Great looks, good price, sweet sound

lacks bass and detail

(not positive about the year. definitely between '92-96)

hi, me again. well, it's been some time since my last review of the sfs-80 and ive now had experiences with other tube amps and i feel the need to tame my hysteria about this thing a bit. although i still love this amp i recently upgraded to an audio research vt100 mkII and the difference is night and day. the arc has much better bass and is much more detailed and with a much larger sound stage. that said keep in mind that the arc goes for about 2600-3000 on the used market these days (4/01) and the sfs for about 1000, 1/3 of the price. the sfs is more musical than the arc however. there is more of a velvety sound with it and when i first put the arc in my system i didn't like it because i was used to the smoothness of the sfs. the huge bass also disturbed me. within minutes i was hooked on the arc for good though. this amp might stay with me forever.

i should also note that the arc sounded SO much more detailed it was simply astonishing.

for the money i think the sfs-80 is a nice deal: the build quality is outstanding and you get a great looking amp with a nice smooth, rich sound. the lack of bass might be due to my use of electrostatic speakers - almost certainly it is partially to blame. the arc however, adds great bass to the same speakers.

hope this helps.

Similar Products Used:

audio research d-60 solid state in mono
audio research vt100 mkII

Amazing sound. Super looks. Solid build.

I can't find any. Oh yeah...I've been told that sonic frontiers has or is going out of business so parts might be hard to find down the road. I have no idea if that's true or not but might be worth looking into.

I bought this amp from a guy on ebay for $1,100. I think the list price was around $3000 a few years ago. The amp arrived in mint condition. Very heavy, solid, beautiful to look at.

I was pairing the amp with an Audio Research SP-7 (older solid state model) and acoustic research electrostatic speakers. I'm blanking on the model but they are the 2.5 feet wide, 5 feet tall jobs.

I set it up and played a Neil Young CD and almost burst into tears. The music overwhelmed me, surrounded me...it seemed to come from everywhere at the same time. Suddenly I knew what tube people were talking about. When I say I almost burst into tears I'm not kidding. I've never heard such beauty. this is what people are talking about when they use the term 'eargasm' i guess. I never would have believed it. Then I put on some Coltrane and ...My God. What can I say? What can I say? If this amp were a woman I would have taken her right there. (Instead I got a nasty tube burn - I don't wanna talk about it)

This amp was everything good tubes are said to be: rich, full, warm sound. Some people say tube amps sound muddled, not defined. I don't find this to be the case at all. At least not with this Sonic Frontiers. I wish I knew more about music so I could praise it properly but maybe it's best I don't. All I know is what I heard when I turned this thing on and the change in sound quality was nothing short of staggering. Staggering.

Similar Products Used:

This is my first tube amp. Prior was a pair of audio research D-60 amps (solid state)