review of MF x-80 amp

[Mr Cat]

ok, got back last night and had a quick play with this - my initial impressions were very good - the sound stage is much better than my Nad c350, the sound was more in your face too - which isn't always a good thing when you play a lot on ambient style music...

on some records the bass was better, and on other worse, but that was I suspect down to the volume that I was playing it - I don't usually play music that loud when I'm just chilling...
but the amp does play well when I did turn it up...

it does have a different kind of sound to my nad - this was my first initial thought, but it was a good price considering the rrp was 600 (against the nads 350) - I paid 230

I seemed to be able to hear more sounds than my nad(!).

the music I played were -
soundtrack to american beauty - always good to test the bass
chicane - Behind the Sun
KLF - Chill out

there did seem to be a bit harshness on some of the high pitched notes, but I guess most of the problems will disappear when the amp has bedded down more, and its a case of adjusting to it's more upfront characteristics compared to the nad which I'd had for over 18 months...

the volume controls were also better when played low - as the nad (when using the remote) tends to jump from being a bit low (for my liking) to being a tad high and I had to adjust the actual control on the amp...