MUSICAL FIDELITY A3cr POWER AMP Nu Vista and PRE AMP

Musical Fidelity A3CR Preamplifier and Power Amplifier Category Tags: Musical Fidelity, power amps, preamps Sugg. Retail: $2399.00 ea. (CAN) Distributor: Kevro International Inc, 900 McKay Road, Pickering, Ontario, L1W 3X8 (905) 428-2800 FAX 428-0004 If you’ve been keeping an eye on the British and American audio press lately, you’ve probably already heard about Musical Fidelity’s much hyped A3CR and Nu-Vista lines. The more exotic and expensive Nu-Vista power amp, preamp and integrated make use of a rare and tiny tube called the nuvistor, which is noteworthy for its extremely long life and metal, rather than glass, casing. Introduced by RCA in the 60’s the nuvistor was designed mainly for military applications and was intended to compete with solid state designs. The limited edition Nu-Vista series is also noteworthy for its use of choke regulation power supplies, essentially a filtering system to clean up noise and grunge created by AC rectification (conversion to DC). The A3CR power amp, preamp and integrated share very similar circuit topologies with their much more expensive counterparts, including choke regulation in the power supply, but use solid state devices instead of the scarce nuvistors. The result, according to Musical Fidelity head honcho Anthony Michaelson, is performance very near the level of the Nu-Vista series at a much more affordable price. With their reputation as value packed separates growing steadily, I decided to find out what all the fuss was about, and asked Canadian distributor Kevro for review samples of the power amp and preamp (Musical Fidelity gear is available in the U.S. from Audio Advisor). Sharp Dressed Amps Both amp and preamp are housed in compact black boxes with lovely silver brushed aluminum faceplates accented with a shiny gold bands at bottom. The preamp is particularly striking with it’s big, beefy volume control surrounded by a polished gold ring punctuated by eight small allen bolts. After heaving the mighty Rotel 1090 (summer/fall 2000) around it was nice to have an amp that would actually fit in my rack with plenty of room to spare for tweaks like cones or isolation platforms. It may be smaller than most North American amps but the A3CR is no lightweight when it comes to power, with what appears to be a very conservative rating of 120 watts into 8 ohms (210 into 4 ohms). Both of these separates are fully dual mono designs with high current outputs and very wide bandwith (10hz - 100Khz +- 1.5 dB for the preamp and +- 2 dB for the power amp). LP lovers and early adopters of high resolution digital formats might thus be heartened to know that the high frequency content of these signals is getting all the way to their speakers. Weather the speaker can reproduce it, and weather this is actually of sonic benefit is another matter which I won’t take up here. It’s clear, however, that Anthony Michaelson had SACD in mind from the beginning, even dedicating one of the preamp’s line inputs for it. There are lots of other nice touches too, particularly in the preamp. Five line inputs and a quality MM/MC phono stage are both crowd pleasers, as is the simple and functional remote, which allows adjustment of volume, source and mute. Some might long for balanced inputs and outputs, a headphone jack, as well as an extra set of outputs and a balance control, but once you’ve heard the A3CR pair it’s hard to quibble with what you get for the money. Spade lovers might also be disappointed by the huge speaker terminals on the A3CR power amp, which, while impressive to behold and handle, and great for bananas, don’t accommodate spades with much finesse, the oversized post forcing the user to stick one prong of the spade down the centre hole instead of straddling the entire post. Perhaps to make up for the lack of extra outputs on the preamp, the amp features line level pass through output jacks adjacent to the input jacks, facilitating bi-amping or the connection of a powered subwoofer. Both pieces are deceptively heavy at about 30 pounds each, display excellent build quality, and feature detachable power cords. 150 watts / Channel 220 ~ 230V

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