Musical Fidelity

[Arkless Electronics]

The B200 is the hidden price / perf sweet spot. I didn't like my A1 much (even in the context of an all MF system), but the B200 is really nice. Need to get mine out of the loft and serviced along with my Linx Nebula (another cracker of an amp).

Yep I can go with that. A P140 power amp with a passive pre and the phono stage of the A1 is precisely what a B200 is...

 

[NeilR]

With respect, bollocks. The PCB's were properly built. We had around £30K worth of flow soldering machine and all the ancillary kit (at 1980's prices), along with semi auto insertion machines which added a few more K's. Every PCB was comprehensively tested before it left us and retested/ inspected by MF. If your examples were poor, someone had been in there meddling.

I had several units over those years, all standard production. The Pre, Dr Thomas, Studio T, A370, P172, Synthesis etc. Never failed. 2 other A370;s bought at the same time, are still in use today and have never been serviced.

I don't know if you were involved with the P180, but my old P180+CRPS of around 1990 vintage (I bought it s/h in the early 90s) is still in regular use in my brother's system with over 25 years of trouble free use.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I well remember that coming out when I worked there. I took a pair of them home for a while. I thought it sounded better without the CRPS.

The worry with these was that it was in effect an A370 with bugger all output in class A. The heatsinks were those individual T03 finned ones mounted straight to the board and completely inadequate for the job. It's a testimony to the ruggedness of those Hitachi mosfets that they have survived this long!

 

[ryder]

Krells are exceedingly rare in my neck of the woods. I don't think I've seen a vintage KSA or KMA pair of any size in the flesh, let alone hear one. Does anyone rate Plinius SA-50/SA-100/SA-250 amps? I have been threatened with ex-communication by well intentioned flat-earth friends for even contemplating the idea of trying one out.

My own 'little' 20kg M-22 consumes 240W for its 30+30W output, so at best 25% efficiency. I only imagine a 100+100W SA-100 should spin the 'leccy meter at 800W to be legit class A to rated power.

I have owned the Plinius SA-100Mk3 in silver. Built like a tank. It sounded very nice indeed - warm, dynamic and syrupy tube-like sound. Eventually I sold it as I couldn't get it to work with the Harbeth SHL5 speakers although few folks loved that combination. I felt I didn't have the right preamp for the SA-100 (preamps used were Sonic Frontiers Line 3, ARC LS16Mk2 and couple more).

A friend used to own the Krell FPB-300. Again built like tank but there were some reliability issues with it, some leaking capacitors if I am not mistaken. He now uses Burmester amps.

These days I don't favour huge and heavy amps such as the big Plinius or Krell anymore due to their weight. Reliability is also a question mark with the heat that they emit. The smaller amps such as the ones from Naim are not only easier to handle but are capable of sounding better IMO, and they don't produce too much heat in the process.

 

[NeilR]

I well remember that coming out when I worked there. I took a pair of them home for a while. I thought it sounded better without the CRPS.

The worry with these was that it was in effect an A370 with bugger all output in class A. The heatsinks were those individual T03 finned ones mounted straight to the board and completely inadequate for the job. It's a testimony to the ruggedness of those Hitachi mosfets that they have survived this long!

Well yes, it does get rather hot and those heat sinks are puny!

I used to leave it on 24/7 as well!

Don't think my bro does though.

 

[Dark Energy]

Owned a few MF amps A370, A1, B200, B1, best were the MA100 which were A1 derivations, problem was the fans, way too noisy, I'd then owned Krells and big Audio Research amps with fans, both of which were really very quiet. But of course AM must have used the cheapest nastiest fans he could get his greedy little hands on, (just like everything else). I wouldn't buy another MF product I've heard too many stories about AM, all saying the same thing, and it's beyond what you would believe possible.

 

[Derek Wright]

I have owned a MVT pre, a smallish power amp and an A370 power amp.
The MVT failed and required a major repair. The A370 used to explode on being powered up on a regular basis requiring a trip to the dealers for component replacement. The smallish power amp was eventually sold to one of the contributors of this thread along with the pre amp.

I was disappointed by MF as they did not have a consistent product line that one could buy into and grow one's system with. It eventually looked as if they were buying bin ends of components and designing products to sell on the bin end components.

However some the CDs they used to send out were good. I also liked the way their factory was staffed by locals from the area where the factory and was a very ethnically diverse - perhaps they had a good PR person on the staff.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I have owned a MVT pre, a smallish power amp and an A370 power amp.
The MVT failed and required a major repair. The A370 used to explode on being powered up on a regular basis requiring a trip to the dealers for component replacement. The smallish power amp was eventually sold to one of the contributors of this thread along with the pre amp.

I was disappointed by MF as they did not have a consistent product line that one could buy into and grow one's system with. It eventually looked as if they were buying bin ends of components and designing products to sell on the bin end components.

However some the CDs they used to send out were good. I also liked the way their factory was staffed by locals from the area where the factory and was a very ethnically diverse - perhaps they had a good PR person on the staff.

There was a 50W metalclad wirewound resistor mounted on the rear panel as part of the soft start circuit for the A370 and yes these could short to mains live.. and with the casework being earthed... BANG!!!! Easily modded to prevent this happening though. A370 was a superb power amp that would still beat most things today. P270 same thing with smaller PSU's (still huge and still dual mono for what it's worth) and 3 pairs of output mosfets instead of the 5 in the A370. A470 again same thing but even bigger everything, 11 pairs of mosfets and a choke in the PSU.

 

[eisenach]

I blame Musical Fidelity for getting me onto the slippery slope of serious HiFiitis. The Elektra E100 was my first step up from my old Cyrus 1. Generally, it was quite a good move and I liked the sound, but there was a curious problem with certain brass instrument notes, especially renaissance italian music (Gabrielli etc.), that sort of cracked and distorted. I sent it back to MF around 1998 only for it to be returned saying there was nothing wrong.

If there's nothing wrong, it must be something else, so I started experimenting with cables and supports. None of these tweeks solved the problem, but they did improve the sound (at least, I thought so !).

Eventually I bought some Tag McLaren stuff in the great sell off before IAG bought them and the Elektra was relegated to a second system. There it really blotted its copy book.

There'd been the odd pop through the speakers before, but I don't know what really went wrong as I wasn't there: I'd left it switched off (standby, I suppose, as I'd used the remote) and when I came back it had blown a channel and taken out the drivers of my beloved Rogers LS6as. The amp was put away in a cupboard and I eventually found a tatty pair of LS6as good for parts.

Some time later I did a really stupid thing: I got the local HiFi shop's repairer to resurrect it. All was fine for a year or so, until one day the whole thing was repeated. Pops, belches and a bang and another set of drivers gone. By this time LS6s were going for silly money on ebay and I gave up.

So, a lovely set of speakers destroyed and a new-found addiction to tweaking: thanks MF.

(If anyone can hazard a guess as to what the problems with the E100 might have been and why it recurred after having been "fixed', that would be interesting.)

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I blame Musical Fidelity for getting me onto the slippery slope of serious HiFiitis. The Elektra E100 was my first step up from my old Cyrus 1. Generally, it was quite a good move and I liked the sound, but there was a curious problem with certain brass instrument notes, especially renaissance italian music (Gabrielli etc.), that sort of cracked and distorted. I sent it back to MF around 1998 only for it to be returned saying there was nothing wrong.

If there's nothing wrong, it must be something else, so I started experimenting with cables and supports. None of these tweeks solved the problem, but they did improve the sound (at least, I thought so !).

Eventually I bought some Tag McLaren stuff in the great sell off before IAG bought them and the Elektra was relegated to a second system. There it really blotted its copy book.

There'd been the odd pop through the speakers before, but I don't know what really went wrong as I wasn't there: I'd left it switched off (standby, I suppose, as I'd used the remote) and when I came back it had blown a channel and taken out the drivers of my beloved Rogers LS6as. The amp was put away in a cupboard and I eventually found a tatty pair of LS6as good for parts.

Some time later I did a really stupid thing: I got the local HiFi shop's repairer to resurrect it. All was fine for a year or so, until one day the whole thing was repeated. Pops, belches and a bang and another set of drivers gone. By this time LS6s were going for silly money on ebay and I gave up.

So, a lovely set of speakers destroyed and a new-found addiction to tweaking: thanks MF.

(If anyone can hazard a guess as to what the problems with the E100 might have been and why it recurred after having been "fixed', that would be interesting.)

Don't leave gear powered up is the moral of the story. Even if it tells you to in the instructions, don't do it.

I have little doubt that it was correctly fixed. Some things just aren't a good design reliability wise and MF at times using cheap under rated components vastly exacerbates this. Leaving it switched on then makes it a perfect storm.