RSSSunfire TGR-401 AV Receiver Reviewed
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Bob Carver is truly among the elite engineers in the history of the AV industry. With a career that spans over three decades and as many companies, he is known for packing huge power into small AV products and making them sound good. The new Sunfire TGR-401 home theater receiver is no exception to this rule. Packing in 200 watts per channel with all seven channels, this is the most powerful receiver on the planet. Thanks to Bob's tracking down-converter power supply, it runs cool even at high listening levels. The new TGR-401 is packed with tons of features to augment all that power for a price of $4,000.
The Sunfire TGR-401 is the newest receiver offering since Elan purchased the company, with lots of cool trickle-down technologies. This receiver has all the things you'd expect from a Sunfire product, like Sonic Holography for enhanced imaging and a direct model for DSP bypass, but it also comes Sirius radio-ready, and with support for your iPod both via onscreen and front panel control. A microphone is included for using the newly added room correction, as well as a 7.1 channel analog input for Blu-ray or HD DVD. It has a total of four analog and video inputs and two outputs, as well as four optical and coaxial digital ins and one output of each. Should you want to add even more powerful amps in the future, 7.1 channel preamp outputs are there, as well as RS 232 control, three IR ins and outs and 12-volt triggers. The TGR-401 offers three-to-one HDMI 1.3a switching and will transcode all analog video to component, though not HDMI, nor will it scale video.
Additional Resources• Read more about Sunfire including many other HTR Sunfire reviews here.
• Read more AV Receiver Reviews here.
The TGR-401 sports a new look for Sunfire, with a bold black brushed aluminum front panel with a faceted silver bar up the middle to match the rest of the line, making for a sleek and modern appearance. Top it off with the fact that this is the only receiver that accepts the new Ole' XL wall-mount keypads by new parent company Elan, and you have a stylish and functional way to make this the center of a whole home audio system for the smaller residence. When it comes to sound, Sunfire always delivers. Power on command, solid tuners and great functionality, as well as the new wall plates for second zone control, really make this an attractive piece.
Read about the high points and low points of the TGR-401 on Page 2.
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Comment on this article
I`ve been a an and admirer of Bob Carver since the late 70`s. Deejaying since my senior year of high school and thru college, myself and my friends always wanted his products. Back then it was Crown and Dynaco amplifiers for us, and that was great. However, Phase Linear offered something more. More features (Sonic Holography), more power, and more price. Wonderful reserves and clean sound. You need that playing dance music. Enter Sunfire, and Bob was rolling again. Its unfortunate the many difficulties Bob has had recently over the years.
This new receiver looks good, I like the new bold cosmetic look. But, and its hard for me to say anything negative about Bob`s equipment, but not being able to decode the new codecs, is huge. it means your receiver is incomplete. Hopefully, who ever is really running the company now, can get this rectified, right away.
Linear owns Sunfire and one would have to assume they have a new preamp and receiver in the works with all of the latest features like more HDMI, Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio
I hope they have a new unit coming out soon, because this one is just the Ultimate Receiver II with a new case and their iPod interface added on. They really need to add some HDMI switching and the new codecs to make this piece current.
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