Faithful to its policy of “communicating vessels” with the aim of making the features of its elite models available to the greatest number of consumers possible, the veteran Musical Fidelity has just announced the marketing of a phono preamplifier that places the concept of quality/price ratio applied to the High End achievements of its category at a new level. This is the Nu-Vista Vinyl S, a stylish electronic device that adopts the basic circuit design of the absolute reference model Nu-Vista Vinyl 2, and integrates it into a revised chassis and printed circuit boards to take vinyl record playback to the highest levels of excellence, while keeping the price factor under control.
With a slimmer aesthetic than its older brother, thanks to an intelligent rearrangement of its internal organization that has allowed it to reduce its overall volume by 45%, the new Musical Fidelity phono preamp shares with that very significant elements that we list below; fully balanced architecture executed with discrete components, gain circuitry consisting of three stages driven by circuits configured in Class A, passive RIAA, Decca and Columbia equalization in two separate sections, independent power subsystem with Super Silent transformers and, of course, the exclusive Nuvistor miniature tubes (specifically eight units of the model 7586). Another fundamental feature of the Nu-Vista Vinyl S is that its input and output circuitry are completely separated, while it has a powerful filtering scheme for the signal from the electrical network and an elaborate DC blocking circuitry.
As one would expect from a reference phono electronics, the new Musical Fidelity also shines in the area of operational flexibility, being equipped with two sets of balanced and unbalanced inputs, as well as one set of balanced and unbalanced outputs. Regarding the settings aimed at achieving a perfect adaptation of the signal from the turntable used, a generous amount of options is available for the gain (40/43 dB for MM and 60/63 dB for MC, with the possibility of adding 6 dB to each of these values), the input impedance (47 kohms for MM and selectable between 5 and 47 ohms for MC) and the input capacitance (selectable between 500 and 400 pF for MM and 400 pF for MC). Finally, a subsonic filter with a cutoff slope of 18 dB/octave at 20 Hz contributes to suppressing sub-bass frequencies that could be captured by the pickup capsule and increasing distortion.
