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Review and Measurements of Musical Fidelity M2si Amp

peng

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That is in every review I do of amplifiers. In this case the amp shut down before clipping so you don't see the knee.

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You can see that in the Benchmark graph in red.

Oh I am so sorry, missed the point that it shutdown before clipping.

If you always include this graph anyway, just to start always include that full bandwidth power sweep as well, would it still be too much work load for you? I think two channel driven will be enough as we already know from historic measurements that we can expect about 70% of the two channel driven output for the 7 channel driven output, except occasionally there were models that did much poorer because of their overly aggressive protective schemes.
 
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dkinric

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For the two channel driven tests, I would bet most mid range AVRs such as the Denon AVR-X4500H, Marantz SR7013, Yamaha RX-A2080 will beat the just measured Musical Fidelity integrated amp, 8 ohm or 4 ohm, at 0.1% THD+N or even lower. I think the lower to mid end integrated amps superiority in PSU/power output are often overrated.

Perhaps - that is what I would like to see compared.
With the disappointing measurements coming out of the recent tests of multichannel equipment, one would think a box purposed for just 2 channels and unencumbered by a DAC or even a phono stage could measure very well. It measured just ok in this case, although it should be noted that street price on this is only $599 new, compared to 3X+ on the units you mention.
 

peng

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Perhaps - that is what I would like to see compared.
With the disappointing measurements coming out of the recent tests of multichannel equipment, one would think a box purposed for just 2 channels and unencumbered by a DAC or even a phono stage could measure very well. It measured just ok in this case, although it should be noted that street price on this is only $599 new, compared to 3X+ on the units you mention.

The AVR-X4500H is currently >2X $599 but had been lower. The X3500H should measure as well as, or slightly better(say within a few dB) than the Musical fidelity, and is also at $599 street price. AVRs have the cost advantage because they are mass produced, but I agree integrated amps at the same list price point should (factually speaking not always) do better, just not as much as a lot of people might expect, or assume..
 
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confucius_zero

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so yamaha wxa50 is better than this?
 

peng

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Amir, I just re-read all the measurements again and I think this is among the best (being comprehensive), if not the best of all the reviews/measurements found anywhere in the world. The only chart missing seems to be the DR, but it is not necessary as there are enough measurements to sort of derive DR anyway. Personally I would rather see you do the same in future reviews and test much less devices (say, per month..) so you don't get overloaded. It is a quality vs quantity thing.
 

dkinric

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Amir, I just re-read all the measurements again and I think this is among the best (being comprehensive), if not the best of all the reviews/measurements found anywhere in the world.

Yup. Using his expensive gizmo box to pull back the veil on an entire industry - and sharing it with all of us. In his "spare time". For free. This is good internet use right here.
 

Neuromorphism

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Regarding what measurements might be useful; power vs. frequency seems like a low qualification bar (i.e. necessary to measure but an unwelcome surprise if an amp fails). We work hard to have flat frequency response with low distortion as a musical signal passes through our whole equipment chain (source to speakers). If any piece in the chain has a power dependent change in frequency response, that seems like a big problem. How big a problem could be debated, if we're only losing a dB for the highest and lowest tenth octave and it only shows up at 100+ watts, I'm still philosophically affronted vs. what an amplifier should be, but perhaps that would not be noticed when listening.

Going beyond entrance stakes, distortion vs. power seems like a very useful measure. Once we establish that an amp manages to be flat up to reasonable output levels, I'd like to know whether I still have >=16 bits of effective resolution at high power.
 

AudioSceptic

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As you can tell, I am not afraid of breaking old norms. :) I like us to do what matters, not what is determined years ago. But sure, I see the value of 20 to 20 kHz.
At which frequency does harmonic distortion cease to matter? Once the fundamental is over 10 kHz, H2 is above 20 kHz and inaudible to just about anybody.
 

Julf

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At which frequency does harmonic distortion cease to matter? Once the fundamental is over 10 kHz, H2 is above 20 kHz and inaudible to just about anybody.

Indeed. On the other hand, THD and IMD always go together (both are a result of nonlinearity), so the IM might produce components in the audible spectrum.
 

jaco61

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I have an musical fidelity m3i, which internals are pretty obviously the same as of the m2si. Somehow its a shame that this purific amp is not able to show better results.
May I hear more transparent changing to eg a better messured yamaha as-701, possibly a tiny bit better? If yes there is no question about to skip to something better and even more budget.
 
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jaco61

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Bought a a-s701 recently and I can say that this amp is quite a bit better als the Musical Fidelity M3i (more or less the same as M2si). There is much more authority to drive my audiophysic yara and a hint of more transparency.

I love this forum with this really outstandig eyeopening content and more so it is a past due healthy science revolution in the hifi-voodoo scene dominating some decades and fooling consumers.
Without Amirs measurements I never would have had an idea where to find REALLY good equipment e.g. like Jds Labs Atom and ... almost unbelievable ..saved a lot of money too :)
 
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amirm

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At which frequency does harmonic distortion cease to matter? Once the fundamental is over 10 kHz, H2 is above 20 kHz and inaudible to just about anybody.
The same thing that creates high frequency harmonics, also generates intermodulation distortion at lower frequencies when you have more than one tone (which you do with music). So such non-linearities cannot be ignored.
 

scott wurcer

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An A/B amp will usually have a rise in distortion with frequency and most music has falling amplitude with frequency. There is no inherent reason a well designed class A/B amp can't be transparent. Dave Greisinger has presented some work on IMD of speakers that shows in DBT's the distortion of the speaker can dominate and be easily audible.
 

roog

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It would be great to see a test of one of the big Musical Fidelity amps such as the new M8Xi, sorry I don’t have one to send you. I would be interested to see if their more expensive and more powerful integrated amps improve on the quality of the M2.
 

tifune

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