AoS World Exclusive Review of Ecofan Sound Buffer Zone and Boost It
THE ECOFAN SOUND BUFFER ZONE (VALVE BUFFER) AND BOOST IT (VALVE GAIN STAGE)
As promised during the review of the Ecofan Sound 6A3 valve amplifier ( http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1599 ), I am now able to present my findings on Ecofan's latest offerings to come from the mind of Murray Dick. I had listened briefly to the Buffer Zone during its first time here, and frankly as it wasn't run in I wasn't expecting much and unfortunately thats what I got, not much. Anyway several weeks later, in fact just over a month, both items where back and run in.
BUFFER ZONE FRONT VIEW
BOOST IT FRONT VIEW
Wanting to gain some insight into the thinking behind these new products, I contacted Ecofan Sound and exchanged e-mails with Adam Ecofan's sales manager on both items up for review. Firstly and something which is refreshing,all my chat with Adam was BS free. As I stated in my previous piece on the 6A3 amplifier, Ecofan Sound is a straight talking company. No ridiculous claims and a very honest appraisal of what their designs do, don't do and can do. Both designs are based on the use of two matched 6DJ8 (ECC88) valves. The Buffer Zone is as Adam says designed to have a “bandwidth of circuit which is pretty amazing extending flat from below 10Hz and out to well beyond 200kHz (oscilloscope runs out before the response drops)” There is no chance that the Buffer Zone circuitry will damage your music by clipping the frequencies. However Adam also says the following “if your components all match well or you have a really solid cd player with a cracking good output stage then you will probably find the black boxes redundant... however - if you only have an ok cd player or you run a pc into powered monitors or modest transistor amp you might be better pleased. its all in the impedance matching (or not)” Adam continued “ I have tried the black boxes in a variety of situations myself with variable results - sometimes the removal of the box makes a system unlistenable - other times the addition is negative...” This degree of honesty is refreshing and sets out quite clearly where and how the Buffer Zone is designed to be operated. As well as being used as a valve output stage for the above items, the “ buffer zone might fit before a higher gain power amp, or where source has adequate drive but is not of the best quality. relieves strain on op amp output stages.” I did not test it as such, but used it as a valve output stage for three CD players. The most famous example of this type of product, indeed one of the few in the domestic market place, the Musical Fidelity D10 was one of the inspirations for the Ecofan Sound Buffer Zone. Seeing the potential for such a product and with the D10 being out of production Murray designed his own take on valve buffers and took the possibilities much further. Nelson Pass of Pass Labs has also been working in this area. Read this for details on his approach to matching impedance between components here is link to an article by nelson pass on his buffer stage,helpful regarding principles and benefits of buffers.
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/070...eamplifier.htm
The review system was as follows Bat VK 31 se Pre-Amplifier, Bat VK 75 Power Amplifier, Anthony Gallo Ref 3.1 Speakers. Sources Marantz CD 94 MK2, Marantz CD7 and the Chord One. Cabling used was Audience Au24 between CD players and Buffer Zone and Atlas Marvos between Pre and Power Amplifiers and Atlas Marvos speaker cable. No mains filters or regenerators were used. All units were warmed up and at optimum performance. In the case of the CD players all had at least a week of warm up, especially critical for the Marantz CD players less so for the Chord One.
The music used were old favorites from Nitin Sawhney Beyond Skin album and the Dali Sampler CD, track used Stimela (The Coal Train) by Hugh Masekela, a wonderful live recording. Other recordings were used, but for simplicity sake I will mostly refer to the main three.
INTERNAL VIEW OF BUFFER ZONE
THE BUFFER ZONE valve buffer
The Buffer Zone is a very compact unit and is very well made, but unlike all Ecofan Sound designs which are fairly plain in the looks department, in this case however, we have a piano black gloss finish which raises the perceived quality, mixed with the traditional Ecofan flick switches...read into that a love of retro. The unit is ventilated by a number of holes in the sides. The on light is blue and thats it, simple. Input and output is via good quality gold plated Rca's. This description covers the Boost It as well..more on it later.
MARANTZ CD 94 MK2 AND MUSICAL FIDELITY D10+POWER SUPPLY
REAR VIEW OF MARANTZ CD 94 MK2
I sometimes feel that listening to the item up for review first and then going back to the known shows differences up more quickly. Since my Digital Overview review (http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1919) I have kept the CD 94 MK 2 in my system and have continued to listen to it. So I was quite familiar with the sound. Having hooked up the Buffer Zone and listen to both Nitin Sawhney and Hugh Masekela I then listened with out. Before doing this I was certain that things were different but I would have been hard pressed to say exactly where these differences resided (as I was enjoying the sound to much to be critical) except in the bass that was obvious. With further listening the elements of slight leanness and edge in the Marantz's sound which I had heard and reported on in the earlier piece, were substantially altered by the use of the Buffer Zone. The music had gained a degree of weight and body and the bass was fuller and richer, but not so to rob any pieces of music of their rhythm or flow. This was not a case of pouring syrup into the native sound but just that it had gained in the areas of harmonics and texture, areas where the non Buffer Zoned Marantz failed a bit. I did quite a bit of swapping between the set up with and without the Buffer Zone and was amazed at just how transparent the unit was. The character of the CD 94 Mk2 was not lost but just improved. Beyond Skin by Nitin Sawhney had a big deep soundstage and all the instruments had good focus and detail. The soundstage hung a little in front of the speakers so the sound was ever so slightly forward of where it had been with out the Buffer Zone. The bass was deep and extended and certainly slightly fuller but not flabby just richer. This may be down to taste but I preferred the bass with the Buffer Zone in use on this track. Letting Go was next, a much sparser soundscape with very nice female vocals and a drifty vibe. During the track a guitar comes into play, just to the left side of center and it had more body with the Buffer Zone than without it.
Hugh Masekela's track Stimela showed the biggest improvement and I had to listen twice, the first time had been just for pleasure. Putting my reviewers hat back on, I could hear that all the instruments had taken on a higher degree of realism compared to the sound produced with the Buffer Zone not in place. Again this improvement was manifest in an increase in body and richness, the sound was less thread bare than it had been before. Listening to the tracks without the Buffer Zone you could, for just a moment think that the sound was more open and detailed but quickly you would hear that this version of the music was indeed more lean rather than open. The Buffer Zone makes the music sound more real and less two dimensional, it adds weight, scale, a touch of warmth and takes the CD 94 MK 2 a bit further up the scale towards the better sound of newer players.
Next I wanted to see what the Buffer Zone might do for a newer design. These results with a twenty year old machine were very good but at the end of the day, its an old design and I had already found it wanting during my other review, so into play came the Chord One. I should also mention at this stage that I had to match levels through out this review, because with all the players used there was a slight drop in volume using the Buffer Zone than without it.
CHORD ONE CD PLAYER
REAR VIEW OF CHORD ONE CD PLAYER
The Chord One was a much better player from the start of listening than the Marantz in all the areas it was weak in, The One was strong. I played the three tracks again and felt that The One was doing extremely well. I found myself enjoying the music, possibly too much, so on went the Buffer Zone and it was subtle at first but there was a change. Now which was better is a hard one and may be down to taste or system matching but I thought that The One sounded marginally better by its self than with the Buffer Zone. Without, the sound was open and detailed, slightly forward with great solid detail and a very slight forthrightness without being hard or bright. With the Buffer Zone in the signal path the sound lost a little of its energy and drive. This left the music slightly reigned in and some fine detail was just slightly less sharp. The soundstage was marginally pulled back and perhaps and I say perhaps only, there may have been a hint of veiling, if so it was very slight. I tried a few more samples of music mainly tracks from Roisin Murphy's wonderful album Overpowered and after some further comparisons felt still that The One by its self was marginally better, but it was very slim.
REAR VIEW OF MUSICAL FIDELITY D10 TUBE BUFFER.
I next put the Musical Fidelity on to do a comparison and I have to say where the Buffer Zone was fairly benign even when perhaps not being the ideal the D10 was like a bull in a china shop. The soundstage sounded stretched and instrument placement was moved. Yes moved,and not by a little but by a lot. The guitar part in Letting Go now sat further to the left of the soundstage than it ever has before. It was like the music of this track had been both spread and pushed outwards and overblown but not distorting. The results with other players in this review were similar. The sound in and of its self was not bad,it was enjoyable in isolation but wrong, very wrong. Where the Buffer Zone had lowered volume slightly the D10 was louder. The Musical Fidelity is certainly not transparent to the source and in my opinion mucks things up too much. Different set up, system with less resolution may see things result in a better match but here no. The result with the D10 and Marantz CD 7 was truly awful. No further comment,I pulled the D10 out of the system.
MARANTZ CD 7 CD PLAYER
REAR VIEW OF MARANTZ CD 7
Next to be used with the Buffer Zone was the Marantz CD 7 and while things were better they still were not right. I swapped mains leads to an Audience Au 24 and I tried changing isolation platforms to an RDC one, a further improvement but it wasn't until I wired in the TCI Boa Constrictor power cable that finally I heard the CD 7 sound as I know it can. During the course of this test I again found that what many poo poo as being non-existent does exist. A change of Isolation and mains leads plus warm up does result in an improved sound.
The Marantz now sounding like it should, was by far the best sounding CD player in this review and as such its sound was not improved by the Buffer Zone. With the CD 7 the Buffer Zone ruined the magic a bit. Without, the sound was open and detailed with excellent sound staging, fairly neutral in sound quality, sitting just to the warmer side of things but very dynamic, great harmonics and deep bass. The Buffer Zone hooked up robbed the sound of this and made it sound, well reduced. However it is important to point out that Adam of Ecofan Sound predicted that this might happen, its also important to note that Ecofan did not design the Buffer Zone for use in such a High-End set up as mine. That it was able to work without seriously messing up the sound is a testament to good design and its frequency range.
If you have an old CD Player like the Marantz CD 94 Mk2 then I can strongly suggest you try a Buffer Zone. However for more expensive players I think caution is required as the results are a little unpredictable. I wanted to try this design in a Solid State set up but alas time ran out on me and I was unable to do so. Perhaps I should have done that first but by using my main set up I was at least able to determine the very high level of faithfulness to the character of the machine the Buffer Zone is hooked up to. It does add a touch of warmth and richness to proceedings but in a fairly kind way. I can't however give it a unqualified recommendation but certainly suggest if you have access to one you try it and see. In the context of where Ecofan Sound designed it to be used I think the results should be better. But please bear in mind in what context I tried it. I think overall it did quite well.
INTERNAL VIEW OF THE BOOST IT
The BOOST IT valve gain stage
Now things were about to get very, very interesting. I should point out that some of the circumstances in this part of the review were not as ideal as they could have been but....we will get to that later. I will let Adam describe the uses for it “anyhow.... boost it works well driving 6A3 power amp with a passive pot of some description for level control or the variable output of your source ... thinking pc or ipod line out or mid level cd player(with adjustable volume)... has 16dB of gain will swing 4volts at the output so be careful not to overdrive your gear; also will send signal safely down long interconnects “ The unit looks identical to the Buffer Zone even at first glance internally but it is different as the internal photos reveal. Not having the 6A3 amplifier to hand or a CD player with a variable output (oh to have still had the Beresford Dac I reviewed a week ago..... Anyway a Panasonic 100KA volume pot had been wired up for me (not By Ecofan Sound)and I used this into the Bat VK 75 via XLR adapters. The layout was thus Source,Boost It, Volume pot into power amplifier. I did not know what cabling had been used into the volume pot, or even how much run in time had been accrued by the Boost It: this for me was truly an adventure into the unknown. I had just enough Audience Au 24 cables to hook everything together, in order to keep things the same as in the Buffer Zone review. As I looked at this slightly Heath Robinson pre-amp, and it dawned on me that I was looking at possibly, the ideal pre-amp and certainly the most simple I had ever tried, gain stage to volume pot to amplifier. It reminded me of what Peter walker of Quad used to say about amplifiers “that the best ideal was a piece of wire with gain.” Would this work ? We shall see.
AUDIENCE AU 24 CABLE AND WIRING TO VOLUME POT
MARANTZ CD 7 ON RDC ISOLATION PLATFORM
I played the Hugh Masekela track first and my mouth hit the floor. It was as if nothing stood in the way of the music. It was full of life, dimension and an inner energy. Do pre-amps even good one strangle music ? I asked myself. It would seem so, by this showing. The band stood in my living room more real than ever before. The sound was very open , detailed, dynamic, with excellent bass and a degree of clarity I had only heard before with the Ecofan Sound 6A3 amp in my upstairs system. However it felt a bit like stepping out into a storm, I am not used to this degree of clarity. As I listened more I became aware after my initial shock had faded a bit that this presentation was just a wee bit to frank for me. The main problem was that the sound was lacking in musicality. That hard to explain quality that my system certainly normally had was not missing but not as I like it. The sound was a bit like that often used term “a mailed fist in velvet glove” well the velvet was wearing a bit thin to my ears.
When I moved to the louder recorded Nitin Sawhney tracks I encountered a problem, distortion on dynamic peaks and certain instruments like piano. The input to the power amp was overloading (as Adam warned it might). I have come across this before on finished sold products with badly matched inputs and outputs. The balanced outputs on a Chord Dac 64 once did this into a Pathos Classic One. My raising of this issue with the UK distributor saw Pathos put this right. In that case the output level from the Chord item was way over the top and could have driven a mile of cable, or so it seemed. With a lower value volume pot say 50KA after the Boost It, I am sure this would not have been a problem anymore. I switched music and listened to older cds when loudness was not a factor. I worked my way through the Al Di Meola Project album Tiramisu and the Steve Khan album Public Access. These Latin flavored Jazz Fusion albums had me enthralled The sound was both fantastic and too much (for me) at the same time. The openness and air on instruments like cymbals was stunning. The strike and following shimmer and decay was awesome. This was heady stuff but still I craved more musicality. For many what I was hearing would be their idea of paradise but not me. I suspect but could not confirm that a lower value pot would have perhaps added a bit more of this missing musicality.
REVIEW SYSTEM WHILE USED WITH BOOST IT
Truly I have gained a deeper respect for good pre-amp design but I also now would view these with more suspicion. Just how good are those pre-amps we hold dear ? My Bat Vk 31 se was only better in its musicality, subtlety and delicacy, all important to me, other than that the Boost It and volume pot combination conceded nothing else..the Bat was crying in near shame. My experience with the Boost It shows, I believe that good pre-amplifiers are more than just gain and a volume pot but not much more. The art of balancing all the elements is just that, but how many modern pre-amplifiers miss being magical, because they are to complex. Simplicity is the key to this understanding and this Heath Robinson (theres nothing Heath Robinson about the Boost It) lash up was showing me this in spades. The Boost It must be extremely transparent doing nothing more than Boosting the signal, only the unknown cabling attached to the volume pot was letting things down plus it being the wrong value. I had very little volume control (never mind the first quarter) I was working on the first eighth and less with the newer CD's. However despite all these issues which I am quite sure could be solved by someone of a DIY persuasion, the Boost It shone brightly and was breathtaking in its clarity and direct communication of the music. Its just here in this set up it left me gasping for air as well and I didn't like that. I am fairly sure that with the right ingredients it can be much better and my Bat pre wants to run and hide at that thought.
Of the two products in for review, the Boost It is the most exciting to me (this surprised me) and as a valve gain stage for some one to put the right bits with, offers a stunning opportunity to have that “piece of wire with gain”. I recommend it with the mentioned caveats. To add a gain reducing switch might ruin what it does so well, so I would leave it alone with perhaps the custom option of reduced gain, if the purchaser knows exactly what they need.
The Buffer Zone has the potential for being magical too, but there are to many possible variables which make me hesitant to offer any firm recommendation, but again it was very transparent to the sources I used and in the case of the Marantz CD 94 MK2 offered an upgrade that was worthwhile in my opinion. The Chord One did not benefit much and in the case of the CD 7 its output was of higher quality and was thus degraded, in my experience, by the Buffer Zone; just as Adam stated could be the case. Theres honesty for you.
I had hoped to try both these items out with some solid state amplification but alas I ran out of time, maybe the opportunity will arise again. At the end of this review I learned that these two items, fully hand made by Murray Dick, even down to the transformers being wound by him are the first and thus this review is a World Exclusive...Wow. I leave the last words to Adam "these are not 'ultimate fi' but aimed at entry and mid level system builders with modest budgets... the gadgets can and do make a big positive difference in certain situations....current price is $750 (£262 not including UK taxes or postage) locally." Well maybe not the last word, Adam says that they are not “ultimate fi” but yet Ecofan Sound are being to modest about these designs. For them to work well (perhaps outside their comfort zone) in a very high-end setting and not be disgraced, is somewhat of an achievement. Well done Murray.
Thanks go to Francis (Giant Haystacks) for the loan of the units.
Regards D S D L---Neil
Edit No part of this review can be reproduced without written permission...content is copyrighted to ...NK
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by stephenred
