New Musical Fidelity

M6x DAC

The performance of Musical Fidelity’s amplifiers is highly respected the world over, and its M6Si integrated amplifier is a standout. So when the company puts seven channels of power amplification based on the M6Si in one chassis, you know it’s going to be something special. $6,750

Musical Fidelity announced this model with the tagline ‘Rewriting Digital History — again’. This unit supersedes the highly regarded M6s DAC and has been designed with the most fastidious of music lovers in mind. There was a time when a DAC was a ‘plug and forget’ component, and in many cases this is all that is required here. In fact, Musical Fidelity suggests that with the M6x DAC, you do just that. Initially, anyway. It then suggests that, as you get reintroduced to your music library, you might at some point want to discover what else is possible. It is at this point when the M6x DAC’s customisability

Nu-Vista

OK, now we are getting serious. Musical Fidelity is firmly established as the go-to mid-market electronics brand in our market, sitting comfortably between the NADs and the Marantzs of our world and the more esoteric offerings that abound. Having conquered this market segment, it has now decided to shake up the high-end. And if anyone can do it, Musical Fidelity can.

Introducing Nu-Vista Pre and PAS

Musical Fidelity resurrected the use of Nuvista valves around 15 years ago.

MX-Stream

The MX series from Musical Fidelity has long represented quality performance at affordable prices, and with its new MXStream the company has excelled itself. This is a universal transport-only network device that can take any network or online streaming service to your amplifier or DAC — all it requires is an existing USB Class 2.0 audio input.

The design architecture is ‘open’, hopefully making the product futureproof, and it is also Roon-Ready.

The MX-Stream sells for $2,100 and is an excellent way to introduce streaming to a good-quality hi-fi system.

and settings turn it into a powerful tool for the experts (and the curious), elevating it into a league of its own. Explore the soundstage with upsampling to see if you are drawn in deeper. Choose between seven digital filters and a complete oversampling bypass (disabling those filters). Full MQA decoding is performed on the M6x DAC hardware, too. The USB 2.0 input takes PCM sample rates up to 32-bit/768 kHz, while DSD support goes up to DSD256 (via DoP) and DSD512 (native). The S/PDIF inputs accept PCM audio up to 24-bit/192 kHz and include full MQA support too!

This is a very impressive component, now manufactured in the EU, and at $4,200 represents excellent value.

Nuvistor tubes were invented in the ‘50s to solve the many shortcomings of the conventional tubes of that time. Unlike them, Nuvistor valves offer very high reliability, low microphony, low noise, consistency from batch to batch, small size, relatively low power consumption and great technical performance. While Nuvista valves have previously been exclusive to Musical Fidelity’s best models, the company has now decided to take this technology to another level, producing a cost-no-barrier, reference range in which it invested around $1.5m to develop.

Nu-Vista PAS & Nu-Vista PAS PSU

A fully balanced, discrete Class A stereo power amplifier with a separate power supply, rated at 300 watts into eight ohms, and utilising eight Nuvista tubes in the balanced buffer input circuit.

Nu-Vista PRE & Nu-Vista PRE PSU

A fully balanced, discrete Class A preamplifier and separate power supply, with 12 inputs (six RCAs and six XLRs), and utilising eight Nuvista tubes in the buffered input circuit.