Super stack

This four-box pre/power stack is a bank account buster that shares the styling of the Nu-Vista 800 integrated. Fantasy buy!

Ever get the feeling we’ve been here before? Well, the arrival of Musical Fidelity’s latest amplifier system brings a new twist to the whole déjà vu thing as the Nu-Vista naming and macho aesthetics are familiar from the historically hefty Nu-Vista 800 integrated amplifier. That classic tube-equipped integrated, also rated at 300W/8ohm, provided the inspiration for both the industrial and technical design of the PRE and PAS here, the hybrid nuvistor/transistor concept now evolved into a pre/power setup, complete with separate PSUs for each. So one box is now four...

Thus we have an all-analogue fully balanced preamp the Nu-Vista PRE, selling for £20,500 complete with its partnering PRE PSU power supply to which it connects using a trio of umbilical cables. The matching 300W stereo power amp, the £22,000 Nu-Vista PAS, is serviced by the PAS PSU via no fewer than five umbilicals. All four units share the same massive alloy casework, with different fascia and top sections machined away to accommodate grilles and displays, etc. as required. The PAS has fluted sidecheeks too in order to improve the heatsinking of its transistor power amp.

The PRE and PRE PSU together weigh in at 47kg while the PAS and PAS PSU add up to 67kg, thanks in no small part to the latter’s much heftier toroidal transformers. Want more power? The Nu-Vista series will soon be joined by a monoblock power amp, the PAM, a fully balanced, bridged design rated at 600W/8ohm and pitched at £20,500 apiece. It weighs the same as the PAS and comes in the same metalwork as the units here, all of which are available in a silver or black finish.