Musical Fidelity A1 experiences

I remember visiting a local NYC dealer years ago while helping a friend shop for speakers. I still remember being amazed at the sound that the A1 produced driving a pair of original Proactive Tablettes. It was beautiful, with electrostatic- like clarity and VERY sweet highs. Now, the Proacs could not produce much bass, but it was not the fault of the amp, and fatiguing in the highs it is not. PSB calling?

If I'm thinking of the right amp, it's the little 20wpc class A. I owned one for quite a while a number of years ago. Nice sweet sounding piece.

All the speakers you mention are not on the 'easy to drive' list. My guess is you are straining the little guy if the sound is thin and harsh.

You might look at some of the higher efficiency speakers, particularly those with higher impedance. I don't think class A SS likes 4 ohm loads.

And if you room is big, or you like to listen loud, that is definitely not the amp for you.

I had one of their older integrated amps (A300 I think) and with Maggie 1.6 it sounded as if cymbals were four feet in diameter and way out in front, when I switched to a Plinius 8200 things went back to the proper perspective. The A300 was bright, nice tone but very tipped up.

It sounds as if the A1 may be an older model yet so maybe this info is worthless...

"Proactive Tablettes" !?! I cracked myself up. Should be "Proac", of course. My IPad's spellchecker strikes again. An interesting paralell to audio, IMO: sometimes what we think is an advance, is not an advance at all.

I guess i was straining the little one.. The A1 is different one i think compared to the A300. The A1 is fine sounding amp it's just compared to the other amps i tried it does sound quite thin.. Im going to try my friend's monitor audio BX1 and his B&W 685 if it will sound ok.