Which Processor: Sunfire or Bryston?

Bookner, Sunfire is releasing the Theater Grand III at the end of this month. You might want to hold off on any purchases until you can find out the specifics.

To those that are TG II owners and want to know about the factory upgrades, Sunfire has not come to any conclusions as to how they are going to work this as of yet. I would imagine that they would offer such an option as they did this with the TG I's when they came out with the TG II's. I'll keep you folks posted when i find out what's going on and i'm sure that others will too : ) Sean
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I second SD Campbell’s recommendation – the Bryston SP1 is a wonderful pre-pro. Wonderfully transparent and neutral, well made, and very intuitive in its operation – easier to operate than any receiver or preamp processor I’ve ever used. It really is an audiophile's processor, and I am delighted with mine.

I'll add a third vote for the SP1, for many of the same reasons Herr Campbell has cited. BTW, don't mean to be confrontational, but I have heard the Classe units and, while I thought them good, I did not hear the pedigree the first poster raves about. As always, our perceptions differ and you have to follow your ears. Note that I did not say Classe is bad; rather it didn't quite fire me the way the SP1 did. As with Mr. Campbell, audio quality assumed primacy in my selection. And it is there I thought the SP1 superior to Classe's offerings. Geddie wrote: "It really is an audiophile's processor, and I am delighted with mine." To which all I can add is ditto.

Thanks, one and all, for your considered responses. I'll do some listening. Any one actually compare these two directly?

You should also consider the B&K reference 30. This is the one I ended up getting. I listened to the B&K vs the Sunfire (for two-channel mostly) and picked the B&K. I haven't directly tested the Bryston or the Classe side-by-side with these, but I did listen to them and neither of them blew me away.

I use the B&K for D to A as well, though, so this was my priority. If you are just using it as passthrough, the Bryston or Classe might be better bets.

If you can, make sure to listen to them _in_your_setup_. The amp you match with it will especially make a difference.

John