My new baby!

Hey guys, had my dem for 1-2k amps on saturday, very, very enjoyable day and some interesting results! I havent got time to post a full report rite now as my hifi is sucking me into its vortex of aural pleasure again but i will do at work 2moro :JPS: as i will have no choice but to be away from my awesome new amp! As for what it is...lets just say its an orgy of top spec milled aluminium and more than enough blue led's to feed my er blue led fetish

Just briefly though, i gotit for half price with 6 metres of airloc'd QED genesis thrown in! Not bad goin aye? I have never experience this HUGE an improvement in my entire hifi journey, mind u this amp costs 10 times more than my humble marantz and it shows...It has redefined what i previously thought was awesome sound. Im quite surprised how good my cd player is-it is said that it has deep but ponderous bass, PAH! wait until you hear an amp with enough power and current and a vice like grip on those bass drivers. Simply sensational. Anyway gonna go back for more

Oh and it even sounds stunning at midnight everyonelse is asleep levels-im going to be very tired at work 2moz

Cheers
A very chuffed Ultra :MILD:

 

Thought you were off doing your national service?

 

Congrat's on the new toy! What other amps did you try? Be prepared for the inevitable round of MF abuse

Isaac, you must have missed this... https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?t=11028

 

he should go on hifi choice forum...seems like every other member has MF kit!!

 

Ok guys, heres a report on the demo day

Was in the market for a major amp upgrade as the Marantz couldnt really release the full potential of the considerably more expensive JM labs...

I went to 7oaks (not the best place i know) but it was in the ctiy centre and i had my eye on the MF a308 in there...

I dem'd the following amps:

Cyrus 8vs + psx-r
Audiolab 8000pre + 2x 8000m mono's
Arcam Fmj a32
Rotel 1062
MF A308


cd player was an Arcam cd192 and speakers were Monitor Audio gold ref 10's-not ideal testing partners but i could'nt be bothered to lug my system there...

The dem was carried out in price order so first up was the Rotel 1062...lovely little amp, very well built, in fact much better than the audiolabs and equal to everything else in the demo bar the MF 308 and Arcam Fmj. Nice WBT style transparent speaker sockets round the back and the knobs were nice and stiff round the front

Sound: Now i wernt expecting too much from it as it was by far the cheapest amp on the day but boy did it sound good. Cut a long story short it was between this and the MF at the end of the session. If they didnt throw in the free QED Genesis i would have bought the Rotel...but i am glad i bought the MF as it sounds simply sensational in my own system :MILD:

1st thing that caught me with the Rotel was how clean and tidy it sounded. It wasnt as lean as the RA-01 series, the sound had more body and bass was fulller but still very agile with no overhang at all. Soundstaging was impressive too- the RHCP's version of under the bridge sounded great-it had a raw sound to it and Anthony Kiedis sounded like he was sat only a few feet infront of me on a stool...the imaging was rock solid and the sound was really out of the box and projected in front of the speakers.

Rage against the machine was served up in a similar manner, nice tight bass and the lyrics sounded quick and explicit like they should. It was an exciting listen even though with the deep drumming on some of the tracks the GR10s just couldnt recreate it-the JM labs go deeper for sure even with the Marantz. And the Rel goes deeper still

With hip hop it sounded good and not at all bright even with brightly recorded albums like The Massacre by 50cent, a very welcome feat as i found the cheaper Rotel's abit fatiging to listen to.

This amp did very little wrong, the only slight gripe is at silly volumes it did lose a bit of composure but then it could have been the GR10s fault...It definately sounded a fair bit better than the Marantz though, more open and really clean sounding.

Next up was the Arcam. What a dissapointment! I couldnt believe how bad it sounded! It was a demo model too so it was run in. I was surprised as it was partnered with an Arcam cd player and i thought that would be at its advantage. The sound was very forward and lacked the seperation of the Rotel, bass was more powerful but much less controlled. I was told that it was a smooth sounding amp but it was'nt the case when i heard it. I gave it a chance and threw all sorts of music at is but not a single track sounded good...In fact it sounded congested-all the detail is there but it sounded like an apple being forced through a straw I did like the nice build and finish of the amp and the highly precise volume control which displayed the loudness.

The 3 box audiolabs were next and 1st impressions wernt good, they looked really cheap and imho, very ugly! The casework looked plasticky and dated-it had to sound bloody good if i was to forgive the ugliness

They did sounded brilliant...initially. Really exciting and rapid delivery. Plenty of kick and the Rage album sounded awesome. Nearly had me moshing They power amps had really good grip and composure was kept even at stupid volume levels.

The treble wasnt as clean as the rotel and was abit shrill but this could be the GR10's metal tweeter...This was clearly evident with subtler stuff, The violin backing on Eskimo by Damien rice lacked refinement and stood out over his vocals and the opera singing in the finale was fatiging to listen to so i had to skip track!

Im sure these amps would be great with different speakers but as my JM labs have titanium tweeters i would have the same prob. That plus the ugly looks put me off them.

Cyrus 8vs + Psx R now i had high expectations for this one, it has recieved good press and wins everything in What hifi-hardly a reliable source but i wanted to hear what their reviewers were cuming their pants over! My salesman friend wanted to show me the merits of the Psx-R but i was eager to get this dem moving so started straight away with it attatched...

The sound was virtually the same as the audio labs but richer. Midrange was very nice and bass was tidy. The treble howeverwasnt bad but not any sweeter than my Marantz. It is very clear but abit emphasised imo. It fared well with vocal music like James blunt and Katie Melua where the vocals have real emotion to them but with harsher recording like RHCP and Lost prophets it sounded abit nasty. I did like the looks of it too and it would have been very easy to carry to the carpark! Also i love the looks of that curvey shiny cyrus stand and have always secretly wanted a cute cyrus system...but then that would lead to more uprgades, notably the temptation to keep bolting on psx-rs!

Finally it was the MF a308 The best looking amp in the store by far-much better than the kW and A5 amps. This was audiophile bling Build is very solid and the design is absolutely gorgeous imo. I was tempted just to buy it on looks alone!

All the listening was done at 9 0 clock with the previous amps so naturally i turned the dial to that aswell with the MF...BANG! christ it was loud!i had to conduct the rest of the dem with it down to 7ish as i didnt want to upset the staff!

I must admit i wasnt blown away by the sound. It sounded very "nice" and abit polite. It was an effortless sound and treble was the sweetest out of the lot. Mid range was fluid and they seemed to bully deep bass out of the MF's! with the now played to death Rage album the bass was meaty but the rapping although clear, lacked the sting and excitement of the Rotel. The top end was too refined for some of the tracks. The bass was very impressive though-easily the most powerful in the demo and clean at the same time. The deep drumming at the beggining of "Take the pwer back" was very solid and realistic and replayed with stomach churning control. When the guitar joins in the bass remained and the guitar was presented in a funky twangy manner.
So 50/50 with that album then...

Switching to The Massacre by 50cent and the club tracks Candy shop and Just a little bit sounded awesome. Again, the previously missing deep bass suddenly appeared from the GR10's, it bounced along with knock out punch and when the production gets dense in Candyshop everything was perfectly seperated when with lesser amps it sounded mushy. The rapping was more in your face than with the Rage album which shows the MF can sound explicit if it wanted to. The bass from hip hop was highly addictive so i put in the classic Missy E so addictive album in and wahcked on Get ur freak on...again the bass was reproduced with real gusto and teh left to right steering of the effects was eamless and very obvious. Vocals were not blurred out by the meaty bass and treble remained sweet. So far so good.

The final test was for acoustic and mellow music. James Blunt had never sounded so open and when high notes were sung they seemed to go up forever with out sounding harsh or bright-extremely impressive. It was the same with Damien rice and Eva Cassidy-already greatly produced albums which sound good on most system but the MF really does drain every last bit of emotion out of the vocals. Like there was a powerful spot light being shone on the midrange-unbelievably open.

As if i wasnt impressed enough, we swappped the chordy speaker cable(not sure which 1 but it was around £20 p/m) to QED Genesis...cable non believers look away, things got better still! The MF really came to life and sounded even more invloving than before. It was a tad more foward than before but becuase of its sweet and smooth highs it still sounded lovely but with added oomph. It wasnt a massive difference but worthwhile. The slightly more foawrd presentaion suited my musical taste and it was a fine blend of refinement and muscularity.

The Rotel did leave an impression on me and was much cheaper so i did direct A/B comparison. Both were excellent amps but the MF had more control at very high volumes and looked super sexy too. While i was contemplating on whether to save £400 and spend it on new shoes, jacket and jeans+cd's by buying the very capable Rotel or go the whole hog i was offered a deal that sold it to me. A further £200 off the MF plus 6 metres of airloc'd QED Genesis worth £200 odd.

Full review will be posted in review section as it sounds even better at home!

Cheers 4 reading

 

Superb write up mate... a really enjoyable read! Also, congrats on the amp - I'm sure it's a belter

Lefty