D’Agostino MxV Integrated Integrated Amplifier

hfnoutstanding This new heavyweight built-in blends inspiration from D’Agostino’s Momentum HD preamp and MxV energy amp into an app-controlled design with modular improve path

Integrated amplifiers are a matter of life-style selection, and we have all heard the arguments about why they’re both higher or worse than separate pre/energy combos. Whatever the gross sales pitch, professional or anti, the underside line is that you’re selecting space-saving over attainable audiophile preferences. With the Momentum MxV Integrated – the opposite one within the household being the less-costly Progression [HFN Nov ’20] – founder and chief engineer Dan D’Agostino is supplying you with completely every thing in a single field, for a heady £73,998 in silver or black.

That place to begin, nevertheless, will get you a line-level-only unit with distant management. Save for one set of RCA inputs, the rest are balanced, on XLRs. Ironically, regardless of it being an built-in amp, the Momentum MxV consists of two chassis, however the pair match collectively as one. The decrease part homes the linear energy provides, fed off a 2000VA transformer, first discovered within the Momentum M400 MxV amplifier [HFN Nov ’22] and mentioned to drive ‘a close to 60,000µF capacitor financial institution’. A 30-pin connector on the highest mates with a socket on the underside of the preamplifier chassis so rhetoric apart, it is a single unit.

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The provide strains, and logic, are carried by way of a hefty (blue) multi-pin connector

At Your Fingertips

Then it’s important to add both one or each of two non-compulsory modules should you do not already personal a high-end DAC or phono stage, and there’s nothing it can’t deal with ought to each be fitted, as within the assessment pattern. The DAC (£11,398) permits streaming, community entry and accepts any digital supply which could be related by way of optical, USB, or coaxial connection.

D’Agostino’s iOS-only app can entry music saved on iPads, iPhones, and so on, and the amp has separate aerials for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the latter wanted for the hand held distant management. The app’s screens are self-explanatory, with a listing for music from the Cloud, an area server, or by way of providers on the Internet. This factor of the app is much less essential should you personal a great deal of bodily media or have music saved on a server, however as the total use of the Momentum MxV Integrated requires connection to a router – wirelessly or by way of cable – you would possibly as nicely make use of the app’s options.

What it presents past music entry are all the features discovered on the hockey-puck-shaped distant, together with steadiness, standby, quantity, mute, enter choice, polarity inversion and a ‘darkish mode’ to tone down the vivid gentle present offered by the entrance panel’s buttons and watch face meter.

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Volume is adjusted by way of a relay-switched resistor ladder [centre]. Electronic safety [top left] screens the primary amp with its seven pairs of ON Semi energy transistors, per channel, mounted on copper/alloy heatsinks

As for the £5698 phono module, this makes use of DIP switches for enter loading that may be set to 50, 100, 200, 400ohm, 1k or 47kohm. Unfortunately, the DIPs are contained in the unit, which requires eradicating the highest cowl while you swap between cartridges. Once put in, the phono module takes over the lone pair of RCA inputs, however you could find RCA-to-XLR adapters on-line for as little as £8 to make use of the MxV Integrated’s balanced inputs with single-ended sources. I confess that the amplifier being XLR-only did not hassle me as a result of I’ve a phono amp, an open-reel tape deck and a single-box common CD/SACD/Blu-ray participant with balanced outputs. And imagine me: it is usually to be most well-liked.

Recalling the pre-MxV Integrated [HFN Dec ’14], and as one who makes use of a Momentum S250 MxV Stereo Power Amplifier, I used to be predisposed positively towards the MxV Integrated save for one consideration. The modules beg the query – however finally reply it – as to why one chooses an built-in amp over separates, even when they occupy further house and AC sockets galore. Quite merely, even if you’re blessed with each, it is nonetheless solely about saving house.

The Choice Is Yours

Think about it: totally loaded, this unit leaves little change from £92,000. Adding the modules precludes the necessity for any further actual property apart from that which the 51kg, 464x241x452mm (whd) lump requires. Only the modules’ costs give pause. They are suited to the duty, however any audiophile not averse to selecting exterior elements can simply get monetary savings and arguably get a greater DAC and phono stage.

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Optional digital/streaming module is predicated on a third-party community audio answer and consists of an ESS DAC

That, nevertheless, defeats the first raison d’etre of this built-in amplifier, for under the modules supply 100% assured matching of preamp stage, energy amp, all inputs and the elimination of interconnects between them. Furthermore, the MxV Integrated’s overkill PSU undermines those that argue that separate preamps and energy amps profit from their very own remoted energy provides, as a result of this beast of a product treats the facility provide as an artwork kind.

In addition to feeding the amplifier music by way of the app to check that it labored, my findings are primarily based on better-sounding, bodily sources: LPs, CDs and reel-to-reel tapes. I’m positive a lot of you discover nice pleasure in streaming providers, however I do not.

Tropical Sounds

Faced with a plethora of XLR inputs, I did not hesitate for a second when it got here to firing up my Otari MX5050 reel-to-reel. Of late I’ve been obsessing over the ‘loungecore’ music of Martin Denny, who peppered his recordings with unique sounds. Quiet Village [Liberty 7122] is a primary instance, with a slick seven-piece ensemble punctuated by uncommon percussion.