I've owned the Sunfire sub for almost two years and I'm only now truly beginning to enjoy it's contribution to my music listening. This is a DIFFICULT piece of equipment to set up properly! But I now find it to be a wonderful addition to my music system. I bought the sub along with a pair of Totem 1's as a upgrade from PSB Stratus Silvers in the spring of '97. I wanted a bigger soundstage, more detail and more room tuning control over the bass frequencies. Individually, these products performed impressively when I auditioned them. I experimented with this combo for over four months trying to get the sub and sats to integrate to my satisfaction. I finally gave up and demoted the subwoofer to my home theater rig to do boom boom movie duty. I sold the totems because they did not have enough bass output to fill my 16x20' listening room. Later I picked up Gallo Acoustics References to replace the Totems and have never looked back. These speakers do everything I've ever wanted and more. But since this a Sunfire sub review I'll just say GALLOS RULE!!! and move on.
Fast forward to two months ago. One of my gear geek buddies was over and asks if I've tried mating the Sunfire sub with the Gallos. My reaction was NOOOOOOOOO! The Gallos are so fast and articulate in the bass (at least down to 35hz) that I could'nt bring myself to corrupt their magic with that boom cube. But after thinking about it for a few days I decided to give it a shot. I decided to run the Gallos full range and let the sub handle just the subterranean frequencies. My initial experiments were discouraging. No matter where I put the sub I got a nasty 40hz peak (try +10 db over any other bass frequency) that wiped out the midbass articulation of the system, even with the crossover knob turned all the way down to 40 hz. After slugging away for days measuring bass tone tracks with an SPL meter while moving the sub to virtually every open location in the room, I finally found the magic spot! This is the one spot in the room where room modes cancelled out the 40hz peak so that I a got a RELATIVELY smooth frequency response (+/- 4db) from 25 to 40hz with rapid rolloff above and below those frequecies. Now I'm getting close.

On Soundstage.com I read a subwoofer article (by Doug Schneider I think) that suggested using a high-level connection rather than low level. In other words, feed the sub from the power amp with speaker wire rather than the preamp with long interconnects. Since I was getting noise in my system from two long runs of interconnects (one set to the power amp, one set to the sub), I decided to try it. What this did is give the Sunfire sub the sonic characteristics of my Museatex power amp. This made a significant difference in improving the blend between the sub and the main speakers. It also took care of my noisy interconnect problem.

Finally, how to anchor the sub down while it plays. My placement and initial listening experiments were done with the sub just sitting (wiggling really) on the carpet. I wanted to see if I could do better. I put three Tip Toes under the sub. The sub did a tap dance on top of the Tip Toes. Kind of like having a jack hammer playing along in the far left soundstage of every disc I listened to. I double stick taped the Tip Toes to the sub. Now the sub had the toe tips rattling against concrete underneath the carpet. Will this beast ever be tamed? Finally I velcroed the Tip Toes to the sub. THIS WORKS. The cushion of the velcro pieces between the sub and tip toes gives the sub enough wiggle room to do its thing while still keeping it relatively anchored to the floor. This tightened the low bass articulation and slam considerably.

In conclusion, the Sunfire sub is now sounding really good with the Gallo References. The bass is still as fast and tight as before, but now it's deeper, more visceral and powerful. I don't have play the system as loud to feel like the performance is opening up to me. I can now hear low frequency ambience rolling through my listening space for the first time. If you haven't heard that in a system, it's mighty exciting, especially with ambient electronica and large scale orchestra. With the way the Sunfire sub is working now, I'll give a five rating. But without painstaking experimentation and setup, the performance of this sub (and probably many other good subs) can be very disappointing.

I can't believe people who listen to this sub think that it is musicallyaccurate or has great bass extension. It has a ton of low bass noise, but that's
about it. The M&K products will blow your mind if you really like the Sunfire.
It's little box can't move the air that the larger subs can, and with less power! None of the new tiny techno subs can,(Velodyne HGS series as well). I
don't mean to offend but, I can't agree with all the hype.

This sub is the best sub I have ever heard. It has a LOT of bass. I put it right in the middle of my room (40x40x15), all I could hear was bass and I have 1000 wpc. This is a best buy.

I've owned Velodyne ULD-15 and ULD-18 subs and they always seemed unmatchable to my main speakers, perhaps because I could not optimally place them relative to the main speakers. In addition, my floor is wood and tended to flex with the downward firing ULD's, especially below 30 Hz. This effect made the bass from the subwoofer lag the bass from the main speakers. Enter Sunfire. Now I had a subwoofer small enough to place in a corner unobtrusively, which could excite more of the room modes for smoother low bass response. It measures better and it sounds better than the large Velodyne in this particular room. It does not have the floor shaking power, but it blends better. It doesn't take sine wave measurements too well (makes audible mechanical noises), but for music it's pretty good. Not perfect, but it sure is small.

I Just purchased the MK II to replace my Velodyne F1200-R, The Sunfire has superb BASS OUTPUT! Not the absolute cleanest sub, but definitely one with maximum thump.Placement is critical. Overall not a bad toy!

Great Home Theater sub. Not articulate or accurate....this is not a fast sub. This is not an audiophile product. It is however a very good product.

Associated Equipment
Teac VRDS-T1
Audio Alchemy DTI v2.0
Audio Alchemy DDE v3.0
Krell KAV-300i
Infinity Compositions P-FR


I've been using the Sunfire True Subwoofer with a Krell KAV-300i and a pair of Infinity Compositions P-FR's which are no slouches in terms of bass response, but I've always found them slightly lacking in the lower bass. However, with the Sunfire, my system is flat down to 25 Hz (according to my trusty SPL meter from the Shack) and down only a few db's at 20 Hz.

Okay, so it measures well, so what you say. Hey, it sounds great too! The bass isn't overwhelming, but it is very quick and tuneful with very little boom or overhang. What it does best is provide low levels of very low bass which seem to provide a lot of ambient information. This results in a much wider and deeper soundstage which is also more coherent. This isn't evident just on large scale orchestral pieces either, but also on chamber music, pop, jazz etc.

One thing that this sub won't do is play incredibly loud. It tends to get flustered at very high levels (> 105 db), but only a real bass freak would play it that loud anyway. It's also designed to be used in the corner of a room so it is very sensitive to positioning. I found that moving it just six inches provided a substantial increase in output and an additional 5 Hz or so in response.

My only complaint with the Sunfire was that the small rubber feet provided tended to make quite a racket against the granite slab that I have it sitting on when things really get going. A letter to the Sunfire Corporation resulted in a set of larger rubber feet being mailed to me by Randy Bingham, VP of sales and marketing (thanks Randy

Cutness? Who cares.
Output? Better than the Velodyne ULD 15 II that I just replaced.

Low Bass? Not as good as my uncles F1800, but better than ULD 15 II

Value? Unbeatable.

This nice little sub weighs in at about 45 pounds (20.4 kg), and fits in the nice little space I had left over for it after setting up my home theatre. It is tight, clean, powerful, and performs well as both an audio and home theatre sub. I compared this sub to the Velodyne F1200R and VA1215, as well as a Paradigm sub, and there was really no contest. I bought the Sunfire on-the-spot, and highly recommend it to others. Oh yeah, I only paid $874 for it at a "midnight madness" sale. :-)

deep bass

none

As one of the reviewers have mentioned,
people who say that this sub does not
give deep bass or it vibrates are those
maniacs who play their car sub so loud that
I am thrown off my bed at night. These maniacs
dont know what "melody" means.

When I went to PICAR's in troy. Michigan
I was amazed by the deep bass at such a low
volume. I couldnt say from where the bass was
coming. I like to listen to music or movies
at low volumes and this sub can do the job.
I never turn the volume beyond 8'o clock position.

so dont be a manic. let your neighbor enjoy
some quietness.

Play your damn HT or music at volumes that
you and your family, especially kids can enjoy.
This sub sure deserves a 5 star!!!!!!