Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 600.2 Amplifier Review

I was really impressed when I reviewed the powerful Nu-Vista 800.2, so I had high hopes for its smaller sibling, the 600.2. This model has been updated more extensively than the 800.2 was compared to its predecessor, showing how seriously Musical Fidelity takes its craft.

The company made its name with the now-legendary A1 Class A integrated amplifier back in 1984. Before that, founder Antony Michaelson worked with Kevin Austin and well-known designer Tim de Paravicini to create great-sounding tube amps under the TVA name. Since Michaelson retired in 2018, Musical Fidelity has been owned by Audio Tuning, an Austrian hi-fi specialist company that also owns Pro-Ject.

Up Close

The reworking of the 600 into the 600.2 was overseen by Musical Fidelity’s design supremo, Simon Quarry. It benefits from all the company has learnt over the years in its Nu-Vista range. Nu-Vista refers to the fact that, like its bigger brother, the 600.2 is a hybrid with a valve preamp and transistor power stage.

The Class A tube preamp uses four Nuvistor 6S51N valves. The tubes are visible through a grille in the top panel and are mounted on a newly designed PCB. This PCB has been moved from the back panel to a new position at the top of the unit, on a self-screening tray, to reduce noise, the company says.

Nuvistors were invented back in the nineteen fifties to overcome perceived shortcomings in conventional tubes and are said to offer higher reliability, lower microphony, lower noise, and greater consistency. The preamp, nuvistor, and input circuits are dual-mono with separate left- and right-channel power supplies.

The old input switching integrated circuit has been replaced with relays for better separation and dynamics, and only the best polypropylene capacitors are said to be used throughout the signal path. Additionally, the 600.2 now uses a laser-trimmed volume control, with a claimed ±0.5dB gain error even at low listening levels.

The power amplifier section delivers 160W into 8 ohms (300W into 4). It uses four output transistors per channel, while the 330W 800.2 uses ten. The design reportedly owes much to the company’s aptly-named Titan. Each transistor has its own high-current bulk supply capacitor to improve energy delivery and reduce signal impedance. These capacitors sit directly on the rectifiers to keep hum out of the high-gain circuit. According to Musical Fidelity, the result is a better transient response.

You’re left in no doubt about the 600.2's solid construction when you attempt to lift its sizeable bulk (483x187x510mm, 36kg). The beautifully finished, massive front and side panels are milled from extruded aluminium. The top and bottom panels are made from equally solid aluminium sheet. The casework is designed to minimise environmental interference and microphony. It acts as a Faraday cage, isolating the internal circuitry from external electromagnetic fields.

The 600.2 is a highly focused analogue amplifier where sound quality is the object of the exercise, so there is no built-in DAC or streamer. Nor is there a phono input, but its fully balanced XLR inputs are designed to interface with the separate Nu-Vista Vinyl phono stage (and DAC). There is also a balanced XLR preamp output. Apart from that, the back panel sports six RCA line inputs and two sets of loudspeaker binding posts for easy bi-wiring.

The front panel is minimalist, with just two large rotary knobs – an input selector to the left and a volume control to the right. There are also small buttons for standby and display mode. The large central display can be configured in various ways to display the volume level and the selected input, or even large VU meters, should you so desire. They can also be switched off.

For this review, I hooked up the Musical Fidelity 600.2 to my reference system: an Audio Note CDT-Five CD player and DAC5 Special, Fyne Audio Vintage 10 speakers bi-wired with Audio Note cables, plus a MusicWorks mains distribution block and Chord Company PowerAray.

The Listening

This amplifier always sounds detailed, dynamic, and compelling. It consistently gets my foot tapping, while still conveying great subtlety and insight—so it's not just a master blaster. It faithfully relays which instrument each musician is playing, how they play it, and how everyone in the recording comes together musically. Add its huge reserves of clean, effortless power, able to drive almost any loudspeaker, and you get the idea.

The neutrality of this amplifier is a joy to behold, as evidenced by brilliant recordings like Conversations from jazz bassist Christian McBride. On the track It’s Your Thing, he is joined by vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater – and it’s just the two of them. The 600.2 captured the feel and staccato rhythms of this track very well, conveying the weight, authority, and agility of McBride’s bass playing alongside Bridgewater’s sassy vocals. It relayed how the bass guitar strings resonated when the instrument was slapped for added percussive oomph. I had another similarly-priced high-end integrated amp to hand, which I rather like, but there was no doubt I preferred the dynamics, detail and impetus of the 600.2.

Jazz sax legend Dave Koz’s Saxophonic album features a lovely track called Honey Dipped, which is always a fine test of any product’s mettle. I am pleased to say that the big Musical Fidelity was not found lacking here, either. The 600.2 conveyed the style and skill of Koz’s alto sax play and let me hear how he shaped and pushed each note. It also separated out Jerry Hey’s wonderful trumpet contribution, where he often mirrors what Koz is playing, and did not let it blend into the background as some lesser amps can. The bass line had power, movement and control, while subtleties in the percussion were easy to follow. The track’s bouncy rhythm was also well conveyed, while the rival amps' impetus seemed to wane. The Nu-Vista’s combination of speed, power and slam is quite a thing to hear.

That’s not to say that this amplifier is harsh. Of course, some rivals – especially self-proclaimed muscle amps – get their apparent speed and power from a lack of couthness, sounding forward and in-your-face. Yet the Musical Fidelity expertly handed Jon Allen’s Night and Day from his album Deep River.

This is a beautiful, dynamic and punchy recording with clean, incisive vocals and detailed guitar, but his voice can sound strident on poor amps. Not on the 600.2, though, which conveyed everything smoothly with openness, poise and control. It let the loud notes get loud without sounding aggressive, and when the drum and bass lines kicked in, they were snappy, focused, and detailed. The heartbeat-like double-beat of the kick drum was great to hear. At the same time, this amplifier delivered a convincing, immersive stereo soundstage that made me feel like I was up close and personal with the musicians, whilst still giving me a fine sense of the depth of the recorded acoustic.

The Verdict

The latest Nu-Vista 600.2 continues Musical Fidelity’s tradition of making clean, fast, detailed and engaging integrated amplifiers – and in this guise, there’s great insight, grip and power too. Whether it’s expansive classical, smooth jazz or the heavy rock of ZZ Top, it doesn’t favour any particular musical genre and invites the listener into the experience without prejudice, never putting a foot wrong. I enjoyed my time with this big beast, and I suspect you will too, especially if you’re looking for high-end performance without having to sell your house to pay for it. Antony Michaelson’s claim was always that his big amplifiers gave super-fi sound without bankrupting his customers – and over forty years later, that approach still very much lives on here.

For more information visit Musical Fidelity