one of my audiophile friend has a MF A5cr power amp. he sent it to MF for a upgrade "fine-tuning" done by Antony Michaelson about 4yr plus ago. i would say his upgrade had made the A5cr sounded improved favorably to 3times the cost initially. sometimes i drop by his place and do some listening, it is a high quality amp. any changes upstream including cables (in the price range $800 and up) , the amp would response well. It has VERY DEEP & TIGHT bass with SLAM if your cables are up to it, it can also portray many different bass and mid bass quality with different cables. but mostly he would switch to more neutral cables according to his likes. That's what i think about that amp. Nowadays, it's more and more difficult to hunt down quality built amp. YMMV as you are referring to A5 integrated.
Musical Fidelity A-5: Can its sound quality compete with today's top rated integrateds?
I have seen several members asking about vintage speakers and separates. I currently own a Rogue Sphinx v.1 hybrid integrated which is a very good amp and also has a very good phono stage. Rogue has introduced v.2 version of Sphinx integrated with upgrades, that is, a lower noise floor, and much welcomed higher gain phono stage. The amp remains at 100RMS (Upgrading from a Sphinx v.1 to a v-2 cost $400 plus shipping both ways; I am on the West Coast).
I am curious if the musical Fidelity A-5 which is 250RMS. with supposedly a good phono section. My question is: Can the A-5 issued in 2004 equal or outperform the new somewhat improved Rogue Sphinx v.2 . I have heard other Musical Fidelity amp and integrateds, but not the A-5. I am considering one of Magneplanar speakers under $2000, or possibly another top rated box speaker of low efficiency, so the extra power of the A-5 would be welcomed.
However, buying a 12 year old integrated amp, the sound quality may be just typical solid state sound, that is, clean, accurate, but generally SS sound which is rarely exceptional. The Rogue Sphinx v.1 is a good sounding amp, though has some operational limitations. However, the sound falls into that category of SS quality which too often generally lacks of emotional excitement and content ( to use a somewhat vague description). Would like some feed back about the MF A-5, especially if you owned one, but moved onto newer and more expensive brand electronics. Thank you
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