Valve Buffer.

[Ian Walker]

Having at last sorted out the preamp and Dac in my system,im able to sell this valve buffer.

I had this built for me by Nick(Lurcher)who's a member here.

It is a unity gain buffer so wont change the gain structure of your system.

I asked Nick to do this for me as i was unhappy with a thinness to the sound of my system.

We were all suprised(including Nick)as to how much extra weight and impact this added to the sound and of course it gave the system some much needed valviness.

So any system needing a boot up the backside as it where this is perfect.

The buffer is built with some nice quality bits ,there is a decent LARGE overspec'd transformer,Obligato,Audionote and clarity caps are in there too.

I'm told that with the addition of a volume pot this could easily be turned into a very nice valve preamp.

I have a Alps blue pot here somewhere if the buyer is interested along with a box of six unused valves for it.

If you have any questions feel free to pm for my number or i'm sure Nick would be happy to answer anything technical.

£325.

[Marco]

Guys,

I've heard this buffer and can confirm that it's a superb piece of kit - well, as if Nick would build anything else! ;)

Anyone who's looking to add a quality valve output stage to their digital front end, this is about as good as it gets.

The price is laughably low, in terms of the sonic performance on offer. If this had a AudioNote badge, for example, it would sell for £2k. I kid you not, so snap it up now before someone cleverer does!

Marco.

[Marvt74]

Where abouts are you located Ian?

[Marco]

Hi Martyn,

Ian lives on the Wirral side of Cheshire :)

Marco.

[The Black Adder]

I can confirm Nicks handy work.. I've got one of his phono stages... I'm still totally amazed with good it sounds! I'm tempted with this too!

[lurcher]

I talked with Ian about the option of making it into a preamp (unity gain) by adding an input selector and volume control. If it is of any interest to anyone, I will do that at the cost of the parts. (or free if you supply the parts).

[tubehunter]

hi all

yes i enjoyed building this, using acrylic and white oak. quality mains transformer and very high quality polypropylene capacitors.
i believe Nick has changed the circuit somewhat :)

[Ali Tait]

Ian, you have PM.

[Ian Walker]

Buffer now sold to Ali.

Thanks for all the interest.

Ian.

[The Black Adder]

Good on ya Ali... :)

[Ali Tait]

:)

[DSJR]

Looks great and the price is reasonable too I think. I'd love one at some point..

For those on a tighter budget, an X10-D can be done up to a good standard. if not to the highest standards, certainly a lot better than as-supplied. MF can do this work if you don't feel like tackling the Rock-Grotto mods...

[The Black Adder]

I've did the full Rock Grotto mods on two X10-D's a must to anyone using or thinking of buying one. It was wasy peasey!

As in stock condition the X-10D was pretty shoddy in build quality to be honest.

[DSJR]

The power supply transformer mod is essential too, although my ex Christmas Light 12VAV @ 4A transformer came darned close. The supplied wall-wart just isn't enough IMO.

[The Black Adder]

I agree.. Yeah.. RG make the little pinky psu which is much better. I heard that hard wiring it in to the X10D was also much better.