Musical Fidelity B1

The B1 was an integrated amplifier manufactured by the Musical Fidelity Corporation and launched in September 1989. Its power output is 32-watts per channel into 8-Ω loads. An advantage of this amplifier is that it has inputs for moving magnet (MM), and moving coil (MC) cartridges.

Review

The B1 has a quasi-complementary output circuit based on the 2N3055 audio power output transistors. Audiophiles will probably recognise these transistors as they were also used in the J. Linsley-Hood 1969 simple Class-A amplifier design. In the B1 design, they use four of these transistors per channel placed between a split-rail power supply resulting in extremely high current output. Consequently, you can expect good sound definition and power output.

The RIAA preamplifier circuitry is also elaborate and based on the MC34082P dual operational amplifier IC. For MC cartridges the sensitivity is 250-µV, whilst for MM it is 3.5-mV.

Price/eBay

At the time of introduction the B1 was retailing at £199.99, and the price usually holds for a unit in mint condition with its original packaging. These units sometimes come up for sale on the auction site and a pre-used unit in good working order would be worth approximately half of that depending upon condition.