Sugden a21 question....

I agree with Marco. you'll get sdound out of the speakers, but dull, lacking any dynamics or life. The Sugden is a beautiful amp and Class A output probably drives a speaker better than Class A/B or valves(that may get some criticism), but you are asking too much of the amp. Most speakers give a maximum and minimum output to run the speakers with and they are pretty reliable. Give the speaker less than the stated minimum and you just won't get the best out of it

There is a newer version of the Sugden A21a (an amp I use to own)just being released in the UK.It's more modern looking and costs twice the price.The new A21SE is rated at 21W but remember Class A is a different ball game.

Correction the SE is rated at 30 into 8ohms. It would run them but the price in USD is around 3500-3750. http://www.sugdenaudio.com/range/a21se.htm

The new A21SE is rated at 21W but remember Class A is a different ball game.

May be a different ball game, but still not in the right ball park in my experience. Two of the SS amps I've tried with my 89db SR17's were class A. The Aleph 5 putting out 50wpc, and the Bedinie 25/25 putting out, you guessed it, 25wpc. Both class A amps. In a larger space both could put out a fairly satisfying volume, but if you ever wanted to push it with dynamic music, again the results were less than satisfying in comparison to more powerful amps. In a smaller room you may be fine. But I'd still say you'd be on the borderline. $3k+ is a whole lot to risk...I'd see if you can get to audition them in your system before dropping that kind of coin.

Marco

Thank you all for your replies. That is kind of what I figured, but thought I would ask anyway. So it looks like it goes to my next two choices, which are the Portal Panache or the Unico with the Underwood Level 2 mod.
Any opinions on those?