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
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
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