Given the current ‘retro’ hi-fi revival, the re-release of a Musical Fidelity amplifier plucked from the 1980s might be viewed as a cynical marketing exercise, especially as the company recently announced retro BBC-style speakers as well. Are they just pulling out an old amplifier design to fill a new retro range?
The answer to that seems to be a resounding ‘no’. Heinz Lichtenegger of Pro-Ject fame purchased Musical Fidelity in 2018 after close involvement with the brand for decades — and apparently bringing back the company’s A1 was one of his longheld hi-fi dreams. Back in the day it had impacted his life both as a product and as one of his first major successes as a budding distributor in Austria.
So it is a mission of hi-fi passion to revive that classic product — from 1984, to be precise, though some say 1985 (memories were vague enough that the original announcement said 1988). That’s back beyond even the lengthening hi-fi memories of our Editor, who started in hi-fi magazines back
