Musical Fidelity A3.2 CD Player and A3.2 Integrated Amplifier. $2999 each
It’s standard practice to start any review of Musical Fidelity gear by making a jocular remark about how often the company releases new products. I would never stoop so low.
Probably already obsolete by the time you read this, the A3.2 CD player and integrated amp are reviewed here as a partnership, with additional comment on their individual merits.
Out of the box they make a striking design statement, although you may find it an over-statement. The giant volume knob of the amp, and the overwrought aluminium and chrome fascias are an acquired taste which, against my will, I acquired. Both units are sturdy enough, but not built to the standard their front panels would have you believe.
The important business is going on inside these boxes, anyway. The A3.2 CD features onboard upsampling from 44 to 96kHz, while the matching amp deploys dual-mono circuit configuration. Given this information one should expect a nice clean sound right up to the very highest frequencies, with above average image presentation.
However, earlier mid-range Musical Fidelity equipment had a reputation for making warm, rose-tinted noises, and this should be factored into any pre-judgment of the combo’s performance. What did the listening reveal?
Proof of the Pudding
Perhaps not surprisingly, auditioning found truth in both lines of prediction. The A3.2 duo played with considerable panache, yielding a finely detailed sound with notably snappy response to transient impulses in the music. The somewhat over-lovely and over-blown character of earlier Musical Fidelity stuff was absent, and the pairing’s presentation could even seem a little on the cool side. Despite this, there remained a hint of the old Musical Fidelity in the slightly blunted and softened bass.
While the combination produced a commendably transparent, neutral, and engaging sound, testing each product individually highlighted certain deviations from perfection that a prospective buyer should consider.
Upsample this
The CD player, as noted, robbed a little bite from the bass. Its upsampling feature makes a subtle but discernible difference, in the form of added air and resolution in the treble without added edge to cymbal crashes, violins, or over-driven guitar amps. The projected image was solid and deep, but seemed a bit centre-bound in the lateral plane.
Rhythmic subtleties, such as the sometimes-buried contribution of background percussion on Leftfield’s Leftism, were nicely handled, and generally the player showed a deft hand at teasing out the strands of complex musical passages. Always of great importance, the reproduction of vocal textures was particularly good.
While the A3.2 CD player provided a full-bodied presentation, a slight lack of drive or urgency was also apparent. I found myself wondering whether the price tag of the A3.2 CD was entirely justified by the sound quality, and decided eventually that the aesthetics, ergonomics, and build quality probably did enough to tip the scales in favour of value-for-money.
Amplified knob
To its credit the A3.2 amp pumped out clean, if ever-so-slightly anemic music when fed a line level signal. Not daunted by high volumes, it hit hard and fast, but the bass performance was not what I’d expect from a 115W/channel device.
Somehow the lowest registers failed to make their mark, which is quite puzzling. It was as though the amp rolled-off too soon, failing to communicate all the known low frequency information on familiar discs.
The phono-stage took this under-nourished quality on a notch. Perhaps due to an over-zealous warp filter, music off vinyl didn’t carry enough bodyweight to make an impression. Set against my Plinius Jarrah, the onboard stage clearly produced a more wiry sound. Perhaps my Goldring moving magnet cartridge was an unhappy match, so a more expensive moving coil design might have been more satisfying.
Like you, I’ve read reviews of these items that big them up ferociously. This is a good mid-bracket CD/amp combination, but not a pair of high-end performers on the cheap. If the look of these boxes does not rock your world, a less glamorous system might yield comparable sonic rewards and save you some cash.
On the other hand, if you’re not a bass-head and prize musicality in the midrange above all, I’d happily steer you back this way.
