Price Paid:  $300.00 from Private Party

Summary:
Forget any biased reviews below.

Trust me... the MF X-CAN v3 is a superb headphone amp with all headphones... especially if you "replace the caps with Panasonic Caps, and the diodes with Tantalum Ultrafast diodes, and the tubes with some great Russian 6H23N-EVs, ro 6N1P-EVs.

Very few heaphone amps can equal it... if any.

But... whatever you do... DO NOT... get the X-CAN v8 - it doesn't have the power to drive any set of headphones properly without hiss / noise... unless you use a pre-amp / line stage to boost the signal prior to the amp.

MF blew this one.

Strengths:
Excellent with low impedence phones... like Grados, or Denons.

Weaknesses:
Terrible with high impedence phones... like Sennheisers.

Requires a pre-amp / line stage between source and amp to achieve good sound... unless you have a source with very high gain signal, which is rare.

Similar Products Used:
MF X-CAN v8 - avoid this one.

Darkvoice 332 THA.

Several others.

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Price Paid:  $450.00

Summary:
. After using it 1 month, i replaced the very cheap stock tubes with Amperex Bugle Boy. A whole world of difference. The amp's warm and lush sound gives me a lot of delight, but it is weak in the bass, speed and dynamics, and low level detail. I feel these weaknesses especially with my ultimatae headphones -Grado GS1000. These headphones need a much much better amp. In 450 $ it's not cheap, but if you open the box, you'll find a very cheap parts. I expect for more for my money - look for example at those Chinese companies, what they give you for that kind of money, and you'll understand my point. By the way. the name of the maker is Musical Fidelity. Well, let's say it is a Mid Fidelity product.

Strengths:
warm and lush sound (with replaced tubes).

Weaknesses:
Bass, dynamics, speed, low level details.

Price Paid:  $399.00 from AudioAdvisor

Summary:
If you own HD 650's this is the headphone amp for you. I was wondering what the fuss was about the 650's compared to my Stax Headphones and amp. Now I know in spades, sweet, terrific bass, detailed but not fatiguing. It blows away the Headroom products I had been using (and the B&K S20's headphone jack).

I now realize how much clipping and distortion was getting in the way of the music. The HD 650, MF combination is now my preferred for long listening sessions. If you own HD 650,s or 600"s, you need to buy a Musical Fidelity X-Can V3.

Strengths:
Bass, Non-Etched Detail, Wonderful no matter what your favorite genre.

Weaknesses:
Just a little more power.

Similar Products Used:
Stax, HeadRoom

Price Paid:  $714.00 from Eastern Hi Fi

Summary:
Well i have been waiting a few years to get a V3 i have owned aV2 for years and loved it .However getting it home and plugging it in i noticed straight away that this version is far better than the V2 .The soundstage is much bigger and bass is great ,the look of the unit is great too ,the volume control (Alps im told) so accurate and smooth .All in all MF have done it again ....Great!!!! (and its not even burnt in)

Strengths:
Volume Control
Soundstage
Bass
overall dynamics

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
X Can V2

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This is a truly great little product, simply perfect for powering good quality headphones. I totally believe that no matter what style of music you listen to, this amp can make it sound wonderful.

I spend a decent amunt of time listening to my HD650's and they love this headphone amp. plenty of power, detail and depth to all music. it's hard to turn off at the end of the night.

Compact in size, this amp is for anyone that loves detail and owns decent quality headphones. classical, rock, rap, industrial, it does it all with style.

Great job Musical Fidelity

Strengths:
Bags of detail
finesse
powerful
volume control is accurate
compact
cost effective
extended bass

Weaknesses:
bulky power supply

Similar Products Used:
Rega Ear