Musical Fidelity X-Tube Valve Buffer

The purpose of a 'buffer' is to act as an interface between two items at line level (or between a pre amplifier and a power amplifier), helping remove any limitations from imperfect impedance matching that might exist. 

So for this reason the Musical Fidelity X-Tube Buffer has a very high input impedance and low output impedance. This means it presents a very easy load to the item in front of it, whilst offering a very low output impedance to the item following it. It adds negligible gain (in this case a barely noticeable 1dB).

Many CD Players, DACs, Phono Stages and even Pre amplifiers have a comparatively weak output stage, especially many valve designs. These are all absolutely fine when used with high quality shorter length cables and facing a high input impedance (lets say over 47k Ohms) from the next item in the chain. Sadly this isn't always the case, especially when using a valve source into some transistor amplifiers (which can have very low impedance inputs), so for this reason a buffer can make a lot of sense as without it you may be missing dynamics, level and a wide and flat frequency response.

We are always happy to advise about the suitability of the products we sell, so please don't hesitate to let us know your application. The sort of uses we'd suggest are as follows:

-If you suspect the output stage of your source or preamplifier is not ideal, often the case with budget items!

-In front of long interconnect cables, to minimise their losses.

-It's ideal to use after a passive pre amplifier, effectively making it into an active pre amplifier (without gain).

-Use it after any high output impedance line level output when it's connected to a low impedance item.

-Use it on the headphone/tape output on most amplifiers that have unbuffered outputs to drive a headphone amplifier or cassette deck - most headphone amplifiers and cassette decks have a low input impedance, but even those that don't can still present a difficult load, as their load is in parallel with the amplifiers. You can easily test if this is an issue, if there's any drop in level or loss in sound quality when connecting a headphone amplifier or cassette deck to your amplifier then this buffer will resolve the issue. 

To maximise the benefits of any buffer we would recommend using a short cable between the source and this buffer so that you can maximise its benefits.

The pure class A circuit uses two E88CC (6922) dual triode valves in a single ended circuit.  Valves are used as when engineered correctly have a very low sonic signature, their distortion spectrum is considered by many (including ourselves) to be much more natural than the solid state devices.

The enclosure is made from an aluminium extrusion and now features an internal power supply, removing the need for an external power supply.

Tubes: 2x 6922/E88CC triode tubes
Frequency Response: 20Hz to 80kHz + 0, - 0.3dB
THD: < 0.003% 10Hz to 20kHz
SNR: > 96dB unweighted ref. full output
Crosstalk: > 95dB, 20Hz to 20kHz
Gain: 1dB
Input impedance: 470k Ohms
Output impedance: < 33 Ohms
In & Outputs
Inputs: 1x RCA
Bypass: 1x RCA
Output: 1x RCA
Power requirement
Mains input: AC 100-230V 50/60Hz IEC C14 socket
Consumption: <0.25 Watts in Standby
General Information
Dimensions (WxHxD): 108 x 105 x 274 mm
Weight: 2,29 kg net / 2,58 kg in shipping box