Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2
The Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2 is a power-house of an amplifier with outstanding clarity and finesse.
Receiving new modern looks, a new display and revised internals it is all the original 800 was and more.
The Nu-Vista 800 was an amplifier that has enjoyed much popularity and use as a high end hybrid integrated over the past few years.
Unfortunately, as with all things encompassing modern, as well as more traditional technology, parts were discontinued.
The original “retro look” display was suddenly no longer produced at very short notice.
Musical Fidelity were therefore left with a choice – discontinue a popular amplifier or workaround and replace the original with updated version but as unchanged as possible from the original formula.
Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2 In Brief
A work of audio art using their incredible Nu-Vista circuitry with 300WPC+
Redesigned front panel with new display
Rewound transformer for less noise
Revised power supply circuits
Remote on/standby
Locally decoupled output stage taken from the TITAN power amp
Total stability margin, will drive any loudspeaker with ease
Cutting edge technical performance with the magic of Nu-Vistors
Dual mono power amps with separate preamp
Five versatile inputs – Balanced XLR, CD, Tuner, 2 x Auxiliary
Both fixed line and variable pre outputs
Home Theatre bypass
Superb design, Heroic build quality
Never before in the history of hi-fi have Nuvistor tubes been coupled with state-of-the-art SMD technology and sophisticated modern design techniques.
The Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2’s technical performance is astonishing.
More than 300 watts per channel with unconditional stability margins and incredible load driving ability.
Incredibly low distortion over a colossal bandwidth.
Extremely low noise.
Extremely flat frequency response.
The Nu-Vista 800.2 measures like a dream but, more importantly, it sounds incredible.
It is silky smooth with enormous transients and an effortless feel that is at once relaxing and involving.
Of special note how the Nu-Vista 800.2 projects images between the loudspeakers so that you can almost touch them.
The TITAN heritage
The Nu-Vista 800 was an amplifier that has enjoyed much popularity and use as a high-end hybrid integrated over the past few years.
It was originally designed in 2013 to bring back the then discontinued Nu-vista family of products.
Musical Fidelity reworked the old Nu-Vista circuit to modern practices and it was the first to include the locally decoupled output stage since the TITAN.
This involved giving each output device a corresponding high current bulk supply capacitor.
These capacitors mounted on the power amplifier PCB, give it similar appearance to a “V10” engine
Mounting such a capacitor near to the each output transistor allows more immediate access to stored energy, with much lower impedance path to flow through.
This results in better transient response and coincidently provides a degree of improved ripple filtering at higher currents in conjunction with the supply capacitors situated elsewhere.
The main supply capacitors are situated right on the rectifiers also decreasing supply impedance and helps to keep rectification and hum noise away from the high gain PA circuit.
This unit was very popular, bringing Nu-Vista sound to a new generation of listeners and also a matching CD player was produced, and received great acclaim as well.
From Nu-Vista 800 to 800.2
Unfortunately, as with all things encompassing modern, as well as more traditional technology, parts were discontinued.
The original “retro look” display was suddenly no longer produced at very short notice.
Musical Fidelity were therefore left with a choice – discontinue a popular amplifier or workaround and replace the original with updated version but as unchanged as possible from the original formula.
The Nu-Vista 800.2 has received a new modernised front plate and a completely new display.
It‘s in line with their new range of Nu-Vista products.
They soon realised the need to update the power supply circuits and control and electronic on/off control circuitry to adapt for the new display.
Happily, this meant they could also add in the missing remote on/standby function as well.
And while they were already at it, they had their transformers rewound, for lower standing flux, so they are less sensitive to mains DC offset noise.
This means a slightly larger (and heavier) transformer which, thankfully, still fits the same casework.
The upshot is they have now a new hybrid integrated, the Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2, that will visually fit into the new range of Nu-Vista products, while keeping the audio parameters of the original untouched, while even improving them in certain areas.
Heroic Build Quality
The Nu-Vista 800.2‘s mechanical construction is uncompromisingly rigid and solid in typical Musical Fidelity tradition.
Front panel and side panels are milled from extruded aluminium profiles and are extremely massive.
The Nu-Vista 800.2 is basically immune against the effects of vibration from the environment.
The same can be said about electro magnetic immunity.
The massive aluminium case acts as a Faraday cage.
Let’s not forget the stunning remote control.
It protects the internals against outer electromagnetic fields, and in the same way, the rest of your HiFi system against electromagnetic fields generated by the Nu-Vista 800.2.
The new Nu-Vista 800.2 is a continued labour of love for Musical Fidelity.
Their passion for Nuvistor tubes didn‘t stop.
Everyone at Musical Fidelity hopes that you derive as much pleasure listening to the Nu-Vista 800.2 as they had creating it.
Nuvistor Tubes
Nuvistor tubes were invented in the 1950s to solve the many shortcomings of conventional tubes.
Unlike them, Nuvistor tubes offer very high reliability, low microphony, low noise, consistency from batch to batch, small size, relatively low power consumption and great technical performance.
One famous application was in the Ampex MR-70, a costly studio tape recorder whose entire electronics section was based on nuvistors.
Another limited application of this very small tube was in studio-grade microphones from that era, the AKG/Norelco C12a, which employed the 7586, being a good example.
It was also later found in the famed Neumann U 47 studio microphone.
This microphone was highly regarded by artists all over the world, and was used by many top recording artists such as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and so on.
Unfortunately just as uses for Nuvistor tubes were being explored, the transistor was invented and it was ‘game over’ for Nuvistors.
There the matter rested until about fifteen years ago, when Musical Fidelity created the first of its ground-breaking Nu-Vista series.
These legendary, limited-edition products sold out in a matter of months.
Today, fifteen years later, they command very high secondhand prices because of their beautiful sound, build quality, and longevity.
Specifications – Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2
Output
- Power: 330 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms; 500W into 4 ohms; 1000W peaks into 2 ohms
- Voltage: 52 Volts RMS, 20Hz to 20 kHz; onset of clipping; 147 Volts peak to peak
- Current: 120 Amps peak to peak
- Damping factor: 200
- Output devices: 5 pairs per channel
Line input
- THD+N: < 0.005 % typical, 20Hz to 20 kHz
- SNR: > 107dB ‘A’-weighted
- Input impedance: 40 k Ohms
- Frequency response: +0, –0.1dB, 10Hz to 30 kHz
Connections
- Line level inputs: 4 pairs line level RCA connectors; 1 pair line level balanced XLR connectors
- Line level outputs: 1 pair line level RCA connectors, constant level LINE outputs
- 1 pair line level RCA connectors, PREAMP outputs for e.g. biamping
- Speaker outputs: 2 pairs 4mm banana plug/binding posts
Power requirement
- Mains voltages: 115/230VAC 50/60Hz (factory pre-set); 100VAC 50/60Hz (alternative)
- Consumption: <0.5W in standby mode (orange LED lit); 130W on and idle (blue LED lit); 900 Watts maximum
General Information
- Dimensions (WxHxD): 483 x 187 x 510 mm
- Weight: 41 kg net
In our demonstration room.
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