Musical Fidelity Owners Discussion Thread

[Wimbo]

On 05/08/2021 at 10:19 AM, Ronny Schilt said:

Hi guys I'm anyone is I interested Im regretfully  will be selling my m8 700m monoblocks only because of lack of physical space and I just don't need that much power driving my Sonus Faber Olympic Nova 5 , 1340 watts into 4 ohms,  peak current 175 amperes (peak to peak 350 amperes). They are about one year old in perfect condition bought from a musical fidelity dealer in NSW. They come with the receipt and the velvet protective covers and the manuals but I don't have the boxes anymore. Yes they are perfect for the Prima Luna pre-amp which replaced the m8 pre-amp and no regrets their it is a very good improvement.  I'm knew to this forum so if I'm in the wrong place can someone point me in the right direction. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to leave my email or mobile number so I'll check this thread again later. I've attached a few pictures

Knew Tim when he was in Junior school

[chaddy]

On 05/08/2021 at 10:19 AM, Ronny Schilt said:

Hi guys I'm anyone is I interested Im regretfully  will be selling my m8 700m monoblocks only because of lack of physical space and I just don't need that much power driving my Sonus Faber Olympic Nova 5 , 1340 watts into 4 ohms,  peak current 175 amperes (peak to peak 350 amperes). They are about one year old in perfect condition bought from a musical fidelity dealer in NSW. They come with the receipt and the velvet protective covers and the manuals but I don't have the boxes anymore. Yes they are perfect for the Prima Luna pre-amp which replaced the m8 pre-amp and no regrets their it is a very good improvement.  I'm knew to this forum so if I'm in the wrong place can someone point me in the right direction. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to leave my email or mobile number so I'll check this thread again later. I've attached a few pictures

Hand written receipt. Must be Len Wallis

 

[Silver Audiophile]

Had a quick read through this forum. Seems people are really across the best pre amp to pair with the MFs.

I currently do own the MF M8 monos and Primaluna Evo 400 pre amp. Owned a stack of MF amps leading up to the M8 monos.

Also, initially owned the MF M8 PRe amp too. MF make decent amps not doubt. Can't say the same for their Pre amps.

I've owned a pair of Pass Labs pre amps, bought were vast improvements over the M8 Pre amp. So, I sold the MF M8 Pre amp.

Then, had a chance to listen to the Primaluna Prologue Pre in my place. Absolutely, put both Pass Labs Pre amp to shame.

Hence, I now own the Primaluna Evo 400 pre amp now. Out of the box, the Primaluna pre amps are a beast in terms of SQ.

Straight out of the cartoon, the Evo 400 pre amp is the best pre amp I've ever heard. It came with standard Shuguang Chinese made tubes, labeled as Primaluna.

Spent the last year rolling and trying different tubes. Tried, new Genelax Gold Lions, NOS- Sylvanias, RCA, GEs, Mullards, Raytheons, etc..

BTW- every single tube I tried, sounded better than the Factory issued tubes. Been having loads of fun buying and trying different tubes. Own over a hundred of the little buggers

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Silver Audiophile

[betty boop]

1 hour ago, Silver Audiophile said:

hen, had a chance to listen to the Primaluna Prologue Pre in my place. Absolutely, put both Pass Labs Pre amp to shame.

Hence, I now own the Primaluna Evo 400 pre amp now. Out of the box, the Primaluna pre amps are a beast in terms of SQ.

Straight out of the cartoon, the Evo 400 pre amp is the best pre amp I've ever heard. It came with standard Shuguang Chinese made tubes, labeled as Primaluna.

Spent the last year rolling and trying different tubes. Tried, new Genelax Gold Lions, NOS- Sylvanias, RCA, GEs, Mullards, Raytheons, etc..

BTW- every single tube I tried, sounded better than the Factory issued tubes. Been having loads of fun buying and trying different tubes. Own over a hundred of the little buggers

a lot of this is down to pers pref and what looking for in sounds too... the pass gear does have its own sound signature.. and prima luna on other hand are far more neutral - stock, but of course can swap in all sorts of tubes to change that, so depends really what looking for  pre and power matching is crucial in my opinion... but great we have the choices ... and we can mix and match to our own preferences.

 

I myself seem to have gone on seperate merry go around ...been part of some pre amp comparisons... from tube on supratek, to elektra, and aksa swift (which was gorgeous) to krell, primare, Bryston, parasound, meridian, rotel and so on but somehow came back to musical fidelity pres... for my systems anyways they seem to work to combo that suits.. my speakers are quite characterful in themselves though... and i think perhaps speakers have a part to play here too

 

definitely plenty of joy tube rolling... I know due to a kind soul sending me a whole stack of NOS tubes had a lot of fun rolling through them just in my dac  

 

as far as tubs and musical fidelity. am a bit surprised there arrent some tubes involved in a M8 or nu-vista dac in their line up...given all the valve dacs they've done in the past... also surprised there isnt a nu-vista tube pre as well...but then again there isnt a nu-vista power amp... so am guessing thats all on their to - do list...

[Silver Audiophile]

1 hour ago, betty boop said:

a lot of this is down to pers pref and what looking for in sounds too... the pass gear does have its own sound signature.. and prima luna on other hand are far more neutral - stock, but of course can swap in all sorts of tubes to change that, so depends really what looking for  pre and power matching is crucial in my opinion... but great we have the choices ... and we can mix and match to our own preferences.

 

I myself seem to have gone on seperate merry go around ...been part of some pre amp comparisons... from tube on supratek, to elektra, and aksa swift (which was gorgeous) to krell, primare, Bryston, parasound, meridian, rotel and so on but somehow came back to musical fidelity pres... for my systems anyways they seem to work to combo that suits.. my speakers are quite characterful in themselves though... and i think perhaps speakers have a part to play here too

 

definitely plenty of joy tube rolling... I know due to a kind soul sending me a whole stack of NOS tubes had a lot of fun rolling through them just in my dac  

 

as far as tubs and musical fidelity. am a bit surprised there arrent some tubes involved in a M8 or nu-vista dac in their line up...given all the valve dacs they've done in the past... also surprised there isnt a nu-vista tube pre as well...but then again there isnt a nu-vista power amp... so am guessing thats all on their to - do list...

 

BTW- The day my friend brought over his old Primaluna Prologue Pre amp to listen to, against both my Pass Labs X2.5 and XP-10 pre amps, I had two other audiophile friends over that day. Keeping in mind, I am the most forgiving to digital bright sounds, with rest all preferring warm organic sounds. The Primaluna Prologue Pre was such a revelation in every way, across all song genres, I as they were lost for words. I was speechless. Pass Labs pre vocals sounded  thin, tonally off for vocals, and instruments sounded like poorly recorded digital playback. Shock to me was how good the Pass Labs Pre amp sounded until that day.  Anyhow, that single day, between us, we all ordered three brand new Primaluna Evo 400 pre amps. Not a moment of doubt between any of us. Not a moment of regret, other than, why I didn't discover the brand in 2003 when they first came onto the market. The other two mates, had to move on their old pre amps, and are enjoying the tube rolling experience too.

Your right though, system synergy is important. Funny, between the three of us, we all own different speakers, TT Vs Streaming etc. But, the one common piece we all have the same is that Primaluna Evo 400 Pre amp

Edited August 7, 2021 by Silver Audiophile

[betty boop]

Just now, Silver Audiophile said:

BTW- The day my friend brought over his old Primaluna Prologue Pre amp to listen to, against both my Pass Labs X2.5 and XP-10 pre amps, I had two other audiophile friends over that day. Keeping in mind, I am the most forgiving to digital bright sounds, with rest all preferring warm organic sounds. The Primaluna Prologue Pre was such a revelation in every way, across all song genres, I as they were lost for words. I was speechless. Pass Labs pre vocals sounded  thin, tonally off for vocals, and instruments sounded like poorly recorded digital playback. Shock to me was how good the Pass Labs Pre amp sounded until that day.  Anyhow, that single day, between us, we all ordered three brand new Primaluna Evo 400 pre amps. Not a moment of doubt between any of us. Not a moment of regret, other than, why I didn't discover the brand in 2003 when they first came onto the market.

see just shows how much goes on taste... ive heard the prima luna and to be honest given the hoopla on the net...but when actually checked out just didnt do anything for me... heard instead a unison research integrated and loved the sound. real emotion ! timbre.... wholesome ness body to the sound... but none of this should not in any means invalidate your own experience which is very valid for your own context ... tastes, system matching up with etc...

 

the pass definitely seems to work in some but not others.... not for everyone...

 

I've had similar experience with my own gear ...eg the lovely mf a300 mentioned above which has a lovely lush and warmth to sound took to listen on someone elses system and sounded absolute sh!t  just out of sorts not really a good match sounded lifeless, flat and dull.......ps couple of other brands worked out not really great match in my own system ... primare and rotel... still happy to recommend for folk to check out though in their systems....just never know

[Ronny Schilt]

On 06/08/2021 at 7:38 PM, chaddy said:

Hand written receipt. Must be Len Wallis

 

Yes it is I didn't want to show all my personal details thus the supplied picture

[BrendonF]

I'm about to pull the trigger on a Musical Fidelity M6sPRX to power my Focal 936s. I am very keen to get into some tube sound in the pre amp to add some flavour and cant seem to look past the value of the Schiit Freya +. The idea of playing around with tube rolling with some NOS tubes also sounds like a fun way to drain my bank account. Anyone have any thoughts or experience matching Schiit with MF? 

 

My concern is making sure they match at least on paper and then let my ears decide if it will end up on the stereonet classifieds.  The freya has an output Impedance of 75 ohms SE, 600 ohms balanced and the M6sPRX has  an input of 50k ohms unsure if this is balanced or unbalanced or both. 

 

Anyway, looking forward to hearing the MF with the Focals.

[Ronny Schilt]

On 05/08/2021 at 2:53 PM, Ronny Schilt said:

Big sound difference more meat on the bones and once I upgrade the gain tubes to gold lion or mullards the party will really get into gear. Guitars strings have more pluck and attack piano is nicer jazz instruments really pop out I would only say the bass which is nice and weighty and fat could be tighter but tube rolling will fix this and you only need to change the 2 middle ones. 

The Prima Luna website indicates changing the middle 4 not 2 but I started with the middle 2 anyway with Phillips NOS  5963 and I'm getting 2 more then down the track I'll give the gold lion a go, what ever i end up using I will have spares so it's not really wasting money the way I see it

[Silver Audiophile]

42 minutes ago, Ronny Schilt said:

The Prima Luna website indicates changing the middle 4 not 2 but I started with the middle 2 anyway with Phillips NOS  5963 and I'm getting 2 more then down the track I'll give the gold lion a go, what ever i end up using I will have spares so it's not really wasting money the way I see it

 

This is probably the most exciting part of owning the Musical Fidelity M8 700m monos. They are a powerful and sweet amp, as is all MF power amps tend to be.

Paired with a tube pre amp (the Primaluna Evo 400 Pre amp in my case), they are a formidable couple.

The MF power amps, have beefy power supplies, and deliver the current when needed to give a large soundstage, dynamic range, speed, and bass responses.

The tube pre amp, gives the realism, expanse, visceral body and warmth to subjects (vocals and instruments), organic textural details which even expensive Solid State pre amps in my experience find very hard to replicate.

Start by replacing the front two 12AU7s, then the next pair, eventually all 6 if you like the direction of the sound.

All about system synergy. So, rolling tubes is essential, to discover the true  array of different sounds. There are plenty of NOS 12AU7 tubes about and surprisingly not that expensive in many cases.

The Gold Lions are very popular. They are new production and go for about $55 each from the Valve store in Melbourne. Vast step up from factory tube. People usually are pretty happy with these in their system.

If you're going next down the NOS direction next, I highly recommend the Raytheon 5814/5814WA/CK5814 (12AU7 tubes).

The triple mica short black plates are detailed and analytical. The other double mica grey or black plates are good too, and better choice if your system is too bright.

The 5814 variants are higher mil spec and industrial spec 12AU7 tubes, which sound amazing. GE, RCA, Sylvanias, are just some of the other makers of this line. They have a more lay back, smoother finish to the sound. 

On the other side of the pond in Europe, Telefunken, Siemens, Tungram, Mullards etc etc made a great plethora of tubes in ECC82 (euro name for 12AU7 tubes). Too many to mention. I have tried dozens of different 12AU7 in my system (US/Euro).

I have no intention of selling any of these tubes (got over a hundred now). They are never to be made again, and keep getting scarier and scarier and going up in price.

Also, don't forget to roll out the pair of rectifiers out back too. Again, I started with new Gold Lions GZ34s (immediate sonic improvements), before falling in love with a pair of NOS from British made Miniwatts. They sound absolutely sublime.

Not to mention drop dead gorgeous in the system too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by Silver Audiophile

[chefsinc]

HI Guys.

long time owner of MF gear and so happy with it I don't want to upgrade.

Still have my A3cr Pre amp and A3cr Power amp. Cannot part with them and recently opened them up and gave them a good clean. After seeing the Craftsmanship once again I am keeping these for life. I have a setup with 2 Vincent monoblocks that bi amp my speakers as I just missed out or could not find another MF A3cr to match. I also have a MF M3cds as my main Transport and a X10d tube buffer. I really like my setup and cannot see myself moving up or on.( well maybe if I win Lotto I would but certainly would not get rid of my MF gear.

[Jon Snow]

@chefsinc it’s a nice feeling when you’re are happy with your gear and not constantly looking to change or upgrade. 
I’m happy with my m6 500 powering my Maggies with the velvet fist of power. 
I am keen to feed it with a tube preamp to hear if all the tube magic tales are true. 
What does the tube buffer do to your sound ? 

[chefsinc]

Hi Jon,

 

The Tube Buffer was an Impulse Buy and at first i thought it was a waste of Money, but As I am a bit of a fiddler with Mods on CD Players-having a Modded Marantz CD5000 and a Modded Sony cdp308esd I guess I modded the very well as I could not hear an improvement. But I now have it connected to the Marantz and I prefer the laid back sound signature it gives, I pulled the trigger on a couple of new Projects this week and am going to tap into a Marantz cd40's Philips TDA1541 dac -(no analogue output stage) and run it straight to some RCA's and then place the tube buffer in between that and the amp and see how well that works.

[Jon Snow]

Sounds like a fun project. 
I like the sound of the TD1541 chip. It’s in my DAC and just sounds right …. it never sounds bright or etched , just never draws attention to itself. 
Love to hear your experiences when you get it set up 

[chefsinc]

i Modded a Marantz cd50 about 10 years ago with discrete op amps, new super clock, and a NOS mod.

It sounded pretty good, but I never had the Speakers to let it sing. Now I have built my benchmark Speakers and actually used some measuring equipment to perfect the crossover, I am now in a good position to let my ears tell me what's good and what's not.

So far I am really impressed with my Marantz cd5000 the most. Gives or betters my MF Mcd3s. As I am what you call a pauper with champagne tastes, I mod and build as much as I can so I can enjoy the finer aspects of Hi Fi without the excessive outlay.

 

[Batty]

I have an older A1 in my main system atm, sounds great driving Mike Lenehan LK1 kit speakers.

I only started using it again recently, I had a Pass ACA in before the A1, but I was getting a bit 'meh' about the stereo, so swapped in the A1, getting my groove back.

[fourlambs]

Hello MF Users.

 

Seeking feedback on matching the MF M5Si to B&W Speakers, wondering if anyone has this or similar pairings?

 

i currently run the ROTEL RA12 into B&W CM5s, but thinking of upgrading to the M5Si.

[betty boop]

1 hour ago, fourlambs said:

Hello MF Users.

 

Seeking feedback on matching the MF M5Si to B&W Speakers, wondering if anyone has this or similar pairings?

 

i currently run the ROTEL RA12 into B&W CM5s, but thinking of upgrading to the M5Si.

they go pretty well in brand synergy and m5 would be a good match for your speakers i think

[rantan]

 

The M5si is one of those amplifiers that just works superbly with just about any speaker with which you would conceivably partner it.

 

I have owned one (should never have sold it ) and I tried it with many different types of speaker and it never seemed out of its depth or anything other than highly musical.

 

It has a highly transparent and engaging sound, but never bleached clean and without texture and tone, like some names I won't mention here.

I also know a few owners who would definitely agree my remarks on the M5si, it really is an amplifier that almost anybody could enjoy, no matter what music they played or what other gear was in a given system.

[chaddy]

6 hours ago, fourlambs said:

Hello MF Users.

 

Seeking feedback on matching the MF M5Si to B&W Speakers, wondering if anyone has this or similar pairings?

 

i currently run the ROTEL RA12 into B&W CM5s, but thinking of upgrading to the M5Si.

I’ve had two lots of B&W speakers with 3 different MF amps. IMO a great match. Currently M6si PRX

with

CDM9-NTs

[Silver Audiophile]

On 25/08/2021 at 2:52 PM, Ronny Schilt said:

The Prima Luna website indicates changing the middle 4 not 2 but I started with the middle 2 anyway with Phillips NOS  5963 and I'm getting 2 more then down the track I'll give the gold lion a go, what ever i end up using I will have spares so it's not really wasting money the way I see it

Musical Fidelity M8 mono owners think alike, regarding using a tube pre amp

Below, possibly the best of the best 12AU7 ever made, try it, and still available at reasonable prices.

1950's production. Warm, detailed, organic, lively, beautiful mid range, and preserves air at the top, with visceral bass.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Silver Audiophile

[Silver Audiophile]

8 hours ago, fourlambs said:

Hello MF Users.

 

Seeking feedback on matching the MF M5Si to B&W Speakers, wondering if anyone has this or similar pairings?

 

i currently run the ROTEL RA12 into B&W CM5s, but thinking of upgrading to the M5Si.

 

A few years back, I took this recording from Len Wallis' Audio main listen room- B&W 805D3 bookshelves and MF M6 Encore 225

From memory, didn't sound too bad. 20K views on YouTube.

 

 

[Tartara]

Hi BJS

 

if your thinking of selling your MF Aa5cr power amp let me know

i would be interested

 

regards

David

[bjs]

@Tartara Thanks, mate, but I already took advantage of the drop in MF prices and traded it in for an upgrade. Pretty pleased with the move. 

 

However, they seem to come round on the forums every once in a while.

[Silver Audiophile]

12 minutes ago, bjs said:

@Tartara Thanks, mate, but I already took advantage of the drop in MF prices and traded it in for an upgrade. Pretty pleased with the move. 

 

However, they seem to come round on the forums every once in a while.

While other brands are jacking up prices like mad, a few thinks comes to mind:

 

1) You're correct, MF prices have fallen and never been cheaper.

2) Absolutely awesome new products out there now with the M-series.

3) Awesome Aussie importer with second to none after sales service (Audio Marketing- Len Wallis Audio owned).

 

Years ago, after a year of new ownership of my MF A5 CD player, the digital output stopped working (analog output was fine). They replaced my MF A5 CD player with a brand new one, sealed in box.

Around the same time, I blew up my MF A5 integrated (had some dodgy speakers at the time). Again, Len Wallis Audio ask me to return my faulty amp. They handed me a brand new MF A5 integrated amp in the box, no further question asked.

Never had that good of after sales service anywhere else, especially after a year of ownership!

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Silver Audiophile