Musical Fidelity A5

Hi to all,

I was looking for a pre/power for myself and a friend was looking for an integrated with sufficient power to drive a pair of used B&W 703 floor standers he just acquired.
Anyone who has a budget of about 1 to 1.25 for an integrated must hear the musical fidelity A5 before just reading the magazine reviews and buying the Primare I 30 and the likes. Am not running down the primare at all but the MF has tremendous drive, nice tonality and can drive anything. Another integrated to really explore is the Bryston B 100 SST(without onboard DAC and Phono its 1.5L) if a 100 wpc or so is required.
Heard all three with the 703 and the primare had great tonality but struggled to drive at loud volumes, the Bryston went cleaner at higher volumes and sounded very neutal too, and the MF(250WPC) was just efforlessly musical.
Keeping in mind that with different speakers and to different ears the MF may seem a little coloured i feel its a MUST audition.The cdp was an old Nad C 541 which is decent at best and the IC s and Speaker cables were VDH. I guess the only drawback is the appearance of the amp but thats relative too as I was the only one who felt so.
Regards

As John Potis said in his 6moons audio reviews: Musical Fidelity A5 CDP & Integrated

Hi,
Ya i think its a cracking amp and was really curious why various magazines rate a few brands as best buys/incredible products and keep at it for the issues every month but dont really tell the reader the various options that are increasingly available.
Lets put it this way if there was a buyer for an integrated at the said price point reviews would only point to the PrimareI 30 but i feel the Bryston and the Musical Fidelity would and should always be auditioned and may even pip the primare for some.
Any way Mr. Moderator i must express my gratitude for starting this forum. I look at it as a great service done for all A/V lovers.
Regards

Generally Magazine publishers are biased towards certain brands which they tend to favour over other better brands and products. Also reviewing hi-fi and av products is very personal thing that cannot be replicated by just a single review.

Moreover magazines only publish articles on reviews that they like. Bad reviews on certain products are not encouraged to be published.

I also wish to thank you all for making this forum very active with all your excellent posts.

Hi dinyaar,

I second your opinion about MF A5. When I auditioned MA RS6 with A5 at Audio People, Chennai I was blown away by its performance. Incredible sound and clarity even at very high volume. I wish I had the willingness to spend that kind of money. May be later. When I asked them to pair it with the Yamaha AX-497 to simulate my av receiver environment I could feel the difference. RS6 still sounded good but the A5's influence was distinctly clear.

Regards,
SilentSound.

I second dinyaar on his views regarding magazine reviews. One must not buy their equipment just on that.

When looking for an amp i had placed the arcam& roksan candy on top of my list, but I was disappointed as I found their sound to be just a bit better than the nad gear & which is more reasonably priced. As for the Cyrus stuff which is also a fav with the scribes, I found it to be very musical but it did lack some weight in it's sound, overall may be praising the Cyrus seemed fair.

If look for an amp in the region as discussed. I feel the Krell 400xi(1.6L, 180W/pc) integrated is also a good option. It is very smooth , balanced , has good power & control.

Sunny sells it in ND;

Good Amp

Go for it, eyes shut !!

Hi,
The said krell amp for 1.6L!!!!!!!!!! Thought it would cost much more. Anyway though i know that build is bullet proof i cant take the krell sound and definately not for all types of music. But point taken the krell need less to say is a top class contender and a class apart. I think the cyrus amp is the reason of the lean sound as when matched with diferent electronics the cdp sounds nice. At that price point i would prefer it to Arcam, Roksan etc definately over the rotel, nad and almost as good as the Maranz SA 7001KI (which i think is fabulous cd player for the money and may even pip a few cdps at twice its price)
Regards.

This krell is bit diff sounding form the other krell's. It's a must listen if your look at this price point.

What kind of music are you refering to??

I have its previous model, MF 3.2, assembled in UK. It sounds very good.

I bought it from Hong Kong for Rs. 36000 or so.

I don't know the Indian prices but you could also buy A5 from HK at about Rs. 45000 or even less as the USD is declining.

K