O.K., O.K., I know I am taking forever on this. As you can imagine, things have been pretty busy around here with a newborn. Not too much time to sleep, much less play with my audio gear.
I haven't had time to do detailed analytical comparisons between the Sanders amps and the Sunfire because I have been busy comparing the Sanders preamp with my CJ preamp and the Meridian. I have already decided I want to keep the amps, so now I need to hurry up and decide if I want to keep the preamp.
The long and short of the amps is: they are terrific. They are absolutely neutral, very clean and very true to the source. With tons of power, they never feel strained and there is never any compression. Even when played really LOUD, the music sounds great. The bass with the Summits is deep and tight, the midrange and highs are just dead-on accurate. Everything sounds like it should. Instruments sound incredibly real. The Sunfire by comparison is just a little darker and not quite as clear and revealing, particularly in the highs. I will elaborate more on this comparison as I have more time to compare these amps directly to the Sunfire and the Pass.
It was interesting to change out the preamps. The Sanders Preamp is quiet, completely neutral and very true to the source. It has no sound of its own that I can detect, but just reproduces the music. Every instrument has its space and everything is CLEAR. Clarity is the word I keep coming back to to describe this preamp. When Cindy first heard it, she said: "Wow, that is really CLEAN." Along those lines, it is incredibly revealing of the upstream components. I thought it was a little bit hard on the edges and lacking in any warmth, but then I decided to switch sources and replaced my RAM modified Oppo 970 with my Marantz SA 11S1. The difference was not subtle. I had never noticed how the Oppo was a little edgy before, but the Marantz was nice and warm and very smooth sounding. This pre reveals everything you put in front of it.
But it just doesn't have that magical liquidity of sound that the tubes bring. When I put the CJ Premier 17 LS2 in the system, the images are fuzzier, things blend together and the soundstage is not so clear, details and nuances not so obvious, but oh that magic midrange and vocals that just melt your heart! If only you could combine the best that both of these preamps have to offer . . . (which is exactly what I think I am going to try to do, perhaps with an ARC REF 3). Sanders is offering a great deal on this pre, but it just doesn't quite have the magic that I am looking for in my two-channel system.
Switching out the preamps made it clear that these amps are just as revealing of what is upstream as Sander's preamp is. It was so easy to detect and compare the positives and negatives of each preamp in the system. Blindfolded, I could have easily guessed that I was listening to an all solid-state system with the Sanders components, but when I had the CJ pre in the system, I would have guessed that I was listening to an all tube system. These amps are just so neutral. They take on the character of whatever the upstream components are. I am interested to hear what Neil (Nsgarch) thinks of them, tube-lover that he is.
I will post more later as I get time to play, and hopefully sometime after the first of the year, I will get Jonathan and Liz over hear to Huntsville and you can hear them for yourself.
