Has anyone tried putting a tube buffer stage into their system? I know techmoan recommended a yaqin one to make his system seem more analog.
Any thoughts as to their quality?
Any recommendations?
A tube preamp can be pretty nice, I think it’s a good idea to add a bit of flavor in your system. What are you looking to spend and what would the other components be?
I assume by buffer, your talking about inserting it either prior to or after the preamp?
I’d insert it before the pre-amp, but yes they can provide some warmth.
Tube preamps are generally better, because it’s one less component to have to match, but in principle there is nothing wrong with the buffer approach.
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It’ll be a while before I can afford a decware amp so I was thinking of getting an affordable class d or ab amp and using a tube buffer or preamp to give it a tube feel to power the harbeths I’ve been looking at
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Gotcha. I think a nice poweramp and tube preamp would be pretty sweet then. Also I think that decware amp is a bit overkill imo lol. You can get some excellent otl amps for a fair bit under 2k
Was thinking about the freya plus for a preamp
That would be pretty nice, a good choice with lot’s of options
I still want a decware amp in the future but this alternative gives me flexibility in terms of budget.
Now I just need to find a nice highly resolving solid state amp
You mentioned parasound. I’ve also been looking at a used ps audio stellar gain amp too
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The ps audio stuff is very nice too. Have you looked for local used poweramps.
Yep. The ps audio m300 stereo amp I’m looking at is on canuck audio mart
Also some brystons.
The s300 is a pretty impressive amp for the price. The brystons are also pretty great although I don’t know which model is in your price range
I can get a used bryston 4b for about 2250 cad
Hmmm, which 4b, because that seems high for an older 4b
The listing says the warranty is good til 2024 so I assume its newer
Mind you the s300 is 2100 new
Gotcha, if it’s a newer model that’s a good price, but older 4b can be picked up around 1k USD so it would depend
Harbeth speakers…Look into Line Magnetic amps. Relatively affordable on the used market and WILL mate very well w/ the Harbeths.
I love my Old Decware so yes, i recommend that too, hard to find used (folks seem to hold onto them a looong time). Also, Sugden class A, the older models, if you can find one…i mate one with my falcons and a Decware CSP2 pre and they sing 
Can’t help you with DAC choices, i switch them around almost weekly🤣 Each style/flavor makes ever so small yet present difference in the flavor presentation thru the speakers.
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Which Harbeths are you looking at?
As Nick suggest, I also ended up getting a Line Magnetic tube amp and it is pretty dang amazing. It synergizes so well and I cannot stop listening to them. Feel free to ask me anything if you have any questions regarding them.
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