It never ceases to amaze me...the "brilliant" Bob Carver has done it once again. But specifically, what is it that he's done? I'll give you my side of the deal:
I own a pair of B&W Signature 30's which are driven with a pair of Pass Labs Aleph 2 monoblocks, an Audio Research CD2 cd player, and an Audio Research Reference 1 pre-amp - all interconnects are balanced Audioquest Lapis, speaker cable is double bi-wire Audioquest Midnight/Argent (bottom/top respectively).

I was "dared" to place this Sunfire amplifier into my system by a longtime Carver devotee (who is a friend of mine), mainly because he felt I had never given the company's equipment much consideration.

Now I have good reason.

Never in my life would I believe that an AMPLIFIER is capable of making my beloved Sig 30's sound HORRIBLE. Details, you ask? Let's talk about total collapse of any soundstage, absense of anything resembling bass aside from maybe dance club 80-90 cycle 'boom', grainy, totally lacking any rythym, unbearably bright...and just to make sure you understand, I left this foul contraption in my system for an ENTIRE WEEK (part of the dare). It isn't a matter of things not settling in, it's a matter of things never being brought within 500 feet of my home ever again (if I could place a restraining order on equipment, I would).

Needless to say, this joke will forever go down in history as one of the ultimate examples of the "people are followers, and you can feed them just about anything and they'll hold on for dear life" mindset.

Also wanted to mention to those of you who own one or are considering one to open the piece up and carefully inspect it...that big can in the middle does not cover a huge toroidal transformer...it mainly holds air. And a transformer approximately as big as one might find in, say, a cheap 20 watt/channel receiver.

I don't expect anyone that loves their Carver or Sunfire equipment to believe me, but I must say that in general I think I might have a better point of reference than most do. Also, to put things into perspective, my old Adcom GFA-5400 that runs the system in my basement sounded better, at almost 1/3 the price.

Buyer beware!

With the capability to biwire (voltage and current outputs), I have this solid state amp driving electrostatics (ML Aerius), and like it very much. I have the Sunfire coupled with a tubed pre-amp & think this amp is worth the ~$2,000 price (similarly priced C-J amps didn't have the 'snap' that is needed to drive the electrostatics). See favorable review in "the absolute sound", fall 1996.

Transparent, effortless power. Tweakable to work well in different systems

Could use better quality speaker terminals (the ones it has are completely serviceable though)

I wanted an amp with some authority to run my Martin-Logans (Aerius i bi-wires), but did not want an amp that impeded their lovely clarity and transperency. I came across Sunfire on the Web, as there are no local dealers in my area (ironic as I am in Sunfire's own backyard in Washington state). After considereable research, I tracked down a used example in my area and hooked it up to the ML's to give it a try. WOW! Right off that bat (it was already well broken in) the combination just sung beautifully. The combination was truly wonderful. I currently use only the voltage outputs (bi-wired with double runs of Kimber 8TC) as I have a tube preamp (Sunfire as well - also quite good)that tempers any tendancy to high frequency harshness the electrostatics might have (particularly with digital sourses). Using the current outputs for the panels is unnecessary in this system.
Clarity, tranperency, and control are the main characteristics of this amp. It lets the music com through with minimal influence. Quite simply I love it. It is an especially good value if you pick up a good used unit (can fint them at $1,000 if you look around).

Similar Products Used:

Krell & Bryston

Power, smoothness, reasonable detail

A bit too smooth, I'm a detail fan - and the Sunfire didn't really make the grade.

A nicely made piece of kit.

Lots of power - even if not really sounding like all of 300W

This amp will never sound harsh - but it does smooth things over a little (although nowhere near as much as the Pass Aleph 3).

The Jadis stomps it in all respects (so it should at £10,000 / $15,000 !), the Krell (at a similar price) is less generous to fierce recordings but more detailed and accurate.

A reasonable value - especially if the rest of your system is a little on the forward side.

(The Signature version is supposed to address most of the concerns that I have listed.)

Similar Products Used:

Jadis JA80, Krell KAV250p, Pass Aleph 3 (yuk!), EAR 509/2