Output power, cool running, silent in operation.

Would have liked have seen output meters (instead of the single power supply energy meter). Like the Carver amps(A & TM series) used to have.

Totally silent in operation(no fans or transformer hum) , clean, undistorted power. Handles 4 ohm loads efforlessly. Runs cool as a cucumber. Looks great. You forget the amp is there and listen to the music. Quite light in weight considering the output power involved. extremely happy with it.

Similar Products Used:

Sunfire Theatre Grand. Carver A-760 amp(driving SVS subwoofers)

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same old carver different name

Bought this amp with the expectations that it would make my current system shine;but was I instore for the complete opposite.I let the amp break in for 200 hours plus playing a Fm signal into it 24/7 and it would not come together.The sound was fatigued,blouted, uncanny of a "high end amp".This product line comes from Bob Carver the name, or creater of Phase Linear and Carver line of audio equipment The Phase Linear line was one of the top canidates in the highend components in its day;but as time goes on so does advancement in design and thats where Phase Linear stopped.Bob Carver went on to then form Carver .Same man ,same direction,different principle......amps were never more than class ''C" .Then here comes the Sunfire LIne .............ditto..........if it were not for all of the money Carver was spending on advertising(all the major hifi publications) the line it would be only the engraving on a tombstone.........think twice ,spend once, there are better amps on the market for the same pric

Similar Products Used:

Phase Linear,Bryston,Classe......no longer Carver

Sound

Quality

I recently purchased this amp, as soon as I pluged it in there was a severe hum, it humed with nothing pluged into it and even before turning on the power, I called sunfire tech, and the solution given was to put a cheater plug on it, a cheater plug on a $3500 amp ?, anyway I tried it and it still humed, finaly sunfire sent a new unit to replace the defective one, this one had a 2 prong plug instead of a 3 prong plug, anyway as soon as I pluged it in , it buzzed more than the original, I took it back to the dealer ( who refused to give me a refund), the only solution the dealer offered was to exchage it for a higher priced amp, I think that sunfire is having extreme quality problems, before buying any of their products make sure you check it before leaving your dealer, I have left the dealers name unkown for now, for further info you can email me

Similar Products Used:

classe cav 150

Power Good for music AND HT

None

‘Dirty Spikey power” ?? Where does that come from? It isn’t even spelled right. Must be some super technical audiophile jargon. Oh well. Yet another review which should simply be dismissed. This is a very fine amplifier and has served me well for over a year now. No, it will not do double duty as a space heater, and it doesn’t weigh in at 50lbs/watt. These of course are some of the “benefits” of a class A amplifier. I have not experienced any “hum” from this amplifier just pure “clean un-spikey power”! It is a wonderful workhorse and drives my Legacy Signature III’s effortlessly. Faced with the hard choice of buying a system for music vs. home theater the CG addresses both without compromise. And at 405 watts per channel it will rock the house down. My neighbors love it too!

Massive Power; Runs Cool; Sounds Great; Looks good to boot.

Not enough Power comes out of my wall to feed this baby.
Had to send it back to factory after 6 months for repairs.

I purchased the Theater Grand/Cinema Grand combo in December of 1998. Several months later after a discussion with the very helpful people at Sunfire (The Cinema Grand did not trigger in auto power on mode when using balanced inputs) I discovered that there was a Cinema Grand Signature soon to hit the streets. I don’t know why Sunfire has been slow to advertise this monster of a power amp,( What, were they keeping it a secret? And come on guys get your web site updated!!) because it is awesome! 405 Watts per channel load invariant? Twice the power of the Cinema Grand? It just HAD to be good. I traded up to the Signature in June of 1999 without so much as an audition. Out of the box I noticed an immediate improvement over the Signature’s baby brother. The addition of voltage/current source outputs for the center channel, a detachable power cord, and very high quality gold binding posts, far superior to the standard 5 way posts found on most equipment.
The helicopter hijack scene in Golden Eye provided immediate validation for my choice to upgrade. I thought there was a helicopter in my living room. Also, using both the current and voltage source to bi-wire the center channel provided a dramatic improvement on all dialog for AC-3 and 5.1 DVD’s over the Cinema Grand. Of course I also bi-wire the right and left front channels, it produces a wonderful sound stage for recordings that make the hair stand up on the back of my arms.
6 months into ownership of the Signature, a power amp board for the left channel blew on power up (rather dramatically I might add) Sunfire turned it around quickly and to date (4/00) I have not experienced any problems.
Currently I am using the Cinema Grand Signature with the Theater Grand Processor, Platinum Trio Mains, and Platinum Center channel and surrounds, and a Sunfire signature Subwoofer. I am thinking about upgrading the mains to Legacy Focus (maybe Sig III’s) if anyone has any experience with this configuration, please sent your thoughts.

At the end of the day, Sunfire Signature Grand is the poor man’s Krell or Pass. It will serve you well and drive any load you can put to it. 5 stars for value, 5 for sound, 4 for build quality.

Similar Products Used:

Sunfire Cinema Grand

Raw Power, more 'delicate' sound that it's younger brother

Shows how weak other components are...

Even though the amplifier is not broken in yet, I am extremely happy with the performance of the unit. It gave me exactly what I was looking for:

1. Took the harshness off of the treble, making it easier to listen to for long periods (especially important when watching movies!)
2. Provided a much more crisp midrange that my system lacked
3. Bass extension that I didn't think my system was capable of.

I was purposely looking for an amplifier that provided all three of these, as I have recently picked up a new Magnepan MGCC1 center channel, and I am waiting for my MG 3.6's to come in. The center channel sounded somewhat tinny on my old amp, as it seemed to be weak at the midrange, and overpowering on the treble. This amp made the difference that several months of listening and researching tended me to believe would come from this particular unit.

Top that all off with low heat dissipation, and a very slick rear panel with current and voltage outputs, and the by-wiring of the MG 3.6's should be phenominal!

Very powerful, good details, and at a VERY reasonable price. I was contemplating units from Krell and Theta Digital, but after comparing units costing twice that of the Sunfire, and in my system, the superior sound of the CGS, I was smiles from ear-to-ear.

Brian

Perfect balance for music and movies.

None at this price.

I had 8 grand to spend on an amp for my home theater which I use 80% of the time for two channel music. I really wanted to buy the new EAD amp for(5K),I have the $4K Ovation pre/pro, but it was just too polite and laid back. This is OK for music but bad for HT. It would be great to say I own krell or Proceed but knowing that a conrad-johnson at half the price blows the doors of off them for music made me very unhappy and it absolutly makes no financial sence at all to spend 8K for just HT. The Aragon is also just right for music and HT but not as musical as even the Krell and Proceed, but a much much better value for the money. Then I got the idea to listen to the Sunfire amp while reading one of the reviews for the Aragon. The Absolute Sound was comparring the Carver Lightstar to the Aragon and basicly saying that the Carver was better. Well, that Lightstar amp is the invention of Bob Carver who now runs Sunfire as everyone should know. The Signature is a much improved version of that Lightstar design so I had high expectations for the Signature. I was not dissapointed when I got the chance to audition the amp with Totem speakers. This amp Images like the Proceed (very big), and has the power and punch like the Krell, I kid you not. It has a very pleasent warm sound that while not accurate is very immpressive on real world recordings. If all you listen to is audiophile recordings you can stick to the tube amps of your chioce. Power is of no concern with this amp. You actually run out of power from the wall first. Because this design is twice as effecient as normal designs though, there is more power potential available from the power outlet with this amp. Also a plus is the looks of this amp and the size&weight of this amp is worth five stars alone! Good buy to moving my ATI and Parasound monster amps I used for HT before. One last note, you can use this amp with any speakers period! Happy listining.

Similar Products Used:

Aragon,Krell,Proceed and EAD.

I also just upgraded from the Cinema Grand to the Signature. Tighter bass and even cleaner midrange are readily apparent. One of the main reasons I upgraded was to get the balanced and voltage/current choice for the center, so that I could bi-wire my Def Tech CLR3000 center channel. The build of the Signature is more solid than the Cinema Grand, with much improved binding posts. The sound is excellent through my system, using balanced interconnects and bi-wiring the fronts using voltage/current to the tr-wireable BP2000s to the bass and highs, with the highs bridged to the mids. Equipt: Sunfire Theater Grand, Def Tech BP2000 fronts, KEF C40 rears, Monster Z-1 Speaker cable (being upgraded to Monster 2.4 biwire), Denon CD player.

Detailed,powerful,good built quality

Back of the amp could have been organized better

Okay,let me put it this way;if you really wanna enjoy home theater and 2 channel stereo at the same time and if you can't afford two dedicated system anyway,then this might be the right amp for you.But one thing is pretty important here,that is,you shouldn't use bad quality components with it cos' this amp isn't really forgiving.The quality of its performance is pretty much up to what it's been connected to
so you gotta stick with the high end components.
This is really one hell of a good killer amp for the money.

Similar Products Used:

proceed

POWER! wont put you in traction trying to move it. clean sound. output choices

a little sensitive(as are most higher end seps.) to what its connected to.

More than enough amp for 99% of the HT crowd. If auditioning one, make sure you get a floor model that has been burned in, its well worth it.

Like other reviewers have stated, I too had the hum from the speakers problem, and got the same advice from SF, use a cheater plug. My situation was more from my apt and cable system, than the unit itself(sensitive). The cable had a MONSTER ground loop problem, and the curcuit is the same as my kitchen. Once the cable switched to digital service, any residual hum has all but dissapeared. The unit does have a SLIGHT hum coming from inside it, only noticiable if you stick your lobe right on it, other than that, you never hear it.

This thing is simply awesome, more power than I can use. HT is fantastic as is stereo, giant sound field. The performance of this unit is more of a function of what its attached to. You could drop the engine from a Lotus turbo into an older Escort GT, sure it would be fast, but it wont do much else, not like the complete package. After upgrading cables and to a TG II, I was using an Adcom GTP600(noisy as all get out!), the whole system came alive, clean tight bass, sonic clarity, and detailed highs, all done with out breaking a sweat. My DVD player gets hotter than this thing! Now, when listening to music that I know front and back, im hearing things I never head before. Guitar picks hitting strings, singers taking breaths(10k maniacs Cherry Tree from In my tribe), Shirley Manson's lips smacking on the into to Fix me Now. In HT it really shines. Its a fast recovering amp. Using Sufires test scene from T2 proved that, as has countless other events in movies. Mars Attacks, the shoot out scene in Heat, Jurrasic Park, etc. Again, if you are using less than quality cables, you wont get the full benefits.

This is a great piece of equipment for the money. Sure, there are other units that will best it, but you will have to dole out 3 to 4 times the cost of this thing to maybe get a marginal improvement. The ability to switch outputs is nice, although I have only used the current source so I cant make a comment on how that works.

current system, FWIW
TG II
DVP S-7700
CDP-X229ES(10 yo cd player, sounds brand new after using the digital out to the TGII. sounds as good, if not better than the S-7700.)
Phase Tech PC-500 mains
Kimber 4TC
Monster M550i and interlink 400 mk2(soon to be replaced)

Similar Products Used:

adcom, sony es recs.