Hey folks
I know this thread has been dormant for a while, but I thought I'd resurrect it 'cos I'm looking for some answers in relation to MF upgrades . . .
I've had a pair of X-A200's in my (predominantly MF) system for the last eight years or so, and always thought they sounded pretty good for what they were. A couple of months ago while trawling the web for nothing in particular, I stumbled across the details of John Sampson (JS Audio). At almost exactly the same time, I noticed that MF themselves had started offering an upgrade service of their own . . . which got me thinking about my options.
On the recommendation of several others, I spoke to John on the phone, and ended up taking my Nu-Vista pre-amp to him to work on. A few weeks later it came back tweaked, cleaned up and with a completely new power supply - apparently it's by far the weakest point of the NV Pre (looks to be consistent with the comments above). And I'm very pleased to say that it sounds a whole lot better for it.
Whilst at his workshop, he showed me the internals of the X-A200's and said that he could upgrade them by adding in some bits that MF left out. Apparently the 200's were based on a similar design (albeit mono) to the A1000 amp, but to save a few quid, MF cut down on the number of components they used. You can probably see what I'm talking about from this picture:
John didn't give me a list of exactly what his upgrade work entailed, but it definitely included adding in 'missing' components (four of the MAG2013 9802's per amp). For their part, MF list the mods they make as part of their fine-tuning service
here. Both charge pretty much the same for the work.
But having read though some of the posts on this site (and being good friends with a elec-tech) I was wondering if you could help me out with a few questions . . .
. . . firstly, anyone got any experience of getting the back off these things? Dumb, I know, but I can't get 'em to shift (and I don't wanna bugger anything up). The front was easy enough, but I'm pretty sure the circuit boards are attached to the back plate - and really doesn't want to leave.
Secondly, any suggestions for where to find a schematic?
And thirdly, any thoughts on the value of the MF upgrade work - or whether the addition of the extra bits will make all that much difference? I know it's a stab in the dark, but I thought it was worth a shot (apologies for the mixed metaphors).
Thanks in advance - all help/guidance/ideas gratefully received.
Neil