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Sunfire Theater Grand 1, to buy or not to buy...

Hi:
I have the opportunity to purchase a Sunfire Theater Grand 1 for 900.00 I know the Grand 2 is out and I am wondering if this is a bad idea and if so, why? I am on somewhat of a limited budget but dont want to get too far behind the curve to save a few bucks. If someone could share with me the difference between the 2 models I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Len
lenm
hotrod
60 posts
 
the one is excellent,I had the one for two years ,moved on to a two for a few reasons,one the larger display,the other having the ability to play my rears with my fronts in two channel with separate volume control.sonically the one was as good or a tad smoother in my system,just wanted those features i described, for 900 a steal. regards mike.
garys
65 posts
 
StereoTimes (www.stereotimes.com) archives (about November 2000 as I recall) has a review of the Grand II, but the same review talks aboout the Grand I. Maybe worth a look.
lenm OP
1 posts
 
Thanks to those who responed, I really appreciate your input. I also would welcome any feedback from any other Audiogon members.
Regards, Len
fliceswater
15 posts
 
Not too thilled with these Sunfire preamps really...nothing all that special overall in my experiences. And I've sold Sunfire for a couple of years now!!!..seriously! I think, if you're priorities are movies (and depends on you're speakers a bit), The acurus Act 3 w/advanced bass mangagement is hard to beat for the same money used! around $1k or less). You'll get proper speaker crossover point settings this way, not to mention clean clean dd/DTS overall with the Acurus!...very good Digital sound.
If you're more into high end 2 channel playback from a pre/pro, then the Classe SSP25 at around $1000-1200 price point used is going to be hard to beat sonically. It has "dirrect analog bypass" for all inputs, yielding superb purity and clarity from 2 channel sources! It's also very clean and resolved (and dynamic) from the Digital inputs. However, it doesn't have the ABM bass mgmt that the Acurus (and Aragon, Lexicon, Theta, Anthem, Citation, etc) has. And because no full range speaker (except powered speakers) can handle full range DD/DTS bass tracks without distorting or bottoming out. This flexibility allows you to properly cross most speakers over at around 50-60hz (better than 80hz), letting the subs do the rest!..much much much stronger overall performance and dynamics this way!
So if I had $900 to spend on a use pre/pro for double dubites, I'd consider either of the two I just mentioned, depending on priorities
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