Hi, I have not heard the Power 2, but I have read that many people do not find it musically involving. Very accurate though. I guess it depends on your taste. See the web site www.audioreview.com. Sonic Frontiers itself has quite a few reviews on it's web site. I own a set of Sonic Frontiers SFM-160 160 watt monoblocks, and I like them quite a bit. In reviews they are characterized as warm and tubey sounding compared to the Power series. I think they have wonderful mids and very good bass control. I run them with a passive preamp and Audio Physic Virgos, and I don't hear any hum at all. Those reports might be due to cables. I know when I first got them they hummed a little. When I replaced my cheap non-termininated copper speaker cables with high quality ones (with terminators!), the hum went away. I have listened to an Audio Research VT100 Mk2, and I think it is the best amplifier I have heard. Just beautiful euphonic sound. I couldn't justify the cost however. They go for about 3200-3500 used, and 5000 new. Another thing I didn't like was it's lack of biasing meters. The SF line all have built in bias meters. It takes about 2 minutes to bias both amps. The build quality of both AR and SF is excellent. You might want to take a listen to the VTL amplifiers. They are a little more lean sounding, but very good sounding. Take care, John.
Sonic Frontiers Power 2
I am currently considering an upgrade to my amp (McCormack DNA .5) and would like to hear from anyone with experience of the SF Power 2. I own a BAT VK D5, Sonic Frontiers Line 1 and B&W Nautilus 805 with audioquest interconnects and speaker cables . My listening room is not that big so I dont necessarily need a lot of power but thought the SF combo may work well together particularly with balanced I/C. I see a lot of SF Power 2's for sale 2nd hand at reasonable prices but am not sure if this is a good thing. Does the large number of these amps on the used market indicate a problem. I have gathered from some reviews written that the Power 2 has a slightly fat midbass and may have some transformer hum issues. Any thoughts? (Even McCormack/SF line 1 produce small amount of angry insect noise - am getting a PS power plant to help with this). I am just beginning my search and could just as easily look at Audio Research VT100 or even other solid state. Any help from SF owners or other combinations I should consider with Line 1 would be appreciated.