Musical Fidelity A3cr Power Amp ?Break-in Period?

Platsolos,
I own the MF A3CR amp and pre-amp combo. Lots of play is in order to "break-in" the amp. Though longer is better, you'll definetly hear maturity within a month. I started driving Thiel 1.5's with AP silver oval and if that smoothed out, so will your sound. As I upgraded from a Marantz CC65SE CD player to a Sony SCD333SE to a Cary 306 and to the Cary 306/200 now, the A3CR accommodated. I think your CD is probably contributing to the grain?

My speakers are now Merlin VSM-M and all cables are Cardas Golden Cross. The Golden Cross cable will tone down the brightness and grain. Experiment with cables if still not pleased after a month. I realized an incredible improvement with a topline PC too!

The Thiels are rated to go down to 42 and always sounded good to adequate in the low end with A3CR power. Merlin's with BAM go to low/mid 30's. I get some staggeringly low and accurate bass notes into my 10 x 12 listening area now from the Merlin A3CR combo!

This amp is surely not a thunder god, but does almost everything well to excellent considering cost! Though I'm ready to upgrade both MF components to better match the Merlin's incredible abilities, my sound is very smooth and musically satisfying. This amp deserves it's Stereophile class "A" rating.

Hope it works out for you.

Platsolos,
Being as you're not trying to break-in the speakers, you don't need to have it loud. I'd keep the speakers connected and maintain a signal flow from any source i.e. CD, tuner, etc. Your objective is to just keep the amp warm and juice running through it. Personally, I'd use the repeat on CD with the Cardas burn-in disc. This disc has various noise tracks to assist burn-in and full frequency spectrum tracks that supposedly de-mag the system. I beleive it works and was recommended in the TAS mag. a few back. There's some cross polarity thing you can do with the speaker wires, but I'm not sure exactly how that works. I think that's a trick to assist speaker break-in as it draws more juice, but lessens the volume? Good luck.

Platsolos, I politely tried to suggest that the major source of your trouble is most likely your CDP. After reading your last post I'm convinced. Yes, the MF is a very revealing amp that will show upstream characteristics. I'm confident that replacing your CD, letting it break in, and perhaps ditto for cables will provide the sound you're expecting.

Without trying to offend Dennisj, the MF bass is more than adequate for what it is and costs. It's an accurate bass that is presented, though as stated before, not a power-bass authority. Many are accustomed to bass boom and mistake that for low frequency power. Tighter, more accurate bass does not always have a muddy and exaggerated bloat that can be mistaken for bass power. Many factors can influence this perception such as room characteristics, recording quality, source, cables, etc. My listening room is equipped with ASC traps and Echo-Buster panels throughout. These do a great deal to improve the sound by taming room resonance modes. Especially the low frequency modes that develop in corners. The bass is tighter and better defined with the traps, but the A3CR had good bass sound prior to tube trap incorporation. When called for deep bass on the recording, the A3CR will deliver in my system and small to midsized room.

As in everything else, musical tastes vary greatly. That's why Ben & Jerry's has umpteen-hundred flavors and the audio world follows suit. Cherry Garcia for me please!