AV Receivers - Musical Fidelity
An AV Receiver sits at the heart of your home cinema set-up and connects your 5.1 or 7.1 channel speaker system, screen, Blu Ray Player, DVD Player, Freeview or Satbox etc, controlling the audio and video settings. We sell a cherry picked range of models that offer the best home cinema experience. Call us for a package deal with speakers and cables!
Surround Sound Speaker Systems enable you to enjoy the intense and immersive sound and atmosphere of the cinema in the comfort of your living room. A typical hi-fi amplifier is only suitable for use with a pair (or maybe two) of speakers. Home Cinema Surround Sound Systems typically feature five or more speakers, and so require a special amplifier able to simultaneously power and provide signal to multiple channels. These are known as AV Receivers.
Musical Fidelity presents best-in-class quality hi-fi components conceived from over thirty years of audio expertise. They design and engineer impactful hi-fi separates hosting excellent sound, high technical performance, exceptional value for money and remarkable build quality.
Musical Fidelity has designed and manufactured Hi-Fi electronics for more than thirty years and are among the best-known brands in the Hi-Fi industry. They aim to deliver exceptional music and tackle the challenge of world-class engineering. Each new design approach seeks the absolute best solution and embraces cutting-edge technologies as well as refining traditional methods for better performance.
Founder Antony Michaelson designed and produced his first amplifier, The Preamp, for his own home as he was frustrated by the mediocre preamp in his audio system. It was heard by an audio dealer who placed an order for some and they were so successful that they all sold over their first weekend on display. Consequently and almost by accident, Musical Fidelity was launched in 1982 and The Preamp received glowing reviews. It was then followed by the shoebox-style Dr Thomas power amp.
Over almost four decades, Musical Fidelity has introduced an impressive line of products from the A1 integrated amp in 1984, A370 Power Amp and Digilog; the World’s first high-end DAC. Their technologies were always at the forefront of the industry; The MVX preamp was the first in the world to combine tube circuit topology with transistors, the SA470 power amp ran 99% in Class in 1988 which facilitated the release of the A1000 four years later featuring pure Class A power amp section.
The 90s saw in the classic valve-driven Tubalog DAC, X Series with X-10D Class A triode line stage, X-ACT DAC and X-24K upsampling DAC as well as the
X-Ray CD player. The Nu-Vista Preamp employing compact, metal-cased nuvistor tubes sold out within three months of launch in 1997. These formed the basis for upgraded models like the futuristic CD-PRE 24 combining a high-quality CD transport/DAC/preamp and the Nu-Vista M3 pre/power amp with discrete Nu-Vista power amp modules and choke regulation.
The Tri-Vista series offered the world’s first audio application of trivistor tubes and the kW 500 super integrated amp employed twin-triode tubes. In 2003, Musical Fidelity released their first turntable; the limited-edition M1 which was regarded as one of the best-engineered decks then went on to become a collector’s item fetching above its original price.
The supercharged X-DAC V8 introduced switchable tube buffer and extra-heavy-duty power supply and the brand won their first EISA award with the X-150 (2004-2005) for European Stereo Amplifier of the Year. KW250S packs in dual 250-watt monobloc amps, tube hybrid preamp, phono stage, 24-bit 192K upsampling CD player, FM/DAB tuner and iPod input.
Titan, launched in 2009, is a 1kW p/ch twin monobloc design with external power supply alongside the Reference-standard Primo pure Class A pre-amplifier with 14 hand-picked ECC81 tubes. Their most recent additions aim to satisfy all budgets and hi-fi needs. These include the EISA award-winnng M1 CLiC which brings together analogue and digital sources, their finest digital AMS CD/DAC and the world’s most advanced pure Class A amp; the AMS100.
Now owned by an Austria-based independent specialist Audio Tuning, the brand retains its proud British heritage and preserves the natural authentic audio performance that has become synonomous with Musical Fidelity across the world. The unique product series accommodate traditional and contemporary requirements from high quality vinyl listening, bit-perfect CD playback or increasingly popular wireless music streaming. For each source, Musical Fidelity supplies a broad range of powerful, state-of-the-art amplifiers that sound at home anywhere.
Standing at the centre of your Audio Visual and home entertainment system, an AV Receiver offers a wide range of inputs, allowing you to have all of your devices connected at any one time. Just like an integrated amplifier, an AV Receiver features a pre amp and power amp in one unit meaning you simply need to connect your speakers and a source (TV, CD player, Blu Ray player, DVD player etc.). It is possible to switch between your sources without having to unplug anything, and experience full surround sound for all your media.
Many modern AV Receivers include modern features and connectivity options, such as networking capabilities, Bluetooth and wireless. AirPlay technology is featured on many models, and allows you to play music from a device or smartphone wirelessly directly to your AV Receiver. Similarly, Bluetooth enables a secure and high quality wireless connection from any Bluetooth-enabled device. Many models feature networking, letting you connect your receiver to your home network and enjoy streaming services such as Spotify and Napster.
Modern AV Receivers feature a range of impressive features and components, making them a much more viable proposition for hi-fi use and standard stereo playback. Some models feature a high quality internal DAC, allowing for the connection of digital sources for greater audio quality and fidelity. Some models also include a set up microphone, enabling you to optimise your speaker positioning and ensure that you create a fully immersive surround sound experience.
All AV Receivers will allow you to use at least five speakers and a subwoofer, known as 5.1 surround sound. This configuration consists of two speakers at the rear, two at the front and one in the middle as well as a dedicated subwoofer to provide bass and depth to your favourite movies. Many customers choose to create an even more immersive system by adding speakers or even an additional subwoofer in configurations such as 7.1, 7.2, 9.1 or 9.2. If you wish to use a non-standard speaker configuration such as this, many AV Receivers offer this feature, but it is important to check that yours does if you wish to add additional speakers.