Musical Fidelity A100X class A integrated

[Shock-Late]

Just got my hands on it! this is a beautiful, slim integrated 2x50W strongly biased into class A (first 20 watts or so in pure class A).

Ten years old integrated (sold under the British Fidelity brand in the US), bigger brother of the famous A1. Tim de Paravicini designed the amp.

It replaces in my system a Musical Fidelity Typhoon power amp with rotel preamp. Price of the integrated about the same as both power amp and preamp together. Typhoon power amp is a 2x45W class AB amp.

It almost burned down the first evening i listened to it; it was so warm in the room that the amp couldnt get his heat out properly. Now that the weather is back to normal i am able to listen to it without risk, even if it gets VERY warm.

I am amazed at how differents those two amps from the same brand sound; the Typhoon sounded immensely dynamic and powerful, very upfront and fortright, yet quite cold and unbalanced on my Scalas.

The A100X integrated sounds more "grown up": at first listen it seems less dynamic, but in fact its more balanced, warm and fluid sounding. Less transparent in the upper midrange but able to separate "layers" of sound amazingly. Wider soundstage, bass is less controlled but sounds smoother and deeper; i don t hear the reasonances of the listening room as much as before. Treble seems to go higher and has a "liquid" quality; voices are a little bit less articulate but better integrated and more natural sounding.

Didnt have the time to listen to it at high volumes yet, but im sure it sounds amazing.

So, you guys in the US should give a try to Musical Fidelity amps...