Musical Fidelity may not be a household name, but the brand is famous among audiophiles for producing high-end audio equipment with price-tags to match.
Its flagship product, the Titan power amplifier, costs more than the average family car - and you'd need to spend the same again on a pre-amp, sound source and speakers to make it work.
This year the brand has diversified, producing headphones with broader appeal while still leaning on its 30-year audio engineering heritage.
At the start of the year I reviewed its first headphones, the EB-50 in-ear models, and was impressed by the build quality and sonic abilities.
Now the EB-50s have been joined by the more budget-friendly EB-33 and the MF-100, the company's first larger, on-ear model.
Both demonstrate beautiful design restraint, the matt black finish, punctuated by silver, blue and red accents, showing class. One joy is the flat wires on the EB-33s which are black on the outside and red or blue on the inside - like a suit jacket with flashy lining.
First on my playlist was Lorde, New Zealand's finest export of 2013, whose delicate vocals paired with crunching, hip-hop-inspired beats provided a test. With this track the EB-33s show ear tip selection is critical - Musical Fidelity supply nine pairs of interchangeable ear tips with each pair of ear buds. Fit the wrong tips and they sound hollow, but with the right tips providing a good seal in the ear canal the EB-33s sound rich, full and engaging.
My second test track was Morton Feldman's minimal Piano and String Quartet, performed by the Kronos Quartet. Here the clinical precision of the EB-33s works against them; the hiss in the original recording becomes dominant, detracting from this wonderful pre-digital recording.
Given the same material, the MF-100 on-ear model performs differently. The Lorde track reveals a deeper bass line and a wider, more convincing stereo image. The Kronos Quartet recording also feels better balanced and the hiss on the original recording is almost imperceptible.
The soundstage produced by the MF-100s is also more expansive, apparently filling the room. The EB-33s produce a soundstage that feels very much inside your skull - interesting, but not entirely natural.
There's no doubting Musical Fidelity's quest for perfection. Most products can be sent to the company UK headquarters for fine tuning, and while this doesn't extend to headphones, even here the craftsmanship is clear. Other brands use glue to assemble in-ear headphones, but Musical Fidelity uses jeweller-sized red and blue anodised screws, their slot heads aligned with clinical precision - a joy to look at and to listen to.
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