advertisement


Bye bye Naim amplification, hello Musical Fidelity

Some or many of the old MF amplifiers were unreliable, I wonder if anything decades old MF kit works at all by today.

The best I tried was the little A1, cool charming amp, TBH it was on a suicide mission cooking itself sadly.
 
I remember the launch of the A1 in the press, as an electronics enthusiast at that time I was taken by an affordable Class A amp.

I am interested to hear of big MF amps that were liked!
 
Arkless Electronics said:
I'm surprised you're dismayed! It is very common. Most manufacturers first concern (and my last!) is "shop shelf appeal"... ie what first impression it gives visually to a potential customer. The far east distributors, who shifted more than Henley Designs, insisted on even more bling and gold plate and chrome (as if they were not already in bad enough taste!) and made it pretty clear they couldn't care less what anything sounded like.
Click to expand...

Makes me wonder how on Earth Naim became so globally popular with their most boring of boring black/olive boxes. I still like to think that reputation and performance are more important to most worldwide aficionados than purely aesthetics, Jez.
 
PhilDick said:
The foam was there to block some of the vents. so making them less 'open backed'. I have both now, the 555's were my Dads and I modded them for him years ago. They now sound exactly the same. Don't know where you get 'absolutely horrible' from, they were OK.
Click to expand...

I would raise to ok but they were thin sounding, lacked body, didn't image that well. They creaked loads, they developed a crack and I baby my kit. Since then I have had Philips X20HR AKG bluetooth cans and Sennheiser HD58x Jubilee all of which are more pleasurable by quite some margin.
 
Mike Reed said:
Makes me wonder how on Earth Naim became so globally popular with their most boring of boring black/olive boxes. I still like to think that reputation and performance are more important to most worldwide aficionados than purely aesthetics, Jez.
Click to expand...

I do wonder my self, my excuse is that I heard a nice stereo demo when I was young and impressionable, it used Naim black boxes and I had fancied giving them a go ever since, I dodged buying the original Nait, steered around the Olive series and here I am nearly 40 years on and I can afford to buy some of their stuff, (mainly secondhand I might add) and I am left thinking perhaps I should have given their a little more thought!

Don't get me wrong, their antiquated design seems nicely implemented, but the real kicker for me is the whole 'engineered hierarchy', hobbled preamps, PSUs giving rise to further multiple boxes (which cost the earth) and the requirement for a huge ugly rack to accommodate it all. What was I thinking?

Lucky for me I have stopped at two units, which regrettably = 3 black boxes and therefore it is undoable.

But to what next, that is the question? (right I'm off to read the whole thread to see what Arkless suggests)
 
Mike Reed said:
Makes me wonder how on Earth Naim became so globally popular with their most boring of boring black/olive boxes. I still like to think that reputation and performance are more important to most worldwide aficionados than purely aesthetics, Jez.
Click to expand...

The fact that they sound poor is what makes me wonder how Naim got so popular!

On the other matter well I wish it were more so... there are plenty of threads here on pfm where people say things like "I don't care how good it sounds there is no way I would have THAT in my living room!" etc.

As I said, Alchemists biggest customer literally didn't want to hear the products but was obsessed with the aesthetics...
 
Paul McDonough said:
I remember the launch of the A1 in the press, as an electronics enthusiast at that time I was taken by an affordable Class A amp.

I am interested to hear of big MF amps that were liked!
Click to expand...
Here are a few ones I would buy if musicality is important for you :

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=293966430485

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=224267816007

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=143928266787

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=174509150458

Then get it serviced properly if required and enjoy your music !
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Gervais Cote said:
Here are a few ones I would buy if musicality is important for you :

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=293966430485

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=224267816007

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=143928266787

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=174509150458

Then get it serviced properly if required and enjoy your music !
Click to expand...

Wow I'm surprised at the prices they're up for! I wouldn't pay even half those amounts personally...

I'd look out for non runners going cheap as a rebuild is required on any of these after 30-35 years anyway. The cost of a rebuild is likely to be similar to the prices being asked for the running amps so you would be vastly better off getting a total non runner for say £2-300 and paying say £1200 for the rebuild than getting a runner for £1000 and paying £1000 for the rebuild... 10 x 22000uF smoothing caps in an A370... per channel!

These were seriously high end at the time and IIRC an A370mkII was about £3600 in '91

I remember working on them at MF like it was maybe 8 years ago and that makes me feel old!
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
graystoke4 said:
I used to have a MF 308cr pre and two MF 308cr power amps, great system, had to spend a shedload more to improve on the sound quality, there was a shortage of power amps, at one point as everyone wanted two,
Click to expand...
I had those amps too, 308CD, Pre and several 308 powers into Kef Ref 205 tri amped, 202C bi amped and single amped 206DS - friends thought it was blingy and mental I thought it was bloody great :) Has the powers breathed on later bigger caps etc. Only sold ‘em cos I thought it was curtains so dumped the collection. Can thoroughly recommend the 308 and 3.2 series, not had anything more recent. Bit of a soft spot for the glossy black E series too and that CD player with the valves sticking out.
 
I’m still using a Musical Fidelity A5 CR preamp. I’ve never had a problem in all the years I’ve owned it.

a5_amp_head_on.jpg
 
Paul McDonough said:
and the requirement for a huge ugly rack to accommodate it all.
Click to expand...

The rack (or table or shelves etc.) is purely optional. The fancy ones for Naim et al are marvellous money spinners but entirely unnecessary, i.m.o. I had nearly all Naim up to 552/135s (4 of them) for a generation but used Target shelves; my friend with even more Naim still does. Dedicated mains supplies were more important then (and now?). It's what it sounded like; not what it looked like !

Didn't realise M.F. were so popular still. My friend had two little 150 (?) monoblocks and they were good. Had a feeling that the late lamented T. de P. did some design work for them (but he did get around.....).
 
Mike Reed said:
The rack (or table or shelves etc.) is purely optional. The fancy ones for Naim et al are marvellous money spinners but entirely unnecessary, i.m.o....).
Click to expand...

i wasn’t really thinking of Naim racks but with all of the boxes you still need something to stick it all in. One person’s tolerance to a teetering tower of hifi is another’s eyesore. I had a Target rack some time ago I’m not sure that was a thing of beauty either.
 
Posting on here while the Wam tent has fallen down, maybe it's blown over in the wind.

I'm both and MF and Alchemist owner and fan. My current system is the M6 combo (Pre and PRX, about 6 years old now and have never had any issues). The power amp is choke regulated, which I recall MF have been utilising in many of its amps for years prior to the M6. Both seem well made and are unfussy with what ever they'r asked to drive.

My amp before this though was a MkI Alchemist Forseti, which I think was a Glen Gayle design (with Tim DP being involved in the MKII and later signature versions). Such a smooth sounding amp and probably one of the few bits of kit I'd never sell. Looks to be well made inside and a true dual mono with separate circuit boards and transformers for each channel. Aside from having it recapped and a few relays replaced it's also been super reliable. I'm a big fan of Alchemist amps, especially the earlier first and 2nd gen ranges. Would love to see/hear The Alchemist range in the flesh...or metal.
 
Paul McDonough said:
I had a Target rack some time ago I’m not sure that was a thing of beauty either.
Click to expand...

Function over form. Paul. Guess my cars have fallen into that category too !There was not the slightest inkling of beauty in any Target shelf (or table, for that matter). Robust and relatively cheap, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top