Sean,
First of all, have you yourself tried either of the units I mentioned in your own system?
Secondly, as you must know, all tube amps and preamps produce even order harmonic distortion -- though I would hardly misconstrue that their design goal. Naturally some units produce more distortion than others.
Thirdly, as much as I enjoyed your 2nd-hand sensationalization of some guy named Treavor's personal distortion measurements on the X-10D, I must dismiss them entirely because you did not state the test conditions, the signal level, or even the frequency at which the distortion was measured. I seriously doubt that the X-10D produces anywhere near 10% distortion under most operating conditions. MF would have never released the unit and Stereophile would not have endorsed it as a "Class C" component a few year ago.
As for the Z-man, I personally use that unit and have observed a very minor loss of fine detail along with a generally smoother and more musical presentation. I can't say that I know of ANY high-end tube preamp (no matter how expensive) that doesn't do the exact same things to some degree. And some of them color the signal far more than the Z-man.
In the world of high end audio, folks often pay premium prices for such colorations -- though they would say this even-order distortion you speak of makes the sound more musical and natural sounding. Go figure. :)
First of all, have you yourself tried either of the units I mentioned in your own system?
Secondly, as you must know, all tube amps and preamps produce even order harmonic distortion -- though I would hardly misconstrue that their design goal. Naturally some units produce more distortion than others.
Thirdly, as much as I enjoyed your 2nd-hand sensationalization of some guy named Treavor's personal distortion measurements on the X-10D, I must dismiss them entirely because you did not state the test conditions, the signal level, or even the frequency at which the distortion was measured. I seriously doubt that the X-10D produces anywhere near 10% distortion under most operating conditions. MF would have never released the unit and Stereophile would not have endorsed it as a "Class C" component a few year ago.
As for the Z-man, I personally use that unit and have observed a very minor loss of fine detail along with a generally smoother and more musical presentation. I can't say that I know of ANY high-end tube preamp (no matter how expensive) that doesn't do the exact same things to some degree. And some of them color the signal far more than the Z-man.
In the world of high end audio, folks often pay premium prices for such colorations -- though they would say this even-order distortion you speak of makes the sound more musical and natural sounding. Go figure. :)