If one desires an easy way to experience the audio advantages of vacuum tubes in the playback chain without the associated cost and heat disadvantages of too many tubes, one can place a vacuum tube buffer stage between one's digital program source (especially streaming audio, MP3, or lossless audio files) and one's preamplifier. The "gold standard" for doing so in an affordable manner is the Musical Fidelity Tube Buffer. Unfortunately, this product is very hard to come by. What to do?
If one purchases two ART Tube MP preamplifiers...each costing little more than the replacement cost of the vacuum tube it contains...and four 1/4" male phono to female RCA connectors, one can create a budget tube buffer stage. The trick to making it sound good is to adjust it so it doesn't add volume to the final output. Unity gain. One can effectively approximate the "no add" setting by ear.
Why bother? The strident "grain" associated with computer audio files is smoothed. Voices seem to come forward in the mix. And, for whatever electrical and psycho-acoustical reasons, the final sound seems just a bit more natural.
I use two ART Tube MPs as a buffer stage between a Behringer U-Control UCA-202 DAC and a Behringer Eurorack UB-502 mixer to provide state-of-the-art amplification for my Vic Firth isolation headphones. The resulting sound is absolutely top-drawer and completely belies the bargain price I paid for these components.
Enjoy.Get more detail about ART Tube MP Studio Mic Preamp.
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