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Review: Musical Fidelity A3.2cr Preamplifier

Category: Preamps

1. Musical tastes: progressive and contemporary jazz, modern melodic rock and pop, pre-1980 rock n'roll

2. Reference recordings: Richard Bona (Reverence), Nora Jones (various), Radiohead (O.K. Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac) Ben Folds (Rockin' the Suburbs), Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon), Chick Corea and the Electric Band (Alive), Phish (Story of the Ghost)

3. Important aspects of sound to me: smoothness, non-fatiguing high frequency presentation, soundstage and depth, neutrality, musical (as opposed to analytical)

4. Worst thing about systems I've heard: fatiguing high frequencies, boomy bass

5. Musical Fidelity A3.2cr Preamplifier:
a. In my system for three months
b. Replaced a Creek 5350SE Integrated Amplifier (passive)
c. Added amazing detail, realism, and bass response
d. Strength: beautful warm sound, how I like my music
e. Weakness: I had to pay for it, that's all
f. If money were no object, I would still own this preamplifier, but would place it in a strictly solid-state system. I would use Musical Fidelity's new Tri-Vista components in a second system (I'm a huge Musical Fidelity fan).



Associated gear
Musical Fidelity A3.2cr Power Amplifier
Musical Fidelity A3-24 DAC
Denon DVD-2800 (digitial out)
PS Audio Interconnects
Tara Labs Speaker Cables
PS Audio Ultimate Outlets & Power Ports
Vibrapods & Salamander rack

Similar products
PS Audio PSA-2 Pre-
schuesmp

Showing 1 response by pedromorujao-a7fa

pedromorujao-a7fa
1 posts
 
I own a MF A3Cr for 5 years. I'm now replacing it for a demo Audio Research Ref2MkII, which costs (new) 10 times more money. One has to spend a great amout of money to take a step forward replacing the A3cr preamp. Some models are more expensive but just different, not better. The AR gives you more focus on the soundstage, and a bigger dimension on the soundstage.
However, I'll miss my A3Cr and you're right. For the money its the better preamp I know. It beats some much more expensive models and is very reliable.
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