Moon 371 Review

Introduction

Sometimes, it is easy to view high end audio as a very consistent – almost static – area of product design where things have been done in the same way for a very long time.

The reality is rather different though. All the way up to some very serious price points, owners are expecting more functionality and greater user friendliness from their devices. With amplifiers in particular, there is an ongoing process of having them do more… so much more that the line between ‘integrated amp’ and ‘all-in-one system’ has become very blurry indeed.

Up until now, Moon has resisted this development by approaching the need for products to do more from a different angle. If you take the deeply impressive 681 streamer I looked at for example, it is both a streamer and hub for other digital sources and, if you move further up the roster, you gain analogue inputs as well.

This means you are a power amp (of which Moon makes plenty) or pair of active speakers away from a complete system. It’s a concept that has worked well for the company but still requires extra electronics to make a whole system.

As such, the 371 is here to give Moon the option to provide a one box solution for customers. Judged against some rivals, it looks like a fairly pricey bit of kit but by Moon standards, it and the rest of the new Compass range are pretty affordable. How does Moon’s first stab at this very important category stack up?

Price

The 371 streamer is costs £6,250. As you might expect the dealers that stock such an item are specialists that have the expertise and facilities to demonstrate and support products of this nature. These are distributed reasonably evenly across the UK so, while you might not have an outlet for them on your local high street, neither should you have to drive hundreds of miles to hear it.

Simaudio is a Canadian company and handles its own sales in North America which means that the 681 has a dollar to pound parity on its pricing because there is an extra layer of (very professional) distribution in the UK.  The company has distribution in Australia where the 681 can be purchased for AUD $10,400.

Something to note is that – for the moment at least – the 371 is the only device of its kind in the Moon range. If you like what it does but can’t find the money, there isn’t a cheaper version and, if you head up into the rarefied world of the North family of components, the 641 integrated amp is analogue only.

Design

• All metal casework in black or two tone
• Large and vivid display and useful front panel controls
• All metal remote

For many years, Moon made components in back (normal), silver (also normal) and a mix of black and silver sections (not normal but very cool). Over time, the silver finish has fallen by the wayside but the black and two tone options are still available. I feel that the two tone is so associated with Moon that I can’t imagine not choosing it but the black is there to better match in an all-black system.

Something that applies equally to both finishes are bolted together with a care and thoroughness that is exceptionally high, even judged at the asking price. Every part of the metal casework has been finished and bolted together in a way that shows there are people who work at Moon for whom ‘good enough’ is a concept they simply have no time for.

The 371 can’t match the over engineered magnificence of the North Collection models but there is very little at the same price that feels as well bolted together.

Sat centrally on the front panel is a full colour screen that gives information on source, volume (via the largest numbers I think I’ve ever seen on any product) and, should you be in streaming mode, album and artist metadata. The quality of screens that audio brands have been making use of in recent years has really improved and this is a vivid, crisp and easy to read unit. It’s not a touchscreen and is supported by a row of physical buttons that allow you to undertake various functions without needing a remote or the app.

You do get a remote though and, while it can’t match the magnificence of the BRM-1 device you get with the North Series models, it feels much smarter than it looks, with a well finished metal chassis and responsive buttons. I’ll cover the streaming app in due course but it’s perfectly possible to use the 371 like a normal amp if you want.

Features

• Analogue and digital inputs
• on board streaming
• 100 watts of power
• Limited outputs and adjustment though

The 371 offers a single XLR and RCA line input supported by a phono stage with moving magnet and moving coil support selected within the on board menus. There are rivals that offer more analogue inputs than this but, being realistic for a moment, this is as many inputs as most people are ever likely to need.

These connections are supported by two coaxial, one optical and one HDMI ARC connection, all being decoded by an ESS 9039Q2M DAC. There is no USB audio input which might be an irritant to a few users but Moon feels (correctly in my view) that the streaming module will perform this role for most owners.

The module is the same MiND 2 interface seen in the 681. This will read a local library up to 384kHz or DSD256 and offers support for all the major Connect streaming options and Roon compatibility available too. MiND 2 still isn’t perfect; some aspects of track selection and heading back to the main menu are still vaguely counterintuitive but you come around to its way of thinking pretty quickly.

The amp section is class AB and cites a figure of 100 watts into 8 ohms that doubles into 4 and suggests that the 371 isn’t going to struggle with most speakers anywhere near the price. If you are entirely numbers driven though, it’s only fair to point out that you can buy more grunt for less if that is what matters to you.

This amp is technically interesting too. It features a technology called MDCA, (Moon Distortion Cancelling Amplifier). This is a proprietary amplification circuit that amplifies the signal without constantly applying feedback. Instead, the MDCA amplifier compares input and output signals to determine minute signal corrections in real time and injects the “correction signal” directly into the output stage. It’s clever stuff and it seems to measure well.

Something else that the 371 does differently to any other Moon amp is the power supply. Where devices like the 641 use toroidal PSUs, the 371 is built around a switch mode type PSU that the company calls Moon Hybrid Power (MHP) and that has been doing sterling work in the network preamps and that has been beefed up for use in an amplifier. It offers faster response times than a toroid and also means you don’t make a grunting noise lifting it out the box.

For the most part, the 371 offers a very competitive spec but there are two areas of weakness. The first is there is no is balanced preout, the 371 being equipped with an RCA out only. This does mean that you can’t attach one of Moon’s own power amps (all of which are balanced by design) in the optimal fashion.

The second might not be a negative depending on your views on such things but it warrants mention. The Moon does without any form of room optimisation or EQ; functionality that some rival designs at this price do offer. It’s worth will depend in part on how your room behaves but if you’ve become use to functionality like Dirac, you will need to become unused to it again.

Performance

• Exceptionally natural presentation
• Utterly unconcerned by different musical styles
•  Beautifully consistent across both analogue and digital

If your greatest aspiration from a piece of audio equipment is to be pinned to your seat like the guy in the Maxell tape advert (look it up online, it’s iconic), the Moon might not be a device that blows you away (figuratively or literally) in the first two minutes of listening. Give it a bit longer though and the 371 begins to show what it can do.

What consistently stands out though is how astonishingly natural and believable voices and instruments are. Listen to the opening Matches on Katherine Priddy’s These Frightening Machines and Priddy’s truly superb vocal turn is absolutely alive. She’s at once beguiling and unsettling, sometimes within seconds of each other and the Moon makes her a living, breathing presence between the speakers. There are some other amps at this price that will try and find more detail or make her bigger but the result won’t be more real, just more over emphasised.

This ability to cut down the heart of the material being played and deliver it in this unforced but intensely believable way allows the 371 to work its way through a huge variety of musical styles and sound fundamentally right with all of them. In the time it’s been here, I’ve listened to the entirety of Resonance by Acid Arab and Liminal by Poppy Ackroyd; two albums that are a world away in tempos, styles and emotional hooks. At no stage has the Moon so much as hinted as being outside its comfort zone.

Something else that has stood out testing the Moon is that it genuinely is an integrated amp with streaming on board rather than an all in one dominated by the module. Use the internal phono stage to play Fink’s The City Is Coming To Erase It All and the performance is absolutely the equal of something more minimalist and analogue. The phono stage is a perfectly judged extension of the rest of the Moon and one that let’s records happen in the same sublimely balanced and undemonstrative way with no unwanted noise and plenty of gain on hand.

Unlike those minimalist rivals though, you can put the record away, flick the telly on and watch Reacher relayed via HDMI ARC in all its cheerful, bone crunching brutality and the Moon is every bit as tonally even and carefully judged. This is a serious hi-fi product but it asks nothing of you while it attends to the day-to-day things you need it to do as well. It’s understated brilliance but brilliance nevertheless.

Should you buy it?

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