I debated and debated this question and looked at Sunfire seperates, Anthem, Rotel and came to the conclusion from talking to a lot of people that the Ultimate Receiver offered 99.99% of the performance of the seperates. In the case of the Sunfire seperates, the cost difference is about $2500 with the same amp and the exact same processor. One dealer told me the only difference would be because of sharing a single power supply instead of having seperate dedicated and it would not be a big deal. Of course, the real proof is in a sidexside comparison which I have not done, but I am so extremely happy with the performance of the Ultimate Receiver. There are a couple of things that could be done a bit better but it is still an awesome piece of equipment at a reasonable price.
Seperates vs Sunfire Ultimate Receiver
For 2700 can anyone suggest separates, which would perform music and HT - 50/50 - better than the Sunfire UR, to drive 6ohm speakers (84dB Mirage). With apparent power - 200W at 8 and 400W at 4ohm - and a TGIII built in, is this the exception to the rule? Comments.