Long Anticipated Integrated Arrives
The long anticipated Musical Fidelity M6i integrated amp offers the clean design, superior build-quality, and sonics you expect from the British audiophile company. It sounds like a component costing far more than its modest price tag, and it looks every bit as good as its outstanding technical performance. "For most people for most of the time the M6i is the perfect companion for music," says Musical Fidelity founder Antony Michaelson with characteristic understatement.
The two-channel M6i delivers 200-watts-per-channel into 8 ohms, providing a full 75 amps of peak-to-peak current for the power on demand that movie soundtracks and orchestral works thrive upon. Although the design of this integrated is inspired by classic Golden Age hi-fi components, the M6i is right up to date as well with its USB input.
"Although the M6i is mid range price it is, in fact, closely related to our new, prestige, AMS series," says Antony Michaelson. "Why reinvent the wheel? The AMS series circuitry is really super-performance so we have used large elements of that in the M6i’s design."
True Monoblock Internal Construction
It looks like a single component. But internally the M6i is actually a separate preamp with two discreet monoblock power amps in a sleek package, giving you the performance edge of dual components and the convenience of a singe-chassis design. The M6i has a huge power transformer which gives entirely separate outputs for left and right power amps and preamps. Balanced XLR inputs take full advantage of the benefits of the design.
Due to its excellent practical linearity, low distortion, and excellent load driving ability the M6i can be paired with any loudspeaker. Because it is extremely quiet, high sensitivity loudspeakers are fine. But at the same time, the M6i is very powerful. So lower sensitivity speakers present no problem.
The Ins and Outs
The M6i gives you all the connectivity you need. It offers one pair of line level XLR inputs and four pairs of line level RCA inputs, along with a USB input for computer hook-up. The outputs include on pair of line level RCA connectors (constant level tape recording outputs) plus one pair of line level RCA connector preamp outputs for biamping. Speaker outputs consist of two pairs of banana plug/binding post connectors.
Calm and Unruffled
The M6i’s sound is calm and unruffled. Huge dynamics are delivered with ease. Quiet passages are sweet and warm. The overall picture the M6i delivers is natural and uncolored.
Musical Fidelity has outdone itself making the build quality as good as possible. The front panel is beautifully finished. The knobs and buttons are machined from solid aluminum, and the logo is struck from medical grade stainless steel. The heatsinks are fine line-finished, custom-made extrusions.
Protection Circuitry
The M6i has Musical Fidelity’s, unique, optical feedback protection circuitry. This special configuration gives speed of light protection which allows higher peak current deliveries without compromising its protection. It’s really quite a special feature.
Anthony Michaelson on the M6i
"The M6i’s distortion (or lack of it) is equally remarkable for a mid range integrated amp. Its wide band distortion (more on this later) is less than 0.009%. This is a remarkable figure for any amplifier let alone a mid range integrated.
"The reason we go on to such length about technical performance is that we know that an amplifier’s full technical performance affects the sound. The M6i can deliver its voltage into almost any load without significant nonlinearities. At the same time it hardly produces any distortion whatever. Couple these excellent characteristics to its low noise and the result is a neutral proper high fidelity amplifier.
"Listening to the M6i is like listening to the very best high end amplifiers. It has a deep wide stage with excellent image placing. Dynamics are handled easily with no drama or clipping, virtually any loudspeaker is driven with ease and no sign of stress. The bottom end is deep, powerful fast and extended, the top end is sweet and clear.
"The M6i is not a drama queen it just presents the music as it was and lets is speak for itself without interfering in any way."
Product Manual(1mb PDF)  | 
