I bought the now-discontinued Tri-Vista DAC, a favorite of many audiophile writers (Sam Tellig, Neil Gader) which has 4 Raytheon 5703WB mini milspec tubes in the output stage. I think the MF tube buffer has a similar type of milspec tube. Good news: the tubes have a life expectancy of 100,000 hours (not a misprint) which will probably outlast you; bad news, the tubes are soldered into the board (no pins), so replacement will require a tech (or you to be handy with a soldering iron). If you want replacement tubes handy so you won't lose sleep at night, do like me and buy them online through a tube reseller; MF charges 4x the price for the same tube.
I have been very happy with my Tri-Vista i the past 2 years. Build and sound quality is great, and when I demoed it (in NY's Sound by Singer), it killed every other product SbS had in its price range ($2k-5k). Of course, less than a year later, they split the buffer from the DAC and lowered the price, and of course their new marketing gloats about how much more improved it sounds over prior models (they did the same when the Tri-Vista was released). I have my doubts, but who cares: I am not playing the upgrade game. My only beef with encouraging the purchase of the MF tube buffer is that you will likely want to use the upgraded power supply (which raises the cost by 2x) and potentially a good power cord. Add it up, and the next thing you know, you are pretty close to the price of a used Tri-Vista (~$1000), which has a much better regulated PS and comes with a pretty damn good DAC too (way better than that of the SB3, methinks). Also, I wonder how easy it would be to try selling the DECWARE dac if you upgrade. You'll be better off with either a MF product in that price range. -- davehg ------------------------------------------------------------------------ davehg's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2269 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20389 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
