Musical Fidelity A1 amp - discontinued? Able to drive Spendor SA1s?

[Singslinger]

All my life I've wanted to own a Musical Fidelity A1 amp and now that I'm ready to buy one, I've been told that MF have stopped making it! Apparently the new M6i is now MF's new entry-level amp because the company is trying to rationalise its business and have cut off production of the lower-end separates (other than the V-DAC and a couple of other accessories).

Is this true? My local dealer still has a few at a discounted price but now I'm worried about service/spare parts, etc.

Does anyone have experience with the latest version (issued in 2008 I think)? Would it be able to drive the new Spendor SA1s? I listen at relatively low volume to mainly jazz in a small room, so listening would be quite close by. Does it still run as hot as it used to?

Thanks everyone for any advice or info.

 

[Anonymous]

Well there's not a lot of power there and SA1s are quite insensitive. Having said that, the SA1s are an easy impedance drive allowing you to use all of the amp's power without getting into compression, etc, and if you listen at low volume pretty close to the speakers then it'll probably be divine! The SA1s will love the class A quality!

You could try calling Musical Fidelity to ask about the future of spare parts.

 

[shooter]

It looks as though the A1 is discontinued. Looking at the MF website does show a fine tune service for the A1 so i would imagine servicing and parts would be available. You can check this though by dropping them an email, i've done this a couple of occasions regarding my own MF CD and had replies more or less straight away. Talk to them direct to ease any worries in that department.

Regarding the SA1, i cant imagine there would be to much of an issue. The only thing with small speakers (apart from the lack of bass extension) is the majority of them aren't sensitive and the SA1 are no different at 85db, but to be honest i cant see the A1 having problems driving those with your listening conditions.

Check this out,

http://www.mhennessy1.f9.co.uk/mf_a1/introduction.htm

 

[Anonymous]

theres a 2nd hand musical fidelity a100 amp for sale at cloney audio .. any good iggle ??

 

[Anonymous]

maxflinn:theres a 2nd hand musical fidelity a100 amp for sale at cloney audio .. any good iggle ??

Sorry max, haven't got a clue! That's the sort of amp you buy for a second system for the sake of trying something out...or maybe that's just me.

 

[Anonymous]

igglebert:maxflinn:theres a 2nd hand musical fidelity a100 amp for sale at cloney audio .. any good iggle ??

Sorry max, haven't got a clue! That's the sort of amp you buy for a second system for the sake of trying something out...or maybe that's just me.aye , its apparently a beefed up a1 , made from 1986 .. acoording to shooters link , just wondered if it was any good ..

 

[Anonymous]

That's an interesting article, shooter.

So it's first 8W are class A (my Quad 405 is 3W or 4W I think, but that's a different approach altogether). Thus, the lower the sensitivity of the speakers the more likely you are to move out of the class A and into the AB territory. This might mean that the SA1s don't really benefit from the class A quality as they measure lower than 85dB W (Hifi World put them at 83 I think) and you'll probably be at quite a low volume to keep within (I can't remember the forumla to work out how many dBs this would be).

 

[shooter]

Most of the time it will be B as for the reasons you've put but it the amp will be a bit cooler for it. Theres a possibility it wont be as clean or as natural if it was running in A, but that is subjective and depends on the quality of amp. If you had a speaker with a higher sensitivity you'll have a better chance of listing in A.

If you think of a low powered valve amp of 8 watts driving a huge pair of high sensitivity horn speakers, you get great volume from the combo with little output.

 

[mitch65]

igglebert:That's an interesting article, shooter.

So it's first 8W are class A (my Quad 405 is 3W or 4W I think, but that's a different approach altogether). Thus, the lower the sensitivity of the speakers the more likely you are to move out of the class A and into the AB territory. This might mean that the SA1s don't really benefit from the class A quality as they measure lower than 85dB W (Hifi World put them at 83 I think) and you'll probably be at quite a low volume to keep within (I can't remember the forumla to work out how many dBs this would be).

That's exactly how I understand it, I've had the A1 and the A100 and at low volumes they were both great but like a lot of so called class A amps they move up to class AB and can lose some of their magic. This shouldn't put you off as they are lovely sounding amps (mine had to go to stop inquisitive fingers on the gridddle!).

 

[Singslinger]

Thanks igglebert. My local dealer tells me that of all the various incarnations of the A1 he's sold through the years, the latest is the most reliable so maybe service/parts won't be a problem. I'm fairly certain the model's been discontinued because it doesn't appear on MF's website (in fact, there're no more A series products at all).