I took the plunge and bought the M8 pre and M8700 monos. they are still new and will probably benefit from run-in, but are nothing short of awesome. The pre is the really special component. Stunning transparency and detail. |
Congrats. I really like the MF M series. I owned the M6i and thought it sounded very very good and organic. Though I love the dynamics and power of my Accustic Arts Power 1 integrated, I still miss the M6i. |
You did forget one very important part. I did own the best MF and I gave presentations for MF. And I sold it a lot in the past. Wenn you use speakes who can give a wide an deep stage, the stage will never be of the same quality as Pass Labs can give you. But there is another very big part missing. Pass Labs can focus on the sound of an instrument. For example a recording with 2 different acoustic guitars. The Pass will let you hear the difference in sound very well, for MF this is a lot more difficult. In the world of Highend MF is good, but not the highest level. So not good enough compared to the very best. |
Ok, i've put about 200 hours through these amps and am comfie they have largely settled down. They are awesome!
i am going to have to disagree with Bo1972. The M8 pre is much more transparent and detailed than the Pass XP20 I listened to and have gone back to since. My experience has been that after listening to these M8 series amps and then the Pass I feel as if there is a thin veil in front of the music with the Pass set up. The Pass is a touch warmer at the expense of lost information. TheM8 also gives better separation in space of instruments and performers. One of my audiophile friends commented last night while listening to some 24/96 material that he brought over that he was amazed by how much detail came through. But to be clear, we do not find these amps cold or mechanical, just very transparent. Of course this makes them utterly unforgiving of poor recordings.
The M8700 monos command absolute authority over my Vivid Giya 2s. they sound detailed, clean, and clear at soft volume levels and just keep sounding as transparent and unruffled right up to limits of how lound I am willing to go, generally up to 95db or so for me. i find myself creeping up to these high SP levels because with these amps i experience absolutely no edgginess or fatigue.
my only criticism is that the M8 pre's soundstage is a bit confined and certainly not as expansive as the Audio Research 5se, for example.
Some may want more warmth or other euphonics built into their equipment. Others with deeper pockets than me may want the absolute transparency of say the Boulder gear. But, for those who want to still excellent clarity and transparency with the power to deliver tremendous detail without distortion at just about any bearable volume level, these M8 series amps get as close a wire with gain as is possible without paying sums that would otherwise buy a small house or an S-class Mercedes.
I love them! |
Musical Fidelity Always has been exeptional good in focus and they are still exeptional good at it. But the stage is less deep and wide. It also depends about the speakers you use. There are many speakers with nog a deep and wide stage which will work better with amp's like MF which are superior in focus. Pass Labs gives a deep and wide stage. But you need a source and cables to get the sharp and small individual focus of instruments and voices. Because wenn you do not use this as said above the details will not stand loose from eachother. In most shops and also at show most people make this misstake. Because they do not understand how small and direct voices and instruments should be played. And second they do not know how to create it. Did you try the 8700 with the Audio Research. I will give you an example; I sold my modified MF Nu-Vista 300 power and sold it with a Primare pre-amp. The stage became a lot wider and deeper than with a MF pre-amp. You Always need to find the best combination. What I wrote earlier with an Onkyo PR-SC5509 with my way of measuring with Audyssey Pro I win with ease from a XP-20 in all parts you Judge a pre-amp for. MF works very good with Dynaudio. Which cables did you use? |
the Pass is in a system with MIT Oracles, well known for their soundstage.
I am quite happy with my choice of the M8 over the Pass so I won't belabor the point. Just wanted to give a bit to the forum in terms of my experience. But have you listened to the M8 pre? I find it dramatically better than anything I have ever heard from MuFi before so past experience with prior MuFi products may not be relevant in this case. |
I have to admit that I didn't listen to this one. I hope to do it next week. Have fun with it! |
just replaced my old synergistic research master coupler II on my DAC, my oyaide tunami gp on my pre, and stock power cables on the monos with wireworld platinum electras on the DAC and pre and the new series 7 electras on the monos. very significant improvement in clarity and dynamics. i did this incrementally. the platinum electas are awesome right out of the box. the electras made a difference, but more subtle. |
My concern is that they're made in Taiwan. But that's the way everything's headed; Taiwan, China, and Malaysia. |
I have a Musical Fidelity M8Pre driving a variety of power amps but not the matching M8700. The low output impedance of the M8Pre makes it easily compatible with most power amps and the sound quality is among the best solid state preamps I've heard. Quiet background, huge dynamic swing and lack of SS harshness are the major merits you notice immediately; lower bass seems to reach down to subsonic levels and there's a fullness to the notes especially in the bass/mid region. The music is presented as a whole and nothing sounds cardboardy or pale. Another thing to like is the very finely stepped volume control, which is very responsive at the same time. |
I've had the M8 pre and monos for a bit over a year now. I continue to marvel at how good they are. I find them absolutely neutral, tremdously quiet or, because its tough to hear quiet, amazingly transparent and revealing. For the monoblocs specifically, they deliver absolute control over my Vivids seemingly without any coloration or tone. This has given me microdynamics i had previously not noticed in much of my music. Their huge power reserves allow me to go to silly SPLs without even a hint of harshness, edge, or hardness.
I am extremely pleased. |
I recently acquired a Musical Fidelity M8 Pre. I find it works well in the upper and lower regions of the music spectrum, I find that it sounds flat - IE no texture - in the midrange section, somewhere along the lines of the vocals area, as if there is a veil of some sort. I suspect that maybe this is a capacitor issue???? How do others feel about this preamp?
The bass and treble area do sound fantastic as I can hear this preamp hitting highs that I could not realize with my 30 year old preamp it replaced. Its not always apparent, but from time to time, I do notice it.
However, in order to achieve such a level of improvement, one needs to spend at least 3 times as much as my previous preamp costs (at that given time vs. the cost of this new preamp) - giving my 30 year old preamp props that it punches up in weight and can still kick a-- against anything that you would find in todays best buy stores. |
Any M8 preamp users still around / I have one on order and curious about it's longevity and also does the M8 need to on for HT bypass?
Really excited to hear it with my Parasound JC 5 amp.
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Old post but I just bought a M8pre and I also
have a Parasound jc5.
How did you find the combo?
I feel the midrange sounds a bit flat
and boring.
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@grovkalle
It took me awhile to get the sound I wanted out of the paring after they settled in. It all came down to cableing between the two ,starting with Morrow Audio MA5 XlR's then to Wire World Eclipse 8 ( fleshed out the mids) and finally settling on the Silver Eclipse 8 XlR's and bingo! How many hours on the paring or MS8 pre ?
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