Hi,
Glad to see some DIY speaker builders out there. I've built the Gr-Research AV-1, three pairs of Murphy Blaster MBOW-1 for various friends, the Ellis Audio 1801B, and a number of Selah Audio Subs. I think my favorite of the bunch is the MBOW-1 matched with a sub. Amazing sound for the price.
Regarding your question, I am with others here; scratch the idea of a tube buffer. I like the idea of a tube DAC, but I am not familiar with any DIY designs. One issue that you will have with less expensive tube DACs is that you might lose linearity at the frequency extremes. An example of such would be some of the MHDT Labs offerings; not necessarily flat in frequency response, but very musical sounding. Throwing a tube in with your solid state amp will do some nice things.
A decent tube preamp kit is the Trancendent Sound Grounded Grid. The sound is more quick and light than slow and heavy, but the kit directions are easy to follow. The only thing I didn't like about the kit are the stock volume control and the cheap rotator switch, but I swapped them out.
Also, another option would be to build the Pass Labs B1 buffer, although you would have to source the parts yourself. You can buy circuit boards and matched jfets from the PassDIY web site. Its not tube based, but it sounds very good.
Where are you located?
Glad to see some DIY speaker builders out there. I've built the Gr-Research AV-1, three pairs of Murphy Blaster MBOW-1 for various friends, the Ellis Audio 1801B, and a number of Selah Audio Subs. I think my favorite of the bunch is the MBOW-1 matched with a sub. Amazing sound for the price.
Regarding your question, I am with others here; scratch the idea of a tube buffer. I like the idea of a tube DAC, but I am not familiar with any DIY designs. One issue that you will have with less expensive tube DACs is that you might lose linearity at the frequency extremes. An example of such would be some of the MHDT Labs offerings; not necessarily flat in frequency response, but very musical sounding. Throwing a tube in with your solid state amp will do some nice things.
A decent tube preamp kit is the Trancendent Sound Grounded Grid. The sound is more quick and light than slow and heavy, but the kit directions are easy to follow. The only thing I didn't like about the kit are the stock volume control and the cheap rotator switch, but I swapped them out.
Also, another option would be to build the Pass Labs B1 buffer, although you would have to source the parts yourself. You can buy circuit boards and matched jfets from the PassDIY web site. Its not tube based, but it sounds very good.
Where are you located?