The latest home theater receiver from Sunfire is a grandiose piece of gear that lives up to its name—the elegant Theater Grand 401 Receiver (TGR-401). If you’re familiar with Sunfire, than you know to expect nothing less than high performance, and this receiver that debuted at CES 2008 delivers the goods.
There are plenty of highlights, so we’ll try to give you a few to chew on.
For power, the TGR-401 delivers 150 watts per channel times seven channels, along with the company’s proprietary Tracking Downconverter technology.
For connectivity, new features include Sirius satellite radio, dual Ole 2XL touchpad ports, and a VIA!migo port for iPod support.
For performance and processing, the receiver’s surround sound modes include 7.1-channel Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, DTS- ES, DTS Neo:6, DTS 96/24, and user-configurable all-speaker stereo. There’s also Sunfire’s Sonic Holography circuit to enhance the soundstage.
Other goodies include a configurable front panel behind the bushed aluminum door, through which front connections may be assigned as Y/Pr/Pb/optical for HD gaming, or composite/s-video/analog for camcorders with a press of a button; as well as a microphone in that area that helps serve the receiver’s Auto EQ feature.
The receiver carries an MSRP of $4,000—and the tried and true Sunfire moniker.
Read the entire press release here.
Luckily for Sunfire their customers tend to focus on how good it sounds rather than any new fangled features that are not even nessisary.
I’m sure it deals with LCPM over HDMI correctly having the decoder on the reciever is not any form of advantage to the consumer.
Having more than 3 HDMI devices for what again? Last time I checked ONLY a HD disk player has any advantage in this regard in terms of AQ or PQ.
Like I said before Sunfire makes equipment that sounds fantasitc and works, your $500 AVR is goind to sound like crap and well if you can find one that delivers 150 W / C for $500 bucks you go for it!
They forgot to add: This new fangled unit does not process Dolby True HD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, nor DTS Master Audio. It also only incorporates 3 HDMI input’s, the same # as you can find nowaday’s on entry level reciever’s costing $500. All of these shortcoming’s are astonishing considering the target market for this product. It will be a flop, except perhap’s in the often “The customer won’t know any different and it has a great mark-up for me” installer market. A major letdown Mr Carver.
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I love my Sunfire Ultimate receiver, however, I have a Denon 2808CI and the room correction makes all the difference. Granted, the Sunfire sonics surely outshine the mid-level Denon, but, the room correction capabilities [Audessey], of the Denon which the Ultimate receiver does not have I prefer over the Sunfire, mostly due to the bass corrections made by the Denon. Audessey drops the 63 hz about minus 5 decibles and also ups the 125 hz about 2.5 decibles in my room and it makes all the difference in the world no matter how much I change speaker placement when using the Sunfire receiver. I prefer my psb silver i speakers a little closer to the wall behind them rather than having them stick way out into the room, which has a big suckout in the 110-125 hz area. WHY has it taken Sunfire so long to utulize room correction? I used to believe everything I read about the evils of not having a “pure signal”, I,ve owned Bryston and Sonic Frontiers front ends. But my ears like what Audessey has done to make music sound better in my living room, particularily in the bass regions. Frustrating, cus now I,m thinking about plopping down money for the new Sunfire receiver. Aside from not having room correction I absolutely love the Ultimates luscious, enveloping sound. The thought of achieving the improvements room correction provides has me drooling to hear the same thru a new Sunfire 401.