Has anyone heard FM Acoustics

Mr. Bvidiman, how often do you change the tone linearizer controls on your 268 pre amp? Are adjustments on the remote control? Do you change the controls for every CD? Do set and forget?

Wadav,
It's remote have only volume up-down, mute and linearizer in/out functions, so a total of four buttons only. Thus frequency adjustments are not remote controllable.

Average to well recorded CDs do not need them, unless for very critical listening where minute changes of frequency shifts are desired or when compiling your own recordings. I switched them in mostly only for correcting popular recordings and/or some vintage ones--ella, louis, miles etc where recordings are usually poor--teeny, flat and shrill. It does a really great job of correcting and injecting lives into those ones! I have few favorite settings which I used for treatment of differing deficiencies.. Practically it's very simple to use, almost the set and forget type once u get used to those few routines.

And icing on the cake is--even when set 'flat' with linearizer function out of the circuit, it's still a damn fine pre-amp. Imo, at least twice better than their own widely acclaimed FM266mkII in all respect (I had them for 6 mths prior to 268), which is by itself a long time benchmark and no slouch either.

Bvdiman, greeting here from another Tidalist . I went to audition FMA today in a dealer near me. Pre : 255, Phono: 222, Amp: 801A and 611. Speaker : JBL 66000. All FMA cables and wires.

Admitly, FMA is very special product sonically, every aspect of sound reachs certain level, (pretty high end), the combination make special charm to listener.

Yet I was totally surprised the difference between 801A and 611, and more surprisingly, I prefer 801A to more modern 611. Bvdiman, have you heard 801A?

Hi Quanmer, glad that you liked them and able to discover that they are at least something special upon first hearing. Spend more time, and I think you will like them even more later.. ;) Three of my most 'happening moments' in 30yrs of audio was first--with FMA, second--exposure to WE 300B SET amps, and third--Tidal speakers.

Yes, I did compare my 611 before purchase with 811, 600A and 800A. (I'm not sure of the model you mentioned however). It was in the early 90s, if memory serves me right, our group of friends all concluded that the resolution series were better, just much more refined overall. Of course the 811 was superior, but unfortunately it was way out of my budget then.

My wild guess is that what you are hearing are probably either :
1) The 611 you demoed is not in its prime condition/serviced recently (well, its a 20yrs old amp)
2) Synergy issue - The Pro series amp better suiting the monitor type speakers you heard them with?

Below is a link from the FMA web, scroll down to about middle, there is a brief summary of differences between their Pro and Resolution series of amps :

http://www.fmacoustics.com/set_misc.html

Best,

Bvdiman, thanks for the info, in fact, the 611 and 801A are both in pristine condition. I was there for 4 hours listening. In the middle of listening session, there is one FMA owner shown up and join my audition, he also compared 801A and 611 before purchasing.

He also choose 801A instead of 611, 801A has more solid bottom end, mid and high are "darker" than 611, sound satge is deeper than 611. 611 is more pleasing to listen in the beginning, But 801A generates more accurate soundstage and more "body" than 611.

The owner of 801A is considering to buy 611, too, he told me that bi-wire is another "dream combo" he could reach another level of music heaven base on his real world experience. He also auditioned 1811, but the price is too steep for his budget, 1811 easily give him both world he is looking for (801A + 611), but bi-wire option can give him both world (95% of 1811) at less than half price of 1811.

810A has fan in the back side, which is noisy when it starts to function, so he decide to place 801A a little bit far from listening position, now he can live with 801A without the annoying fan noise.