weight, looks

not enough current, high noise floor

ok. i bought into all of the sunfire hype and marketing. I tried this amp to power my 5 ribbon/planar speakers because of all of the reviews out there. I am sad to say that I was unhappy with the performance.

Compared to my aragon x5, it is night and day. the aragon provides MUCH more dynamics and the bass is now unreal. I'm sure this amp would be OK for conventional speakers, but for my demanding speakers (bohlender graebner), i would not recommend it. I even tried the different settings for current and voltage output, but did not make that much difference in my system.

btw, I also had that damn buzzing/ground problem. the noise floor was TOO high with this amp. My aragon runs very quiet.

system-
meridian 561 processor
bohlender graebner 520s, 420s, 220
aragon x5 amp
denon 2800 dvd

Similar Products Used:

aragon x5

5 stars on a "real world" scale, 4.75 on a $'s no object scale; i am running a sony dvd 7000 -> sony ep9es (as a digital preamp)-> cinema grand -> martin-logan sequel II's.
midrange & treble is all that i could ask for. very highly detailed without sounding hyper-detailed, etched and analytical (i had problems with some other "stereophile b" amps causing listening fatigue).

i have found that the bass while having decent transcients, depth & power lacks some inner resolution giving it a slightly warm character. i have had better bass resolution in my room, but feel that if a slightly softed bass is what it takes to get the sunfire's mids & treble it is a worthwhile tradeoff. i however, have heard a sunfire 2 channel driving thiel 6's that seemed to me to have better bass resolution.

i have not yet tried it in a multi-channel mode (no rear channels yet), but i can't imagine performance degrading to the point it would be noticeable in an ac-3 environment.

This was a group of three people listening to gear in my house. This is our conclusion. We seem to be three different types of listeners, and this is our opinions.
My ratio for listening/home theater is 60/40. I listen critically more in stereo than home theater. I have a friend that is a 40/60 person, so H/T listening is more important to him. The other person in my A/B compare is pure stereo listener, no H/T.

We both concurred that my Snell J/IV has no synergy with the CG in both stereo/AC-3. The B&K amps are known to be midrange heavy and "tube-like".
Snells like this effect. The CG crystallized my Snells strengths and weaknesses. (this is good and bad). The B&K tended to mask speaker anomalies, and made stereo listening "musical". On AC-3, the voices has a softer presence and sounded "laid-back". The sound effects always had a "rounded-off" tonality.

Now the CG.... Damned, this baby is a magnifier...
If my Snells were "laid-back" before, the CG made them more "dark", and the added power felt like more "in-your-face neutral". It made my Snells sound like there was not really anything bad to say, but nothing superlative to brag.

Overall CG has cleaner sound, and wider dynamics; especially in high frequencies and sub-bass.

Then we swapped Snells J/IV for Epos-11s, then Totem Model 1. The Totems excelled the best, more so with the CG, than with the B&K, both stereo and AC-3.

If you decided on CG, make sure your speakers has no characteristic flaws. The CG is refined and analytical. Soundstage and imaging is superb in both stereo/AC-3. We heard no difference between Current/Voltage Output.

In fact, I e-mailed Sunfire, on their recommendations of speakers. I'm going to get PSB Stratus Minis. This, I think is going to be the best synergistic combo.

Bottom line ... I broke my bank; (I paid an additional $500, to have XLO silver wiring, silver soldering, Cardas gold 5-way binding post, and an IEC AC connection) and close to breaking my wife's patience, but I got nothing but grins. I promised her that the SunFire CG is a keeper,and the last major purchase. (yeah, right !!) :)

I am hard pressed to justify this purchase. This amp killed me for almost $2800 (mods included) My original ST1400/ST1430 had a street value of $820. I heard the $500 difference at a $2000 extra price point.

Go figure... I think the B&Ks was the gateway to diminishing returns. The CG insured me I already passed the point of diminishing returns.

Bottom line - If you buy this amp, you would have to step up to a Classe' CAV-150 (which I heard), which runs at a lower output, but costs $3595, to even try to think you improved the sound. I doubt Krell can match performance at this price. (meaning Krell will always sound good, but not at this price).


My hardware now:
B&K AVP-1030 pre/pro, Snell J/IV main speakers, Snell CC-1 center channel, Signet SL-256 rear speakers, Sunfire Cinema Amp, Velodyne ULD-15 sub, Transparent MusicWave wire/interconnects.

My hardware in one month:
B&K AVP-4090 pre/pro, PSB Stratus Mini main speakers, PSB C5 center channel,
Signet SL-256 rear speakers, Sunfire Cinema Amp, Velodyne ULD-15 sub, AudioQuest IndigoPlus wire, AudioQuest Rubyx3 interconnects.

This amplifier is too powerful for my Von Schweikert VR 4 Gen II's.When playing low frequency sounds, it's not the amplifier that
clips, but the speakers that get overwhelmed. Granted the VR-4 II's
are relatively efficient, but still, they are specified as going down
in frequency all the way to 20 Hz. The Von Schweikerts can't play
real REAL loud and clean in the low frequency range (not at loudness levels
that sane people use would earplugs), so those who want that experience should
look into getting a subwoofer instead of getting a beefy amp. The
VR's are alas, no substitute for a sub...

The Sunfire CG really does the job, which is to put out CLEAN sound. Even
though its been out a couple of years, it's still excellently priced in
its power class, which is 200W x 5 in 8 ohms; double (short term) into
4 ohms.

Others may think that there's a major difference in the sound of amps, and
I'm not going to disagree with them since I haven't auditioned a lot
but frankly I'm not interested in spending more money than the Sunfire.

The only reason I would have considered getting a different amp would be if a
different amp could do 200W x 5 (or 400W x 5 at 4 ohms) and also
cost much less than the Sunfire. As amps get cheaper, no doubt
that will happen but heck, I didn't want to wait. You only live once!

I figured the more wpc the better, even though I didn't know before I
got the Sunfire CG that it had MORE wpc's for the VR 4 Gen ]['s. Oh
well, I've heard say you can never have TOO much power in an amp! I
don't know if that's realy true, but I suspect it is and anyway,
it makes me feel that getting the POWERFUL Sunfire CG was a savvy move.

Just picked up my 2nd! Sunfire Cinema Grand. Plan to drive the bass and mid/treble separately on my VR-4 Silvers. Have been very happy with the amp, and have been using a Audio Research Classic 60 prior (no slouch). Will report back on the impact of lightening the load on the Sunfire.

This is the to get for home theater, it will handle any, any speaker load thru any range thru any and all channels, i've run from 1 to 3 speakers on all and different channels at times and never a problem, always clear and dynamic. So if you change your speakers you don't have tp change the amp, if you want to run 2 sets of surround spekaer this is the amp, Run so cool too. The sound of the center channel thru this amp is clear and crisp, it delievers it all, Stereo sound is excellent, great bass extention and control. Shop around deals to be had, i'd buy one again in a second.

Liked it ,bought it ! better than other brands at this price range and has tremendous service . Looks really stylish too. only quibble is the fact that the casing easily scratches .

I have had the Cinema Grand for close to two years and have been very pleased with its performance. I play movies and music with it and I think for what I paid there is nothing better. I think there are other good choices in this price range and I would reccomend trying all you can but it is far far from overblown hype!!!

I have owned the Sunfire Cinema Grand for one year know and it never fails to disappoint. It sounds great on music and movies. My amps duty is approx 80% music and 20% movies. I used to run it by-wired to my Klipsch KLF-30's but after many listening sessions I decided to run just one set of speaker wires. Ibelieve that by-wireing affects impedence values and your amps performance. Klipsch horns sound to bright when bi-wired. After decideing not to bi-wire I used the current source. It sounds similar to the AR tubes i heard but there is a dip in the midrange that is noticeable.Voltage source is the way to go. I collect live concert CD's and the SCG bring's me to the venue.(At least very effectively,I know that there is much better out there.) Movies sound huge and spacious. An awesome performer. Incredible at the price !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am very pleased with this amp. I've experienced nothing but clean, clear, and detailed music from the CG, even at extremely loud volume (110db on the Radio Shack meter). I don't have any problem with humming noises at all and my speakers are Snell 500THX. Prior to owning the CG, I owned the Adcom GFA-6000, and that amp hummed big time. This amp is a keeper for me.