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Experience with Musical Fidelity X-10v3?

I have gotten the urge to tinker with my system, and was thinking about trying the Musical Fidelity X-10v3 tube buffer unit. The unit is supposedly in its final production run, and will be hard to find when current supplies are gone.

Since it's unclear to me why a tube buffer unit would lead to an improvement in one's system (the claims for it include more dynamic transients and greater musicality), I was wondering if any of our members have used this unit, and if so, how did the X-10v3 change the overall sound of the system.

Any observations, pro or con, are welcome. Your remarks will help me decide whether to proceed with this $400 experiment.
sdcampbell
kenn39
75 posts
 
If you also use headphones, an appealing alternative is a tube headphone amp with pre-amp function like Woo Audio 3.
jbsljbsl
12 posts
 
I use it with a NAD C542 cd player and it is not a huge difference in sound but it does take the slight edge
,harshness,brightness out of the sound. I have Klipsch La Scala speakers and if you use the wrong equipment they can be bright or harsh.

I had the power supply also but when I used both the buffer and power supply I did not hear any difference. So I sold the power supply and tried the buffer and then I noticed a difference. Probably my imagination but it sounds better to me.

If you have the extra money to spend on this then give it a try but if not save your money and get a tube cd player later.
olp88
19 posts
 
I am using it with the PSU power supply between my MF A308 pre-amp and A308 power amp. What a difference!! Everything just came into focus. More depth and soundsatage. The bottom end was tighter and well defined. One warning, if you use this configuration, be sure to turn the buffer on first, wait a couple of minutes, and then turn on the rest of the equipment. It needs time to set. Because the buffer has no attenuator or mute switch, it sends out a nasty signal that can blow your speakers !! I was originally useing it between my A308 CD player and the preamp when I decided I wanted the same effect with my entire system. It sounded great that way, but sounds better between the pre and power amps.
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