Just sounds so wright!! The new A3.2 has much better bass with better mids and highs and more air and detail to boot.

none at all to my ears

Excellent integrate. The amp does need to be broke-in for at least 200 hours though. The previous reviewer obviously did not do a proper burn-in. I found the sound of the unit the same as he did at first, but after 150+ hours the harshness was gone. The amp sounds more like tubes, in that it has warmth and is very open and clean sounding. No harshness to be found on my A3. By the way I have just bought the new A3.2 and it is by far better than the A3 and A300. But it will also require a 150-200 hour burn-in as it sounds horrible for the first 100-150 and smooths out completely after 200. This 5 star goes to both the A3 and make the A3.2 a 10 star, its that much better.

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Musical fidelity A3 and A300, Bryston B60

detail and big punch

fatiguing sound

I was listening to MF A3 for several weeks, trying hard to fall in love with it but failed. The sound is amazingly bright and detailed, but at the same time fatiguing. I couldn''t listen to it for more than half an hour. The bass was to big, to weighty even for bass lover. I am not saying that this amp is bad, I''d rather say that it is very very demanding and may be it will work fine with some speakers, but not mine. I have Polks. I switched then for ARCAM A85, mostly because of very good reviews and it was another dissapointment, because of lack of detail and warmth A3 has. After all I switched to MF A300 and I believe it''s a good choice. The sound even wormer than A3, very tube like, very realistic. At the same time bass is not as agressive as of A3. I use it with CAL Icon MK2 CD player as transport and CAL Alpha DAC. Sinergistic speaker cables and Cardass interconnects and digital.

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Arcam A85 Diva MF A300

power and appearance

tone: strong treble bias, shrill at times.

The amp was auditioned at home with the intention of buying. The source was an MFA3 cd and the speakers were Quads 989. I heard a strong tonal inbalance with an emphasis on the treble. After while the sound was fatiguing. I was disppointed as the extensive reviews suggested it had the qualities I was seeking.

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MF A3cr pre/ power, Quad 99

Nice appearance, lots of power.

High tone, needs a better tonal balance.

I auditioned this player, at home, with an intention to purchase. I found it has a bias towards the treble; a little too shrill, and found it tiring listening. I returned it to the shop, and won''t buy it. I listen to acoustic and classical music, my wife loves latin american. We use Quad 989 speakers and the source in this case was a Musical Fidelity A3 cd

Plays everything from acoustic jazz to hard hiting metal with precise instrumental character. Its muscular and relaxed and paints a big, spacious window into the music.

I would like to se better Loudspeakerterminals. WBT maybe?

Tube sound spaciousness, but yet more sharp and powerfull. Knocked me out of my shoes right out of the box´when replacing my old Densen Beat B-100 amplifier!! And its geting better day by day.The new look without the shiny gold looks far, far better.

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A holy bunch! Just name it, i´ve been listening!.

Where to begin. Very open and natural sounding for an intergrated.

None that I have found

This is a follow up to my original review. After listening to the a3 for the last 3 months I tried to see how my Adcom compared. No comparison at all.This intergrated just sings. You can''t go wrong if you are looking for a intergrated amp. The soundstage and depth are awsome. This system goes on in the morning and stays on till the end of the night. Check it out for your self.

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Adcom 535

Best all around Intergated available for under $1000

None at this price

I posted previously about the merits of this amp, but it
can get even better! A3 has preamp out RCAs for bi-amping,
I hooked up X-AS100 amp (100w) ran high freq drivers with
A3 and bass with X-AS100. Sound has even more authority
now providing even more detail and depth, handles all
music with liquid smoothness. This is a combination benefit
of bi-amping and bi-wiring, made very easy by MF upgrade
path. It is hard to choose now between A3/X-AS100 set-up
and X-P100/X-AS100/X-AS100 set-up, which is reference system for British "What HI_FI" magazine so I have both.
Watch for reviews of new MF A3cr amp & preamp, these have best sound yet from MF!

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Musical Fidelity X-P100 pre-amp, X-AS100 amp

Excellent dynamics and control, beautiful music making, best
integrated yet from Musical Fidelity, remote

nada

This is a killer integrated for under $1,000, rated at 85w
but sounds even more powerful. Watch for demos from Audio
Advisor for even less! Stunning detail, this will embarass
amps/pre-amps costing much more. Very extended, tight bass
very natural sounding. I listen to classical, techno, alternative especially Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Enya,
Sade, Cranberries etc and I must tell you 3D soundstaging
is just amazing, vocals soar to the heavens, beautiful
natural reproduction. Fine musical detail can be revealed if
you have right system, bass reproduction very powerful for
85w amp, this is best buy for price IMO.....

Also remote is big convenience plus, I like different style
that contrasts black boxes. You will hear full potential of
this amp with good associated equipment........

My System:
Musical Fidelity X-Ray cdp
Cardas Cross .5M interconnect
Musical Fidelity A3 integrated amp
AQ Argent 6ft speaker cables
Spendor SP1, British 3-way speakers

Almost everything, very musical, powerfull and easy to listen to

Not much, if anything.

This is by far best amp I have ever listened to. Thanks to the A3, I now know what a "soundstage" and 3-D imaging are. I can hear and feel all of those delicate sounds that escaped me before.

Now keep in mind that I have never listed to a $30,000 Krell amp, so I have no idea how much better, if any, the Krell sfuff sounds.

What I can say is that the A3 is light years ahead of anything else I have ever owned, including a McIntosh amp, a PS Audio amp and a Hafler 9300. While none of my previous amps were ultra high-end, they all cost more than the A3, and they all needed a separate preamp, which added even more to the $$$$.

I purchased the A3 to replace my Hafler 9300 amp/PS Audio 4.5 preamp combo. While the Hafler/PS combo sounded OK, I always felt that I was missing something. The music was there, but it just wasn't involving. The A3 helped me find what I was missing.

For just under $1000, what more could you ask for.

The manufacturer rates the amp at 85w/ch, but it actually puts out 112w/ch before reaching the rated distortion level. Even my with my way inefficiant Vandersteen 2CEs, there's power to spare.

OK... now the bad new, I guess. Someone once told me that you can't write a review without saying something bad about the product. It gives you credibility, they say.

The only, even remotely (no pun intended), bad thing I can say here, is that the remote isn't as powerfull as my other components. The remote for my Rega Planet CD player can control the unit from halfway across the street (why you would need this I don't know). The A3's remote needs to be pointed directly at the amp. You can't impress your friends by bouncing the signal off the wall (I don't know how I tollerate this ;)-

Then again, it may just be crappy batteries.

Enough audiobable already.

Go out and buy one, you'll love it. If you don't, Audio Advisor (only US distributor) will give you your money back, all of it, no restocking fee.

Have fun!

Palpable midrange, particularly on vocal material. Also, explosive dynamic range and extended non-irratable highs.

Cheesy plastic speaker binding posts more suitable for a less expensive product.

This is an amazing bargin for the price. Even though it is not fully broken in yet, it ranks right up there with some of the very expensive equipment that I have previously owned. However, for all of you current owners, here is a very simple modification that you can perform to improve the sound by at least 100%. Replace the plastic speaker binding posts with better quality metallic binding posts from WBT, Cardass, etc. These can be purchased for less than $100.00. You will not believe the improvement! Although this will void the warrantee, it is well worth it since solid state amplifiers rarely develop problems. You will neet a #10 security tork bit to take out the screws in the cover. Ace Hardware, etc., has these for about $2.50. If you have never soldered anything, you might have someone else do the modification for you; however, it is very easy if you have done something similar before (just unsolder the single wire connecting each binding post, remove each of the present binding posts - this is the trickiest part as you may have to remove all of the old solder to slip the binding posts out of their openings in the case). Once the old binding posts are removed, just put the new ones in and resolder the wire to each post. Be careful to isolate the binding posts from each side of the case (use the plastic or hard rubber isolators that come with the new binding posts or use the ones that were on the case in the first place). Now enjoy the music and see what this amp is really capable of doing!

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My first integrated amp. It seems to be the equal, at least on CD material, of my Conrad Johnson Premier IV/Rowland Research Coherence II preamp.