Step Up from a Sunfire


What amps would be a significant improvement over a Sunfire Cinema Grand?

It is currently bi-amping a set of Maggies
randy-11
@maplegrovemusic 

My plan is to internally bridge them. In the owners manual it states that by running jumpers from the inputs and the speaker terminals you can effectively bridge these amps.

I ran them like this for a couple years. Then I thought, it would be better to remove all the extra inputs, outputs and run the jumpers internally right off the boards. 

Bill Flannery is doing the restoration and modifications along  with another man. This is what I am having done.

(1) Pair of WBT 0710ag Binding Posts.

(2) One WBT 0210ag RCA Jack

(3) One Neutrik PowerCon A/C inlet.

Bill will have a CAD/CAM new aluminium back panel cut for these, along with holes for the fuses etc, which will go over the original back panel. Then we will have it anodised and silk screened.

Inside he will replace all the caps and perform routine maintenance and updates to the amps. ( I did ask that the power supply caps be increased in size and he did that by making new brackets to hold them.)

Next will be the removal of the stock RCA's and speaker terminals, XLR etc then internally bridging them so we will have only one set of Binding posts and one RCA jack.

As far as costs, this is something that Bill has never done. He is not really a "modification" guy. After speaking with him several times, his only requirement was that this be done with a factory level or above quality.

The basic recap/update is somewhere north of $300. We talked about a budget and because this is the first set he is modifying for me, they will probably be somewhat expensive.

I told him that you do what you do best and keep me updated on the progress. So I really am not sure what it'll end up costing.

To answer your question. As these amplifiers are now reaching around 20 years old, a recap/update is mandatory in my opinion.

The last thing you'll want is a cap blowing up or failing that could cause irreplaceable damage to the amp as these are no longer being made by Sunfire. Carver sold it to a big corporation that was only interested in home theatre, so all the audiophile 2 channel stuff was quickly discontinued.

Seeing as how Bill worked at the original Sunfire company, he has all the factory manuals and updates etc for these amps. I couldn't recommend anyone else more qualified to do the work.

I am keeping a running thread on this upgrade and a few other projects on:
 http://carveraudio.com

Look me up: Miko1971
Randy,
I'm not sure myself what Sunfire house sound is, but every time I tried to find an upgrade, I've always failed and remained with my Sunfire.

In my situation the sunfire sound is effortless . From low , med to high volume it does not change it's presentation . No nasties in any frequencies . Smooth sounding . They are a steal for $750 . I really should not be talking them up as i want to get a second one on the used market !
I sort of figured the above but want to be sure the caps aren't going bad.  And I have to move everything out of my house's main floor anyway due to destruction of the hardwood flooring by a leaking heat pump (!!)

 I'll see what he says.