hi-fi amplifier Musical Fidelity A1 stereo integrated amplifier
SUMMARY
Musical Fidelity A1
stereo integrated amplifier Price: $3000
+ Bold, smooth and effortlessly musical presentation
+ Good phono stage
+ It now has a remote control!
– No digital inputs
- Still runs very hot
The creation of a revived Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier plucked from the 1980s might be viewed as a cynical marketing exercise, jumping on the current ‘retro’ hi-fi revival. After all, Heinz Lichtenegger's Audio Tuning company took over Musical Fidelity only five years ago; it has recently announced retro BBC-style speakers, so are they just pulling out an old amplifier design to fill out a new retro range?
The answer to that seems to be a resounding ‘no’. Lichtenegger purchased Musical Fidelity in 2018 after close involvement with the brand for decades, and according to the company's audio engineer Simon Quarry (see interview panel), “bringing back the A1 is fulfilling one of his hi-fi dreams… it impacted his life so strongly as a product and was one of his first major successes as a budding distributor in Austria.”
So this is a mission to revive a classic product of the past: from 1984, to be precise, although some say 1985 (memories
