I purchased a X10-D about five months ago,but still did not get the sound I was searching for.Then I replaced all my innerconnects with mid-priced Tara cables.Which was quite a few,replacing the cables to my Carver C-9,the X10-D and pre-amp to amp cables.Then it sounded great,but I did not really know if it was the cables or the X10-D that made the difference.So I took the X10-D out of the loop,(AND IT MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE!)not near as warm and a lot brighter.The X10-D is a great product,but you need good cables.

If you have a good CD Player but with an op-amp output, go ahead and buy the MF X10-D. But if you are using CD players above $1,000/- or Trans & DAC combo, don't waste you money on this product.! P.S. Try to check your CD Player manual for output impedence, if o/p impedence
is less than 100 ohms, than forget about the X-10.!!!

The verdict is in...I auditioned the Z-Man's ASE (www.z-man.com) over the weekend and I have to say that it's a much better product than the X10-D. For those of you who bought the X10-D you probably didn't know about the ASE. I didn't until I read about it on audioreview in the "other" section. Well, you can read more about my A/B test in that section on the ASE.
I'm returning my X10-D today.....

I tried the X10-D this weekend and noted the following:Slightly warmer, sweeter highs, a little more base, all of which were qualities I was hoping for. However, all of this was at the expense of resolution, loss of midrange detail and slightly rubbery base. The X10-D was tested with the following equipment:
Marantz CC-67 , CD changer
Classe CAP-150 Integrated
Paradigm Studio 100 Speakers
MIT interconnects and speaker cable.
My preference is to live without the X10-D and upgrade from the Marantz changer to a CD player sometime during the next year. Three speaker rating.

Just had this unit for two days evaluation. I can agree with the contradictory rating given by others here. In fact, X-10D actualy posseses some atractive virtues and has obvious flaws, too. At first, it gives a more lively and atractive midband, especialy some magic to voices and massive orchestral strings, enhances dynamics, but at the expense of high and low end resolution. Additionaly, its asking for good cables, so the overall investiment could be better saved for DAC or CD upgrade. In my opinion, the character of X-10D is very similar to Musical Fidelity X series preamp, which is based on the same tubes. This line buffer is taste dependent, too. Although listening to female vocalist you can sometimes feel it would not be bad to have her phone number, I returned the X-10D to the dealer.System
Harman/Kardon 620 amp
Philips 721 CD
Straightwire Chorus
Kimber Silver Streak
MF X-link interconnects
Vivanco silver speaker cable

This product is a mixed blessing. I give this product a three-star rating, but this is really dependent on the recording. On over-bright classical recordings, particularly late-eighties to early-nineties recordings from Decca, it warms up the midrange and smooths out excessive highs, and even enlarges the soundstage. On recordings that are already excellent, like many classical ones from Hyperion, or good jazz recordings, I'd give the X-10D a one. On well-engineered recordings what you gain in midrange richness is offset by a loss of airiness and transparency.
The X-10D was sandwiched between a Marantz CD-67SE and a Parasound PL/D 2000 preamp, routing to a Carver TFM-35x amp, and then to Energy Audissey APS 5+2 speakers. Interconnects were Audioquest Topaz and cables were Audioquest A-6.

It's all in the tubes!I have had this unit for a year and sometimes wonder if I made a wrong purchase because the results have been mixed. Then I read somewhere it's worthwhile to change the tubes inside. So I risked my fifty dollars(US) and replaced the original Philips 6922's with Siemens tubes(gold-pinned). Bingo! Reduced resolution? No way. The improvement is akin to adding a good tube preamp in your system. Vocals sound marvellous. Highs are extended while lows are tight and well defined. Soundstage just opens up and focus is spot on. For a total cost of about $250, it's a steal.

So give this product a chance and experiiment. I would like to hear from others who have change to other tubes and share their views. Thank you !

Rating: 5 (New tubes) 3 (Original tubes)

Bought one used for approx. US$ 100 just to see if it really works as reviewed by various mags. I am using it with a Philips DVD-860 and a MF X-24K DAC with an NVA AP30 integrated amp and a set of ProAC Tablette 50 Sig. speakers. When the X10-D was first installed, the sound was obviously warmer but some what muddled in the ,mids and highs. After running it for 3 days, slight improvement was heard. A week later, came across some good deals on some Siemens E88CC, throw out the original 6922 and the muddle mids and highs begins to clear up.
Recently, I have upgraded my amp to a tube amp, the usefulness of the X10-D is not as important.

Overall comments:
1) provide a cheap solution to cheap cd system
2) impact is not as significant as installing a X-24k (a DAC also by MF)
3) if you are using a tube amp, don't waste your money here, grab some better interconnects instead.

Regarding this unit; I tried unsucessfully to give it a fair trial yet it failed miserably. Certainly, Igot a "difference" in sound...at the loss of resolution and it merely reminded me of hooking up any old equalizer and toying with it.
I believe that most people who rave about this unit fail to realize that all it does in fact is accentuate certain frequencies..particularly mids and
then they become accustomed to it; albeit at a loss of true detalied reproduction.
After giving it a try for two days on different amps...I gave up and returned it.
Too much hype for a unit which in actuality really
does nothing but alter the sound somewhat and muffles
it.

Style that best describes you:music enthusiast

If your system is all solid state, the X10-D is the ideal way of introducing a touch of tube excellence (not too much, just the right amount) and will help reduce all that horrible digital glare that some people refer to as 'detail'. Buy it and connect with decent cables, eg audioquest. Btw, what happened to their website?