It’s a streamed music player, a digital to analogue converter and a preamplifier in one box – Andrew Everard listens

There’s a lot of talk about 2011 being looked back on as the year network music grew up, stopped being the preserve of the geek and went mainstream. Certainly there’s been a huge range of streaming music options launched so far this year, and the growth of online music services and legal music download sites has moved computer-stored music on from the taint of illegal file-sharing to something much more respectable.

What’s more, things have progressed from the days when downloaded music meant files at bitrates down near the limits of listenability: not only is it now possible to download FLAC files equal to the quality of CD releases, there’s also a growing catalogue of titles at qualities beyond silver disc.

British company Musical Fidelity is the latest to bring a network music player to market, though the company has been facilitating computer-stored music for some time now with the availability of digital-to-analogue converters and the V-Link digital interface reviewed in these pages recently.

Company founder Antony Michaelson had been talking to me for a while about his plans for a whole range of computer-based music products, and promising that the first one would be both different and special: now the M1 CLiC is here, one can see what he meant.

To date, network music players have been all-in-one ‘just add speakers’ systems, hi-fi components designed to be connected to conventional amplifiers, or built into AV receivers; the Musical Fidelity, now on sale at £1239, is different, combining the functions of network/internet player, digital-to-analogue converter and preamplifier.

You can thus use it straight into a power amplifier – a suitable model in the company’s compact M1 range is on the way – and connect to it both analogue and digital music sources. Musical Fidelity already has a matching CD transport, the M1 CDT, at around £600 should you wish to do something as old-fashioned as playing CDs(!), and the M1 system is expanding to encompass a headphone amplifier, a separate DAC, and a phono preamplifier.

In fact, the heart of the separate DAC in the range is already inside the M1 CLiC, able to handle files of up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution and accessible via front and rear USB inputs, the latter provided on both a Type A socket, commonly used for portable devices, and a Type B able to take a connection from a computer.

There are also optical and two electrical digital inputs, three analogue audio inputs on conventional pairs of phono sockets, plus both tape (fixed level) and preamplifier (variable level) outputs.

Both wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi inputs are provided, along with a little antenna for the latter complete with a magnetic base.

PERFORMANCE
The most striking thing about the M1 CLiC is apparent as soon as you fire it up: it has a large, bright, colour display panel on which are displayed clear menus, information about the content being played, and even any associated artwork. The display here is easy to read across the room, thanks to large, clear, white on black typefaces, and really sets the standard in this area for devices of this kind.

It’s a hallmark of the enabling technology at the heart of the M1 CLiC, from Austrian company StreamUnlimited, and looks set to become a common sight on streamers: I’ve already seen similar displays on the forthcoming StreamBox SE from Pro-ject and (in touchscreen form) on the D-Linear 7 from Chinese company Consonance-Opera, shown at this year’s High End Show in Germany.

Buying an ‘engine’ such as this makes a lot of sense for a company: it’s a way of getting a product to market more rapidly than ‘going it alone’, and also leaves the manufacturer to concentrate on the audio side of things.

However, while the display is exemplary, the Wi-Fi sensitivity is not quite so great: it struggled to find my home network despite being in the same room, and it was only when I replaced the antenna supplied with one designed for higher gain that a signal was achieved. Even then it was rather prone to drop-outs, perhaps explained by the fact my listening room seems flooded with neighbours’ Wi-Fi networks.

Reporting this back to Antony Michaelson resulted in some conversations back in Wembley, and the assertion that the Wi-Fi provision is mainly on the M1 CLiC for occasional use, and that for the best performance the company recommends a wired Ethernet connection from the network router, a suggestion with which I would heartily concur. Wireless may seem convenient, but in many a domestic environment I’ve found it rather flaky.

There’s nothing at all flaky about the sound of the Musical Fidelity, whether connected via its tape outputs to a stereo integrated amplifier, or even better via its preouts into a power amplifier (though you could also use a conventional amp with a fixed-gain input, or even a pair of active loudspeakers).

What becomes clear very quickly is that the M1 CLiC isn’t just an extremely good streaming client, but also has much to offer as both a DAC and a preamp. I tried a wide range of content and sources, exploring everything from MP3 to lossless and uncompressed files over the network, music stored at a variety of resolutions on an iPod, my computer and a USB thumb-drive, and even the digital output from various disc players, and in every case the Musical Fidelity’s powerful, taut and well-defined bass grabbed the attention, closely followed by a growing appreciation of just how much detail is being delivered in the midband and treble.

There’s bags of detail, space and ambience to the sound, along with a very direct focus on what’s being played, and above all the CLiC doesn’t have a character of its own, but rather gets on with connecting the listener to the content being played.

Of course, the ultimate quality of the presentation will depend on the power amplification and speakers used, but what this relatively compact box does is combine the attributes of a very fine network player, the kind of DAC able to upgrade many a digital source, and a preamplifier with a directness and clarity that’s remarkable for the money.

It all makes for a hugely enjoyable listening experience across a huge range of formats, devices and sources, with an organic, natural and entirely ‘non-digital’ sound that’s as attractive with high-resolution audio files as it is with streaming radio via the internet. In other words, low-bitrate streams sound entirely listenable, but higher-bitrate content can sound spectacularly good.

Add to that the easy to use interface – I’m told an iOS app to control the unit is on the way, but the excellent display makes that less of a ‘must have’ than with some rival products – and you have a very worthwhile addition to the streamer market.

Sometimes, it seems, not racing to be the first in the shops has its advantages.

Musical Fidelity M1 CLiC
Type Network music player/preamplifier
Price £1239
File formats played FLAC/LPCM (up to 24bit/192kHz via Ethernet and optical/electrical digital, 24bit/96kHz via Wi-Fi), MP3/WMA (up to 16-bit/48kHz), AAC/HE-AAC (up to 24-bit/96kHz), Ogg vorbis (up to 16-bit/32kHz)
Inputs Three line analogue, two electrical and one optical digital, USB Type A on front and rear panels, USB Type B on rear panel, Ethernet and Wi-Fi
Outputs Tape (fixed level), preamp (variable level), 12v trigger
Accessories supplied Remote handset, Wi-Fi antenna
www.musicalfidelity.com