These tube buffer units intrigue me I have a very nice SS preamp and am probably silly to even consider it. But, if were to try one, just to play with tube warmth etc, I would want a switch to bypass the tube unit completely. Does the ModWright do this? the Decware z-stage does not seem to.
ModWright Tube Buffer
Does anyone have any experience with the ModWright Analog Bridge Tube Buffer? I'm thinking about adding it between my Musician Pegasus R2R dac and a Yamaha A-S1200, but am a little put off by the price (~ $3,000 used) considering it's nearly as much as the Yamaha.
I'm generally satisfied with the Yamaha/Pegasus combination, but miss the tube flavor that used to power my Klipsch Cornwall IVs. I've contemplated returning to a full tube amp, but I really don't want to deal with the revolving door of tube replacement (I put a lot of hours per week on my system).
Thanks for your thoughts.
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- 25 posts total
@fastfreight Yes, the ModWright has a toggle switch on the front of the unit to switch between buffer stage and non-buffer.
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I can’t answer directly as I’ve not owned one. But if you buy one used ( $2500 single ended / $3000 balanced ) it is not cost effective. Plus they have JJ tubes and you’ll probably drop another $500 tube rolling plus an extra pair of interconnects and a power cord. If I were in your position I’d buy a nice tube integrated amp like a Prima Luna or a Rogue ( Rogue is more SS sounding ) or one of the dozen nice integrated amps at the $3-4K used range. Or sell the Yamaha and get a used Coda or Luxman integrated. I think you’d be happier in the long run. Now if you can get a tube buffer for under $1K that would be worth considering. Cheers , Mike B. |
If you want to get serious about a tube buffer -- https://spl.audio/en/spl-produkt/tube-vitalizer/. I used one for about three years. In use it can be complicated or quite simple. It's balanced input/output only. |
- 25 posts total