Musical Fidelity M6CD, M6PRE & M6PRX (Hi-Fi+ 76)

The power amp, though… that’s a different proposition altogether. It’s the perfect combination of motive force and grace that is not uncommon at twice the price, but hard to find paired up at this level. You can have an earthmover or a delicate flower power amp at this price, but not the two together. It has the ability to grip onto your loudspeaker cones and never let go like a terrier with its blood up, but also has enough refinement to make the deft touch of Alice Coltrane’s jazz harp and Pharoah Sanders lithe, abrasive tenor sax playing rise up out of the drone on the title track of Journey In Satchidanada, without undermining either. Most of all, though, it does what a good power amp should do, get out of the way of the sound. I played with this through a number of different preamps – including the Conrad-johnson ET3 tested last issue and the limited edition Siltech C1 pre coming soon – and it never imposed its character on the sound. That puts the M6PRX in with some very exclusive and very expensive company and at no time did it show itself up. There’s a school of thought that suggests valve pre and solid-state power is the ideal set-up; the pre for ‘show’ and for ‘glow’ and the power for ‘go’. The M6PRX adds a lot of weight to that argument. The fact that you can switch between inputs makes it something of a perfect product for the reviewer, too.

Played as a grouping, the power chord of M6CD. M6PRE and M6PRX are hard to fault. Best used balanced from one end to the other, the trio are unobtrusive, entertaining and a satisfyingly potent combination of sweetness and meatiness. I know that sounds horrid (like lamb cooked in Pepsi) but it works from a fundamentally musical position. Almost any one of these components on its own is good enough to stand alone and act as an introduction to the joys of Musical Fidelity sound, but it’s the power amp that shines out as a true world-class product. The sum isn’t far greater than the sum of its parts, but with parts like these, it doesn’t need to be.

SPECS & PRICING

M6CD CD player
DAC circuit 24 Bit Delta-Sigma (bit stream) dual differntial 8 x oversampling
Digital Inputs: 1 RCA Coaxial S/PDIF, 1 Toslink Optical connector, 1 USB type ‘B’ socket
Analogue Outputs: Line level 1 pair RCA & 1 Pair XLR
Digital Outputs: 1 RCA Coaxial S/PDIF 1 Toslink Optical connector
Output Impedance: 50 ohms Balanced or single ended
Output Digital: 0dB level XLR 4.4V rms balanced, RCA 2.2V rms, single ended
Dimensions (WxHxD): 44x12.5x38.5cm
Weight: 11.2Kg
Price: £1,999

M6PRE
Class A operation
Inputs: 2x XLR balanced, 4x single-ended line (one HT by-pass), MM/MC phono, USB type ‘B’
Outputs: RCA single ended XLR balanced

Voltage: 9.5Vrms 19Vrms
, 26V peak to peak 52V peak to peak

Dimensions (WxHxD): 44x12.6x40cm
Weight: 11.4kg
Price: £1,999

M6PRX
Output Power: 260 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms (24 dBW)
Voltage: 46 Volts RMS, 20Hz to 20 kHz; onset of clipping (130 Volts peak-to-peak)
Current peak-to-peak: 140 Amps
Damping factor: 210
Speaker outputs: 4 pairs 4mm banana plug/binding posts
Dimensions (WxHxD): 44x12.5x39cm
Weight: 19.7 kg
Price: £2,999

Manufactured by Musical Fidelity Ltd
www.musicalfidelity.com
+44(0)208 900 2866