Musical Fidelity rejuvenates the NU-VISTA 800 integrated amplifier.
This amp is the pinnacle of power and finesse integrated in a single chassis.
General Description
The original NU-VISTA 800 enjoyed the top-of-the-line NU-VISTA spot since its intro- duction in 2013 till its discontin- uation in 2021 due to supply shortages of parts.
The NU-VISTA legend lives on
The use of Nuvistor tubes and the pursuit of the best sound possible go hand-in-hand at Musical Fidelity. You can feel and hear the passion when you listen to our NU-VISTA products.
Round 2 – Beefier and Better
We’ve used the opportunity to rework the NU-VISTA 800 and bring it back – improved!
- NEW: The new front panel sports a new display
- NEW: We rewound the power transformers for even less noise
- NEW: We revised the pow- er supply circuits and added the remote on/ standby feature
Heroic Build Quality
The Nu-Vista 800.2‘s mechani- cal construction is uncompro- misingly rigid and solid. The casework is nearly immune to external vibrations and elec- tromagnetic interferences.
Sound
The sound is as natural as can be – silky smooth with enor- mous transients. Amazingly re- laxing and, at the same time involving. The imaging of your favourite artist in your listening room is more realistic than ever.
The NU-VISTA 800.2 is available for an MSRP of 11.990€ (incl. VAT).
Available at Musical Fidelity dealers from July 2023.
The TITAN inside
The TITAN – released in 2009 – was one of Musical Fidelity‘s most important and ground- breaking amplifiers.
All NU-VISTA‘s, including the 800.2, were the first to include the locally decoupled out- put stage since the TITAN. This meant giving each output device a corresponding high current bulk supply capacitor. These capacitors mounted on the power amplifier PCB, give it a similar appearance to a “V10” engine!
Mounting such a capacitor near each output transistor allows more immediate ac- cess to stored energy, with much lower impedance path to flow through. This results in better transient response and coincidently provides a degree of improved
ripple filtering at high- er currents in conjunction with the supply capacitors situ- ated elsewhere.
The main supply capacitors are situated right on the rec- tifiers also decreasing supply impedance and helps to keep rectification and hum noise away from the high gain PA circuit.
Power and Performance
Never before in the history of hi-fi have Nuvistor tubes been coupled with state-of-the-art SMD technology and sophisticated modern design techniques. The NU-VISTA 800.2’s technical per- formance is astonishing.
- More than 300 watts per channel with uncon- ditional stability margins and incredible load driving ability.
- Incredibly low distortion over a colossal band- width.
- Extremely low noise.
- Extremely flat frequency response.
From Nu-Vista 800 to 800.2
The NU-VISTA 800.2 has received a new modern front plate and a completely new display in line with our new range of Nu-Vista products. We up- dated the power supply circuits and control and electronic on/off control circuitry to adapt for the new display. We also added a remote on/stand- by function.
We rewound our transformers, for lower stan- ding flux, so they are less sensitive to mains DC offset noise. This means a larger (and heavier) transformer.
The all new NU-VISTA 800.2 is now a new hybrid integrated, that visually fits into the new range of NU-VISTA products, with improved sound and noise floor.
Specifications
- Line level inputs: 4 pairs line level RCA connectors; 1 pair line level balanced XLR connectors
- Line level outputs: 1 pair line level RCA connectors, constant level LINE outputs; 1 pair line level RCA connectors, PREAMP outputs for e.g. biamping
- Speaker outputs: 2 pairs 4mm banana plug/binding posts
Power requirement - Mains voltages: 115/230VAC 50/60Hz (fac- tory pre-set); 100VAC 50/60Hz (alternative) • Consumption: <0.5W in standby mode (or-
ange LED lit); 130W on and idle (blue LED lit); 900 Watts maximum
General Information - Dimensions (WxHxD): 483 x 187 x 510 mm • Weight: 41 kg net
Output - Power:
330 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms
500 Watts into 4 ohms
1000 Watts peak into 2 ohms - Voltage: 52 Volts RMS, 20Hz to 20 kHz; on- set of clipping; 147 Volts peak to peak
- Current: 120 Amps peak to peak
- Damping factor: 200
- Output devices: 5 pairs per channel
Line input - THD+N: < 0.005 % typical, 20Hz to 20 kHz • SNR: > 107dB ‘A’-weighted
- Input impedance: 40 k Ohms
- Frequency response: +0, –0.1dB, 10Hz to
30 kHz
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 nu- vistors. 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 such as Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, and so on. Remarkably, you can currently see a U47 microphone, with its stand, cables and power supply on eBay for $10.999 „Buy-it-now“.
Unfortunately just as uses for Nuvistor tubes were being explored, the transistor was inven- ted and it was ‘game over’ for Nuvistors. The- re the matter rested until about fifteen years ago, when Musical Fidelity created the first of its ground-breaking NU-VISTA series. These le- gendary, 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.
