Sugden a21

The Sugden a21 is a class a transistor amp and has been around since the dawn of time! Before sliced bread people had the a21. This review is for a 2004 model of the amplifier.

The Sugden is a standard width unit with no remote control a very plain and functional facia and five inputs. It is rated at twenty five watts into eight ohms and is totally single ended. It therefore is not meant to be used with really inefficient speakers but can cope surprisingly well with any number of so called difficult to drive models. Volume is very rarely an issue.

How does it sound?

In a word wonderful! This product (in my opinion) is the single best hifi component you can buy today! For the money it could not be any better. I have heard hundreds of amps and there is not one that can do what it does for such little money. The amp is so good it is easier to say what it doesn't do rather than the things it does well.

So what are the faults? Well the main fault with this amp is that sometimes 25 watts is not enough. If Sugden could create the same sound with three times the power I would never want or need anything else! The other main fault is that if you like fast sounding amps then you should look elsewhere, oh and it gets hot, really, really hot! You can fry an egg on the top, don't try it though as the yolk will spill through the holes in the top.

Everything else it does it does so in a way you can only and reasonably expect for this kind of cash. It sounds realistic, smooth, musical and powerful. It handles all music with verve and passion. It does not have the leading edge emphasis that heavy rockers might look for but once you get used to its all round good manners and poise you will quickly forget about such things!

The way it handles rhythm is particularly impressive it flows so elegantly from one musical passage to the next, it always sounds effortless. It has body and warmth but can also handle very delicate music with real lightness of touch. It is also very transparent to the source. Although most sources sound better through the sugden!

It works particularly well with fast sounding players as it gives it the tempo it needs. Pair it with a creek, naim or rega and you have an excellent sounding combination and you really do not have to skimp on the quality either. I have heard the Sugden with a Naim cds3 and the pairing was superb. If you have a small room and do not need full range speakers the suden is a superb alternative to much more costly amplification.

As to whether it sounds live or concentrates on the recording I do not know! If you have something like a Linn cd player which will concentrate on the recording then that is how it will sound. Use a Naim cd player and you have the opposite result. This is one of the reasons I like this amplifier so much. It sounds transparent and also makes the most of the source. It is a fantastic music maker!

If you have never heard what this amp can do I recommend you to go out and listen to one today. The one problem that Sugden have with this machine is that it sounds so much more grown up and expensive than any of its competitors that potential customers who are used to shopping at this kind of level just won't understand it!

Believe me this amp owes far more to real hi end than the usual level of amplification at this price. I used to work in retail and when I used to demostrate this little amp it would always be the customers who had amplification costing several times the price of the sugden who were most impressed by what it could do. Lots of them swapped!

They could not believe the sound and not just for the money. What does that tell you? That this is a quality product. I swapped a naim 82, hicap and 250 for one of these little amps. Forget it has twenty five watts and only costs a thousand pounds because it might just surprise you.

Ebay Alert!

For some unknown reason this amp is still very cheap to buy 2nd hand. This makes it the bargain of the century! £500 is all you will need to get one of these fantastic machines.