3 to it, the analog sound is amazing. I'm hoping to eventually upgrade & get a good external DAC (possibly Musical Fidelitys X-10) which should further improve the X-10 V3 sound as well as Cables, probably Signal Cable Silver Resolution & a further Musical Fidelity power upgrade which they said would also improve sound. Anyway, I'd advise anyone who's interested to check it out at Music Direct, they have a 30 day return policy.:5:

[jrhymeammo]

Nice.

I've thought about using that as a step-up transformer for MC phono-stage. I've read one article that said it increases gain stage. But I couldnt find similar articles anywhere else, so I stopped looking. So trying to find a replacement tube is impossible. Aren't they supposed to last for over 50,000 hours? But tubes change sound over time. If I dont likethe sound after 1000 hours, I'm doomed. But all in all, great to read about your positive experience. I'm not sure about their $1000 DAC though. With that budget you may want to explore other choices.


-JRA

[EdwardGein]

The good thing about all these places is their return policy for full refund except for shipping.
If the X-10 V3 sounds interesting, check it out & if you don't want it, just return it without hassle & so forth. The life expectency of the current tube in there is 11 years if its powered on nonstop.

[Mike Anderson]

I've always been a fan of Musical Fidelity. Some people dis them because they don't like the company's style, but I think it's unfounded. I've owned a couple pieces of theirs, and they've always been top-notch quality at a decent price -- especially if you can find it used.

I currently have the KW-500 integrated amp, and it rocks.

[jrhymeammo]

Okay so about 100,000 hours non-stop. So EdG, can you tell me if your CD player sounds say.... Louder with X-10 installed?

Yeah, I think MF stuff is incredible. I've always thought A3.2 int-amp was a monster. KW500 must be insane, but you do drive Maggies with them. I guess some people are saying ever since MF outsourced their production to Korea, products just do not sound as good. I think they are just observing different sounds from a from previous model to a new one. It's hard to say since I dont know how MF is authorizing prodcution in overseas.

-JRA

[EdwardGein]

The sound is more powerful which means you can play it at lower volume levels & it will sound just as loud as it would on higher volume levels without this but the dynamics of the recording are now just as effective on lower volume as they would be on higher volume. It's as if the whole ambience has changed going from a 2 dimensional sound to 3 dimensional- if that makes any sense to you. It makes the prior sound on the CD player sound muffled in comparison. Given that I got such fantastic results, I just bought at around $60 an Entech 203.2 Number Cruncher DAC on Ebay to see if that makes the sound even better because the DAC on my Pioneer PD-59 CD player is terrible yet the sound is fantastic with the MF X-10 V3 Tube Buffer. I also just ordered 2 pairs of Signal Cable Silver Resolution Interconnects, I wish I could figure out how to play my DVD player through this for DVDs & still get 5.1 sound or a combination of analog & 5.1 digital sound but I can't figure out how.

[jrhymeammo]

I wish I could figure out how to play my DVD player through this for DVDs & still get 5.1 sound or a combination of analog & 5.1 digital sound but I can't figure out how.

Oh, that's simple. Just get three X-10s and 3 pairs of ICs. Then you are good to go. But I'll say it'll make more sense to just get an excellent DVD player that'll also play CDs well.

Maybe I can use it like a step-up transformer..... Hmmmmm.........
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STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for your info
-JRA

[EdwardGein]

I thought of that but I read that you can only get Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 sound on DVDS by using an Optical Connection (Tosslink or Coaxal) & you can't get this 5.1 sound on DVDS by using say the 5 analog outs if you were going to play a DVD-A or SACD disc. You can get Prologic 5.1 sound but I definately do not want to do that for DVDs as that totally is unatural too me, albeit I don't have problems playing CD's on 5 channels via my "Natural Stereo 5 channel Mode on my Denon) which just makes the center speaker mon & plays the same thing from the rear channels as it does the back.

[kelsci]

I was thinking about your last post, Edward. First, you would need a player that has built in D.D. and DTS decoders. That player would then output pre-amplified digital to analog sound out of the 5.1 analog outs that would be on the player. You would have to buy a host of these MF buffers. Two of them would be for the left and right main and rear surround speakers. You are now talking $600 plus. But I would want two mono type units;one for the center channel and one for the sub although I guess one could use one of those buffers you have for those two channels risking any crosstalk that might occur between the sub and center channel. So now you have $900+; the cost of a higher end dvd player and even close to the prices of some of the new HD-DVD&BD machines that "I think" have anlog outputs that will output the new higher quality sound codecs that some of these DVDs are supposed to feature. My gut feeling is that while you might obtain superlative sound with all these buffers, somehow it would be "blown" money out the door with HD-DOLBY MASTER -DTS-HD MASTER and whatever knocking at our doors.

[jrhymeammo]

I don't have problems playing CD's on 5 channels via my "Natural Stereo 5 channel

But you wont get that warm tuby sound. Com'on, you know you want them:devil:

I cant believe no one makes Valve HT precessor

[EdwardGein]

No I'm still getting the tuby sound from the X-10 V3 It goes straight into the 2 analog inputs on my receiver. I can also get if I want the 2 channel & sub sound on the CD but I prefer the 5 channel & sub sound. I admit I'm in the minority on this.

[EdwardGein]

Would appreciate if you clarify a few things for me on your post, forget about costs for a second.
Did you say there is currently a DVD player on the market that you can play regular DVDs on by connecting 5 analog cables the way you would do for DVD-A's but this will play in 5.1 for DVDS?
If so, could you please mention some brands & models so I can look them up.

I basically would need 3 of these things to hook them up to my DVD then, I can't imagine the need to hook the subwoofer into one (maybe I'm wrong).

What are the HD Dolby Master DVD players that you're talking about? Do they also have tube sound? Thanks for any info

[N. Abstentia]

Wow, now just imagine how much better it would be if you finally upgraded your speakers. If that tube dealie made it 10 times better, speakers would make it 1000 times better!

[topspeed]

Glad to hear you like your upgrade, Hersh. There have been some rather heated debates as to the philosophy behind the tube buffer as it is, in actuality, adding distortion to the signal. Purists prefer as close to straightwire as they can get, so adding something...particulary something that adds noise...to the chain constitutes high treason. Meh, I could care less either way. As long as it sounds better to you, that's all that matters.

Enjoy!

[EdwardGein]

I totally wish I could understand how it works. It makes a CD sound almost completel different but to me in a good way. Keep in mind that the analog from my CD player sucks & with this isounds great. I'm going to try an Entech number cruncher 203.2 DAC with this that I can get on Ebay for $65 & connect it digitally from my CD player & then analog to the buffer & receiver to see what happens then. It does though make you wonder what was the true sound, the one that you hear straight to a CD player or the totally different sound with the tube buffer. the best word i can use to describe it is it makes the sound three dimensional.

[kelsci]

Hi Edward; I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner. For some reason, no posts after my intial one on this thread went to my mailbox.

Offhand, I cannot think of non-HD dvd player models that do what I say in my post. I believe that the Blue-Ray and HD-DVD players do this. They do have analogue outputs. I believe the machines have internal decoders and hopefully bass management to output their sound through the analog outputs prorperly. I have been to some players sites and cannot get this information properly. I have an older Zenith player that had a built in Dob.Dig. decoder without bass management that did output thru its 5.1 channel analog outputs. I know I read that players in the past had built in D.D. and DTS decoders. These players could only output their internal decoding through analog outputs on their machines. They still would feature optical and/or coaxial outputs if you did not want to bother using their internal decoding system.

If I get a chance, I will take a look and see if any brands are doing this. Ones that come to my mind as possiblites would be Pioneer and Panasonic.