iFi Audio Micro iTube2 Vacuum Tube Buffer and Line Stage Preamplifier

afterburnt
afterburnt Posts: 7,892
in Basic Hookup/Wiring Questions
What's this for?
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,949
    Music.
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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
    Have you tried it?
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  • verb
    verb Posts: 10,176
    edited November 2018
    Reminds me of those guys that put a paragraph in the subject line of an e-mail. :smile:

    I have no idea :smile:
    Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,949
    afterburnt wrote: »
    Have you tried it?

    Nope. I'm not a big fan of tube buffers simply from what they technically are by definition. Although I've never personally tried one.
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  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,949
    Oh yeah Sean and iFi go way back ;)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fclwBExq9i8
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    Buffers help reduce stomach churn compared to unbuffered.

    8iijk0i1ot6t.png

    @clipdat a buffer (vacuum tube or soiled state) that is properly designed and built can be helpful as an impedance matching device. The problem is all of those cheap-jack "tube buffers" that are purpose-built to add euphonic distortion. Fortunately, that fad seems to have peaked and is subsiding; guess we flattened the curve on those. :|


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  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 25,553
    edited April 2020
    Ken Swagger called them(tube buffers) Cathode followers. I really liked my yaqin 6sn7 tube buffer. Tubes absolutely made a difference.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    edited April 2020
    Yes -- well, kind of. A cathode follower is a specific type of vacuum tube buffer topology, yes -- and a properly designed and implemented cathode follower can do a great deal of good and will (OK... should) do no harm. B)

    Cathode followers were de rigueur in the output stages of line level vacuum tube sources like FM tuners (and often found in preamps) BITD, permitting the henpecked ;) audiophile of the past to use up to 50 feet (or more, see below!) of wires cables interconnects 'twixt source and amplifier. WAF was a thing even in the 1950s! ;)

    From the EICO HFT-90 tuner manual: http://akdatabase.com/AKview/albums/userpics/10004/Eico HFT-90 Owners.pdf

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    Note that the output is on the cathode side of the 6U4; it follows the input.

    Post edited by mhardy6647 on
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  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 3,156
    I played with an Eastern Electric MiniMax BBA "Booster Buffer Amplifier" a few years ago...actually still have it. Here's the info from their website: http://www.eeaudio.com/eeaudio_009.htm
    And one of my pics:
    4z9t8iqz6p8h.jpg
    I haven't utilized it in quite a while, but I seem to remember liking it best as a stand alone 'tube' preamp. Problem is: it only has one input.
    "This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
    "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
    Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
    edited April 2020
    Funny, no one wanted to talk about this in 2018.

    Now I am not interested, I gave up vinyl for lint.
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  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 33,894
    afterburnt wrote: »
    Funny, no one wanted to talk about this in 2018.

    Now I am not interested, I gave up vinyl for lint.

    Funny -- we get lint on our vinyls. I have a brush for that.

    Oh, and I did report the spammah.


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  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 3,156
    I'm not Catholic, but lent has been over for weeks now ;) Spin 'em up, AB!
    "This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
    "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
    Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
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  • afterburnt
    afterburnt Posts: 7,892
    I am actually I am looking forward to moving and setting up my "Vinyl room". I got one room that is on a slab in my new place, it's downstairs with the laundry room. I will probably spend a lot of time spinning my rekkids and watching the clothes go round like once a month.
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  • jdjohn
    jdjohn Posts: 3,156
    https://youtu.be/0huPnNi6ZhQ
    "This may not matter to you, but it does to me for various reasons, many of them illogical or irrational, but the vinyl hobby is not really logical or rational..." - member on Vinyl Engine
    "Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." - Cicero, in Gladiator
    Regarding collectibles: "It's not who gets it. It's who gets stuck with it." - Jimmy Fallon
    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter