A composite head-electrical conditioner assembly that includes a slider with a transducer head and transducer bond pads. The transducer bond pads communicate a transducer level electrical signal with the transducer head. An integrated circuit substrate has a conditioning circuit and first substrate bond pads electrically connected to the transducer bond pads. The integrated circuit substrate has second substrate bond pads with a conditioned electrical signal that is transmittable over a circuit. The slider is rigidly mounted to the integrated circuit substrate to form an assembly that is flexibly mountable. A thermal isolation space is provided between the transducer and the conditioning circuit. The integrated circuit can be in the form of a cap that provides windage reduction.