Musical Fidelity Elektra E100 Amplifier
Some manufacturers give their products names, some give them numbers, depending perhaps on whether they wish them to be seen as having a personality or a scientific exactness. Few provide such a mixture of the approaches as do Musical Fidelity, who started with The Preamp, one of whose later incarnations partnered the Typhoon power amp, but who also produced the A1, the B1 and other models whose designations sounded more like secret missile projects than memorable product names. Now we see a mixture of the two, with the appearance of the Elektra system, whose component parts have numbers as well. From this range comes the Elektra E100 integrated amplifier.
The E100 is no less physically striking than one has come to expect when confronted with Musical Fidelity amplifiers. It manages to look discreet and attention-grabbing at the same time, largely by dint of its unusual finishing of a basically traditional layout. Like all good minimalist designs, its front panel is big, black and singularly uncluttered by controls. It is dominated by its central volume control, which for some reason is surrounded by a gap through which part of the circuit board can be seen, along with the wiring loom for the volume control itself. The pot is motorized, in the interests of allowing remote operation without the compromise of electronic gain control, and as it turns this set of three coloured wires can be seen coiling and uncoiling round its shaft. Below this control is the row of selector buttons, offering no less than six inputs including the tape monitor loop. A phono input circuit is incorporated, but unlike earlier MF amplifiers the E100 cannot be switched between moving-coil and moving-magnet input characteristics; if an MC cartridge is to be used, a separate transformer or head-amp must be purchased.
No surprises so far- the usual set of basic facilities, with no fripperies such as tone controls, balance controls, filters or headphones sockets. What makes the E100 stand out is the detail, starting with the fascia, which is made of very highly polished anodized aluminium. The volume control, with its sensually rounded shape, is also made of diecast aluminium with a paint finish, and sports an LED to show where it is pointing. Under normal circumstances this glows red like all the other indicators, but when the amplifier is muted (only possible from the remote control) it changes to amber.
The selector switches are finished in the same way, and co-ordinate with the volume control by having similar rounded contours, looking for all the world like a set of little black bullets sticking out of the panel. Each contains an LED in its tip to indicate its being the active input, with the exception of the Tape/Source switch, which is provided in parallel with the Tape 1 input and gives the expected off-tape monitoring facility. Apart from the on/off switch, this is the only front-panel control not duplicated on the remote, which makes it all the more curious that it has no indicator. The travel on the switch is so short that it is by no means apparent which state it is in, and I can imagine this causing a few moments' unnecessary confusion from time to time.
The power on/off switch without an indicator since there will always be an LED lit somewhere when the amplifier is on - lies in the same line as the input selectors and matches their shape, and the remote control sensor is hidden among them, cunningly disguised as another switch. The overall effect is very streamlined and suggests quality and thoughtful design.
The rear panel sports the usual banks of phonos (gold-plated) for the various inputs, as well as two pairs of preamp-out/power amp-in phonos with sturdy solid bridges fitted. These connectors can of course be used for various purposes, from bi-wiring suitable loudspeakers to the insertion of further processing such as equalization or a surround-sound decoder of some sort. The instruction manual includes as tern caution as to the potential signal degradation such outboard processors might introduce.
The loudspeaker terminals are spectacularly sturdy affairs, combining 4mrn sockets with solid metal knurled nuts for spade terminal/bare wire connection. These are among the most heavyduty connectors I have ever seen, even if they do dispense with the shrouds often provided as a safeguard against less-than-perfect wiring.
There is a further, some what unusual, pair of connectors on the back: the Aux 2 input has, besides its phono terminals, a pair of XLR sockets. This is to tie-in with the XLR outputs fitted to some of MF's ancilliary devices, and the manual makes the reasonable comment that XLRs are electrically superior to phono sockets. This is undeniably true-the contact area is larger, the connection is more mechanically secure thanks to its latching action and the pins and receptacles create a mutual wiping action when the plugs are inserted or removed. Unfortunately, the manual goes further and maintains that the wiring 'reduces noise interference over a long run'.
Let us be clear about balanced wiring, which is virtually universal in professional audio and frequently makes use of XLR connectors because of the advantages outlined above. Whereas 'normal' unbalanced wiring uses two conductors, the return side of which also acts as the screen against outside interference, balanced wiring uses three: two to carry the signal plus a third purely to screen the other two. The system is configured such that while both signal wires have the same signal on them, one is in opposite phase to the other-simply inverted-so that the destination equipment simply has to look at the difference between them to recover the original signal. Any stray interference picked up along the cable-induced mains hum, RF noise and so on-will be present equally on both wires and will therefore be ignored. It follows that if one of the signal lines becomes shorted to the screen for any reason the advantage will be lost. MF's wiring diagram makes it clear that this is exactly how the 'E100's XLRs are wired-pin 3, normally the return signal line, is connected to signal ground. The input is therefore not balanced, and offers no greater immunity to interference than the phono socket.
The other factor which helps professional equipment overcome interference problems is the operating level-professional gear handles signals at a higher level (l4dB higher as a rule) than consumer equipment, which makes any interference which the wiring might pick up less significant in comparison. The E100's XLR inputs operate at the same nominal level as its phono sockets, and are, in effect if not in fact, simply connected in parallel with them; overall, then, the XLRs offer no advantage other than the mechanical ones, and the manual is not correct in claiming otherwise. In fact, anyone tempted to connect a true professional source to this input might find themselves in trouble, as 'pro' level is high enough to overload the E100's inputs, and the wiring of the XLR will upset some electronically balanced outputs and introduce serious distortion.
To be fair, in fitting XLRs Musical Fidelity are doing no more than following something of a trend-several manufacturers are doing the same thing for one reason or another-and if this trend were to result in the appearance of more equipment with true professionally-configured inputs and outputs, with all the advantages that would bring, it would be no bad thing. At this stage, however, the poor consumer is likely to be more confused than helped balanced wiring is a concept which even some professionals have difficulty getting to grips with, and connections which look like pro inputs but in fact aren't just complicate things further. It is important to make clear that none of this has any bearing whatsoever on the excellent performance of the amplifier-it is simply that I would prefer to see the XLRs omitted rather than presented in this fashion.
The rear panel is completed by a ground terminal screw for pickup connection and a three-pin IEC mains inlet. The supplied mains le ad now comes fitted with a moulded 13A plug for the UK market, in place of the two-pin plug formerly provided by MF. As stipulated in the instructions the plug is fitted with a 10-amp fuse; while this value is available if you know where to look, it is not easy to come by these days, and I wonder why MF felt it necessary to specify such an odd value. I tried fitting a SA fu se on the assumption that it would be blown by the switch-on surge; it survived, but presumably SA is regarded as too close for comfort. The danger is that a user might resort to substituting a 13A fuse in the event of failure, which under fault conditions could le ad to currents being drawn in excess of the capacity of the mains lead and IEC connector.
A Musical Fidelity hallmark from time to time has been the enthusiastic use of Class A output stages. The circuit topology of the E100 is not given in the manual, but since the cabinet has no ventilation arrangements whatsoever and yet s till runs no more than warm it is a safe bet that it is not ClassA.
Performance Musical Fidelity's quoted specifications are famous for their brevity, perhaps taking a leaf out of Rolls-Royce's book. The figures MF do quote are remarkably modest, and undoubtedly easily exceeded in practice; for instance, the specs give a frequency response of 20Hz-20kHz +/- 1dB, whereas measurement showed it to be completely flat way below 20Hz and only about 0.5dB down at 30kHz. This lack of inclination to impress with figures alone perhaps reflects MF's underlying philosophy-if you want to know how the E100 behaves, there is simply no substitute for listening to it. Their own description of the amplifier uses terms such as "musical" and "high definition" which clearly indicates the basis on which they wish to be judged, and quite right too.
The sound the E100 produces is very satisfying indeed. The amplifier gives a solid, credible account of apparently any material it is presented with, and possibly flatters it slightly as well. Many amplifiers give such a 'warts-and-all' rendition of source material as to make one suspect that they have deliberately set out to emphasize the warts-which, as we all know, are there to be found in most recordings if one probes deeply enough. Such is not the case with the E100, which gives very pleasing results on virtually everything, providing a focused, detailed sound stage without ever coming across as excessively clinical. Its spectral balance is clean, smooth and transparent, with no tendency to over-emphasize any specific areas. Its breadth does justice to the most demanding orchestral work, and at the same time it provides all the tangible punch required for rock music at reasonable levels. At very high volumes it begins to show signs of strain earlier than its rated power output might suggest, but under normal listening conditions such levels would rarely be reached to be fair, Musical Fidelity warn against excessive volume in the manual.
At the other end of the range, smaller-scale musical material is delivered with a fine sense of detail and space, and the same tightly locked stereo image as prevails with the more exuberant s tuff. I found its performance at low, background-type volumes interesting, as the presence and fullness of the sound seemed better preserved than one might normally expect, with, for example, the same feeling of real movement on deep bass notes as at more realistic levels. The LP record input, so often an apparent afterthought these days, performs impeccably, with a very low noise floor and fine rendition of detail, dynamics and frequency extremes. In all respects this is an amplifier I should be happy to live with.
At £600 the E100 sits significantly above the budget end of the market, but is reasonably priced in terms of the audiophile bracket in which it undoubtedly belongs. It is an attractive unit which in spite of its distinctive styling would blend well with most settings and most other equipment, and its sonic performance is very impressive indeed, capable of providing long stretches of satisfying listening with an attention to detail which refreshes without ever tiring quite an achievement.
