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It has been replicated. The carver sunfire amp has a current source mode that sounds a bit warmer like a tube. I heard one many years ago and was pretty impressed.

http://www.sunfire.com/ampseriesII.htm

Today, just before leaving work, I got to listen to some new Sunfire speakers (Bob Carver company) that got overnight air'ed for the Electronic Home trade show in Orlando this week... lets just say that even though I'd lost my ear long ago...this reminded me of just how good music could sound.

Anyway, long story longer...I know online is giving stores a run...but I think as long as there's people dropping $10k on speakers (the cost of the system I heard today for JUST speakers...double or triple it to include everything else), I don't think CDs are going anywhere.

I'm probably wrong but that's my opinion.

Here's a list of what I was listening to: Processor
2700 watt Subs (2!!)
2,800 Watt Amp
Speakers (not the same, but similar to these) **DISCLAIMER** The company I work for owns Sunfire...

Today, just before leaving work, I got to listen to some new Sunfire speakers (Bob Carver company) that got overnight air'ed for the Electronic Home trade show in Orlando this week... lets just say that even though I'd lost my ear long ago...this reminded me of just how good music could sound.

Anyway, long story longer...I know online is giving stores a run...but I think as long as there's people dropping $10k on speakers (the cost of the system I heard today for JUST speakers...double or triple it to include everything else), I don't think CDs are going anywhere.

I'm probably wrong but that's my opinion.

Here's a list of what I was listening to: Processor
2700 watt Subs (2!!)
2,800 Watt Amp
Speakers (not the same, but similar to these) **DISCLAIMER** The company I work for owns Sunfire...

Today, just before leaving work, I got to listen to some new Sunfire speakers (Bob Carver company) that got overnight air'ed for the Electronic Home trade show in Orlando this week... lets just say that even though I'd lost my ear long ago...this reminded me of just how good music could sound.

Anyway, long story longer...I know online is giving stores a run...but I think as long as there's people dropping $10k on speakers (the cost of the system I heard today for JUST speakers...double or triple it to include everything else), I don't think CDs are going anywhere.

I'm probably wrong but that's my opinion.

Here's a list of what I was listening to: Processor
2700 watt Subs (2!!)
2,800 Watt Amp
Speakers (not the same, but similar to these) **DISCLAIMER** The company I work for owns Sunfire...

Today, just before leaving work, I got to listen to some new Sunfire speakers (Bob Carver company) that got overnight air'ed for the Electronic Home trade show in Orlando this week... lets just say that even though I'd lost my ear long ago...this reminded me of just how good music could sound.

Anyway, long story longer...I know online is giving stores a run...but I think as long as there's people dropping $10k on speakers (the cost of the system I heard today for JUST speakers...double or triple it to include everything else), I don't think CDs are going anywhere.

I'm probably wrong but that's my opinion.

Here's a list of what I was listening to: Processor
2700 watt Subs (2!!)
2,800 Watt Amp
Speakers (not the same, but similar to these) **DISCLAIMER** The company I work for owns Sunfire...

Power consumptions != SPL.. lots of aspects affect the output levels of a subwoofer, a major one being enclosure size.. When the enclosure becomes smaller, you need more power to deliver the same SPL (see this subwoofer.

Because the rotary sub requires an infinite baffle installation, it really doesn't need all that much power, and the design appears to be pretty darn efficient.

-- n

That may be the perception, but in many cases (but not all), it's wrong. Integrated amps allow the manufacturer to to cutomize the amp for the specific driver which can greatly improve the performance of the overall speaker. for example:

• the amp in the Sunfire sub (which is rated for 2kW, but doesn't actually deliver that kind of power to the speaker because of the back EMF properties of the speaker magnet - any other amp would be eaten alive), and
• the BeoLab 5 integrated amp (I've written about the BeoLab 5 before).
• Heck, even if you hate Bose speakers, try listening to externally-amplified Acoustimass-series speakers, and compare them to the internally-amp'd models - the self-amplified models sound much better.

This Tracking Downconverter supplies their 11" cube subs with enough power to get the stroke of the subwoofer to over 2"... that's moving quite a bit of air. With I believe an 8 pound magnet, and 16 pounds of dead weight on the opposite side (moved thanks to Newton) they pack 18Hz flat response into a tiny package. I was wondering if this 'ICEpower' is just the same thing.

You can check out Sunfire's 'True Subwoofer' here.

---

More like middle range, say more like a Volkswagen to a Jaguar. What the average joe thinks of as high end, but folks who are really dedicated to it know there's lots of stuff even higher and/or more specialized. Carver would more closely map to Ferrari, perhaps McIntosh to Lamborgini. And there are more out there that map to even more exotic stuff, like McLaren's, Liegnfeter(sp?), Vector, Shelby, Panos, ... (Ok, so I'm more into cars than audio) Probably maps pretty well in terms of volumes, etc.

I'm still cursing my freind for getting me hooked on the idea of getting a Carver Sunfire (http://www.sunfire.com/)

Seriously though I use Lame with V2 with a min bitrate of 192 and a max of 320. Only on a rare few of my techno mixes does it ever even touch 320 for a moments time and otherwise spends the rest of the time around 256 with frequent drops to the 192 level. This puts me at about a 8:1 compression level and about a 200-240kbps equivilent bit rate. The quality, when played through my Onkyo is very good and the bass, played through a Sunfire True Subwoofer is very good (for those that say mp3 kills bass). And no, I didn't pay full price for it >;-)

One question I haven't been able to find the answer to though is: What criteria does the encoder use to determine what bitrate to use, and are some more or less conservative than others?

Bob Carver, the well-known amplifier designer, once took a well-thought-of tube amp, characterized its transfer function with appropriate test gear, and built a transistor amp which couldn't be distinguished from the tube amp in double-blind listening tests. But it didn't sell. So, almost as a joke, he designed the Carver Silver Seven, a tube amp with three separate chassis per channel, chrome-plated everything, and priced at an incredibly high price. It sold well.

OK, OK, enough tweaking the High End Audio types for tonight.