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Thoughts on Sugden a21a and speaker matching.

Pro-Ac and Sugden is a well-regarded combination, but in truth if I have ever heard it, I've long forgotten about it. I think I'd counsel trying a pair of your preferred Pro-Acs at home before commiting to anything else, you don't want to end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Actually, turn out (as I've just been reminded) that I have heard an a21 driving Pro-Acs, Tablette Ref or Sgnature I think, when I sat in on a mate's dem a few years back.

I wasn't thrilled — neither was he as it turned out, he bought a pair of LV Auditoriums — they sounded a bit 'small' to me as I recall, and I thought they'd 'editorialise' the range of music you could enjoy on them, which I suppose is the situation you're in now. The bigger ones you mention might be better, probably easier to drive. IIRC, we also heard Art Audio Stilletos and small Totem floorstanders, complete with 'Beaks.'

Not much enamoured of the former, can't really remember anything about the latter, so presumably they didn't have me run screaming from the room. Or possibly they did, and I've 'blanked out' the trauma. ;-)
 
I suppose there's more to consider than just the amp & speakers pairing, room size, positioning and required volume. A small room and listening in a near field position at moderate volume would require a different speaker than a large room with a midfield listening position or a speaker placed in a boundary position.
The little Totem arro's were a speaker that quite surprised me, on paper they don't look to be a great match with the A21a with their tiny driver and 84 or 86db sensitivity and yet they worked really nicely together.
Although I used them in two small living rooms for a brief period of time I did have them set up in the middle of a very large lounge whilst I I was redecorating the room they were normally in, with a modest front end of a STD 305M, Hadcock242se, WB Ply MC and EAR 834 the A21a and little Totems produced a soundstage that was cavernous, great depth.
The beaks were a bit of a nonsense imho.
 
A21al owner here.

With this amp, IME, equally as important as the speakers used is the room size and listening levels. I listen near field in a small room at moderate levels. In that configuration there isn't much that the Suggie's 'struggle' with.

I've had particular success with Triangles, ProAc 1SC's and my current Transmission Audio M1i's are magical.
 
Absolutely. Room size and to an extent, volume level far more important than speaker. I used the Sugden with most usual suspects - LV, ProAc etc, and unusual - Neat MF9s. In the end though, you may as well get a suitable valve amp instead.
 
Absolutely. Room size and to an extent, volume level far more important than speaker. I used the Sugden with most usual suspects - LV, ProAc etc, and unusual - Neat MF9s. In the end though, you may as well get a suitable valve amp instead.

This is the truth. If the room is too large or you must keep your insensitive / difficult load speakers, buy a more suitable amp.
 
I auditioned the current sugden a21 with some jbl l82’s and thought it sounded great. Listened to a wide variety of music. At no point did I think it was slow or lacking in bass.

i then listened to the a21se with some proacs and fell in love. Had a bit more grunt over the standard a21. ordered the a21se :)
 
I do wonder if the reported poor bass control is more a result of speaker mismatch.The Sugden has quite a low damping factor and I assume from that a highish output impedance.So it is likely to sound best with true 8 ohm speakers rather than 4 ohm.Much like a valve amp.
 
Got the Proac 140s, first impressions are the treble is too bright with jazz, which is about 50% of my listening, understanding more and more why I stick with my Audio note Js. But I did like the scale and precision of the 140s with rock, though the bass was a bit flabby, but some on here have said that is due to the Sugden.
If these 140 have two woofers, bass risks to remain flabby no matter the amp.
I also noted that some older Proac used to be a bit harsh in the treble area but this problem has been solved on newer versions as they now use some ring dome fabric tweeters.
 
I don't think proacs should sound too bright. Maybe run them for a while and see if they calm down. Unless there is some damage of course ...
 
I've never heard the studio range but I have read that they can be a bit bright depending on the rest of the gear. I own D2's and have heard others in the response range and have always thought they were on the (slightly) warm side of neutral.
 
Sounds as if one or both of the tweeters might have a problem to me. I don't know the speakers well though.
 
@Sugarman Simply trust your ears. If it doesn't sound distorted they are okay. If they only sound a bit tizzy then the speaker interacting with your room acoustic and your taste is the problem.:)

"The Studio 140s exhibit very few weaknesses – provoke the tweeter with really aggressive recordings or a very bright system and it'll draw a little too much attention to itself..."
https://www.whathifi.com/proac/studio-140/review
 
I hope those speakers work out for you.
If they don't I'd be interested in them if they can be shipped.

I use a sugden a21a with ProAc response D1 and I'm very happy with the sound. Horses for courses I guess.
 
I like my Sugden and understand the desire to start with the amp and find the speakers to match. But it looks like it’s turning out to be quite difficult with the budget available. If it were me I think I’d sell the amp and throw most of the now bigger budget at speakers that work well with all kinds of music and don’t mind cheap class a/b or d amplification. That or save up a bit more and get some vintage Tannoys: good all-rounders, sensitive, will fill the space, don’t mind being up against a wall.
 
I found that Rogers jr149 work extremely well with an A21a. Not necessarily easy to find a good pair of jr149 as you need to be patient and/or lucky, and they're not terribly appropriate if you want lots of volume. But I felt that there was some of that elusive magic in that combo.
 
If Tannoy's worked, I'd offload my ANjs, so can spend up to around £1k, that sihould get me a pair of old Eatons, just a matter of waiting till a decent pair turn up. Wouldn't the Suggie work well with Tannoys? I also have a finely modded Audio Innovations s500 valve amp, I'm currently running this with the Proacs, but the results are lacklustre. I was quite happy with my inital S500/Anj set up, but felt it lacked precison and scale, and found it was dictating my musical choice, i.e. Jazz, and well produced pop, meaning I was missing enjoying my other loves like Techno, and the not so well produced rock by lesser known 60s/70s bands.
I can only go by my SE and Berkeley II combination, which works really well, with all the genres you mention. Hopefully someone will have some direct experience of your Sugden model with vintage Eatons or similar.
 
Any advice on siting floorstanding speakers on carpets? As stated these have downward firing ports, would stone slabs under them be a good idea? I'll give it a go, just wondering on peoples experience with this.

Cannot hurt to try, have had some success with paving slabs etc in the past.:)
 


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