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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.

br3
wings2hockey
9 posts
 

I own a ModWright Analog Bridge and absolutely love it! It’s probably one of my favorite pieces in my setup. It immediately added depth and smoothness (not color), and the tube rolling is awesome too. I bought a brand-new RCA version (because my Rega Aethos amp only has RCA inputs) directly from ModWright and got a great price. Dan is great to work with. Buy it — you definitely will not regret it.

mitch2
4,734 posts
 

I would not buy one to create “the sound of tubes” but I would consider one to optimize impedance matching and improve dynamics if I were using a DAC with an internal volume control, or a passive volume control.

jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,920 posts
 

dan’s unit is full featured

otoh deckert’s zstage is absolutely minimalist (in terms of very small case, ultra simple internal wiring/configuration, and the use of single dual triode 12au7, so its easy and fun to tube roll as well)

https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?num=1288548883

correct, z-stage has no switch to allow in/out of circuit though (minimalist ethos here)

but each in their own way does what it does excellently

i enjoy my zstage, and use it sometimes with DACs that are clear and spacious but a touch lean in tone, or low in output voltage

mitch2
4,734 posts
 

Impedance matching is a common reason for using a buffer.  The Modwright unit, with its output impedance of <20 ohms, is likely to be more effective in that regard than the Zstage that is spec’ed at an output impedance of <1,000 ohms.

markcpa1
1 posts
 

I purchased the balanced version of the ModWright Analog Bridge about 6 weeks ago and am extremely happy that I did.  It brings tube beauty to my solid state system. 

I like the versatility of having  three modes you can choose from.  Rock and fast paced music sound fantastic to me on the 6922 tubes.  Jazz and vocals sound great to me on the 6SN7 tubes. Or you can flip the bybass switch on the back of the unit (I rarely do this) and listen with no tubes in the signal path.

To me, this was a good choice as I was already happy with my solid state system, and just wanted to add tubes without losing that solid state detail.

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