Sugden Bijou Headphone Amp.

I have spent some months now, listening to both my Stax headphones and Spendor BC1's. The BC1's have recently been fitted with new Bass/Mid-range drivers. The tell tale sign of problems came when playing music at low level - my intention given we shall be moving to an apartment/flat where it may be unrealistic to keep the BC1's. I could clearly hear the voice coil grating against the magnet, which was not noticeable at higher sound levels. Anyway, the replacement units cleared up that issue and now the speakers perform superbly at low levels. But I remain conscious of the fact, it is not a good idea to drive them at high levels - if I want them to last another 52 years!

Higher levels have been reserved for my Stax SR3's. It is a bit of a faff, having to change over the termination from speaker to LS and back again, as I haven't made a decision about exactly how I will wire everything up permanently yet. I have to say, I do get a lot more pleasure from listening to the BC1's than the Stax, particularly as I can get on and do a lot more without being attached to my system by the headphone lead. That doesn't take away from the pleasure I get from the Stax, just their use is a bit more specific - i.e. sitting in my chair quietly, just listening.

All the while, my Sugden Headmaster has just been sitting there, looking pretty and playing no part in all of my listening tests/exercises. The V2 iFi performs superbly and has brought a new level of quality to my system - My Thorens/SME/Revox definitely belong in the past and have no desire to go back to tape or vinyl. However, I missed the flexibility the Quad 33 brought with both it's tone controls and the super filter system it sports. Hence, the continuously variable loudness control I bought from AliExpress.

However, when experimenting with it and my Quad 909, I felt any treble lift was pretty much unnecessary with the vast majority of material I was listening to. Bass however, was a different issue, particularly when listening at low volume. So, a small mod effectively changed it to a low pass filter, albeit it with and additional 6db. attenuation with every switched increment. However, as the V2's output level is higher than both the Sugden's and the 909's input level, I had room to play with + it reduced the potential for overdriving the BC1's. The attached plot shows the response, but my mod. results in it being flat from 500hz., i.e. no high frequency lift. Although, there are eleven switched setting on the control, I am only interested in the first two settings. One of the switch positions is ''Flat'' - loudness switched out. The first ''degree'' of loudness works really well with the BC1's at low level listening, but level two is sometimes used depending upon the musical material.

Last week however, my son arrived with his HiFi - man Planar headphones, which dramatically changed things for me. The idea was to do an A/B comparison between my Stax and his Planar's. At this point, the hitherto redundant/neglected Sugden was brought into play. I had got up for a cup of tea at about 3.30am. and thought it would be a good idea to give the Planar's a precursory test before hooking up the Stax.

The Stax never came out of their boxes, because as he remarked later in the day - ''This has taken it to a different level altogether''.

I couldn't have put it better myself. Simply astounding!

The first thing that came out was, they confirmed the V2's is less than happy with a wireless connection - so I changed my PC to an ethernet connection. Result - all ''Slippage'' ceased and there appeared to be a marked improvement in musical detail.

I drove the V2 into my LPF/modified loudness control, with 10db. attenuation in-line, the output of the LPS going to input 1 of the Headmaster. because of the obvious ''openness'' of the HiFi - man headphones, I switched the LPF to position two.

Annette Askvik's - ''Liberty'' has become a ''Reference Listen'' and what a reference that is! Aside from the wonderful melancholy and the beauty of her vocals, the saxophone is just riveting. The LPF, as I hoped, does not appear to intrude into upper bass/low mid-range territory, but lifts the bass wonderfully in the HiFi-man's and the clarity of the instruments is superb. The overarching impression that my son quickly picked up on was, the musical breadth; already wide - just got a whole lot wider. The detail in the low octaves, the territory occupied by low frequency components in the music just jumped out, as if a veil had been lifted.

I can't think why I have ignored Leonard Cohen. His lyrics are just as brilliant as Dylan's, and his voice just as rasping. However, following on from Askvik's Liberty, I became engrossed with so many of his songs. Even the ''Jews Harp'' which seems to feature on some of his tracks. One does not need to struggle for detail - the whole gambit of instruments and vocals are laid bare. At one point, it seemed when listening to some music, it was the drums, and double bass playing and every other instrument was simply the supporting cast!

I could go on, waxing lyrical about the HiFi-mans and just how good they are. They really do justice to Sugden's Headmaster and I don't think I will ever get my head around how effective this little LPF is at removing the muddiness one sometimes gets with music in and around the lower mid-range/upper bass region. The combination is, for me so good, it looks like my Quad 909, my Spendor BC1's and both my pairs of Stax headphones will be going to new homes!