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Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC – Completely renewed and “Made in Europe”

Based on a 32-bit Hyperstream II DAC for processing data with up to 32-bit and 768 kHz upsampling and re-clocking, native DSD support, equipped with a variety of interfaces and certified as Roon Tested, the latest generation of D/A converters from the Musical Fidelity M6 Series presents itself in the form of the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC.


Musical Fidelity has for years been a proven specialist for the finest English style hi-fi, even though the company has been under Austrian management for some time now, under the leadership of Heinz Lichtenegger, founder and CEO of Pro-Ject Audio Systems. Not least as a result of the takeover, the entire product portfolio of the company was reviewed in order to restructure it a little bit in the long run and to update the various systems from the individual product series if necessary. This also applies, for example, to the Musical Fidelity M6 Series, one of the company’s most important product families. This clearly represents the entry into the high-end segment, but is nevertheless offered at a very attractive price, and really represents all the virtues of the English in pure culture.

So it is no surprise that it is a solution of the Musical Fidelity M6 Series of all things, which is now equipped with the latest technology, and which also represents a turning point for Musical Fidelity as a whole, namely the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC. This is the successor to the Musical Fidelity M6s DAC, but with a drastically extended range of functions and impressive technical data. It is also the first solution from the Fidelity musical company to be produced entirely in Europe under even stricter quality criteria.

At first glance, the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC musical is of course not very surprising. After all, the company has fortunately retained the design line it has been accustomed to for years, so that almost all products from the most diverse series can be combined as desired. This is particularly important for the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC, as its impeccable performance characteristics make it suitable for use in higher product ranges. The combination with all other solutions of the own family is of course also possible without any problems.

The front is primarily decorated with numerous status LEDs, three buttons, one of which serves as a standby button, the other two for selecting the active input, a rotary encoder, and last but not least a connection for headphones in the form of a 6.3 mm stereo jack.

At the rear, that’s where the reason for the numerous status LEDs just mentioned is revealed, because the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC offers no less than seven digital inputs. First of all, three optical and three coaxial S/PDIF interfaces are available, plus a USB port, designed as a micro-USB connection, which is designated as USB Audio Class 2. On the analogue side, a pair of RCA connectors as well as a pair of XLR connectors are available, so that the Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC not only has an unbalanced output, but also a balanced output. Interestingly, the output can be used with fixed or variable level, a selector switch on the rear panel is responsible for this.

The signal processing of the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC is based on a newly designed 32 bit Hyperstream II DAC circuit, and the linear PCM data is processed with up to 32 bit and 768 kHz, by upsampling to this resolution and including reclocking. Even more, of course, content can also be processed in DSD, whereby the spectrum here extends up to DSD256. DSD256 is even processed natively, via the aforementioned USB port with a PC or Mac as source, and with the help of the corresponding ASIO driver.

A very important feature of the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC is that it is certified as a so-called Roon Tested DAC, so that it can be used as a Roon Bridge in combination with a Roon NUCLEUS or Roon NUCLEUS+, but also with a PC or Mac or a RaspberryPi to achieve the best possible results.

For the output stage, Musical Fidelity promises to use only the most modern and highest-quality components and circuits, so that an almost outstanding acoustic performance is provided. The exceptional load driving characteristics of the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC are designed to provide the freedom to drive any combination of cable, cable length and electronics without error.

Even the already mentioned headphone amplifier of the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC should not be seen as an addition that looks good in the data sheet, but rather as an extremely powerful, absolutely clean and precise working amplifier solution that delivers 1.5 watts per channel into 32 ohms and thus drives almost any headphone without any problems. The output impedance is nominally 40 ohms and therefore suitable for headphones with 10 to 600 ohms. The signal-to-noise ratio and channel separation is outstanding, as with the analog output stage of the Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC.

As we have already mentioned, the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC represents a radical change for Musical Fidelity, because up to now the systems from Musical Fidelity were developed in England, but production was mostly outsourced to Taiwan. With the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC this is now different, for the first time this solution is completely manufactured in Europe, whereby the company relies on the synergies with Pro-Ject Audio Systems. It is a fact that, according to the manufacturer’s statement, it achieves significantly higher quality standards and thus tighter tolerances as well as a markedly higher manufacturing quality in all aspects, which of course has a direct impact on the sound of the new D/A converter.

The new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC is also available in black or silver in the same proven manner, although this solution weighs an impressive 6.9 kg (440 x 100 x 380 mm), not least because of the extremely solid metal housing.

The new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC is expected to be available in specialist shops in the near future. The manufacturer is offering a recommended retail price of € 1.799,- for this new solution of the Musical Fidelity M6 Series.

Getting to the point

It is not surprising that it is a solution of the Musical Fidelity M6 Series, one of the most important product lines of Musical Fidelity as a whole, now equipped with the latest technology, and which also represents a turning point for Musical Fidelity as a whole, namely the new Musical Fidelity M6sR DAC. This is the successor to the Musical Fidelity M6s DAC, but with a drastically extended range of functions and impressive technical data. It is also the first solution from the Fidelity musical company to be produced entirely in Europe under even stricter quality criteria.

Manufacturer:Musical Fidelity
Distribution:Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH
Price:€ 1.799,-
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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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