Stehno: I had no recollection of the "Carver/Sunfire incident". It therefore never entered my mind. I'm not embarrassed in the least about owning Sunfire gear or having built my HT system around two of Bob's "Signature" series power amps and his Pre / Pro.
As far as that goes, Bob's power amps have always been better than his preamps. To put the power amps in perspective, they typically offer great bang for the buck in terms of sheer brute force but lack the refinement of some higher end products. Due to their power potential though, these amps can sometimes sound "better" than more refined designs. Due to the lack of stress they undergo when driving insensitive or highly reactive loads, they maintain a more "liquid" presentation rather than get hard and grainy as things get louder. It is in these situations that they truly do their best and when i'll recommend them. I don't think that they are the most resolving amp at lower levels and there are better amps available for that. Then again, most people that listen at low levels and / or use highly efficient speakers probably wouldn't be looking to purchase a multi-hundred watt amplifier.
As far as my comments pertaining to the lesser quality of his preamps, the Sunfire TG II Pre / Pro was purchased for ease of use and the fact that it has analogue pass through and a phono stage built in. The fact that it matched cosmetically made my girlfriend happy too. There are probably better products on the market, but none that i could afford with all the features / simplicity that i and my girlfriend were looking for. While i do feel that this unit is a bit of a compromise, i've more than stated my thoughts publicly about how to get the best out of it in other threads. Running it in balanced / xlr mode is a worthwhile move though.
Back to the matter at hand, what did enter my mind is that you were upset with me. I assumed that this was for several reasons and this is why you were going out of your way to attack me publicly. I don't know if this had to do with our private conversations pertaining to your rack design, your HT processor or the fact that you own Sistrum products, which i've publicly criticized. There are obviously several factors here, but i don't know if any of them pertain to why this happened.
As far as choosing to respond to you rather than the other party, i don't think they went out of their way to mention names, yet you did. The fact that you are a very regular contributor to these forums and they aren't was also a factor. Given that i would rather make progress in discussions rather than make enemies, i was trying to find out what your motivations were and at the same time, justify the position that i had taken.
If others could see both sides of the story / were aware of the facts and felt that i was wrong in my response to you ( or anyone else for that matter ), then i would have obviously had to re-eximine things from another perspective and apologize. Given that we as individuals tend to see each situation from a particular slant, i wanted to know if i was off-base in ANY of my actions. Obviously, the more people familiar with all the "evidence", the wider the perspective / response available to both of us.
Having said that, i'm sorry that it has come to something like this. I didn't mean to come across the way that i did. Obviously, there are more than a few folks that feel i over-step my boundaries on a regular basis. I probably do. For that i do apologize to everyone involved. I'll try to restrain myself in the future.
In the mean-time, i've got a ton of projects to do and the weather is finally starting to break. This is a perfect opportunity for me to get things done and give all of you a break from me. Best wishes to all and i'm sorry for turning Agon into a "soap opera". Talk to you soon and hopefully under better, more friendly conditions : ) Sean
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As far as that goes, Bob's power amps have always been better than his preamps. To put the power amps in perspective, they typically offer great bang for the buck in terms of sheer brute force but lack the refinement of some higher end products. Due to their power potential though, these amps can sometimes sound "better" than more refined designs. Due to the lack of stress they undergo when driving insensitive or highly reactive loads, they maintain a more "liquid" presentation rather than get hard and grainy as things get louder. It is in these situations that they truly do their best and when i'll recommend them. I don't think that they are the most resolving amp at lower levels and there are better amps available for that. Then again, most people that listen at low levels and / or use highly efficient speakers probably wouldn't be looking to purchase a multi-hundred watt amplifier.
As far as my comments pertaining to the lesser quality of his preamps, the Sunfire TG II Pre / Pro was purchased for ease of use and the fact that it has analogue pass through and a phono stage built in. The fact that it matched cosmetically made my girlfriend happy too. There are probably better products on the market, but none that i could afford with all the features / simplicity that i and my girlfriend were looking for. While i do feel that this unit is a bit of a compromise, i've more than stated my thoughts publicly about how to get the best out of it in other threads. Running it in balanced / xlr mode is a worthwhile move though.
Back to the matter at hand, what did enter my mind is that you were upset with me. I assumed that this was for several reasons and this is why you were going out of your way to attack me publicly. I don't know if this had to do with our private conversations pertaining to your rack design, your HT processor or the fact that you own Sistrum products, which i've publicly criticized. There are obviously several factors here, but i don't know if any of them pertain to why this happened.
As far as choosing to respond to you rather than the other party, i don't think they went out of their way to mention names, yet you did. The fact that you are a very regular contributor to these forums and they aren't was also a factor. Given that i would rather make progress in discussions rather than make enemies, i was trying to find out what your motivations were and at the same time, justify the position that i had taken.
If others could see both sides of the story / were aware of the facts and felt that i was wrong in my response to you ( or anyone else for that matter ), then i would have obviously had to re-eximine things from another perspective and apologize. Given that we as individuals tend to see each situation from a particular slant, i wanted to know if i was off-base in ANY of my actions. Obviously, the more people familiar with all the "evidence", the wider the perspective / response available to both of us.
Having said that, i'm sorry that it has come to something like this. I didn't mean to come across the way that i did. Obviously, there are more than a few folks that feel i over-step my boundaries on a regular basis. I probably do. For that i do apologize to everyone involved. I'll try to restrain myself in the future.
In the mean-time, i've got a ton of projects to do and the weather is finally starting to break. This is a perfect opportunity for me to get things done and give all of you a break from me. Best wishes to all and i'm sorry for turning Agon into a "soap opera". Talk to you soon and hopefully under better, more friendly conditions : ) Sean
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