Magnat MR 780 includes: an integrated amplifier with a tube prestage, a phono stage, a DAC with USB and SPDIF inputs, an FM/DAB tuner, a Bluetooth receiver version 4.0 with aptX, a headphone amplifier and even a three-band equalizer. The heart and fiery motor of the Magnat MR 780 are two dual ECC81 triodes operating in the preamp stage. Before and after are all transistors and digital circuits, but it is the preamplifier that determines the sound character of the device.
After the lamps, a transistor output stage is organized using discrete elements, delivering 100 W per channel at a load of 4 ohms. The amplifier is powered by a powerful toroidal transformer, which is shielded to eliminate negative influence on the stereo receiver circuits. Before the preliminary stage, the path can be either analog or digital. The built-in phono stage works with MM type heads, has a rumble filter and is organized on an operational amplifier. The SPDIF inputs are served by one of the best, in my opinion, modern digital receivers, AKM AK4113, and the USB input is equipped with an equally high-quality XMOS chip, which provides asynchronous data transfer via the USB 2.0 bus.
The section of the board after the digital receivers is assembled on the already familiar WM8740 and NE5532 microcircuits, that is, it is completely similar to the circuit of the DAC and analog output of a CD player. This allows us to draw a simple and obvious conclusion: when connecting these components, you need to look for a high-quality analog interconnect cable; SPDIF will, at best, be of equal quality, but only under very good circumstances. If you don’t like bright displays or hear them negatively impact the sound on each component, then know that there is a special button to control the brightness of the display (it also turns it off if necessary).
The Magnat MR 780 receiver has a “Mono” button. This is useful not only when using an FM tuner in conditions of poor signal reception, but also when listening to early stereo recordings, in which sound engineers carefully “stuffed” musicians into different speakers and, in my opinion, did not think at all how it would be perceived during playback. I would prefer to have such a button on all the devices on which I listen to old records. Balance adjustment and three-band equalizer are the dream of a high-fi player of the last century. Perfectionists, of course, will immediately find the Direct button just above and use it.
Characteristics Magnat MR 780
Rated power: 2×100 W at 4 ohms, 2×75 W at 8 ohms
Frequency range: 6-90000 Hz (-3 dB), 20-20000 Hz (± 0.3 dB)
Subsonic filter: 16 Hz, 18 dB per octave
Signal-to-noise ratio: less than 104 dB on all inputs except phono stage (82 dB)
Tuner: FM/DAB/DAB+ Pre-amp tubes: ECC81 or 12AT7
DAC: Wolfson WM8740
Inputs: 6 analogue, phono stage, 2 coaxial, 2 optical, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0 aptX
Dimensions: 433x132x317 mm
Weight: 8.9 kg
