Power Amplifiers for Lsi25's Carver Sunfire vs. Anthem

tvwad

anyone familiar with the Bob Carver Sunfire driving the Lsi 25's? one is being sold in my area for $600 and i am debating replacing my Anthem PVA 7 with the Sunfire 2 x 300 (2x 600 4 Ohms) for more power. i tend to over pay and trying not to this time, but can't seem to find too many for sale. thanks for any insight into performance and/or pricing.

BDT

Are you unhappy with your current amp?

I've got a Sunfire amp in the closet, it's a nice amp and if you don't like your current amp, I'd say why not however is it going to be a night/day difference? I doubt it.

BDT

tonyb

The only real difference I see between the 2 sound signatures of both amps is the Sunfire will most likely do lower bass a tad better than the Anthem. Anthem amps tend to round out those lower bass notes a bit. Note so sure it's a swap I'd make, but hey....you only know if you try right ?

tvwad

my thoughts are considering the Sunfire amp is that after saving for and buying the Lsi25's i am not blown away by the sound. the Anthem is 140w per channel at 4 ohms and the Sunfire is 600w per channel at 4 ohms. i thought that maybe the extra power would open the speakers up better. i keep reading that these speakers need power. would the power of the Sunfire make any difference?

D_M

Tvwad,

How do you rate the 15s vs 25s? You might want to post some photos of your setup. A room drastically affects audio enjoyment. Some of the forum gurus might be able to offer suggestions if they can see how the system is setup.

mrbiron

I've owned Anthem, never owned Carver.

Sure the 600w will give you more headroom but how loud are you playing. Anything over a 105db +- and your Anthem is probably getting tired. (that's if my math is correct). Is that not enough?

Are you going to gain anything from the Carver? Having the ability to go a little bit closer to deaf really wouldn't sell me on an amp. If its a fair deal on the Carver, buy and do a quick shoot out. You should be able to flip it at no loss if you don't like it.

tvwad

I do crank the tunes, but not interested in losing any more hearing. I lost enough as a teenager. I am a beginner as far as audio. Are you saying that the extra power only provides more volume without distortion? Why do i keep reading about the lsi25's needing lots of power? Is it just for greater volume? I had the impression that more power may help produce better sound and not just louder sound.
In response to D_M, I have only used the 15's as surrounds. There was a pair of Lsi9's on sell for $400 which would have made good surrounds, but then these 15's came up for $300. They seem overkill for the surrounds, but I wanted all the speakers to be Lsi's and the pair saved me $100.00. This system is in a large family room with 10 feet ceiling.

tonyb

What he said ^^^

Still, 140 watts is on the low end side for those speaks. Hit the Carver, use the Anthem for the rest of your surrounds. Make sure your using some decent cabling too. Sony wouldn't be my choice for a receiver, but sometimes we have to work with what we got.

Another thought is buying a better receiver like a Pioneer with the D3 ice amps in it instead of the carver for right now. Sell the Anthem and buy a 2 channel amp after that. The pioneer can handle the surrounds and let the 2 channel amp carry the lsi25's.

mantis

Before you start buying new amps , your Anthem is a very nice powerful amp that has good head room and good current much better then most high end AVR's.
With that being said , I suggest running all your speakers in small including the LSI25's.
Run LFE to the LSI25's in line level.
Recalibrate your system to 75db all channels including the Subs.
If you still don't like the sound quality of your system , my friend maybe the LSI line isn't for you. I would suggest checking out the RTia line which is much easier to drive , more explosive for movies but not as sweet and warm as the LSI's for music. It's the only thing I feel the LSi's do better and some might even like the RTia's better all around.

tvwad

thanks for the thoughts... this rabbit hole gets confusing at times. The quest for great audio continues!

cfrizz

You can never go wrong with more power, and the more you feed to the LSI's the better they will sound. It is not just about volume.

Welcome to Club Polk.

mikeyb128

I have to agree, those things love lots of power and really open up with more of it. I went from an xpa 3 with my lsi's to a sunfire tga 7401, and everything came alive! Made a huge difference in my opinion, or it was placebo

polkfarmboy

The Anthem has distortion that smudges things so you want a big leap forward in your upgrade.

F1nut

mikeyb128 wrote: »

I have to agree, those things love lots of power and really open up with more of it. I went from an xpa 3 with my lsi's to a sunfire tga 7401, and everything came alive! Made a huge difference in my opinion, or it was placebo

Perhaps it sounds better because it's a better amp and has nothing to do with the amount of power. So many think that the amount of power is the only answer. It's not, I repeat NOT.

F1nut

polkfarmboy wrote: »

The Anthem has distortion that smudges things so you want a big leap forward in your upgrade.

Specs show extremely low distortion for that amp.

polkfarmboy

The Anthem multi ch amps are great, even better than w4s in the bass. When i put the anthem mca side by side with the w4s I thought I was hearing distortion that was not letting all the signal through. Backing vocals really just sort of muted there way into the background but were super trasparent with the w4s ice amps.

If I was looking for a 100% HT amp then i would go for a w4s any day. Proceed amps are really cheap and have great sound.

tvwad

I found a Bob Carver Sunfire for $150.00 less than the first one I inquired about so I made the purchase and now have the Sunfire connected. 2 ch direct is much more to my taste and The Red Hot Chili Peppers are blasting! First impressions is that the Carver Sunfire is a keeper. The Anthem PVA is now powering the center and surrounds. Can't wait to try a good movie.
For my room, my speakers, my AV, my ear... The Carver was a good buy.
Thanks again to everyone who responded.

nooshinjohn

tvwad wrote: »

I found a Bob Carver Sunfire for $150.00 less than the first one I inquired about so I made the purchase and now have the Sunfire connected. 2 ch direct is much more to my taste and The Red Hot Chili Peppers are blasting! First impressions is that the Carver Sunfire is a keeper. The Anthem PVA is now powering the center and surrounds. Can't wait to try a good movie.
For my room, my speakers, my AV, my ear... The Carver was a good buy.
Thanks again to everyone who responded.

I stayed out of this thread because everybody knows of my fondness for Sunfire amps. The one you grabbed is a good one, and should serve you well connected to the LSi's.

Congrats and enjoy.

cfrizz

Congrats and enjoy!

nooshinjohn

cfrizz wrote: »

I think it would sound better if you paired it with a set of SDA's...

Fixed it for you Cathy!