mf..why so bloody popular

I have tried to stay away from yet another MF knocking thread but...

I didn't know they were very popular considering their small market share and the comments they generally get here. I bought the X series amps because I like their styling and the sound they produced.

So what if they bring out new products every 6 months, it's still up to the buyer to see if the "upgrade" is worthwhile. Only someone with more money than sense will buy just because they believe all the hype. MF aren't alone in bringing out products every few months, look at Arcam, Mission, most of Japanese manufacturers. I think that MF only brings out the niche products (and hype) every few months. The X and A series could be considered their mainstream products and did stay in production for at least 2-3 years albeit with updates.

Unless you believe that all the positive reviews about MF are attributable to backhanders, you just have to accept that some people genguinely like the products. Others don't, so what? Hell, even WM once admitted that MF can sound "not too bad" once tweaked

I am not defending MF, I don't like all their products but I just don't see the reason for all the controversy about their products/hype/image.

 

i bought a second hand X series amp a few years back and am perfectly happy with it - both sound and style wise (infact my missus said she'd have no more black boxes in the house, so out went a couple of Rotel power amps and in came an MF).

Cant say i've seen any MF marketing so cant comment on it. But they are in the business of selling units and from the sounds of it they seem to do that well.

 

i've got an old B1 at work.. it's admirably driving 4Ohms, a load which killed its predecessor (a Pany SU700 somethingerother).

haven't had it home to see what she sounds like in a hifi environment, but i'm happy with its performance. not bad for 50 quid tbh.


and that's my only taste of MF so far, except some underwhelming shop demos of some of the NuVista kit

 

I'm always a little surprised when MF take a bashing as I owned some of their earlier products (including the lengendary A1) and thought they were superb. I also owned their Synthesis integrated amp (now that is going back a while). From memory, alongside the A1 the likes of the A100, B200, MA50/100 monoblocks and the monster A370 also were near the top of the class.

I haven't heard any of their more recent stuff but it does seem strange that they should have gone downhill as they spent a lot of time building up a good brand.

Matt.

 

The old stuff certainly has a better reputation. I've heard an A1000 and that is way better than a NuVista - go figure.

Michael.

 

For some reason that is totally beyond me one of my friends was a big fan of them early on and had the following over the years, all bought new or ex-dem (faults in brackets):

The Synthesis (volume crackled, balance wasn't centred, logo light blew every few weeks until he gave up replacing the bulbs)

The Preamp (dry joint, one channel cut out but could be fixed temporarily by slapping the top, logo light as above).

Dr Thomas power amp (actually worked apart from the logo light).

MVT (dry joint, one channel cut out once again fixed temporarily by slapping it).

P170 (blew up, got fixed, blew up again).

So, five components, way more than five faults, and that's before we even get to the sound. He loved the sense of scale the things had, they are certainly big sounding. I detested the way they made the worlds greatest drummers and bass players all sound totally pissed. The worst amp I have ever heard in my life was a MF Nu-Vista pre / power attempting to control ProAc 2.5s, it had absolutely no tune or rhythm whatsoever to the bottom end, just a sort of 'flub' sound where I'm used to hearing a bass line. Why people pay so much for something that is demonstrably worse than a Nad 3020 is beyond me!

Tony.

 

Hmm - for a self-confessed "thrash classical" listener, I'd have thought Naim's propulsive timing would have been right up your street, Graham; it certainly works on all of the 3 classical pieces (zzzzzzzzzzzz) I own (including Elgar's cello concerto - believe it or not) but each to their own I guess; you certainly don't get the massive "hifi" walkthrough soundstage on the Naim stuff...

I don't mind earlier MF stuff - I've said this before, but my mate used to have the Preamp/Typhoon(x2) amplification and it ROCKED. He used it with Henryt's ancient Sony CDP990(?) and some Kef Q30s - it was excellent.

He sold the lot, got a midi, and then realised he'd screwed up, so he then went on to get a Richers deal of Electra CD/amp and Mordaunt Short MS25is, and that system also rocked. The reincarnation of the Electra range (E624 etc) is where the rot and style-over-content design concepts of MF took over - so they were good up to 1997ish IMO.

The A100 is one funny little amp though - it's like a REAL griddle pan, unlike the wannabee griddle pans that are Mk1 Rega cases

The T1 tuner that Henryt had for a while was very cool as well.

 

Come to think of it, I can remember the some of the back lights (I'm sure there was more than one bulb in there) failing. Didn't have any other problems with it but it would emit a loud high pitched noise it you switched between inputs in a certain way and this resulted in me frying the tweeters on my parents Celestion Ditton 33's!

I had no problems with the A1 and I look back on that amp with tremendous fondness - yes it ran hot, yes it needed an easy speaker to drive, no the bass wasn't very detailed and neither was the treble but what went on in between was magical to my ears.

I partnered it with a pair of Rogers LS4a's and a Marantz CD52II - that was one of the few systems I have owned that made any recording palatable and where I found myself listening to the music rather than to the hifi. I can remember when I replaced it with an Arcam 8 integrated - the Arcam was more powerful and had better defined bass and a more detailed top end - it was good but the magical side of the A1 was gone.

Sounds like I need to get myself a valve amp and a pair of Spendor SP2/3e's doesn't it!

Matt.

 

Dom,

I think Graham likes to recreate the feeling of the concert hall as much as possible at home (yes he really does wear a dicky bow in the kitchen).

Given that this requires both accurate ambience retrieval and faithful instrumental timbre, I would suspect that most Naim kit would fail to satisfy. Still, if you like pop music it's a different matter.

 

Personally I would describe an input selector capable of frying any connected speakers to be a considerable problem!

Tony.

 

I had an Electra E100 (80w p/ch integrated, about 800 quid, the first of the electra series).

Pants.

Well, to be fair, not complete pants, just no better than an audiolab 8000A v1, which was also pants.

The phono stage in the electra E100 was especially pants.

The shiny black front and volume control looked cool though.

 

I used to have the Electra E100 - I thought it was a bloody good amp. it replaced the Pioneer A400 I had before then which was one off my worst mistakes - too fizzy and bright by a long way.

The Elektra in its turn was replaced by 2 cyrus power amps.... now there is another company that could do with some critical appraisal?

 

Most of the modern Cyrus kit I have heard is very bright and forward, sounds good in dem room but can get tiring over longer listening periods, very overated and triumph of marketing over ability, some are even claiming the CD8 is high end, it might be ok at its price but high end, Puleeze, totally different type of sound IMHO

 

I think your knicker fetish is creeping in there BN

 

I'm with GrahamN on this

My M3 also wiped the floor with everything else. I had a Naim pre/power, cannot remember the model numbers but about £3000 worth, for the weekend but could not listen to it for more than one hour at a time - way too forward and no bass. It is all horses for courses. Gary, I'm with you on Apple Macs though!

An interesting thing about MF and I am on my fourth product from them (XLS2, E100 and A2CD) is their back up. I had an intermittent fault on my CDP. John Sergent, one of their senior engineers, came to my house in London to listen to the problem, took it away, could not find a fault, it was intermittent, so they replaced the whole of the interior components and did not charge me and I was out of the warranty period, oh and he personnally brought it back to my house again.

Dominic

 

I dont see the point in starting a thread like this, just because you personally dont rate MF gear doesnt mean they make crap products.Admittedly the A3 series was abit smooth and laid back but that may appeal for older folks who like their music replayed in that manner. Ive heard the The trivista integrated (380watts?)and it is by far one od the best amps ive ever heard, the sound had masses of scale, dynamics that lesser amps can only dream of and breathtakingly life like.i should imagine the kW amps sound bloody good too.

Ultra

 

My Cyrus 5 amp is amazingly neutral I certainly wouldnt call it bright

 

I meant all their newer stuff and especially cd players, IMHO of course

 

I'm saying nothing

 

"I dont see the point in starting a thread like this, just because you personally dont rate MF gear doesnt mean they make crap products.Admittedly the A3 series was abit smooth and laid back but that may appeal for older folks who like their music replayed in that manner."


Seriously though, what a muppet.