I must agree with the growing consensus on this thread. I would save for a tube preamp. I owned a Musical Fidelity X10v3 tube buffer, with the external power supply, and although I liked it for a period of time, I ultimately removed it from the system. It never wowed me like many tube preamps have.
Any suggestions on Tube Buffers?
I have an Onkyo P-308 M-508 amp/preamp combo that I'm quite pleased with but am curious to wet my feet in the world of tubes. Anyone have any experience with this? I was thinking about a Grant Fidelity M-283 tube buffer between the amp and preamp. I know it's not a full blown tube setup but maybe it will give me a little taste of the magic. I really don't want to have to take out a second mortgage. I will be driving Polk SDA-1B speakers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.