Musical Fidelity MF-100

[Music To Your Ears]

Emily from Musical Fidelity came over today to show me the new cans being launched in a couple of weeks, the MF-100. Along with the V90-HPA.

We listened to a whole range of music across various sources as follows:

Spotify (320) through an iPhone
The V90-HPA plugged into the computer with Spotify
CDs, and Spotify streamed through my Unico DAC, headphones plugged into a Leema Tucana II amp

Music ranged from Roberta Flack to full-on Techno with everything in between including The Smiths, Groove Armada, Fleetwood, Leftfield, Massive Attack, Dandy Warhols, Bombay Bicycle Club, Angus & Julia Stone, Radiohead and much more, and lasted for about 2 hours.

I won't bore you with the differences between each of the different sources as that's pretty obvious. But overall impressions were very positive indeed whichever source was used and whatever genre of music. Voices sounded real and full of emotion ie Roberta and Tracy Chapman. Plenty of detail and a good soundstage. The MF-100's come with two different ear pads and to my ears, by far the better of the two was the Alcantara rather than the leather. The music just seemed deeper and more involving, I was surprised about the difference the choice of earpads made. Perhaps if I was to listen on my own after a few glasses of wine, the detail heard when using the leather pads would be greater but with less warmth, nevertheless best of both worlds really, however you are feeling. My background is Arcam for many years which probably suggests how I like things, these days it's a valve Unison Research CDE with upgraded onboard DAC.

Bass was solid and resonant, no hint of flabby, always in control. A real pleasure to listen to.

If I had any criticisms of them they were ever so slightly slower with a tad more sibilance than my Kudos C2 speakers, but this really is splitting hairs.

When compared to a pair of AKG K511 phones that were lying around there was no contest, The AKG's sounded as if you were listening in an empty room, a step away from the music.

Build quality was excellent, really nice materials that looked as if they will last well.

If I was looking to spend just over £100 I would be more than happy to buy these, an excellent product, and no doubt will be a great success. Some on order for the launch in a couple of weeks.