Anyone heard or used a Musical Fidelity tubed buffer? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Mr Peabody
09-15-2004, 06:43 PM
I saw Musical Fidelity has come out with a special edition x10 v3 tubed buffer. This piece is to be hooked between your cd player and amp or between pre and power amp or even in a tape loop to give your system the sound of tubes. They say no added noise or distortions. I was torn between the solid state equipment I have now and a tube system I listened to. I was wondering if this piece could possibly bring me the best of both worlds. I have MF's X-can headphone amp. It has either one or two tubes but if they didn't tell me I wouldn't have known. This is a nice piece but it doesn't reproduce the same presence I heard from tubes.

So if anyone can relay their experience with the buffer or compare it to the X-can sound I would greatly appreciate it. If interested the buffer costs $399. from www.musicdirect.com

BRANDONH
12-29-2004, 10:53 AM
I saw Musical Fidelity has come out with a special edition x10 v3 tubed buffer. This piece is to be hooked between your cd player and amp or between pre and power amp or even in a tape loop to give your system the sound of tubes. They say no added noise or distortions. I was torn between the solid state equipment I have now and a tube system I listened to. I was wondering if this piece could possibly bring me the best of both worlds. I have MF's X-can headphone amp. It has either one or two tubes but if they didn't tell me I wouldn't have known. This is a nice piece but it doesn't reproduce the same presence I heard from tubes.

So if anyone can relay their experience with the buffer or compare it to the X-can sound I would greatly appreciate it. If interested the buffer costs $399. from www.musicdirect.com

I just posted the same question. But looking at how long your post has been here and unanswered I don't think anybody here has tried it

Logan
12-31-2004, 01:46 AM
I used the original version of the MF X10-D line buffer (cylindrical casing) for some years, between a Denon CD player and amp. It did indeed work as advertised - treble digital nasties were tamed to a great extent, although not eliminated completely, greater musical clarity was experienced, and soundstage dimensions seemed to be improved. These were not the often marginal "improvements" one thinks one hears when cables are upgraded - this sounded as if a new and improved player had been inserted into the system. And that is the reason I bought it - at the time I couldn't afford to upgrade my cdp significantly.

A couple of years ago I did replace the Denon with an Arcam CD72, and with this I could no longer swear that the X10-D had a significant effect. In no way did it distort the output, and I think that the already good treble quality of the CD72 was further improved, but it was not a night and day situation. I have lately had the CD72 upgraded to a CD93 by the local Arcam agent. This is Arcam's upsampling 24/192 machine, which is in my view superb at any price. The X10-D had no effect, positive or adverse, with this latest acquisition.

So I would recommend it if you can't upgrade your cdp to a newer and better ballpark at the present time.