diff --git a/src/zarr/core/buffer/core.py b/src/zarr/core/buffer/core.py
index 041585c51..0c6d966db 100644
--- a/src/zarr/core/buffer/core.py
+++ b/src/zarr/core/buffer/core.py
@@ -282,9 +282,10 @@ def __add__(self, other: Buffer) -> Self:
         ...
 
     def __eq__(self, other: object) -> bool:
-        # Note: this was needed to support comparing MemoryStore instances with Buffer values in them
-        # if/when we stopped putting buffers in memory stores, this can be removed
-        return isinstance(other, type(self)) and self.to_bytes() == other.to_bytes()
+        # Another Buffer class can override this to choose a more efficient path
+        return isinstance(other, Buffer) and np.array_equal(
+            self.as_numpy_array(), other.as_numpy_array()
+        )
 
 
 class NDBuffer:
diff --git a/tests/v3/test_array.py b/tests/v3/test_array.py
index e6bb3ae88..11be51682 100644
--- a/tests/v3/test_array.py
+++ b/tests/v3/test_array.py
@@ -4,9 +4,8 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
-from zarr.core.array import Array, AsyncArray
+from zarr import Array, AsyncArray, Group
 from zarr.core.common import ZarrFormat
-from zarr.core.group import Group
 from zarr.errors import ContainsArrayError, ContainsGroupError
 from zarr.store import LocalStore, MemoryStore
 from zarr.store.common import StorePath