One of our reps just brought on Bob Carvers' Sunfire line. They are releasing an 8-10-12" front firing sealed subwoofers at a $600, $700 and $800 price points. Sunfire will also be showing in 1st. quarter of 2006 a new line of a/v recievers and DVD players. Should I get my reps samples for review? Currently we only have one a/v reveiver line - Marantz. Looking for current owners, dealers and past dealer for reply's. Thank you!

With all those changes in distribution it was like... can we get sunfire for this job or not.

We have it, we don't have it. They are going direct. They are back to distribution. Never knew what to expect

Personally I liked the stuff. I also liked the company themselves... had a issue with a piece and they handeled it right away.

they're now owned by Nortek, linked to Elan, and have a couple of great guys leading sales, marketing and product development (Eric Harper and Mark Weisenberg) so certainly worth looking at.

Is Bob Carver still associated with the company?

Yes. He started Sunfire after he lost Carver to his wife (in the divorce settlement I heard). The Carver company has had a real rollercoaster ride of love (by owners) and hated (by then current dealers) who were left (again, hear-say) holding the bag when the company went down for the count. No product even for orders placed prior to the colapse. I am excited if Bob can truly make a come-back. He's is an extraordinary person in his field.

Bob is with the company. Talked to him at CEDIA. Great company and awsome sounding products.

Isn't Bob your uncle?

I will be seeing my new sunfire rep in the morning. (Thursday) Is there any questions that anyone would like me to ask him while he is here? Let me know.

Ask how his nieces and nephews are doing.

Damn... Wrong forum.

I'd say the comeback already happened quite some time ago! Sunfire has been around for quite a few years now and seems to get nothing but good reviews. I just wasn't sure if Bob was still with the company or had sold out and moved on as owners sometimes do.

Wow, I bet Integra is not so happy with Nortek about right now....

I've been using a Cinema Grand in my HT for a few years and the only complaint I have is that it's either manual off/on or auto-sensing. No trigger or serial control. I'll never buy another auto-sensing amp again. Same for my sub-woofer (Atlantic Tech, 450THX series.) They both have a habit of going off during long quiet passages, and then the sound comes back and you get this delay as they wake up.

But otherwise I've been happy with it. It never gets more than slightly warm to the touch, even when working pretty hard, and has never given me any trouble at all other than the auto-sensing stuff.

Dean, since almost every quality powered sub out there puts you in this situation, try running a 12 volt trip line along with your sub feed to the sub locale. Instead of plugging your sub directly into an ac outlet, integrate a Xantech AC-1 switcher. Set your sub to manual power on/off. If you have a 12 volt trigger output on your preamp/receiver,use it to trigger the ac-1. If not, a 12 volt dc power supply plugged into a switched outlet on the preamp/receiver works just as well. Now when the system powers up, the 12 volt trigger will turn on the AC-1, which in turn powers up any ac powered device plugged into it. When the system powers off, so does the ac-1 and anything plugged into it. I always run the trip wire along with the sub feed, but only offer the switch solution if the client voices the complaint about auto on/off sensing being too sensitive.

My other option of course is to get rich and buy a Theta Dreadnaught which has serial control :-) And to set up the local power station to run it.

i say leave it alone..... they work good and sound ok but there is better for the money