MUSICAL FIDELITY M6i

[ajay124]

@malvai
The Dyns are history.Recently I have been on a selling spree.Sold the NAD.Sold the Dyn.Sold the Cyrus.Sold the Chord and Quinex.Sure you take a hit when you sell but I believe in travelling light.Don't want to keep collecting gear I don't need.Finally down to Arcam CD192/Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Baby Grand/Bryston CP 6/Bryston 3B SST/Transparent Audio IC's and Speaker cables.An all Grattan set up!

 

[malvai]

@malvai
The Dyns are history.Recently I have been on a selling spree.Sold the NAD.Sold the Dyn.Sold the Cyrus.Sold the Chord and Quinex.Sure you take a hit when you sell but I believe in travelling light.Don't want to keep collecting gear I don't need.Finally down to Arcam CD192/Vienna Acoustic Beethoven Baby Grand/Bryston CP 6/Bryston 3B SST/Transparent Audio IC's and Speaker cables.An all Grattan set up!

Lovely! Grattan is a good guy! My Thiel's are from him... Good guy to transact with. This should be a very nicely matched system!

 

[Dr.Bass]

Decent choice Ajay, Congrats !!
I am astonished that you did not shortlist Odyssey Stratos Extreme Power amps.
For your budget you could have got their monos.
Anyway my suggestion has come in late, even you were lightening fast.

 

[ajay124]

Have heard the Odyssey Stratos at ARN Bangalore.Did not like them.Nor the Usher Amp or the BE 718'S.Earlier on that same day before, I visited ARN,I had
heard Arcam(don't recollect whether it was A18 or A28) with the Proac Response D(1?) at Absolute Phase.Found the Arcam/Proac set up far more musical and to my taste.
I Know the Odyssey's and Usher's are a popular choice on the forum.Many experienced members vouch by them.Whereas my experience with hifi is all of 7 months old.Finally it is subjective and one should trust one's ears rather than going by someone else's opinion.

 

[malvai]

Have heard the Odyssey Stratos at ARN Bangalore.Did not like them.Nor the Usher Amp or the BE 718'S.Earlier on that same day before, I visited ARN,I had
heard Arcam(don't recollect whether it was A18 or A28) with the Proac Response D(1?) at Absolute Phase.Found the Arcam/Proac set up far more musical and to my taste.
I Know the Odyssey's and Usher's are a popular choice on the forum. Many experienced members vouch by them.Whereas my experience with hifi is all of 7 months old.Finally it is subjective and one should trust one's ears rather than going by someone else's opinion.

I absolutely second that Ajay... One man's mutton is another man's... I guess you get the drift!

Funny thing is that the Odyssey and Usher weren't my mutton either!

 

[suri]

I absolutely second that Ajay... One man's mutton is another man's... I guess you get the drift!

Funny thing is that the Odyssey and Usher weren't my mutton either!

hi malvai -

iaudio and I will be with ARN systems - and will realize - whether they are fine venison (served with fine 2009 Prieure Lichine) -

or not!

regds suri

 

[ajay124]

@Suri
I think we can trust your and your fellow Yatris' ears and expect an unbiased report.
Please try and include Schubert's Unfinished Symphony in your auditions and play the entire first movement.Once the magic of this symphony hits you it will be forever...
Here's a link to some info. about this work
Onhttp://symphonysalon.blogspot.com/2005/12/schubert-unfinished-eighth-symphony.html

 

[suri]

@Suri
I think we can trust your and your fellow Yatris' ears and expect an unbiased report.
Please try and include Schubert's Unfinished Symphony in your auditions and play the entire first movement.Once the magic of this symphony hits you it will be forever...
Here's a link to some info. about this work
Onhttp://symphonysalon.blogspot.com/2005/12/schubert-unfinished-eighth-symphony.html

will do - ajay124 -regds suri

 

[Dr.Bass]

Have heard the Odyssey Stratos at ARN Bangalore.Did not like them.Nor the Usher Amp or the BE 718'S.Earlier on that same day before, I visited ARN,I had
heard Arcam(don't recollect whether it was A18 or A28) with the Proac Response D(1?) at Absolute Phase.Found the Arcam/Proac set up far more musical and to my taste.
I Know the Odyssey's and Usher's are a popular choice on the forum.Many experienced members vouch by them.Whereas my experience with hifi is all of 7 months old.Finally it is subjective and one should trust one's ears rather than going by someone else's opinion.

Well, the problem is, Odyssey is always auditioned with Usher speakers and that's where the problem lies. Moreover the preamp mated to the Odyssey also is a huge factor in the final musicality delivered.
Arcam/Proac is a very nice and should I say clever combination, very difficult to not like it. Unfortunately the Odyssey very rarely is seen in a well matched combo. I was myself in the opposite camp till the time I was listening to Odyssey in ARN listening room. Fortunately couple of my friends have them now and it is only now I realize its potential. To me it is a superior amp to Bryston in every musical way. BTW I have heard the Brystons in many setups, they always sound okay, never bad, never great. To my ears they lack the richness in tone and timbre due to which I could never relate to real instruments when auditioning a setup around Brystons.

I understand this discussion is just academic now, but nevertheless adds value to this thread.

 

[ajay124]

You may be right.It would be interesting to hear the Stratos power amp with a good pre amp and speakers other than Usher.

 

[sidvee]

I am running my Stratos extreme with a parasound JC2 into B&W N805's and couldnt be happier. IMO the stratos easily beat the A series parasound amp. , bryston (do not recall the model) and my belcanto s300. The Usher 718's which I also have sound great with this combo.
Cheers
Sid

 

[malvai]

I am running my Stratos extreme with a parasound JC2 into B&W N805's and couldnt be happier. IMO the stratos easily beat the A series parasound amp. , bryston (do not recall the model) and my belcanto s300. The Usher 718's which I also have sound great with this combo.
Cheers
Sid

Sorry sid and dr bass, but i beg to differ... I absolutely did not loke the sound of the usher amp, both with and without the 718... Having said that i hope u guys do not bring out the flamethrowers...
I really do prefer the Bryston over any of the ushers... but, like i said earlier, its just my preference...

 

[ajay124]

Has anyone auditioned the Musical Fidelity M6 PXR Power Amp at Audio People?
How is the Bryston 3B SST different from the new 'squared' version?

 

[odyssey]

Sorry sid and dr bass, but i beg to differ... I absolutely did not loke the sound of the usher amp, both with and without the 718... Having said that i hope u guys do not bring out the flamethrowers...
I really do prefer the Bryston over any of the ushers... but, like i said earlier, its just my preference...

Sid and Dr Bass were referring to the Odyssey amp not the Usher amp...
you mention "any of the Ushers"....there is only one Usher amp, are you mistaking with something else?

cheers

 

[malvai]

Sid and Dr Bass were referring to the Odyssey amp not the Usher amp...
you mention "any of the Ushers"....there is only one Usher amp, are you mistaking with something else?

cheers

My bad... I haven't heard the odyssey's... but, yeah, the Ushers' were completely unimpressive...

 

[CLEARCUT]

I auditioned with mark lavinson 331 power amp music fidelity a5 pre and bryston bp20 and my axiom passive pre. Mf had weakness in lf section. The bryston was very much neutral and smooth with all frequencies. My passive was true to live performance. With total frequencies. Came out from the speaker bec there s no fiddling in the pre section. The source cdp was cyrus 8se and vdh ic and nordost spe cable was there. Amazing performance. More vfm this small booster like box. Believe your own ears only. Matching the systems and the speakers are the most important. First buy really good speakers which will match with every kind of amplifiers. Then go for the amplifier. With dyn aud 72 i had a tough time to match. Quad also the same but not like dyn. Pro ac dali mentor are good matching speakers with many amplifiers. These are all my assumption thanks.

 

[ajay124]

Yeah! The Dynaudio Audience seem to be very difficult to match.On my Audience 122 I finally got decent sound with Cyrus 8 VS 2 and Chord cables.But the Cyrus ran out of steam beyond the 11'0'clock position.Sometimes I want to play really LOUD.Cyrus did not give me that option.A Bryston B100 SST/MF A5/Krell S300i/PLINIUS 9200 would drive the Audience well but that means paying twice or more for your amp over what the Dyn's cost.The Dyn Audience 72 on sale by Spidey is decently priced.But it would need amps like I have mentioned above to sound good.
Have purchased the Bryston BP 6 Pre Amplifier.A DREAM.Last two days I have been listening to music for something like 16 hours a day.Six hours hours of sleep and two hours out of the house excluded.Currently listening to Hey Nineteen,Steely Dan,Stunning!
Dilemma...
Should I buy Bryston 3 B SST Squared (150 WPC at 8 Ohms) .First choice but expensive.
OR
Musical Fidelity M6 PRX (260 WPC at 8 Ohms).More affordable.

 

[ajay124]

When I got the Vienna Acoustic's I was entranced by the sound of Western Classical on them and temporarily stopped listening to other genres.With the Brysto Pre I am freaking out on Rock.A few days ago I was pretty sure that I had finally put Rock Music in some dark loft from where it would never emerge again.But I have (AGAIN) bought cd's of Steely Dan/Talking Heads/Velvet Underground and am contemplating buying an excellent new compilation of Clapton.Also Supertramp and Doors!Based on my first 48 hours impression--Bryston is fabulous for the kind of rock music which a lot of folks on the forum 'right now I am listening to' love.

 

[dinyaar]

Has anyone auditioned the Musical Fidelity M6 PXR Power Amp at Audio People?
How is the Bryston 3B SST different from the new 'squared' version?

Hi Ajay
I have not heard the MF power amp u mention but heard a few MF in earlier avatars and they are average. Smooth sounding gear with average build.

Now regarding the Bryston. If u were to believe the Co or get on to the various Bryston Forums (read fan clubs) then the SST 2 is a step above the SST in almost everything. I was the first guy in India probably to get an SST 2 amplifier and it was a 4B. I had a mail from the chief designer (Grattan is aware of this) that listed out 10 changes made to the amp right from a different layout, chassis mounting, soft start, caps, addition of voltage monitor, deletion of the brainless membrane start up switch and a few more that I cant recall. This was before the FULL BLOWN SST2 was launched.

If I compare it to my 4BSST I could barely tell them apart. Looks almost identical (except for a small 2 on the rear & power switch) and both sounded great. THIS TO MY MIND WAS NOT A DRASTIC SONIC SHIFT AS WHEN THEY MOVED FROM ST TO SST as that change could be heard and diffrenciated very very easily. Now the 3BSST sounds very different from the 4. The 4 (double the power) is more relaxed and neutral where as the 3B always sounds a bit thin and hence forward. This observation was constant every time I heard a 3B in various set ups.

Frankly if I like the bryston sound then I would go for the SST and save myself some money as the SST2 are dearer.

The BP 6 was a good basic pre and I preferred it to the 16 in every way. The aditional line input or the HT bypass does not interest me. I always used this pre with all my Bryston amps but have heard these amps with various other pres from Arcam, Levinson, AR, Sim etc etc and the amp sounded good in all set ups which leads me to confirm that its an honest, transparent power block. Maybe and just maybe the Bryston Pre plus power gets too forward/neutral for some (at least with the 3B) and hence a diff preamp is thrown in to give some colour to the sound.

I have not heard the odyssey stratos but have heard the USher amp extensively and I would prefer the Bryston.

Rgds

 

[ajay124]

@Dinyaar
Thanks for an unbiased,well informed and rational response to my query.Wish all replies on the forum could reach this level.
Incidentally your choice of words and measured way of putting across your opinion reminds me of two guys who have helped me gain a lot of hifi 'sense' in the last few months---Grattan Vaz and Arup Goswamy