Seperates vs Sunfire Ultimate Receiver

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.

Hi,
Sorry guys but I do not have a nice English.But I have the SUNFIRE ULTIMATE,thanks God.This is a beast.It sounded good right out of the box but the real miracle is happened after a month.The sound is amazing.You hane to hear it.The big deal is the sound in stereo mode.I had the Musical Fidelity A3cr pre + power before and sorry to say but I do not miss it.I have JM Lab speakers and the sony dvp-ns 999 es dvd player.Everything is perfect for that money.I do not know what could you buy for that money but I did try a lot before I ended up with this wizard.The Sacd the movie and the music is perfect for this price.And do not forget,it's going to need time to get the best.Probably 200 hours.You should drive it as hard as you can.You have to brake it!!!!!After a month I wish to put side by side with the brand new one.I'm in this business for 14 years.I never was as happy as I do now.
Good luck!
Regards,Tibor

The receivers have a slight bit of hum due to the location of the transformer in the chassis. It is not real noticeable unless you listen for it. The newer ones are much quiter than the first batches.
The seperates are dead quiet. At least the ones I have had.

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I just purchased an Ultimate from Onecall.com and am awaiting delivery of a set of Martin Logan Ascent Fronts, Scenario rears, and Cinema Center with Depth (for now) subwoofer.

Do you notice a slight hum from the receiver even when it's off? Mainly, only when closer than 3 feet from the unit.

This is actually my second one as the first one made a hum but I could also feel a slight continuous vibration in the chassis so I called my shop and they exchanged it.

I plan on calling Sunfire to see if this is normal. I realize that the amps may make audible noise as noted in the troubleshooting part of the manual but it states it's due to ac line noise as the cause and I have it hooked up to a line conditioner (panamax) and there is no difference between the wall and the line conditioner. Anyway, the replacement receiver makes a slight hum also (much less than the first) but doesn't have the vibration. Does yours do this?

Thanks,
Nick

My system has gone through numerous revisions before I ended up with the Sunfire Ultimate. I had a two channel McCormack DNA .5 Deluxe for amplification and used a Sonic Frontier Line 2 as the pre. I loved it for much. Very liquid, very smooth.

But my needs changed and I traded in for home theater capabilities. I ended up with a Denon 5700. In terms of capabilities, it was a step up (5 channels, dts and all the bells and whistles) but musically, it was a severe step down.

I then tried out numerous seperate combos, including a Lexican processor/pre paired to an Audio Refinement 5 Channel amp. Better but not yet there. For what it's worth, the Lexican was probably three years old and in the processor category, that made it ancient. The Audio Refinment gear reminded me of my old McCormack. Sounded good but at 125 watts per channel, lacked the headroom I like to have in reserve for dynamic passages and high decible parties.

In the end I took the plunge and upgraded to a Sunfire Ultimate Receiver. And. It. Rocks.

I really do love it. It has a totally different sound-signature than my old Tube powered Sonic Frontier; more unvarnished clarity than soothing silkiness. But other than female vocals, it's a sound that I personally prefer.

Compared to any other amp or reciever that I've owned/tested it has dynamics with ample room to spare. Even at deafening decible it never losses control or sounds at all congested. Bass is slamming, imagining is very refined.

It has all the bells and whictles you could ever hope for in a home theatre setting, including one that suprised me. In any other processor, I've always been a purist when it came to my music. I'd always bypassed and dsp processing, opting instead for as straight a path to the music and let my dac or cd player handle to processing. Just not interested in having my music tinkered with in order to sound like a concert hall or dance club.

That said, this Sunfire has a Holographic Imagined function which I have come to adore, even on two channel music. It's subtle, but it blends the two channels in a way that adds presence into a tight, virtual center channel. It makes vocals very up front and center.

"Ultimate" is hard to validate, but in my experience you'd have to spend much, much more to hear a minor improvement above and beyond what this puppy is capable of; it's the law of diminishing return, and the Sunfire hits the sweet spot.

Long reponse, but the bottom line is that I can't reccomend this unit highly enough.

Thanks Samski and Bgart for your responses.
I'm really surprised, no other alternatives to suggest from this group.

So does the entire a'gon group agree that the Sunfire receiver is as good or better than Separates?

Maybe I should ask how much more than 2700 I would have to spend to get a significant improvement. Thanks

If 2700. is your budget, and you're not running extremely efficient (95db or higher) speakers, you should not have any problems with noise floor IMHO.
I have this receiver mostly because of space restraints, but this receiver has opened up a heeping can of whoop-ass on the receivers I have previously used.

I was considering the ultimate also, I went with the sunfire theater grande 3 and a sherbourn 5210 amp instead, I had a sunfire amp before and found it noicy at times, the sherbourn amp is the best bang for the buck out there IMO, good luck