Power, sound, price and quality. It does everything that a high quailty amp should do.

The finish is generally high quality, but the quality control for consistency should be addressed. The left and right speaker posts have different orientations.

Visually the Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated is clean and simple, more reminiscent of what you would expect from Scandinavian design, but this is a deceptively powerful piece of equipment. The amp is hooked up to a pair of Dynaudio Special 25’s, so it has no trouble driving them to serious listening levels, something my neighbours across the road can testify to. In fact, there are few speakers I have auditioned that this amp wouldn’t be able to drive to their limit. More impressively though, was the performance at low levels. It was still able to deliver the full dynamic range, at long term listening levels, without losing any of the enjoyment of the music, a talent usually only restricted to significantly more expensive amps. The sound is ruthlessly honest, well balanced, detailed, clean, clear and crisp, but still full and musical. Normally I don’t report on equipment, however there are so few reviews around about the Musical Fidelity A5 Integrated Amplifier, that it was difficult to get independent information about it. Which is strange, considering that the quality and sound of the product should put it very high on recommendations, and the price should shoot it to the top of the pile. Put simply, this is a high quality audiophile grade product, at a price that belies it’s abilities. You will have to look long and very hard to find anything to match it.

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ME 240 Integrated Amp

Wonderfll midrange / voices. Sweet and smooth highs. Price point seems more then fair. Nice quality / metal look.

Remote is plastic. Top M F units have a solid / metal remote. Remote does not turn on unit. So far no real negatives from a sound standpoint.

I am NOT an Audiophile. Repeat... I am NOT an Audiphile. However, I own a new pair of Paradigm Reference 100's V3. They are wondeful. Warm, full and sweet highs and the best midrange / voices you will hear. They have no / minimal bass. I have a Velodyne CHT 15 for that. Problem... Large room. 18 X 40 with 1/2 with 20 ft ceilings. Sony 100 @ reciever would sound nice and not fill the room. Answer... As suggested by a dealer friend. The Music Fidelity A5 integrated amp and WOW. Huge sound Great highs and midrange. Improved bass, however, still need the subwoofer to fill the room. The Sony I had to crank up to '72' on their volume scall, the max. and I was concerned about the receiver clipping. This Amp is spectacular. I cannot imagine a better int amp. Was going to go with Adcom and was talked out of this by my dealer. Thank the ____. The big question was the lack of realibility with the Adcom.

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None

Driving ability - articulation - balanced sound - superb imaging - sweet sound - HT input - finish - compactness

Final finish a little on the flimsy side - one of the brass speaker terminals sheared under hand tightening and had to be replaced - not good MF - especially remembering those monstrous terminals on the A3CR. Lack of MC input for phono stage. Just a tiny bit lacking on tautness of bass on monster speakers.

A wolf in sheep's clothing - albeit good looking sheep. I borrowed this amp for fun over a week whilst I lent my reference system (Gryphon Antileon & Sonata) to a dealer for an 'open house'. I didn't expect it to make much of a dent into my B&W Nautilus 800 speakers and thought I might have to 'uniwire' it just into the mid-range tweeter. I couldn't have been more wrong. The A5 easily drove the monstrous 800s with their two 10 inch bass drivers - what is more it drove them in an enthralling balanced superbly articulate way that left me spellbound. In terms of power it belted out adequate power and dynamic levels at about 1/3 volume position but more importantly it did it in a balanced way which rendered some previously unlistenable music palatabe (thinking of a Chet Baker trumpet piece). The bass lacked major slam and supreme tautness but this enhanced rather than detracted from the sound. Sound separation, focus and soundstage were crystal clearly defined and enhanced listening pleasure. The inputs are swiftly changed by relay via remote without the lag experiened with some microprocessor controlled designs - makes A/B comparison more fun! The MM phono input is well balanced and pleasant to listen too - maybe lacking some of the detail resolution of more high end stages. I borrowed the KW500 to see if this would deliver more of the same but was disappointed as although it had somewhat more slam than the A5 - the listening experience was by no means as pleasurable. Suffice to say I went out and bought the amp - now the $64 question - do I get back the Gryphon gear!!

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MF A3CR / Naim NAP200 / Theta Intrepid / Antique Sounds AQ1009 / MacIntosh MC402 / Gryphon Antileon & Sonata

Power, smooth, detailed. Brings out the bass in Nautilus 804 speakers. Overall sound is fuller than with the B&KAVR202 which was no slouch. I will be hard pressed to spend another dime on upgrading over this. Now, if only I could afford another to replace the NAD C370 in my 2nd system... I might check out Musical Fidelity's A3.5 which replaces the A3.2 and boasts 150 wpc.

None that are apparent to me.

Wow, I am impressed by the improvement is sound that I received by substituting this 250 wpc integrated for my B&K AVR202 (105 wpc x 5). The B&K is a highly commended home theater receiver. The Musical Fidelity A5 beats it hands down by a significant margin. The other components in my system are the Marantz DV8400 SACD/DVD-A/CD player and B&W Nautilus 804 speakers. The sound from my system is now significantly fuller/smoother with even more detail than I experienced before. The Nautilus 804s bass performance has improved dramatically with this beefy integrated in the system. When I was breaking in the MF A5 in my 2nd system, it made an amazing difference in my Tyler Acoustics Taylo monitors, even using an inexpensive NAD 541i as the CD source. I highly recommend the MF A5 integrated as a real cost effective entry into high end. I am convinced that I'd need to spend close to twice as much on a separate pre-power amp combo to equal or beat the sound of this unit.

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B&K AVR202 NAD C370 Amber series 70 pre-power amps. NAD Silver Series amp with VTL tube pre (this was a very nice combo, too).