AV Receiver Reviews

Manufacturer's Comments: Sunfire Ultimate II

Michael Fremer's thoroughness in reviewing is evidenced by his comments about the Sunfire Ultimate II's cool looks, ease of use, generous features, and abundance of inputs and outputs. But what really excited us here at Sunfire was his observation that the midband sounded "rich and relaxing," perhaps more than any other receiver he has tested. The Sunfire design team, led by Bob Carver, has spent countless hours getting that critical midband right, believing that the area around the human voice is fundamental to achieving good sound for both music and movies.

We must also compliment Michael on his observation that the Sunfire Ultimate II "sounded powerful, well-controlled, and rhythmically agile." Power is so important in maintaining control and getting to that overall rhythmical exactness that causes a system to hang together when the timing gets tough and complex. Power and control are becoming even more important as producers explore new ways to grab the public's attention by pushing the audio envelope ever farther in terms of dynamics and overall SPL.

Kudos again to Michael for noticing that the MM phono input not only works, but is more than just an afterthought. Yes, we still spin vinyl here at Sunfire.

As to movie sound tracks, the thing that stood out is the Ultimate II's "midrange sweetness and overall tonal coherence," which is high praise indeed. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

We will accept criticism for not having THX nor a digital input for SACD and DVD-A, but it may be true that these formats are trending down and may not be supported in the long term. The need for HDMI is clearly upon us and rest assured that we are working hard to bring HDMI switching to our receiver and pre-amp as soon as possible.

Thanks again for an insightful job in reviewing the Sunfire Ultimate II.

Jeremy Fry

Director of Marketing,

Sunfire Corp