Musical Fidelity

[Floyddroid]

Over the years I have owned a few bits of Musical Fidelity equipment and on the whole it was fairly good. A lot of what I had seemed more suited to classical music and lacked a little pizzazz. The most disappointing amp I owned was an A1001. Totally lifeless uninvolved monster with no musical aspirations whatsoever whilst my A300 was by far the best MF kit I ever owned if somewhat blingy.
There doesn't seem to be much written on the forums about Musical Fidelity kit though there has to be loads of it out there. I am sure this thread may spark some healthy debate from people at odds with my findings? I am at the moment reflecting on some of the amazing kit I have owned and hastily sold on and I surprised myself how much MF kit that has been through my hands. As a company I know they still manufacture amps and cd players even a high end turntable a few years back though as a brand they aren't as heavily promoted as they once were. What are your views?
Are there any big MF fans out there who would like to share their views, experiences or pictures? Just curious.

[jollyfix]

The only experience i have with MF is my X-150 amp. Great build and finish for its price, great sounding amp all round. I have often thought why there s nothing much written or talked about on forums too. The little i have read, talks about the A1 amp, and its reliability. Maybe the reliability issues of that amp put people off Mf, + some very expensive gear which i am told was not that great.

[dantheman91]

Using an Electra 100 Integrated as my main amplifier since 2011 and with regular service its a Top bit of kit in its day but it didnt sell much at the time lost out to other brands such as cyrus and others. 1996 circa £700 and some are selling today up to £300 so a nice investment for me.

[RichB]

I owned an A1 for a while. Great sounding amp but you could fry an egg on the top of it. That always concerned me so it went.

[petrat]

When I returned to the UK and got back into hifi again in the early 90s, my first amp was a MF A1 final edition. It was actually based on the B200 circuit, but in a 'posh' A1 case. It had a separate power supply, and ran relatively cool, being less biased into class A. I loved it, but in those days I was very influenced by the mags, and bought something more fashionable. Being relatively inexperienced, I also didn't recognise just how good it was, it taking quite a few years before I found anything significantly better. Sold to a collector in Holland, who paid me what I paid new plus arranged the collection and shipping. To this day, I still regret selling it.

http://www.markhennessy.co.uk/mf_a1/others.htm

http://www.1pekingroad.com/zaspx/rep...e&orderby=desc

Heard a few Nu/Trivistor monsters and their like at shows, and always thought they performed well.

[eisenach]

Using an Electra 100 Integrated as my main amplifier since 2011 and with regular service its a Top bit of kit in its day but it didnt sell much at the time lost out to other brands such as cyrus and others. 1996 circa £700 and some are selling today up to £300 so a nice investment for me.

You're lucky ! I had one, too, and when it worked it sounded very nice, although there was a kind of distortion on high frequency trumpet notes that drove me nuts. It had a trip to the factory, but they found nothing wrong.
Later, it started going in to oscillation and took out my Rogers LS6a speakers, killing the drivers, including the woofers. A while later, I spent £100 having the amp repaired and I found a knocked about pair of LS6a on ebay with blown tweeters (replaceable) and intact woofers (not otherwise available). After a speaker transplant, all was well for a few months until it happened all over again !
I wasn't too happy (note the understatement !), as I really liked the Rogers speakers.

[SquireC]

Just been listening to the new Nuvista CD player and Nuvista integrated amp. Not cheap (but what is) but excellent boxes.

[CornishPasty]

I've had a fair bit of MF kit over the years. Never had any issues. I'm down to an M1DAC and an old P140 which I can't bear to part with.

[wee tee cee]

I ran a MF M1DAC and MF HPA...a fine combo for HD650s. The HPA also worked really well as a single line active pre. Really well built and nice to interact with.

[Spectral Morn]

I think MF pretty much ruined their credibility with all their limited edition products and a few badly conceived ones + crazy over the top claims and marketing. And I know there was a lot of bitterness among some customers to find that their expensive purchase suddenly became available at less than half the price they paid - not that long after they had bought it - when MF dumped failures onto the market, to move them on.

Failures in my opinion.....

Trivista SACD player - many went faulty, unreliable Philips SACD drive, not fixable. KW SACD not much better.

KW DM25 Transport and DAC combo - less said the better.

The Supercharger 750 K - less said the better.

KW 250S system - turkey. These ended up being sold for so little it was an epic fail.

KW DAB tuner - epic fail, also dumped for next to nothing, £1500 down to £250 ish. I note that MF don't even include it in their list of historical products.

I never got to hear an M1 turntable, so can't comment re sound but these didn't fly either.

I also think MF lost their way re how their kit sounded. Nu Vista was good as was Tri Vista but the KW stuff started the slip into a way too forward, hard sound - imho.

The new range X stuff was ok, but I think it has got better, and as such along with their smaller blister pack stuff has helped them get their mojo back, but audiophiles have long memories and those 2002 to 2007 issues didn't help them. I guess maybe MF aren't viewed as being cool and desirable these days, hence the lack of chatter re the more contemporary kit.

It tends to be the older products that folks wax lyrical about A1, A100, E and F series, the cylindrical X products (have a few of these and they are good fun), Old Nu Vista good, Tri Vista bar the SACD player good. I have a Tri Vista 21 DAC I still rate.

No idea about the new Nu Vista stuff, but it seems very dear to me, compared to older kit MF did.