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Flagship DAC with Nuvistor Triode Tubes
The Nu-Vista DAC is Musical Fidelity's new flagship DAC built around the critically acclaimed ESS 32-bit HyperStream II DAC architecture. The Nu-Vista DAC incorporates Musical Fidelity's famous Nuvistor circuitry, each channel having a fully balanced stage of Nuvistor 7586 triode tubes involved in a discrete Class A amplifier buffer. It features RCA and XLR outputs, 3x optical and 1x coax SPDIF inputs, 1x USB and 1x AES/EBU inputs. A I2S input is also there, for a future yet to be announced Nu-Vista CD-player.
Building on Musical Fidelity's knowledge and experience with Sabre ESS chips, the Nu-Vista DAC uses 2 x ES9038Q2M chips in dual differential mode for a pristine dual mono design. Thanks to these converters, the Nu-Vista DAC supports up to 768 kHz files in PCM and DSD256 via DoP and native DSD512 via USB, covering any digital file you can buy or stream.
The SPDIF inputs are greatly improved as well, now supporting MQA (up to 384kHz) and DSD (DoP 64) as well! Building on Musical Fidelity's knowledge and experience with Sabre ESS chips, the Nu-Vista DAC uses 2 x ES9038Q2M chips in dual differential mode for a pristine dual mono design.
Thanks to these converters, the Nu-Vista DAC supports up to 768 kHz files in PCM and DSD256 via DoP and native DSD512 via USB, covering any digital file you can buy or stream. The SPDIF inputs have been upgraded as well, now supporting MQA (up to 384kHz) and DSD (DoP 64).
Digital Architecture
Musical Fidelity utilizes an extremely low-noise, low-dropout regulator designed specifically for high-performance audio systems and optimized for high-resolution audio thanks to its revolutionary dual-regulator architecture. The inclusion of a Time Domain Jitter Eliminator results in superb SNR and THD+N performance with unbelievably detailed transient response.
Digital audio is the art of time. Musical Fidelity's proprietary clock design manages jitter rates of unrivalled and below 100 femtoseconds. This outperforms many renowned and respected audiophile clock generators! Other advances in the DAC section include optional upsampling and reclocking and an oversampling bypass mode.
The 16-core XMOS and CPLD MAX II Altera processors ensure there is always enough headroom for these operations, the digital filters, including Musical Fidelity's own new proprietary filter for optimum transient response, and the MQA processing.
The Legendary Nu-Vista Stage
Never before in the history of hi-fi have Nuvistor tubes been coupled with state-of-the-art fully balanced and discrete technology and sophisticated modern digital architecture. The DAC section goes directly into a high-performance, fully differential analogue stage with technical characteristics that are astonishing. Each channel has its own fully balanced Nuvistor output stage; the Nuvistor 7586 triode tubes running in a completely discrete Class A setup.
The power of the Nuvistors is leveraged as an excellent low-impedance output stage with ultra-low distortion and unfathomably low noise. But dreamlike technical measurements aren’t everything. Silky smooth sound with enormous transients and effortless feel that retains all its punchiness and clarity, without any harshness or astringent sound behavior. This is what the Nu-Vista DAC so masterfully accomplishes. Something that DACs often struggle with.
Upsampling, Reclocking, and Digital Filters
The CPLD MAX II (Complex Programmable Logic Device) Altera is used for re-clocking, which together with the XMOS microcontroller brings high-quality processing of both PCM, DSD and MQA technology. Upsampling and reclocking can be individually turned on and off for PCM signals.
DSD and MQA use their own format specific settings and filters. For PCM signals, the Nu-Vista DAC has eight selectable digital filters. One of them is Musical Fidelity's proprietary optimal transient digital filter. In this filter, Musical Fidelity trades off frequency domain performance for optimum time domain performance resulting in a slight frequency roll-off at 20kHz, but zero pre-ringing and zero post ringing.
Musical Fidelity for the Sake of Music
Musical purists looking to feel that hypnotic sensation of communication between listener and artist will find it here. Just leave it at its standard settings and feel the immediate musical integration. The whole sound is sweet and clear. The treble is completely grain free and extended. The bottom end sounds endless with tactile bass dynamics.
As you get reintroduced to your music library, you might want to discover what else is possible and hear it from different perspectives. Explore the sound stage with upsampling or without. See what reclocking does and let yourself be drawn in deeper. Choose between 7 different digital filters, or Musical Fidelity's favorite, the optimum transient filter. If you have the ultra-high-res files at hand, experience what the Nu-Vista DAC is truly capable of in oversampling bypass mode.
Heroic Build Quality
Like all Nu-Vistas, the mechanical construction is uncompromisingly rigid and solid in typical Musical Fidelity tradition. Front panel and side panels are milled from extruded aluminum profiles and are extremely massive. The Nu-Vista DAC is basically immune against the effects of vibration from the environment.
The same can be said about electromagnetic immunity. The massive aluminum case acts as a Faraday cage. It protects the incredibly sensitive phono stage internals against outer electromagnetic fields. Also included is the Nu-Vista remote control which is a solid "Nu-Vista" style re-imagination of usual remote controls. Machined from solid, it has the same feel as front panel of unit, has powerful beam, and runs off easily replaceable AAA Batteries.
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, including Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.
But 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.
