I have a soft spot for Sugden ClassA amps. I have an IA-4 in the basement, and I just bought a pair of Sugden MPA-4 mono blocks for my main listing room. I sold my Sugden SPA-4 power amp and kept the LA-4 pre amp. I did however have a Kinki EX-M1 , and installed the Sparkos op amp kit chips. That was an amazing little amp with the upgrade. I was prepared to keep that until this IA-4 came up for sale at a great deal from my dealer.
Recommend me a Class A Integrated Amp (or sound like Class A amp)
I have been rocking a Cabasse Riga setup with a Sony TA-A1ES (a heavily biased Class A design outputting first 15 watts as Class A). I absolutely love the clarity and natural sound of it. I’ve decided to keep to Class A to upgrade if possible because the Riga does not need a lot of juice to drive.
Accuphase Class As are eye-watering expensive in my country, but thankfully Esoteric prices their Class A F-03A at much more reasonable $8600 USD. Luxman unfortunately has stopped producing Class As, so they are out of equation and besides strangely they are more expensive than Esoteric in my country. Pass Labs, well, way out of my budget.
So, for around $8600 USD or less what are my other options if I want a similar sound to Class A without going down the tube route?
I’ve heard the new HifiRose RA180 sounds quite class A like. And I think the Yamaha AS series sound quite close as well. Any more options should I consider? The pricing of other brands should be similar to US.