HA!
Damn if I had a worse memory of what I did earlier today I would swear that I wrote that post! haha
Well, I may not be tons of help because I am quite earily in the same predicement as you, but I will try to share what I have learned in the last few days.
I to am in the market for an audiophile grade multi channel amp. I have recently left the ugly days of main stream recievers (Yamaha in my case) for the world of high end (Lexicon). I have always had my Adcom 555 mkII to power my main speakers, but the Yamaha handled the Dolby Digital mixing and the amplification of the center and rears. While this upgrade to the Lexicon brought my two channel world to a vastly better place, it left me without amplification for the center and rears. At first, still low on cash from the Lexicon purchase, I wanted to find a reasonable used 3 channel amp. But as I started to go down this road I realized there aren't tons of 3 channel amps out there. I also began to think that I could upgrade the Adcom at the same time. Upon realizing that I could get into a 5 channel amp and upgrade my sound I imediately thought of my long desire to own the Sunfire CG. The original 200w x5 is sold on Ebay consistanly under $1000 and I was within minutes of buying one...until last night.
There is a high end store up my way (Ensemble Audio). Last weekend I stopped in to see what they had for gear in my price range. They immediately told me Rotel was what I wanted. I took home a 1095 demo unit for a two day audition. What I found is still baffling me. It was DAMN bright in my system (Snell E.5 speakers). The 1095 has awesome speed but it was just too much up high for my tastes. I love a nice dark sound and the Adcom is very dark. The Adcom is also very slow and lacks detail. So eager to run home and bid on that Sunfire CG I asked him how one would do in my system. "It will be BRIGHTER then the Rotel" was the response by both salesmen there. I was shocked! Like you I thought the Sunfire was an overly warm amp but I've yet to listen to one in my home. So, I then spoke to one of them for 3 hours last night and he concluded this:
My Snells, Denon CD, Kimber Hero interconnect, and Monster Cable M2.4 biwire cables are on the bright side, and the Lexicon tends to impart some brightness. YIKES! This is NOT what I want to hear.
So he concludes that my best bet is to go to an older, warmer Rotel (985 for example), get some Transparent Audio cables (notoriously warm/dark), and see how I like it.
Hope that helps...I'm in the same boat as you!
Damn if I had a worse memory of what I did earlier today I would swear that I wrote that post! haha
Well, I may not be tons of help because I am quite earily in the same predicement as you, but I will try to share what I have learned in the last few days.
I to am in the market for an audiophile grade multi channel amp. I have recently left the ugly days of main stream recievers (Yamaha in my case) for the world of high end (Lexicon). I have always had my Adcom 555 mkII to power my main speakers, but the Yamaha handled the Dolby Digital mixing and the amplification of the center and rears. While this upgrade to the Lexicon brought my two channel world to a vastly better place, it left me without amplification for the center and rears. At first, still low on cash from the Lexicon purchase, I wanted to find a reasonable used 3 channel amp. But as I started to go down this road I realized there aren't tons of 3 channel amps out there. I also began to think that I could upgrade the Adcom at the same time. Upon realizing that I could get into a 5 channel amp and upgrade my sound I imediately thought of my long desire to own the Sunfire CG. The original 200w x5 is sold on Ebay consistanly under $1000 and I was within minutes of buying one...until last night.
There is a high end store up my way (Ensemble Audio). Last weekend I stopped in to see what they had for gear in my price range. They immediately told me Rotel was what I wanted. I took home a 1095 demo unit for a two day audition. What I found is still baffling me. It was DAMN bright in my system (Snell E.5 speakers). The 1095 has awesome speed but it was just too much up high for my tastes. I love a nice dark sound and the Adcom is very dark. The Adcom is also very slow and lacks detail. So eager to run home and bid on that Sunfire CG I asked him how one would do in my system. "It will be BRIGHTER then the Rotel" was the response by both salesmen there. I was shocked! Like you I thought the Sunfire was an overly warm amp but I've yet to listen to one in my home. So, I then spoke to one of them for 3 hours last night and he concluded this:
My Snells, Denon CD, Kimber Hero interconnect, and Monster Cable M2.4 biwire cables are on the bright side, and the Lexicon tends to impart some brightness. YIKES! This is NOT what I want to hear.
So he concludes that my best bet is to go to an older, warmer Rotel (985 for example), get some Transparent Audio cables (notoriously warm/dark), and see how I like it.
Hope that helps...I'm in the same boat as you!