Seperates vs Sunfire Ultimate Receiver

bettermentflux@hotmail.com

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

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.

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

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.