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Musical Fidelity A5, Simaudio I-5 or Krell s300i

I posted a few days ago and I think I ended up answering my own question. I'm in the market for an integrated amp with some decent power (~100W) to power my Vandersteen 2Ci's. I have acurus separates now and compared to my friend's NAD c356bee they sound terrible, very flat and not engaging.

I'm looking for a piece up to about ~$1,500 used and I already see a decent amount of well liked gear. I'd like to stick with good, recognized, solid name brands that will afford me the ability to sell the piece of I don't like the sound, as I won't be able to audition before I buy.

My room is fairly well treated, and is 12' x 11'. I listen to vinyl on a Rega P1 through a Bellari VP129 tube phono pre, and my main digital source is an Asus Xonar Essence ST PCI sound card playing 24/96 flac rips although I also have an acurus cd player that rarely gets used. I listen to 80's and 90's rock/alternative and folk/country, with some electronic music sprinkled in, and occasionally some classic rock.

I'm considering the Musical Fidelity A5, the Simaudio Moon i5, and the Krell s300i. From what I can tell it's hard to go wrong with either, and they all seem to be within my budget used. I've read the Krell can be unemotional or boring. I'm leaning towards the Musical Fidelity but wanted to know if there were any other integrateds in this range from other brands I've yet to consider, naim, rogue audio (although a tubed power amp right now doesn't seem like a good fit for me in terms of uptime), bel canto, or other models within these manufacturers lines I should consider? Again, I'm mostly looking at mainstream, SS manufacturers that have enough power to give me good, accurate, taut bass from my Vandersteen's 2Ci's 10", and open, airy, high resolution in the mids/highs without being harsh or bright. I'd like to move to Thiel CS3.6's or so some day, but either way I'll need something with enough power to drive 86 - 88db, 6 - 8ohm loads.

Thanks for any direction you guys can point me in.
fargel
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I would get the Krell. I have 4 pieces of Musical Fidelity but don't think the A-5 was one of their better efforts. The 300i has a LOT of power.
s7horton
1,065 posts
 
I love musical fidelity gear. Especially the older stuff. It does not, however, hold its resale very well at all. I recently went through a similar search as you. Looking for about 100 watt integrated. I ended up with a luxman 550 class a 20 wpc. Over your price range though.
sfar's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
sfar
1,352 posts
 
And I love the Simaudio I-5. I've owned both the standard version and the I-5 LE and it's one of the few pieces of gear I've ever owned that I can't find any fault with. It's a very neutral, sweet but powerful integrated with the best ergonomics I've encountered in a piece of audio equipment.
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,318 posts
 
For Musical Fidelity, the A308 is a better choice than the A5. I've used Musical Fidelity for years, original X-series, A3, A308, and A5. Currently use the A308, as it has been the best so far. Although rated at less power than the A5, the A308 sounds more powerful, with much better sound quality. Check out the review at SoundStage, an absolutely perfect description of it's sound. They even comment that it outperforms the Tri-Vista in some areas.
soniqmike
132 posts
 
Try the Yamaha AS2000. I have owned two of the 3 integrateds you are considering: The Simaudio I-5 and the Musical Fidelity A5.

On the Simaudio, I wanted to like this one, but ultimately gave up after numerous match-ups with various cables and even speakers of the expensive kind. It's all very subjective of course, but I found its sound somewhat lifeless with exagerated ''dry'' bass with a good thump factor but little actual definition. On acoustic bass, I like to hear (and feel) the strings, not just the ''thump''. I know a lot of folks like this integrated, and the build quality is ok for the price.

I did prefer the Musical Fidelity A5 when compared to the I-5. It has more authority, but, as in a previous MF A-300 I used to own, there is a certain brightness to the sound that I could not live with - But if you have less-dynamic speakers (like some B&W's) you could have a good match. But pair the A5 with highly revealing speakers - and listener fatigue comes in big time - it did for me.

I cannot speak for Krell, never owned Krell, and probably never will - it just doesn't call me.

NOW - if you don't mind being laughed at and snobbed at by your ''audiophile'' friends, I would suggest you give the amazing Yamaha AS 2000 a listen.

In my book, and for a LOT less money, it betters both the Simaudio I-5 (that's an easy one) and Musical Fidelity A5 in sound, and smokes them in features. It's not even close on the feature count. Don't let the fact that it has tone controls fool you - they work in a very subtle way and are of the microprocessor kind - suddenly with those, 50% of my cd collection became listenable again.

Do a search for this amplifier and read up on it - it is a very nice package, beautifully built, and sounds stunning, and not just for the price. It is the least expensive of my components in my system - it can be partnered with much higher priced gear - tha's how good it is.

One last suggestion, but in a totally different direction of course - The Naim Nait is of course another proverbial no-brainer, but that's a different story altogether!

Good luck!
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