Yaqin Tube Buffer

Pros: More warmth, price, swappable tubes and power cords.
Cons: Slightly less shimmer and presence than the Musical Fidelity in stock form.

In my never ending search for quality sound out of my AV system, I stumbled upon various internet audio forums that mention the use of a line-stage tube buffer. You are probably wondering what is a line-stage tube buffer to begin with. What it does, it ...

Pros: Warm soundstage, expanded sound, quality item.
Cons: None.

The Yaqin Tube Buffer was an impulse purchase as I had read a little about what it was supposed to be able to do. I had to find out on my own if it was really able to make a difference to my music listening experience. Well, I can say with no ...

Pros: Dramatically improves the sound of music with most any system. Well made attractive unit.
Cons: None, unless directly purchased from China.

I became interested in tube audio when I realized that I could not listen to music for hours and hours as I did in my youth. Remembering that the equipment I listened to then was tube amplified, I began to look into tube amps. Wow, they are expensive. ...

Pros: Improves music quality. Stable and reliable. I have had mine on 24/7 for months.
Cons: Standard chinese tubes that come with it are pretty crummy.

I bought the YaQin Tube Buffer from Hong Kong.

Mine came with some odd ball 6J1 tubes as standard
equipment. One was a Shuguang and the other has
the Chinese characters for "Shanghai".

I replaced those with some 6ak5w's right away.

The effect is dramatic and awesome.
I would say that the depth and quality and presence of the listening experience is greatly improved. Expect to hear some new sounds on your old familiar music. Stuff you missed before. Little nuances.

I have a Jolida Hybrid Amp that I presently have rolled to
some 3-mica shiny black GE JG-5751WA (1950s vintage). I am really pleased with this sound smooth silky clean. I am using a pair of sylvania jan-6ak5w with black plates in the tube buffer right now.

I have used some 50's and 60's GE and RCA 6ak5w's and
right now I am preferring the sylvania black plate.
There is an abundance of inexpensive 6ak5w/5654 tubes to roll if you like that kind of thing.

I have also tried plugging the tube buffer between my computer and some old altec computer speakers. That is
also a quite impressive improvement but a bit overkill in the cost area.