Most Sugden Integrated and Pre-amplifiers are high gain designs. The result of this means you don’t usually have to turn the volume control very far to reach reasonable listening levels. We do this for one simple reason, we think it sounds better.
In recent years we developed a VCV circuit and this means the signal does not go through the volume control at all. The advantage of this is the avoidance of signal degradation. Another benefit is that it retains the dynamics and speed of our high gain designs, but allows more travel with the volume control. VCV is currently used in our Sapphire DAP-800 and Masterclass HA-4 pre-amplifiers.