The Musical Fidelity Integrated Arrived Yesterday

[Erik Tracy]

Still eagerly awaiting some listening notes.

 

[Mister Pig]

You may have sold me on the "Morinified" AR tables. I'm looking at one of those or an Empire, I think, for my next table. Was really wanting TD-124 but those are a little spendy for me right now. Of course if the cash is there, there's still the TD-124, VPI Classic, or that nice Marantz/Clearaudio table for around $1500. But for the next one, likely will be an AR, thanks for the vote of confidence on those.

Nice system you have, glad it's coming together.

A modified XA is a mighty fine table, I found mine to come very close in sound quality to my hot rodded TD 124 which cost a wheel barrow full of more money. In some things I would swear it even edged it out on.

But that is not to mean that a modified XA doesn't have its quirks or limitations. The primary one I found is that the arm really is not set up for making easy fine tuning VTA adjustments. Marc sets it up for a specific cartridge height, but if you want to use an oddball cartridge like me, such as the Cadenza Red, well you are going to have to learn how to shim a cartridge to get the proper VTA for a line contact stylus. Which is what I have done, but grumble anytime I got to do this chore. One day I might say to heck with it and do a suspended table like an Oracle or SOTA, but they are no where the value this XA is.

That's the real crux of it. I got sound quality that is freaking remarkable on this table. I got a $10K table/arm/cartridge sitting next to it, and I can still happily listen to this XA with a $1200 Ortofon moving coil on it. And I admit the real reason I havent done a SOTA or Oracle is that I love the classic looks of this table with lace wood frame, pearl white top plate, and that lovely chrome platter and arm. This table has absolutely classic looks like a Chris Craft mahogany runabout or a turn of the century Craftsman home. There is a beauty in this simple form that speaks to me. It keeps me from finding a SOTA or Oracle more than anything else. If I could just do something about that damned VTA adjustment. Its as bad as setting points on a classic car.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[Mister Pig]

Still eagerly awaiting some listening notes.

Oh I am probably not going to form any solid opinions till I can get a different power cord for it. The damn thing uses a 20A connector going into the power supply, and my power cords are standard 15A IEC power cords. So they won't fit. I am going on a trip next week for ten days, so its likely I won't be able to track things down till I get back at the beginning of May. And then it has to ship, and I will have to break it in.

I can tell you that its a honest 300 WPC with a ton of current, and JBL 4365 have some serious bass response with that behind it. Beastie Boys sound beastie all right. Pretty sure I could get myself a letter from the HOA if I wanted to.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[jblnut]

The popcorn is getting stale

Other than getting calls from the local seismic monitoring stations, are there other interesting observations you have picked up so far ? How does it compare in the all-important midrange to the F7 ? Personally I wouldn't have thought you'd go "back" from separates to an integrated but it wouldn't be the first time someone has fallen for a pretty face (and nice sound) around here. There was a lot of Leben love a few years ago that was also directed at integrated amps.

Those little tubes are fascinating as well...



jblnut