The hum issue happens to me very badly. I did try the 3 to 2 plug adapter, but the hum is still there. It is quiety at the begining, then the hum usually happens after 15 min I watch movie with high volumme. When the hum happens, the sub is freeze with a constant low frequency level. Other than that, this sub is excellent. I have been trying to fix the problem, so far I have not succeeded yet.

extremely loud on low notes, excellent for movies, clean strong bass

bass is a little slow for music.

the sunfire mkll plays extremely loud on low bass, but kinda weak on the mid and high bass. excellent for movies, but a little slow for music. had this product for over 2 years and hasnt gone wrong (i use my sunfire with the volume full blast for at least 1 hour each day). highly reccommend!!!

Power, size, reputation, DEEP BASS!

no grill cover

I shoped for a subwoofer for over a year to go with my B&W CDM 7nt speakers and kept comming back to this one. I just had this sub a week but so far I am very impressed!!! This sub. completes my system. Just finished watching The Haunting and the added dimension that a subwoofer adds is simply amazing. Thank you to all the people on this message board who answered my questions while I was shopping. I highly recomend this product.

Similar Products Used:

velodyne HGS, B&W, Paradigm

Compact

ultimately loud, intrusive and non-musical, no IEC socket for power cord upgrade

I actually need some advice on setting this sub up. I've read glowing reviews on the depth, tautness and musical accuracy of this sub, but have been tremendously disappointed so far. All I get is excruciatingly boomy and tubby "bass" that sounds like a lowrider parked in my living room.! The unit is WAY TOO LOUD. About 5 degrees on the dial is the highest I've gone up to at this point, and even then the bass becomes downright rude and insulting to my mains.

Using the line level inputs directly from my digital source, I've tried elevating the sub on a set of Black Diamond Racing Cones, tried the recommended corner placement option listed in the manual, tried myriad combinations of cut-off frequency and phase angle, but to no avail, just a dreadful, overly heaping helping of what I feared most from a sub: (gasp) HOME THEATER!!

I will go on trying to integrate this sub with my mains (Aliante Zeta monitors) over the next week or so, and with God's Grace succeed. But right now, I am grossly dissatisfied.

Maybe it's all hype. The Sunfire amps were touted as being "tubelike" in the midrange. What a glaring (excuse the pun), inaccurate statement. These amps are some of the most unequivocally electronic-sounding pieces I've ever heard: thin, etched and non-musical.

Another thing that really ticks me off is that the sub offers no IEC socket for upgrading the power cord. I respect Bob Carver, but deride his insensitivity, or willful blindness, to the obvious wants of an audiophile market. I have already decided to get rid of the Mk.II on those priniples/grounds alone. Gosh, what an eyesore that cord is! (My other option is to have an IEC socket built in. Note that the Sunfire Subwoofer Junior does come with a detachable power cord, so Bob Carver, to his credit, has at least become aware of the issue; however, that gives me absolutely no consolation now with the Mk.II.)

Yes, admittedly, I am angry and disillusioned with the Sunfire True Subwoofer, Mk.II, at this time, and this review hides none of that. Yet, IF some of you are getting TRUE-ly musical, accurate and seamlessly integrated bass in your audio system through this sub, please e-mail me at pataburd@hotmail.com and educate as to how I can do the same. Otherwise, I will try the REL Stata III and try to forget the Sunfire like a bad dream.

Similar Products Used:

n/a

Size--easy to hide

Very picky as to placement

Equipment used with sub:
Energy C2 monitors
Luxman C-02 pre amp
Luxman M-O2 power amp
Marantze CD-67SE
Rotel CD-950
Kimber PBJ interconnets
Monster Z-1 cables biwired

Blew the first sub, sunfire replaced the driver at no cost. Klipsch subs can not come close, velodyne HGS model was more defined but $1,000 more than the sunfire. The sunfire blends in very well with the Energy's. Placement was critical in my room, but once I found the sweet spot it works very well. I am very critical when it comes to the bass sound of a system, bass must be airy and smooth like velvet. This is not the sub to end all subs, but which one is? In the current location in my room the bass is airy with some what of a velvet sound. Have heard many systems which sound worse, few that sound better. The better ones I can not afford!!

This sub requires a gentle burn in period, 25 hrs at least. Believe this to be the reason for blowing the first one I had, turned it on and went for it the first hour!! No hum problems with mine, have reached the limits of the sub, power amp wise I believe. Sound becomes compressed and distorted. Everything mechanical has it's limits!!

I enjoy tinkering with this sub, between placement and control settings it can be endless!! Currently I consider my system to be some what musical. Wish I had about $25,000 to spend, but then we do the best we can with what we have, don't we?

Similar Products Used:

Klipsch, Velodyne

LOTS of deep bass, good value and great for HT.

A little muddy, not ideal for music.

I bought this sub for the LFE channel in my HT. It does the job! Puts out the most bass for the money. Will shake the room to it's foundation.

I'm disappointed I cannot disable the crossover in the sub -- that belongs in the processor.

I've also had a major ground loop problem with this sub; I've got a cheater on it to stop that.

This bass is a little muddy, and I don't think this sub sounds terribly "musical." So I'm recommending it for HT use only.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne F1500, NHT SW2P

For the price and size this sub cannot be beat. This thing pushes an amazing amount of air and is fast and tight. I only recommend using it at it's lowest crossover setting to supplement the deepest bass. Higher crossover settings result in a bad muddy bottom end. Room placement is important too.
Bob Carver is a genius. Who else but Bob could build a self-amplified box one foot square that can rattle my doors and windows and drive my neighbors nuts.

For the price and size I give it 5 stars.

This review is for the MK II version. A white paper on the physics of Bob Carver's little subwoofer is available on the Web and is fascinating reading. Bob is an innovative wonder and we are lucky someone with his talent is working for us.
I have successfully blended the MK II sunfire with 2 pairs of MMG's from Magnepan. My Carver M1.5t is powerful enough to drive the MMG's in parallel from 90 Hz up (my lights do dim at loud levels, however). The bottom end supplied by the MK II is most of what I could ask for. At moderate listening levels the bass is clear and deep and totally integrated with the wonderful soundstage presented by my MMG's. If I wanted that performance at high listening levels I would probably need 2 or more MK II's. I am satisfied with the tradeoff in size vs amplitude. By the way, have you seen how quickly Velodyne produced a Sunfire look alike? Competition like that is a good thing. 4 stars for sound at moderate volumes.

Deep, deep bass. Powerful!

That constant Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!

I purchased the MKII for its size and power. At the time i was living in an apartment and needed the flexibility in placement. Big mistake. It didnt matter where it was placed it was just overpowering for the apartment. I couldnt turn the volume up but a fraction before the deep bass penetrated the wall separating me from my neighbor. But this was fine while listening to music, although it was a bit lazy in effort at lower levels. Dont recommend this woofer for use in smaller apts.

Moving to a house allowed me to experience the real power and with proper spacial placement, much better reponse and performance. I am using the woofer with my BW 803 Main, 805 Rear, and HTM2 center, powered by the Yamaha flagship A-1. However I never experienced the dreaded "hum" until i moved to this house, which was built in 1957. Serious ground issues. My house doesnt even have the three prong wall socket. Dont even know if the plugs are grounded. The hum only comes after a period of time (20 to 30 min) at higher volume levels. I thought i was going crazy because to the untrained ear, like some of my friends, they think it sounds great. After reading several reviews on this site, my hatred for the Yamaha receiver is subsiding, and now my loathing is focused solely on the sub. Its unplugged for now until this hum and ground issue is resolved. Im going to start from the simple ground-loop isolator all the way to rewiring the house, if need be. If any fellow sunfire supporters have any ideas that may help, please forward. Without the hum its a strong 4 to 4.5. With the hum its worthless.

Goes real LOW....

Goes real SLOW...., hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

This sub is great for HT use, lots of bass, shakes the house. Lousy for music tho, as it seems slow.

I am also having the ground loop problem. Sometimes, when I power up the system, I don't notice it, but then it suddenly appears with a loud buzz. I have checked the grounding at my house and it is okay, so the grounding is not the problem. I can almost eliminate the problem by using a cheater plug, but that is not safe. Called Sunfire several times. I have unplugged everything from my receiver except the sub and the buzz is still there. Finally, I noticed that the buzz can be affected by the volume control. Called Sunfire again, they told me to tighten the nut behind the volume knob. Guess what, the buzz disappeared. Apparently the volume control is somewhat connected to the ground and gets loose. They told me to be careful as the nut will break the volume control if tightened too much.