Maggie 3.6 amplification concern

aj,

You may be missing the point of the tube line buffers. Think of these units as running the signal through a high quality tube preamp (that lacks a volume control) and provides a better impedance match with the amp. If you really think about this it is very easy to see how the sonics would be affected.

Maybe people don't use these units because they don't realize how much improvement they can make. But look at it this way, you can buy a good used muscle amp for well under $1000 then combine it with one of these inexpensive tube line buffers for $100 and have a combination that will perform as well as many much more expensive audiophile amplifiers. I can demonstrate and back this up very easily.

I've been using a solid state bi-amp system with 8 year old MG3.5's for over a year and I have volume, bass, attack, smoothness, etc. A Brytson 10B crossover feeds an Ayre
V-3 on top and a Levinson 332 on the bottom with a TacT RCS 2.0 providing preamp and room correction. I've tried using less power from both solid state and tubes (70 watts and down) and I have also tried each amp separately, but I feel the Ayre/Levinson combo (100 watts/200 watts respectively) gives me great sound. Both amps have enough current and I don't run out of power. There is no clipping, distortion, etc. I should mention that music sounds real good at 60 db or at 85 db. I am not the type of listener who cranks tunes at 100+ db. There is no need to! Remember, more power/more volume does not mean better sound.

I know some people think Levinson products aren't worth the price (or the sound) and Ayre is one of those "unknown" companies, but I am happy. As always, listener discretion advised. Your ears will tell you.

Rayd

I don't know how the Z-man works and these comments are not meant to pass judgement on that device. However, the Musical Fidelity X-10D is a device that is designed to add even order harmonic distortion to the signal. This is done via the use of a tube. As such, you end up with tube like colouration i.e. added warmth and increased harmonic output.

Trevor from AA measured the before / after using an X-10D and the results were not pretty. Putting the X-10D into the circuit brought distortion up to 10%. Judge for yourself whether or not you think that this is a good idea or would be a positive investment when it comes to "high end" audio reproduction.... Sean
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Sean,

First of all, have you yourself tried either of the units I mentioned in your own system?

Secondly, as you must know, all tube amps and preamps produce even order harmonic distortion -- though I would hardly misconstrue that their design goal. Naturally some units produce more distortion than others.

Thirdly, as much as I enjoyed your 2nd-hand sensationalization of some guy named Treavor's personal distortion measurements on the X-10D, I must dismiss them entirely because you did not state the test conditions, the signal level, or even the frequency at which the distortion was measured. I seriously doubt that the X-10D produces anywhere near 10% distortion under most operating conditions. MF would have never released the unit and Stereophile would not have endorsed it as a "Class C" component a few year ago.

As for the Z-man, I personally use that unit and have observed a very minor loss of fine detail along with a generally smoother and more musical presentation. I can't say that I know of ANY high-end tube preamp (no matter how expensive) that doesn't do the exact same things to some degree. And some of them color the signal far more than the Z-man.

In the world of high end audio, folks often pay premium prices for such colorations -- though they would say this even-order distortion you speak of makes the sound more musical and natural sounding. Go figure. :)

I am using an ARC VT100 MKII with my MG 3.5 with excellent results. Great slam, bass extension and robustness.