Sugden Masterclass ANV-50 Integrated Amplifier

The  Sugden Masterclass ANV-50 is THE integrated amplifier released to celebrate Sugden Audio’s fiftieth anniversary. It is a unique design with many innovative features and specially developed audio circuits.

In 1967 Sugden released the world’s first solid state pure class A amplifier, the A21.  The ANV-50 promises to revisit this golden age of British audio engineering, with a design focused on the demands and preferences of today’s audio enthusiast and music lover.

The ANV-50 has at its heart, a pure class A amplifier and this is coupled to an advanced ‘ideal’ final output stage.  This unique two stage amplification system guarantees our signature pure class A sound, with the ability to drive the vast majority of loudspeaker systems.

The sophisticated final output stage features a comparator and correction circuit so that errors which could occur in the power output section due to varying loads and distortion, are corrected to match the output of the high impedance input amplifier.  Whilst maintaining the signal authenticity, it also increases the load stability and forces the output impedance to zero.  This special output stage with Sugden Error Correction has extremely low open loop output impedance with a resultant high damping factor at quite high frequencies. It also benefits from overall Current-Feedback.

The power amplifier and pre-amplifier are fully DC coupled so there are no capacitors in the signal path to interfere with or deteriorate the sound quality. One of the key features of Sugden Class A amplifiers is the power supply.  Because they have a high standing current and power reserves, the output is always ready to act instantly to any signal.  This is unlike a conventional Class AB amplifier that waits to receive power through a transformer and a bridge rectifier.  The ANV-50 takes this one step further by using a 1 MHz switching power supply which acts instantly to deliver the power as the Pure Class A amplifier section is always on.

The power supplies are high current, fast and incredibly stable.  With a MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) of 100 years they are designed for longevity and reliability.

Specifications