Musical Fidelity One Man's Vision Musical Fidelity exists because of one man's passion for music and hi-fi. That man is Antony Michaelson. He's a classically-trained clarinettist with a number of recordings to his credit and his love of music has driven his burning desire to make hi-fi which really sounds like music. Since the age of 12 he has been an ardent hi-fi enthusiast. He bought a variety of brands to listen to at home, but found the performance of much so-called 'high-end' equipment disappointing, especially at the astronomical prices being charged. After a number of disappointments, it dawned upon Antony that he might never find the kind of hi-fi he was looking for, so he'd better build it himself. He was determined to produce musical hi-fi, which would reproduce the source material with musical fidelity, thus the name of the company he founded in 1982. A hi-fi company with unusual values. The themes underlying Musical Fidelity's progress have been value for money, sonic excellence and beauty of design and build. From the beginning, value-for-money figured prominently in Musical Fidelity's design concepts. The company has been a consistent innovator in the UK market, introducing adventurous aesthetics and incredible sonic performance, all at a fair price. This is especially true of Musical Fidelity's most expensive products. Clearly, Antony abhors conspicuous waste and excessive cost in amplifier design. Many reviewers reckon that the £3,500 Nu-Vista 300 power amp performs as well as competitors' products which sell for about £20,000. When presented with this huge discrepancy in prices, Antony would look at you quizzically and ask, "Don't I always say bullshit is bullshit, but real performance is the real thing." Innovators from the very first product. But making waves in the market is nothing new for Musical Fidelity. When the company's first product, The Preamp, was introduced in 1982, it redefined market expectations about what level of performance could be achieved from a modestly priced preamp. Not bad at all from a product that Antony built at his kitchen table (until demand grew so large that Antony had to lease his first factory premises, slightly larger than the kitchen in his flat). Musical Fidelity's The Preamp was soon followed by an award-winning integrated amplifier, Synthesis. Legendary A1 created a new class of 'budget high-end audio'. In 1985, the now-legendary A1 integrated amplifier was introduced. This amplifier offered 20W per channel of Class A performance. It was packaged in beautiful, futuristic casework and it received ecstatic reviews from around the world. Musical Fidelity's competitors were aghast and wrong-footed, and the public and reviewers were thrilled. At last a true taste of high-end performance was available for what was, even then, an incredibly low price: £250. To get the best performance from this incredible piece of kit, all the customer had to do was to use efficient loudspeakers. The A1 and its siblings sold nearly 200,000 units. To put it another way, if you put all of these amplifiers end-to-end, the line would stretch for fifty miles.