The Musical Fidelity approach to circuit design

At its simplest, an amplifier or CD player is circuitry and layout put into a box. But what is circuitry? It is an arrangement of resistors and capacitors and other components, on a printed circuit board, in a chassis. The components that make up a circuit (resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc.) are all relatively low cost.

The sound and technical performance of an amplifier are absolutely determined by circuitry and its layout. All amplifiers are conceptually the same: input stage, driver stage, output stage and power supply. All amplifiers have these elements, regardless of power rating or price.

This fundamental insight is our starting point for design. Because amplifiers are fundamentally the same (except for power rating), we are able to take the circuit designs and concepts of our most expensive and exotic pieces, and reproduce them at seemingly impossibly low prices.

Let's take some examples. Our kW monster amps were regarded as the best ever made. They retailed for about £23,000 for the preamplifier and power amplifier combination. This seems an incredible amount of money, but in high end terms, the kWs were viewed as extremely cheap. The high-end is like a topsy-turvy land, where £23,000 is considered cheap and pre/power combinations that cost four or five times more don't offer even faintly comparable performance.

Our point is that the circuit concepts, layouts and general topology of the kW monsters are used extensively in all our designs, especially in the A5s. The A5's sonic and technical characteristics are similar to the kW monsters' - but with less power.

The A5 integrated, A5CR preamp and A5CR power amp are closely related to the kW monsters. We do our utmost to give maximum performance for the money. Our expensive products exist only so that we can push the outside of the performance envelope - and then incorporate what we learn into our more modestly priced products, so that they will offer extraordinary performance.

On the CD player front, the background is just as interesting. Musical Fidelity has made a stream of extraordinary digital products. The original X-Ray CD player is legendary, the Nu-Vista 3D CD player is still regarded as one of the best ever made, and we topped that with the Tri-Vista CD player. Our DACS have been equally warmly received. Our X-24K was a benchmark. The A324 and Tri-Vista 21 DAC got amazing reviews. The X-DACV3 has received raves.

So the A5 CD and the five-channel SACD (planned for May 2005) have a proud heritage. The A5 CD is easily the best CD player we have ever made. It embodies and improves upon the best design ideas pioneered in our ground-breaking products - at a much lower price. The A5 CD offers far better performance than the Nu-Vista 3D, but costs half of what the Nu-Vista cost four years ago. Now, that is what we call progress.

To sum up: amplifiers and CD players are made up of components that are relatively cheap. The way you organise the components and lay them out determines the sound quality and technical performance of a product. As all amplifiers have roughly the same component costs, there is no valid reason (apart from power rating) for one product to cost dramatically more than another.