This is an excellent choice for listeners with audiophile-grade source gear and revealing apeakers. It is truly neutral sonically, and with its gobs of power easily drives very demanding speaker loads. This was my first truly audiophile integrated amp after decades of using high-end separates from Audio Research, Air Tight, Classe and others. Overall, this Musical Fidelity integrated is superior to anything else I've tried.

The smoothness, the detailed sound, the authority (this amplifier is a "tour de force"). The sound of the tri-Vista has the delicacy of a butterfly, the agility of a leopard and the strenght of bull. There are many powerful amplifiers but the don't play with such a "finesse".
The Tri-vista can pull out the true soul of your speakers. Wire them to the Vista's and they shall play like never before.
At the moment you can buy one unit of the few hundreds produced worldwide in the net at a good price.

Nothing is perfect, and there are two things that are hard to explain in such a beautiful (and expensive machine):
- Very poor remote control (made of plastic and poor design);
- No XLR inputs (all the inputs are RCA).

This is one of the best integrated amplifiers ever made, period.

The Tri-Vista is phisically divided in two sectors: power suplly unit and the Amplifier itself. These two units are linked by three cables: 1 for signal and 2 main power cables providing all the required energy to drive the massive power of the amplification section. The complete set weights more than 40kg, so a good and stable rack will be a must to place ths jewel.

In terms of design we can find two major wheels in the front panel: one for volume, the second is the source sellector. I personally love the constrast between the plated face and the blue lights of the unit: 4 small leds indication that the tri-vista valves are now switched on and the lights in the feet on the units (they turn form orange to blue when the unit is heated for optimum performance - which takes about 20 minutes). At night with low level of light, the Tri-Vistas blue feet look like £1M fantasy.

Regarding to connections, the Tri-Vista allows multiple inputs, including a high quality phono (MM/MC) input. There is also an pre-amplifier to power output and connections for two pairs of speakers.

Once you press the power button, it is necessary to wait about one minute before you can start listening. During this time, place your favourite CD or Vinyl in the player sit and relax. Then... Uauhhh.... the air, the rich detail, the smoothness of the sound is amazing. After a few seconds you are so envolved with this beautiful sound that you instictivelly grab the remote and increase the volume. At that moment you are inveded with a new experience: the authority of the Tri-vista. When the potentiometer is at 10 o'clock (it goes from 7 to 5) your room is fullfilled with an amazing sound but everything is still controlled, the sound is still detailed and envolving. The instruments are still placed properly and the voices are fresh and clear. This state of the art amplifier has the hability to extract the full potential of any speaker, no matter how hard they are to drive.
First time I played the Tri-Vista was like a release of my speakers from the jail. They were playing like they were still packed inside the original card boxes... then the sound came out.

The Musical Fidelity Tri-vista integrated amplifier was classified by Stereophile magazine like one of the three best integrated amplifiers ever made. The main difference is that the other two cost 4 or 5 times more, and no way they play better than this jewel.

To conclude I would like to say that only by the time I tried the MF Tri-Vistas, I realized what is the true role of the amplification in a hi-fi (hi-end) system. If you make an audiction to this Musical Fidelity after reading this review I am sure you will understand what I mean.

Similar Products Used:

Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista M3 (older than the Tri-Vista)
Musical Fidelity KW550 (newer version of the Tri-Vista)

Connected to the Tri-vista:
- Sources: Pro-ject turntable; Meridian 507 24bit CD Player;
- Speakers: JM Lab 926; JM Lab 927 be (the 926 are far better);
- Cables: Nordost Red Dawn (interconnect + speaker)

The JMLab's 926 were the speaked I choose to pair with the Tri-Vista, after an extended trial period with many speakers (budgeted betweend £2000 and £3000) like: Martin Logan Clarity, Monitor Audio, B&W 804, ProAc 125, Kef, Sonus faber Cremona auditor, Triangle Celius, etc.