Sugden Audition C

[SonofSun]

As my Kandy K2 amp is in for repair (could take up to 4 weeks), I have bought this Sugden amp (impulse purchase). There doesn't seem to be many reviews on the net, has anybody heard this amp?

Any info greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Never heard of it. Have you got it yet? Any good? You have to post a pic now...

 

[SonofSun]

Should arrive tomorrow, apparently it is the next amp up from the Audition C which I can find a bit more info on.

This is the only review I could find, bit a risk buying, but 4 weeks without an amp is just too long

" I was lucky enough to hear this at the factory played thru a
pair of totum 1''s, if you don''t know these speakers then seek out the
reviews for these, they are small, but great bass, expensive, but value
for money. Needless to say they are going to be my next purchase. Anyway
back to the amp. It is rated at 65w but sounds a lot more, no mickey
mouse ratings with this. The guys at Sugden played me loads of different
stuff, classical, rock, trance, female vocal, accoustic guitar etc. I
think I''d have stayed all night if they hadn''t closed. This amp,
especially with these speakers, makes great music, what I mean is you
don''t feel you are listening to hifi but to the artists themselves. On
one particular track, a piano being played in an auditorium, the
instrument could have been in the room with us. Not only that but people
coughing could be placed exactly in 3D as to where they were sat! On
another track by "Ryan Adams" the first verse only had accoustic guitar,
again he could have been sat 5 foot in front of me such was the
reproduction, even the plucking of the individual strings could be
placed vertically. I, at present, have the amp connected to a Rega
Planer 3 & a pair of Richard Allan "Minette2" speakers. The speakers
sound OK (much better than when connected to my previous amp), and my
vinyl has never sound so good, I have started to listen to music
properly once again, however I am looking forward to getting the Totums.

If you want an amp that is detailed, but not harsh, has an excellent
phono stage (MM only) and a unique, as far as I know, EQ set up. (Check
out there web site for the details www.jesugden.co.uk) Then for the
money I think you will be hard pushed to better this."

 

[matthewpiano]

Seems to be from circa 1999. There is a review of it available (if you pay to download it) on the website of another hi-fi mag.

Looks not all that different to the A21, but not sure how similar it is underneath the skin.

How does it sound?

 

[SonofSun]

Yeah, I spotted the review that you have to pay for, no chance of that. I should get it tomorrow so I will give it a whirl and post my first impressions. If it's rubbish, it will be going back on ebay, where hopefully I will get my money back. Supposed to be in "as new" condition with the original packaging, that always helps to sell it on.

Cheers for the reply.

 

[Anonymous]

There is a sugden mystro on flea bay for a reserve of £350.00, you should or anyone else go for that.

 

[Macspur]

Am awaiting delivery of the Sugden A21L myself... auditioned it recently with a Rega Saturn and sounded fantastic, so I should think your's should be impressive, if not more so.

Rega Saturn, Sugden A21l B&W CM2's

 

[SonofSun]

Macspur:
Am awaiting delivery of the Sugden A21L myself... auditioned it recently with a Rega Saturn and sounded fantastic, so I should think your's should be impressive, if not more so.

Rega Saturn, Sugden A21l B&W CM2's

I hope so, enjoy the A21L

 

[seasiders rock]

The Audition range got some good reveiws, Gramaphone tested the Amp and CDP and recommended them.

There rare and dont come up very often, people tend to keep them.

Typical Sugden class A A/B design, warm laid back, good bass, Sugden dont do in your face.

If your used to the Roksan it,s going to be a different sound.

Matching CDP was also available.

The factory will still service and repair, after sales is supurb, they will repair and service any Sugden kit going back to the 70,s

 

[SonofSun]

Thanks for the information, not sure whether "warm and laid back" is the sound I am looking for, but I suppose I will only find out whether I like it when it is hooked up.

I did get a reply from Sugden which I have included below:

Hi

I use one of
these at home, they are a really nice amplifier. I have attached a PDF of the
sales brochure you might find of interest. It was manufactured from 1998 - 2001
which is a very short time for one of our products. The Audition-C series is
highly rated in our company as it has some sophisticated circuitry. The problem
was that we made it to complicated, there were lots of options such as a remote
control, tone controls and various colours. I've got a bright purple and gloss
black one that looks pretty freaky! It was not very popular because of the
way it looked and it was expensive @ just under 1000.00GBP when fitted
with a remote control and tone controls. This makes it quite a rare beast with
only a few being sold in the UK, most went to North America. The tone control
circuit is superb as it doesn't degrade the input signal and can also be
switched out of circuit. The amp had everything!

The pre-amp
section is very good being wide bandwidth providing plenty of detail and
retrieval of low level information. It works very well with the matching CD
player which we still make today in the form of the CD21. The power amp is a
class AB dc coupled design with bags of current delivery. The MM stage works
well with high output MM cartridges, avoid using low output designs as the
sound is quite flat due to relatively low gain. It quite likes medium
efficiency speakers of about 87dB, I use Totem accoustics with mine and its great
combination.

Regards

Patrick

 

[Anonymous]

I have this amp, bought it about 7-8 years ago for £300 2nd hand, despite a few crashes requiring minor repair (which I eventually found to have been due to faulty speaker crossovers!! KEF IQ5's ;-( ) it sounds brilliant, very realistic and not at all 'warm' or 'coloured', over the years I've had various amps, NAD, Fisher, Camnridge Audio, this is in a different class, whilst I've upgraded all other parts in my system since acquiring this amp I wouldn't let this go. A couple of the above mentioned repairs were done at the Sugden factory, on one occasion I was given the pleasure of listening to the factory system set-up with some Sugden LS(1's I think) lovely sounding kit. I have recently made some of these

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/OBL11.htm

which have really revealed just how good this amp really is, 'being there' previously took quite a lot of imagination, now its almost effortless. If you get the chance to pick up one of these amps go for it without reservation.