Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature-Speakers??

It seems that everyone that owns one of the sunfire amps arrives at the same conclusions. I'm in total agreement with the two previous posts, so will add something else to the mix. I'm currently running the TGII with the CG signature, with balanced custom silver interconnects and an all Alon by Acarian speaker setup. My interpretation of the amp's character over the past six months is a few light shades to the warmer side of neutral. Having said that, it seems to cast the same amber glow on the sound that the level meter casts into the room (I happen to love it). The alons are notorious for being very neutral and, unfortunately in cases of poor sources, ruthlessly revealing. The Sunfire gear adds just the right amount of "glow" to the Alons to make even poor recordings bearable. It is the Sunfire gear that now allows me to hear the breath before the word or the fingers on the bass string. In short, I suggest leaning towards a speaker with more neutrality, perhaps even on the cooler or bluer side of the spectrum. This will allow the sunfire to light them up. I auditioned our gear with last year's Monitor Audio silver series, which mated wonderfully and are dirt cheap on this website. You might even look toward the Energy veritas series along with your current targets. Most of all, don't feel overwhelmed with the possibilities. Enjoy the courtship - the process can be as fulfilling as the result.

Cheers!

Sean and Slipknot, thank you for sharing your information and knowledge. It appears I should have paid more attention in those electrical engineering classes in college. This stuff just gets more complicated by the day.
I'll give the Toslink a try for connecting the TGIII. Also, the Magnepan MGIIIa was not on my radar, but I'll do a little more research and see if there's a local dealer for me to audition.

The learning continues...

I run the Sunfire Cinema Grand Sig. w/ the TGII processor.
I have the two connected using balanced Audio Magic Excaliber II ic's and the DVD connected to the TGII via coax Apogee Wyde-Eye 75 ohm digital cable.

The front channel speakers are Magnepan MGIIIa and the rear surrounds are the Magnepan MMG.

During movies, I can run this setup in a large room to VERY loud levels without any evidence of strain or clipping. Both Maggies are 4 ohm loads to the amp, so it is working quite hard, probably pulling somewhere between 10 and 15 amps.

Sean is spot on when he speaks of getting the amp up off the shelf as the bottom plate is the heat source. Even at quite loud levels my CG Sig only gets warm, not hot. I use the glass base that came with it, sitting on an MDF shelf on a Michael Green Justarack.

You can use just about anything out there in the way of speakers as Maggies do present a complicated load to amps, and I am driving five channels into four ohm loads.

I also use an Audio Research SP 9 MKII pre to drive the front channels of the Cinema Grand Sig into the MGIIIA's for 2 channel vinyl, SACD and CD.

Happy hunting!

Speakers typically don't "blow" from having a big amp unless you "piledrive" them for an extended period of time. It is typically the reverse situation i.e. "clipping" ( heavy distortion ) of an under-powered amp that brings on speaker damage.

Having said that, it is easy to "smoke" speakers with an amp of this calibre and power capacity. The "big" thing about the Sunfire amps is that they seem to have limitless dynamic range. By that, i mean that they can play louder and louder and never seem to get as "harsh", "gritty" or "compressed" as so many other amps do when being "pushed". As such, you may find yourself listening at higher than average listening levels since it does not seem to be "loud". As i've mentioned in a few prior posts, much of what people think of as being "loud" is nothing more than "distortion" which results in a form of listening fatigue. My experience with this series of amps is that you can listen for extended periods of time with the volume ROARING and not have "ear strain".

As to what speakers you can run, you can look at pretty much anything your heart desires. I say this as that amp can drive just about anything that you throw at it. Just keep in mind that most of the heat that this amp generates comes out of the BOTTOM of the amp. As such, i recommend lifting the amp off the shelf with some type of cone, metal footers, etc... I would NOT use anything that is soft and / or damaged by heat.

If you do end up running speakers that are low impedance and / or a reactive load, your amp will get warm and even hot ( bottom plate ). Even if the amp is getting warm, touching the top as you might with a lot of other amps will somewhat fool you into thinking that it is coasting.

In order to let this amp really do its' thing, you really do need to have it hooked up on its' own 20 amp dedicated line. The standard 2 channel 300 / 600 wpc Sunfire amp can pull 20 amps if you drive it into clipping at 2 ohms. At that point, it will be doing somewhere in the area of 1400 - 1500 wpc. That is, IF you can supply it with enough voltage and current. As such, you have FIVE channels that are rated for 400 / 800 wpc, which would pull even more power. It could do this even if running at higher impedances than 2 ohms and NOT driving it into clipping.

I would make a few other "generic" suggestions. Run balanced cables from the preamp / processor to the amp. I would also try using both the optical ( Toslink ) and coaxial digital inputs from your cd / dvd player into the TG III and see what you like better. Common sense would tell you that the coaxial "should" perform better but i was pleasantly ( and shockingly ) surprised as to just how good Toslink can sound. In some respects, the Toslink actually sounded better than the coaxial that i had been using. Obviously, most of this will vary with the individual components being run and the cables being used. Sean
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