Overall balance, remote for volume, balance and input selection. Neutral, grain-free upper mids and highs. Extended, well controlled bass.

None so far.

I have to agree with most of the other reviews on the A3. Overall, I've not found its equal at the $1k price point.
I'm not overly fond of the change in decor from the previous series, but it is a small quibble.
The remote works great and since the A3 does not sport a Class A output stage, it can be left on all the time. Hence any quibble about the remote not turning the unit off is mute, no pun intended...IMHO.
The sound is about as neutral as I've run across. The bass is tight, extended and well controlled....and fast, too.
The mids are smooth and glare free, as is the top end.
While the A3 lacks the intimate charm of the earlier A2 (with Class A output stages), it easily betters the classic A2 in just about every other area.
I purchased the A3 because, I must admit, I'm a Maggie-aholic and could not use my beloved A2 with those power hungry panels. The A3 drives them just fine in my smallish, live listening room.
Other equipment:
Modified Music Hall table:
AMC 96/24 CD player
Maggies, AR 11s, Near 10Ms and Acoustic Energy AE1s.
Straightwire Rhapsody interconnects
Audioquest Type 4, Kimber 4TC and Tara Labs Space and Time speaker cables.

One final note: It may sound trivial but I beleive it is an indication of Musical Fidelities commitment to quality. The remote is supplied with Duracells!

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Musical Fidelity A2 integrated

Looks,price,features,sound

not enough people know about it yet

Bought this as a second system amp.My main system amp/pramp is tubed Audio Research gear.This amp is WAY better than I expected,and I listen to it as much as my more expensive stuff.We need more products like this.Super high prices sometimes don't equate to superior sound.

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Bryston

Looks,sound,features and price

This thing is a flaming bargain.Great sound phono stage,amp is smooth dynamic and detailed.Super.

Smooth, uncolored sound. Outstanding midrange. High end is not harsh and extended. Bass is well controlled and impressive.

No headphone jack.

This is a very good amp, certainly better than the Parasound basic I replaced it with. The build quality is excellent. The motorized volume control is great! While I would not say it's exactly "tube like," it does provide a wonderfully smooth and clean sound without the harshness of typical solid state amps. Someone mentioned that the highs seemed "rolled off," and I would totally disagree with that view. The highs are seamless, extended, fast, and as good as I've heard.

I consider $1,000.00 a lot of money for an integrated amp so I'm obviously not a dedicated audiophile. However, I would consider the A3 to be a very good value for the performance provided. If it's as reliable as I would imagine from the way it's built, I'm sure I'll have this amp for a long time.

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Too many over too many years to list

Extremely musical! Female vocals are transcendent! Great detail, imaging, and suprisingly tight low-end.

None for this kind of money.

I just purchased this as an evaluation from Audio Advisor. This baby is staying in my system. Outstanding value. When paired with the A3CD player and my existing B&W 603 S2, you have an impressive system for the money. Note: the extreme detail of the A3CD will present ALL of the music, even if poorly recorded...

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NAD integrated (317,319)

Excellent sound stage; never harsh sound; versatile and with MM/MC inputs.

Not a sensitive remote control; doesn't sound as enchanting as their class A amps.

When I first bought it, I only intended to use it for my Karaok system. But then I found myself listening to it as often as to my main system. Having a Rega Planet CD player and a pair of Mission 773e as its partner, I am wondering why I have spent so much money on hifi equipments in the past. Its really a diminishing return of investment.

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My main system is a Jeff Rowland Consummate + Conrad Johnson MV55. Have used Audiolab's A8000 amp before, both are good but the A3 is more airy and its terminals can stand heavy uses.

OH MY GOD!

Damnit there are none !!! I couldnt believe the sound when I first turned it on and started playing music.....absolutely unbelievable. I never heard music from any system sound so goooood. I was blown away right from the start, I told myself, this can't be real. Music cannot possibly sound so good from a home hifi. But it was pouring out of my speakers, and telling me "Armstrong, this is what you paid for. Now sit back and enjoy from this blissful moment on. And I said okay be gentle, be gentle with me"

Not only is this baby marvelous to admire for its aesthetical beauty, but reproduces music with such lethal charm as did those syrens in Iliad's Homer. It has a 1/4" thick faceplate and a large brushed aluminum volume knob, with gold trimmings around it. I didnt know recycled coke cans could be made to look so gorgeous! And it sounds absolutely heavenly. Folks I aint 'pulling your chain' when I tell you that this amp is extremely clean. It produces highs with 20/20 clarity, its midrange is warm and very musical, and bass is tight, fast and breathtaking. I mean the mids are so warm it will melt the plaque off your arteries!

My system:
can be seen at: http://ist.tech.uh.edu/red62/music.html

Sound source: Home built computer with 27 gigs of mp3's
All mp3's compressed using Xing at 320 kb/s and played back using Winamp 4.6 on win98.
Sound card: Aureal Vortex with toslink optical output
Toslink cable: AR Pro series high definition fiber optic cable 6 ft
DAC: AMC DAC8 Digital to Analog Converter
Interconnect: Audioquest Jade hyperlitz 1 ft
Amp: Musical Fidelity A3 Dual Mono Integrated Amplifier
Speaker cables: regular cheap cables 6 ft
Speakers: AR 312HO Cherry


The Listening:

So after the initial shock subdued, I calmed myself down and started to get myself mentally ready for some serious listening. I jogged around the block a few times to get my circulation up, wanna make sure I get enough blood in my ear's cochlea to pick up all the sensitive sounds otherwise missed during casual listening. Cooled my room to 78 degrees and driven out all the evil sound spirits with my indian dreamcatcher while chanting and an old Mexican spirit song.

First I wanted to test how the amp handles the low frequencies. I played Bach's suite No 1 in G Major by celloist Yo-Yo Ma. Good Jeesuz! It sounded so real that scared the crap out of me! I could hear the rosin dust pilfering off of poor Yo Yo's bow. I was also stunned by how beautiful the music sounded. Warm, natural, and most importantly it sounded real! I would have had to pay alot of money to get good seats at Carnegie Hall, but instead he was magically transformed into my bedroom and serenaded me to the best sleep I've had in years. This amp literally cured my insomnia. I was in heaven.

Next up was Prokofiev Piano concerto no 3 by John Kimura Parker (Telarc CD-80124) compressed to mp3 at 320kb/s. Boy oh boy did the amp once again knock me off my feet! The piano was delicate and warm, each note hitting me like gentle April rain. And the reeds sounded like nightingales in heat. I was fully imersed into this music like never before.

Let's have some fun:
I decided to play some dvd's even tho I know this amp was not designed with home theater purposes in mind. I played Saving private Ryan Special Edition non DTS.

I swear to you, the movie sounded like going to a THX theater. The stereo separation was distinct. The sound was very clean, you can hear every detail from the thundering, the bullets richocheting from (X shaped metal obstacles on the beach) I don't know what you call those things. I could hear gunshots with such precision as they flew from right to left. I was impressed. This sounded better than alot of theaters I've been to. My major complaint of the sound in many theaters, except certain few is that it's too over emphasized. Simple things like a person walking in a hallway dont sound natural because it has too much echo or tap or is louder than normal walking would sound. Tho this amp doesnt have of course dolby digital or dts decoding, but I never really favored those things heavily anyways.

This amp by Musical Fidelity literally filled a big void in my life. No longer am I unhappy and deprived. It is like I said before very clean and quite, I guess attributed to its two big toroidal transformers. I'm going to stop writing and go back to listening and enjoying my music collection.

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none...nothing I've ever owned compared remotely to this.
I once owned a Dynaco PAS3 tube preamp with a matching stereo 70 power amp. It made my room hot and I could sometimes get hum or buzzing and even static that irritated me and made listening to music unenjoyable despite the warm tubey sound. I like the sound of tube, but didnt like the other things that came with it. I wanted someting that I can leave on for many hours without heating up my room so I can listen to my music for a long period of time. Which explains my usage of mp3's. Cd's require often ejecting and usually has only one or two good songs. Now I finally have an amp that can handle my needs!

Musical, even, high current

A bit too laid back

Let me first say: I didn't buy the A3. It looks fantastic and sounds good, but in the end I opted for the Cyrus 7.

The A3 was, put simply, the most musical integrated amplifier I listened to. I heard it through a pair of Dynaudio 70s, and it captured the lyricism of music beautifully. I almost cried as I listened to the second movement of Concerto de Aranjuez. Playing this sort of stuff, the A3 just sang. It was just so sweet. But in the end, that was the problem with the A3: it was just too mellow. Holst's Mars just didn't have the punch and power, although there was plenty of detail and control. In a word: the A3 is overly nice.

I ended up with the Cyrus 7. This didn't quite capture Aranjuez like the A3, but it was fast and extremely true to the music, and produced the goods across the musical spectrum. It outclassed the A3 in most cases, and seemed to have more grunt despite its lower power rating. It could be punchy and gentle as required. Listen, and you'll see what I mean.

The Rotel: still sounds too electronic, but good for the price. The Arcam 9: good too, but without the real clarity and detail that the A3 and the Cyrus 7 had.

I don't like to give stars because they're meaningless, but I'll say 4. I'd recommend both the A3 and the Cyrus 7 for those looking for high quality in their integrated. The Arcan isn't bad either, although not quite in the same league.

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Arcan 9, Cyrus 7, Rotel ? (can't even remember)