CES 2017

The Micromega M-One

Herb Reichert  |  Jan 11, 2017

I liked the orange Micromega M-One integrated amp at Rocky Mountain AudioFest 2016 more than the silver one (pictured) at CES 2017. I liked it more because it was a rich, good color and it matched the orange Focal Sopra No.2s it was driving. I liked it because it played beautiful music in front of a backlit rice-paper wall. The whole presentation looked, and felt, and sounded so Zen clear, relaxed, and revelatory. I thought it was the best sound at RMAF.

Ever since the silver age of giant Japanese receivers, I've always cringed when presented with a feature-laden box of audio parts intended to sell, not on how the box plays music, but on its checklist of attractions—and the knobs, switches, and meters that advertise those attractions. And then I saw that orange M-One…

The Micromega M-One has more features than any of those silver-age contraptions, but to my eye, it is the purest, most high-design-beautiful audio machine on the planet. And, of course, it's made in France. Inside that sleek, cut-from-a-single-block-of-aluminum Zen box you'll find a music-streaming device with a 100Wpc amplifier output and a full menu of connections including: balanced and unbalanced analog inputs; Bluetooth aptX; LAN-Network 24-bit/384kHz asynchronous; SPDIF Coax-Optical-AES 24-bit /768kHz USB asynchronous passing DXD, DSD, DOP; and DSP with automatic room correction (M.A.R.S). If that is not enough, you can add an MM/MC phono stage and/or a Binaural headphone converter. Look again at the M-One's sleek beauty. The base model costs $4999 and it comes in more colors than French cars. Keep your eyes peeled for my review.

COMMENTS
mrkaic's picture
Submitted by mrkaic on April 15, 2017 - 11:16pm

I have a M-One 100 and am quite impatient to read your review. I was hoping to see it in the May 2017 edition, but no luck. Will I have to wait much longer? (I know I'm not the only one who wants to read the review.)

Best,

MM

Chief Brody's picture
Submitted by Chief Brody on June 5, 2018 - 7:51am

I've been very anxiously keeping my eyes peeled for your review (along with those promised by other publications), what's the status? Thanks

MiklD's picture
Submitted by MiklD on January 31, 2019 - 10:26pm

And I'd also love to see the review.

Meanwhile there's a subjective review up at Sound&Vision (September '18) and one with some lab data from Australian HiFi at AbsoluteHiEnd (undated). Not quite the same as Herb's insight or JA's lab work though.

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/micromega-m-150-integrated-amplifier-review

http://absolutehiend.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/MicromegaAHiFi.pdf

The M-series reviews and measures well, save for the sad-looking square waves. I have the M-100. For my part I found the design and features very impressive and basic sound pretty good. It took some time for the soundstage and dynamics to open up but overall timbre and bass in particular was and remains too polite and middle-of-the-road and not at all to my taste.

So for now I'm running the Micromega's XLR pre-out to a Krell KAV-2250 which adds some low-end extension and gives a very satisfying timbre (or range of timbres, as different sounds now take on more individual character). Soundstage breadth and depth improved a bit more as well (the Micromega replaced a KAV-300i which died tragically when the cat threw up on it, so that was my baseline). The speakers are Audio Physic Sitara, which clearly appreciate the Krell's help. I haven't tried the optional DSP, I'd be interested to know how that sounds.

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