在1960年,Sugden公司的前身Research Electronics在Jim Edward Sugden先生的领导下诞生。具有工程背景的他,曾先后于英国EMI与Granada TV担任工程师。早在音响界一片与B类扩大机为伍的60年代,Jim早巳成功设计出世界第一部纯A类工作的晶体扩大机,而接下来的系列产品,都以[si]加以命名。
钢琴声最棒
结合了速度感、结像力与纯净度三者后,Masterclass对于钢琴方面的表现,就显得特别拿手。由Klavier公司出版的Quattro Mani [A Game Of Go](K 11106),收录了多位当代作曲家的双钢琴作品,优美动人的抒情旋律不时穿插在狂热与激情的演奏之中。录音由Bruce Leek掌舵,整体音效上相当杰出。在铿锵宽弘的庞大音乐出现时,Masterclass可以毫不犹豫地将能量释放,二部史坦威名琴的规模感相当宏伟厚实,饱满庞大的钢琴颗粒感也很浮凸;在音乐转入迷人的细语呢喃片段后,简单素净的旋律线藉由钢琴的装饰奏与独立表现串联起来,我依旧可以听到清晰的低音弦线条纹理,温暖的气质不断涌出,二部钢琴交错间那种细致的微动态,的确要比其他中小功率扩大机来得杰出许多。
动人的珍妮佛·华恩斯
放上像珍妮佛·华恩靳『枫叶情』这种Easy Listening的音乐,应该是Masterclass最能大显手脚的时候。藉由它们优秀的速度感与低频控制力,以及各频段间的均衡协调,您可以听到紧密、有弹性,又极具形体感的电贝斯拨弦,下盘丰满但不失控制。第四轨一开头华恩斯的独唱,呼吸声、发声点、胸腔共鸣高度都是那么地具体而微。第六轨取自Billy Joel的[and so it goes],整首曲子散发出来那份淡淡的惆怅,在自然弥漫的空气漂浮中道尽了对感情的绝望。在第七轨中,Masterclass利用它那中价位纯A类扩大机少见的透明音质,对华恩断独到的演唱气味确实拿捏,音乐深层的感染力量,实在让人无法抗拒。
當時一位叫做 Richard Allan 的廠商所生產的一系列高品質揚聲器得到市場空前的迴響,由於業務蒸蒸日上,他與Jim Sugden聯繫欲將Si 系列前、後級擴大機重新設計為10W的綜合擴大機,而這就是後來推出的Richard Allan A21,這個機型一上市便在英國音響界造成轟動,銷售量大幅增加,很快地Jim將所有心力放在音響及測量器材上,停止了科學儀器的研發工作。J. E. Sugden & Co Ltd. 便於此時成立,與Richard Allan的夥伴關係也就此結束。
始終領先當代工藝的Jim Sugden推出了許多堪稱經典的創新產品,包括於1975年之前就發表的橋接Mono擴大機,MPX調諧器及環繞處理器等。 J. E. Sugden公司現今的所有人為Tony Miller,本身也是出身於電子及電機工程,再加上本身豐富的理財經驗,將承接的公司經營的有聲有色。秉持Jim Sugden一貫的生產方式,每一台器材都是由一人完全以手工製作,從設計工作到面板印刷等都是在公司內完成。
It's that rare and beautiful thing in hi-fi - the perfect match
Predicting that Sugden electronics and ART loudspeakers would be a marriage made in hi-fi heaven required no great feat of clairvoyance on our part. The companies - which are based in Yorkshire and Scotland
respectively - know it. People at hi-fi shows have heard about it. Sometimes products just click. It's that old black magic called synergy and this beefy bundle of Brit-fi has enough of the stuff to power a small town.
Or certainly heat one. Sugden's Masterclass Integrated amp is a hot product in every sense of the word. You probably know the story here. Sugden loves sweet-sounding Class A amplification like Simon Cowell loves the feeling of belt under armpit. It believes that pure Class A, single-ended operation is sonically superior to all the alternatives. Judging from the exquisite
performance of its smaller integrated, the long-running A21a, it has a strong case. The consequence of this approach, though, is bags of thermal output (enough to warm your hands by on a chilly morning) for a comparatively modest power output. For its flagship integrated amplifier, Sugden has
pushed this up to 34 watts a side; still pretty feeble for a ?K amp, you might think. But when it comes to misleading quotes, the Masterclass integrated leaves Steven Byres for dead. In a good way, as we'll hear.
Another snub to convention is dealt by the Masterclass CD player. Digital evolution has made 24-bit digital to analogue converters almost the de facto standard for up-market machines, but not this one. The way Sugden tells it, 16-bit chipsets still sound best for CD and one particular combination of DAC and filter - Philips TDA 1541 and 7220 - sounds best of all. Hardly bog standard, of course. Both the Philips mechanism and digital circuitry are extensively modified in-house.
Masterclass aesthetics tend towards the butch rather than the beautiful but the no-nonsense functionality and sturdy construction are appealing and the engineering tip-top. The CD player totes both standard single-ended phono sockets and balanced XLR outputs and BNC connections for digital ins/outs and of the amp's four line inputs, one is balanced XLR. There's a moving magnet input for a turntable, too, but the sexiest things on the back panel are the gorgeous fit-all WBT binding posts.
If the brutally unfrilly ART Expression speakers and dedicated sand-filled stands look tough, almost pro-plain, in the supplied battleship grey (though ART will paint them any colour you like to order), they're anything but unsophisticated. Acoustic Reproduction Technology is brothers Derek and Ramsay Dunlop (of Systemdek turntable fame) and the Expression, sans bass module, is the smallest model in their mission to put music-first principles back into speaker design.
Not to imply any daintiness, here. The stands are very heavy and sturdy, the Expressions themselves deep and solidly built. Never mind the width, anyway: ART is on a quality kick and the Expression uses extremely high quality drive units in an effort to recreate realistic scale and dynamics from what, by the standards of this group, is a bijou box.
PERFORMANCE
Ever doubted the maxim "more than the sum of its parts"? You should hear this. Individually, these are all outstanding performers. Together they harmonise like a gospel choir under the direction of Quincy Jones. This is a music-making ensemble - 'hi-fi' seems almost too clinical a term to describe what it does.
But what it does is this: it allows you to forget that CD ever sounded hard and edgy; makes you realise that you don't actually need valves to achieve breathtakingly natural textures and limpid transparency; and convince you that small speakers really can sound big, uncompressed and dynamic.
It's pure relief. This system removes the tenseness from listening to hi-fi. You want to fall into its arms and let it massage your temples. The way it gets you closer to the music is uncanny. On guitarist Martin Taylor's meticulously produced and played Nitelife, new layers of resolution subtly unearth previously unnoticed details. Yet tonal and the unforced transient accuracy just seems so... well, unforced.
No, an exclusive playlist of Mot head won't be well served by the Sugden/ART combo - which isn't to say it can't do loud and muscular. In fact it does it so well, the amp's modest output spec seems ludicrous. It's just that there's so much more it can do to make your day.