Musical Paradise MP-401 mk2 thoughts, etc.

[grantly]

First, a little background and context: about 4 months ago, I got a bee in my bonnet and wanted to switch out my existing setup in our main living room area. I had a Yamaha amp, some Monitor Audio bookshelves, and a Sunfire sub, and I listened to most music through my refurbished TD-160 super (outfitted with an Ortofon 2M Bronze) I got from Dave at Vinyl Nirvana. The 'table was/is hooked up to a Parks Audio Budgie phono preamp.

It all worked well and sounded very good, but occasionally the sound would become fatiguing to me, so I wanted to explore other options. Also, that setup would sometimes seemed a bit stretched when pushing out music at loud volumes--it's a big room - about 20' by 30'.

I decided to go with Klipsch Cornwall IIIs that I got for a great price from a fellow AK'er. Some may see going the horn route as a gamble considering I found the other setup to be fatiguing, but I have always enjoyed Klipsch speakers when paired with a proper setup. I knew that I needed to be careful with my amp choices, so I planned on using some sort of tube setup with the speakers.

After doing some research, making some purchases, and having a few missteps that I won't get into here, the Musical Paradise MP-401 caught my eye (I have no affiliation with MP, obviously). I liked the fact that it has a headphone out, and that it was remote controllable. I also liked that it is an SET amp, and I knew that my Klipsch would be fine with power output. Furthermore, at a base price of $555, this seemed to be a good value (really, the base price jumps to over $600 if shipping is factored in).

I couldn't find many reviews or thoughts about the MP-401 mk2 tube amp, and since I went out on a limb and ordered one, I figured I would share some my thoughts. Pics and more posts to come.

 

[grantly]

I decided to upgrade the tube options when I ordered it, so instead of going with the Shuguang KT88 power tubes and the Shuguang preamp tubes, I went with some Tungsol KT 120 power tubes and pair of RCA 6SJ7s and a pair of winged C EF86s. I ordered the amp last week, and it arrived at my door yesterday afternoon (please forgive my lack of photography skill).

It was very well packed. I noticed that the carrier had not followed the orientation directions on the box, and it was waiting for me on its side when I got home, but it was so well packed that nothing was damaged (I set it down right side up for the pic)


You can see it's double boxed, which is nice.

Instructions to take the foam packed INSIDE the amp (yes, inside) out before use. Probably a good idea.

First, this thing is big. I mean, I knew what the dimensions were when I ordered it, but seeing and hefting this amp makes me realize that it is NOT small.

A grainy photo. Uzi the boxer would rather have me playing with him than worrying about a large black box.


So one thing to realize here is that you don't really get show off your tubes with this amp. They're enclosed in the black metal cage.

More posts and pics to come. I may not be able to add more until tonight. I'll have initial listening impressions soon as well.

 

[Hawkeye83]

Looks very nice! I'm in the same boat...just got a "pretty large" tube preamp, can't see the tubes...Juicy Music Blueberry. I'll have to look inside to see exactly which tubes were included, but he said they were some fairly $$$ vintage tubes, about $200 apiece! Amperex "D-getter" or something like that.

Anyway, I like the sound of mine, I'm sure this sounds great as well! It definitely looks the part.

 

[grantly]

Thanks - I've read good things about the Blueberry. While I'll post more impressions later, I can say that overall I have mainly positive things to say about the MP-401.

 

[grantly]

Ok - so setting it up proved to be more of a challenge than I thought it would. Again, it's big. It barely fit on the shelf.
Here's how I originally set it up last night.


It dwarfs my turntable, and it's just hanging over the edge of the shelf here. I brought in the Mrs. for her opinion, and we ended up rearranging and moved it below the turntable.

Much better (forgive the messy dog basket underneath the bottom shelf - our dogs rummage around in there for long-forgotten toys almost daily).

First listening impressions next.

 

[grantly]

After letting the amp warm up for about 30 minutes, I put on my first LP. One thing I immediately noticed before dropping the needle is that this amp is very, very quiet. The noise floor is low on this thing, and I can always tell when there's a fair amount of hiss or grain on the hyper efficient Cornwalls. It may be a combo of the amp and the tubes I chose for it, but regardless, it's quiet.

Anyway, I wanted to hear something that I knew well and had listened to recently, so I picked out a recent Francoise Hardy rerelease from Light in the Attic, Le Premier Bonheur du Jour. First thing I noticed is how up front her voice was. I'd already heard this album on the Cornwalls, but this really put her voice front and center. She sounded like she was in my living room. I believe her voice is rather forward in the mix anyway, but it was more highlighted than before. I also noticed that the bass was lean and a bit lacking. Now, I've thought the same thing about these Francoise Hardy albums before, but I really noticed it during this initial listen with MP-401. It didn't sound bad at all, but after the first side, I decided to try some other albums.

I went with jazz next. I chose an original Blue Note stereo pressing of Jimmy Smith's The Sermon!. Right when the first notes started playing, this sounded special.
Jimmy's Hammond B3 was in my face. I could hear the movement sounds of the musicians and Jimmy's shifting on the pedals. The stand up bass sounded extremely natural, but not lacking in any way. Simply put, it sounded amazing. I listened to both sides of the album with a huge grin. My wife even commented on how good it sounded when she walked through the living room (and I am convinced her ears are much better than mine).

The last album I played was just a random pull from the wall. I chose a Kinks compilation, Come Dancing with the Kinks. This sounded...ok. Not great, not bad. There were moments where a touch of brightness crept in, but nothing fatiguing or overly bright.

I will say that the overall stereo imaging on all three albums was pretty solid and better than with any other amp I've played through the Cornwalls.

Ok - so that's where I am. I'm going to put in a few hours of listening tonight, and I will wait to write more impressions until I have around 50 hours on this amp. So far I'm liking what I've heard, and I think I'm finally just getting a little taste of the synergy of Klipsch and tubes. We'll see.

 

[dmsheehan]

Okay....so I am interested in this amp after doing a little research. I have long been considering going to a totally tube based analog system for the vinyl side of my setup. There is not a whole lot of info that I can see as far as this amp is concerned and I would love to see some photos of the back side of the amp. I want to hook my Lesbox modified Yaqin MS-23b into this amp and hang some Ascend Acoustic Sierra-2 speakers off of it along with being able to double up the speaker connections to a Martin Logan subwoofer.

This would replace the Nikko Beta i preamp and the Nikko Alpha i power amp in the analog vinyl side of my system. I just want to be sure that I can connect my Yaqin phono stage into the MP-401 without any problems.
I have seen some very nice reviews on the MP-401 and I am quite interested if there is a valid reason to swap out my current preamp and power amp for the MP-401. I guess I need to know if I need to add a preamp between my Yaqin MS-23b and the MP-401. There is no gain control on the Yaqin MS-23b. Just curious about my options here.

 

[grantly]

The MS-23b would work fine with this amp. It just has 3 line level inputs. You would not need an additional stereo preamp between the Yaqin and the MP-401 b/c it's an integrated.

The irony in all this is I went to the Musical Paradise website...and the amp is out of stock. I may have bought one of last ones. I'm not sure if that means this model is done for good or what.
Regardless, here's the specific page for the amp, which includes rear pics (my amp is on the shelf and due to its weight and the hour I don't really feel like unhooking and pulling it down at the moment): http://www.musicalparadise.ca/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=59&product_id=69