High current design?

[Mr Peabody]

Maybe they call Sugden the poor man's Krell because you can get a pure Class A amplifier for $2k. I not sure what Krell's class A is running but it has to be several times that. I don't know why you like Bryston but not Krell, they are fairly similar, except krell is better. In my biased opinion.

I wish someone around here carried AN or Sugden. I'd love to hear them. You have to admit though they are both unique in the market. I don't understand why stores wouldn't jump on AN, an efficient speaker that actually sounds good. That would be a first for me.

[RGA]

Maybe they call Sugden the poor man's Krell because you can get a pure Class A amplifier for $2k. I not sure what Krell's class A is running but it has to be several times that. I don't know why you like Bryston but not Krell, they are fairly similar, except krell is better. In my biased opinion.

I wish someone around here carried AN or Sugden. I'd love to hear them. You have to admit though they are both unique in the market. I don't understand why stores wouldn't jump on AN, an efficient speaker that actually sounds good. That would be a first for me.

Give Audio Note some time - not everyone is allowed to carry Audio Note because it has to be sold on their terms - not very many dealers frankly can afford to carry them much less have a dedicated Audio Note room with all Audio Note gear...most places have mixed and matched set-ups...a MF amp witth a Rotel cd player and a Vanden Hul Cable and some B&W's conencted up with a linn Turntable. With Audio Note it has to be ALL Audio Note. The thinking behind it is - if you hate it at least they know they crashed and burned with THEIR equipment and not let down by someone elses crappy componant. It also means that if you LOVE what you hear you are more likely to buy all Audio Note. Few would but whatthe hell you get to hear all their stuff at once which at least gives them a shot to sell you a cd player with your speaker purchase etc. The other part of that though is that their amplifiers are relatively low powered - pretty powerful for SET but they need a certain type of speaker to play their best - their speakers are supposedly mirrorimaged to their amp - so they really don't want to see their 8 watter connected to a B&W. I don't know why not since the N805 sounded better to me with the Meishu than it ever did with Rotel or High power Classe separates. But generally many speakers need more than 8 watts per channel. IMO bad ones need more than 8 watts but I'm getting biased now.

There are 25 dealers in the US(I think 5 are in California though) - and my dealer may end up actually building the speakers to reduce prices of shipping from Europe - Another dealer is building the DACs. I have a feeling the dealers also have to have technical know-how to perform upgrades etc - and they need deep pockets to carry several mAudio Note models. The fact that the company doesn't waste money on advertising or product literature means that most people who buy it will be people going in and actually listening(shudder the thought) to it rather than being pre-sold by the marketing hype of magazines. So dealers are going to have to believe in it themselves because it is a risk to take up valuable sales space with a relatively ugly no name brand when you could carry Paradigm - which is a houshold name(Of course a place like Soundhounds carries both and B&W so they can stay in business selling that stuff but also carry the lesser known and IMO better sounding gear). So you're going to need a dealer who is passionate a bit about music themselves and are willing to sacrifice some volume sales.

Sugden unfortunately is just too small - and they have, at least for now, pulled out of North America. My dealer never sold much Sugden but after the high praise in Stereophile he has had many inquiries...but he can't get any. Typical - no one wanted it until the reviews. I wish people would actually LISTEN to stuff than buy out of magazines. LOW watt SS is a tough sell - The point of SS is to have high power with sacrificed sound otherwise you would buy low powered superior tube amps(as the marketing goes here). A low watt SS amp may be viewed as a curiosity - won't sell to the people wanting or needing high power SS and won't seel to tube lovers - because they want tubes. Well actually I should not say won't sell it's the longest selling commercial amp - but you are right it is an exception and an oddity. They don't advertise either - such products you seek out by listening.

Bryston to me is too close to Krell to warrant the extra money Krell charges. Even though Krell is class A it really doesn' do it for me - though you know I've only heard Krell once and it was with a relatively unfamiliar speaker to me in Hales - so perhaps I should give them another try. And of course many amplifiers are better suited to the need of the speakers.

[Beckman]

Here is another opinion I suggest reading:

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/6893.html

I don't know how reliable the source is, but it makes sense.

[mtrycraft]

I wish someone around here carried AN or Sugden. I'd love to hear them. .

Ah, but you should do that under bias controlled conditions. A different story then for sure.