Musical Fidelity V90 Bluetooth DAC Review

Need more inputs than an Arcam rBlink can offer? Musical Fidelity might have the answer

by Ed Selley
MSRP: £200.00

What is the Musical Fidelity V90?

In the AVForums podcast, I’m frequently accused of ‘hating everything.’ This may or may not have a grain of truth in it - I find many things immensely dislikable - but it is fair to say that there are a great many other things that I like very much. In the narrower context of audio, there are a number of things I’m a big fan of that people I’ve talked to have expressed surprise about. Usually somewhere near the top of this list is Bluetooth.

Bluetooth is a rare and rather wonderful thing in this age of multiple operating systems, competing formats and locked down standards. It is a genuine open standard that has not only resulted in a massive supported base of products but has also seen impressive technical development pushed on by multiple contributors. What was once a wireless replacement for RS232 cables has become something impressively sophisticated and extremely flexible when used in hi-fi products. The use of the word ‘hi-fi’ is deliberate too. Bluetooth might be convenient but it can do more than that.

Part of the problem that Bluetooth faces in being taken seriously is that it was - in my own and probably worthless opinion anyway - introduced to the category too early in its development. Early Bluetooth audio products had miserable bandwidth, hopeless range and the sort of signal to noise performance you might once have associated with an AM radio. Many people still associate Bluetooth audio with these early devices which is a shame because they are now missing out on some fine products.

If we leave to one side the efforts of Chord Electronics who have been unlikely but committed champions of Bluetooth albeit at a fairly high price, it is products like Arcam’s rather brilliant rBlink that demonstrate Bluetooth at its best. Now the Arcam is joined by the latest member of Musical Fidelity’s V Series, the V90 Blu. This gives you improved functionality over the rBlink at a slightly higher price but can the V90 broaden the appeal of Bluetooth further?

Musical Fidelity V90 Design

Musical Fidelity V90
Musical Fidelity has been making their affordable V Series components for a few years now and has a tradition of small, affordable products dating back many years. The original range was extremely spartan and designed to sit out of sight with connections at either end to facilitate this. The latest generation is rather less austere though and the V90 Blu joins a DAC, phono stage, headphone amp and integrated amp that are all built in 170mm wide casework.

The Blu is, in many ways, the most technically interesting of the products in the range. The Musical Fidelity is first and foremost a Bluetooth based digital to analogue converter and like the rBlink gives you the option of outputting this signal via an analogue or digital output. At this point though, the Blu deviates from the Arcam and indeed pretty much everything else. As well as the Bluetooth input, the Blu has a digital input which can be sent via an optical or coaxial connection, either of which is selected automatically when a signal is detected. This means that the Musical Fidelity can still be used as a single input DAC if required.
Musical Fidelity V90
The other area of deviation is more unusual still and depending on the nature of your system is either a bit of a pointless curio or a seriously clever design decision. Musical Fidelity has equipped the Blu with an input loop - there is an RCA input as well as the output. This has clearly been designed with the V90 integrated amp in mind as that has limited inputs but in any situation where you have a limited number of line inputs it is rather handy. The Blu will run as a bypass by default with the source that is connected to the input playing through it until the Bluetooth input is activated whereupon the Blu then switches to playing itself as a source. This is a minor detail but something that shows a little bit of thought has gone into the Musical Fidelity process.

The DAC chip that the Blue uses is not specified but historically Musical Fidelity has preferred Burr Brown so this might be the logical place to start looking. The Blu is a 192kHz capable product and will accept signals of this nature via the digital inputs. The Bluetooth setup is Apt-X capable and allows for a lossless transfer of a CD sized audio file. Apt-X is an almost bit for bit parallel to AirPlay and offers an open standard alternative to it. One interesting and impressive area of the Blu is that the Bluetooth setup is very well thought out. Rather than rely on having to tap a single button in various increasingly baffling combinations, the Blu has a toggle switch that allows for easy disconnection and reconnection.
Musical Fidelity V90
In practice the Blu had the best range of any Bluetooth device I’ve used in this house
The Blu also uses an external aerial that can either be connected directly to the screw connection on the rear panel or connected to a cord that allows the aerial to be placed some distance from the chassis. This might seem slightly pointless but in practice the Blu had the best range of any Bluetooth device I’ve used in this house with the standard connection devices and I don’t think this is a coincidence. Only a slightly sluggish connection speed counts against what is a very impressive and slick process. Once you have paired, the reconnection speed is swifter though.

The fit and finish of the Blu is like the rest of the V90 series and this is no bad thing. The casework is well finished and everything feels reassuringly solid. Like most devices of this nature, the Blu uses a wall wart power supply which is not the last word in solidity or aesthetics but this is hardly the end of the world. Compared to the rather bolder styled r Series of Arcam components, the Blu is much more conventional but ‘more conventional’ (and with the inputs all on the back) is what many people are going to want in their products. My own personal preferences would also prefer a black version but this is hardly the end of the world.

Musical Fidelity V90 Setup

Due to my stereo listening room looking like a case study for a hoarding documentary at present, I used the Blu in my AV system which meant it was connected to a Cambridge Audio 751R and Mordaunt Short Mezzo 1 speakers via RCA connection. A Cambridge Audio 752BD was used to test the digital input with high res FLAC and in turn test the digital output of the Musical Fidelity. Additionally, I was able to make use of a friend’s personal Arcam rBlink to do a small amount of side by testing. Bluetooth sources used were my Lenovo ThinkPad which is Apt-X capable and my iPad 3 and Nexus 5 which are not. Material used included lossless and high res FLAC (the latter exclusively via the digital inputs) and compressed material including MP3 files, Spotify and Grooveshark.

Musical Fidelity V90 Sound Quality

Musical Fidelity V90
My enthusiasm for Bluetooth as a transmission system stems from the simple fact that by and large it just works and does so with the minimum of supporting infrastructure. Much as I love UPnP streamers, I am acutely aware that they require at least a cursory understanding of networking and a set of additional bits and bobs to show what they can do. The premise of the Blu is that I can listen to CD quality files from a laptop or mobile device pretty much anywhere the two devices are in range (and the Blu has power and a place to send the audio signal but that isn’t a Bluetooth issue as such) and the most important single aspect of the Blu is that it delivers on the promise.

I have historically regarded Musical Fidelity as a maker of world class amplifiers first and, good though they were, their digital offerings were perhaps a little less accomplished. Recent experiences with digital products from the company suggested that some changes were afoot. The tonal sweetness that was present - the absolute impossibility of making a Musical Fidelity product sound thin or harsh remains - but there was a sense of drive and urgency to them that hadn’t been there before. The Blu is one of the least expensive products that the company makes but these traits are still in attendance.
Musical Fidelity V90
This means that via Bluetooth with the FLAC download of Jon Allen’s Deep River the Blu is completely convincing. First and most importantly, it only takes a few seconds to forget the way the sound is being transmitted - it could as easily be AirPlay or wired connection or some previously unseen method using lasers - and enjoy the fact that the Blu sounds rather lovely. Vocals are weighty and detailed, instruments are believably placed in relation to one another and the whole performance is genuinely believable. With any piece of music that demands realism and believable presentation, the Blu is capable of delivering an engrossing performance.

When you turn up the tempo and invite the Blu to play something faster and more aggressive the same smoothness and generally even handed presentation applied. The Musical Fidelity is more willing to slam through something utterly devoid of real instruments like Laurent Garnier’s The Man with the Red Face than its predecessors but where the Arcam is truly exciting, the greater refinement of the Musical Fidelity makes it fractionally less engaging. This being said though, the Musical Fidelity keeps this superb refinement even when recording quality starts to slide and I can’t ignore the generally smooth presentation of the partnering equipment in this instance perhaps favouring the Arcam over the Blu.
Musical Fidelity V90
With any piece of music that demands realism and believable presentation, the Blu is capable of delivering an engrossing performance
The same behavioural traits are present when the Musical Fidelity is used via the coaxial input. The single most impressive aspect is perhaps what you don’t hear which is any significant difference between the coax input and the Bluetooth module when listening to the same 16/44.1kHz files. The Blu really can give all it is capable of via Apt-X and if you have a library of ripped CD’s with limited High Res, it is genuinely all you need.

High res files do sound excellent though and the 24/96kHz release of Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell is a mighty piece of Dad Rock and the high res treatment has resulted in a seriously good recording that the Blu positively shines with. If you have a Blu-ray player, TV or some other device that can do high res UPnP streaming, the Blu will allow you to dip a toe into the process while focusing on Bluetooth as your main point of listening. Switching to using the digital output into the 752BD suggested that the Musical Fidelity is effectively transparent in the manner you would hope a digital device in 2014 would be. However the Blu is decoding a Bluetooth signal and it is doing so in a way that allows for a signal that is, to all intents, bit perfect being passed back out again.

Conclusion

Pros

  • Controlled and engaging performance
  • Excellent range
  • Well built

Cons

  • Can lack a little excitement
  • Slow to pair initially
  • Only available in silver

Musical Fidelity V90 Bluetooth DAC Review

As I keep hammering on like a stuck record (something of course unlikely to ever affect a solid state device replaying over a stable Bluetooth connection), the way the new arrivals into hi-fi are constructing and using audio systems is changing. The V90 Blu is going to be largely incomprehensible to an older user with a sizeable collection of CDs who might be looking at ways to use them in a system without a CD player but for anyone who has been using a Bluetooth enabled device as a portable source, the Blu is like the much more expensive Chord Hugo (albeit in more limited performance terms) in that it serves to act as a gateway between portable devices and physical systems. More importantly, it does it very well.

Is it better than the rBlink? The little Arcam is arguably a little more fun and probably a cooler piece of industrial design. The Blu hits back with greater flexibility, a better control interface and easier integration into most systems. If this is worth an extra £50 (and for many it will be), the Blu may well win out. On a wider level though, both products show beyond doubt that Bluetooth is fast moving beyond a convenience feature and into the realms of truly engrossing hi-fi.

Scores

Build Quality

.
.
8

Connectivity

.
.
8

Ease of Use

.
.
8

Features

.
.
8

Audio Performance

.
.
8

Value for Money

.
9

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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