Possibility of buying a Sugden amp.

[audio amateur]

After having fried my Trends amplifier, I bought a Cambridge audio 340a amp which is now sitting cosy in my parents' living room driving a pair of Kef iQ5 SE speakers.
I've been out of amp for a couple weeks and recently won a cheap Rotel (60 bucks :D).
on ebay which should be arriving next week.

Now, I found a Sugden A25 B int. amp in a second hand store near here, for what amounts to 200 bucks in British pounds. I can't find any info on it. I'd like to know how old they are etc. Is it worth getting?

[JohnMichael]

After having fried my Trends amplifier, I bought a Cambridge audio 340a amp which is now sitting cosy in my parents' living room driving a pair of Kef iQ5 SE speakers.
I've been out of amp for a couple weeks and recently won a cheap Rotel (60 bucks :D).
on ebay which should be arriving next week.

Now, I found a Sugden A25 B int. amp in a second hand store near here, for what amounts to 200 bucks in British pounds. I can't find any info on it. I'd like to know how old they are etc. Is it worth getting?



Audio Ideas Guide has a review of that amp in it's January 1992 issue. I do not know how long they were produced but it could be fairly old.

[RGA]

The A25-B was manufactured in 1988 so it won't be older than that. It was a scaled down version of the A48B that I owned and operates in Class A/B. To my knowledge it was 35watts - about half the A48b

The A48b would get about $300-$400 Canadian - the A25B should be less.

I have never heard the A25B but some think it sounded a bit better than the 48B because the A25 had less features getting in the way of the sound. I can't say. However, factor in that this amp could be 21 years old. Some work may need to be done on it at this point. Still I greatly liked the sound of the A48b - it didn't have the open airy qualities of some amps like Musical Fidelit's A300 but it had a richer more organic sound and deeper richer bass.

[audio amateur]

Thanks JM, you don't happen to have the article do you?

RGA,
I'm not surprised it may need some working on in the future (given it's in good working order as of now). Do you know if it's work I could do myself? What components are likely to go first, and in what way will this affect the sound?

[RGA]

The switch on off light on all of these units tend to go. No big deal really - I just forgot to turn it off sometimes. Apparently they need to be balanced - I'm not sure exactly what that means. But the guy who bought the amp when I traded it in mentioned it needed to be tuned up. What that means I do not know.

With any luck Sugden could help you out though they were not fast to respond when I contacted them - though they did respond eventually.

SS amps - not a lot of moving parts - the volume pot might need work - could last 40+ years.

[audio amateur]

I figured it's be more along the lines of having the capacitors replaced etc?
The volume pot felt amazing, very precise. Not loose at all.

Anyway, there was also an Arcam CDP (CD73) which I took instead for the same price. I needed one for my parent's system. It was a hard decision because I know the Sugden is an amazing piece of kit (they are basically handmade as you probably know). It really would be an investment, and something which I couldn't get hold of easy, but that's life.

Thanks again for the info!