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Saw this over on Facebook... https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15a2dWdYRh/ Some cool pictures of Greg with Bob Carver on a recent visit. Would love a pair of those amps!!

I would be interested in getting more information about this upgrade in particular for the Sunfire Signature Stereo II Amp. Additionally, I have a Sunfire Theater Grand IV that has decided to output a nasty hum in all settings, thoughts on repairs? Thank you in advance for your feedback and assistance. v/r Kurtis Nold

We will be at Carverfest, then on to Texas for the first half of September. We will still have someone available here at the shop though. I also plan on keeping up with emails and phone calls.

Great to hear.

Making custom shipping boxes to help our customers ship safe and easy!

Very cool!

We've teamed up with a company from Hong Kong to make obsolete parts! They are making a new version of the very rare and expensive Sanken transistors that we use of the M-500t mkII upgrade modification - 2SA1295/2SC3264 This is great news! I'm going to stress test these new transistors to make sure they meet the intended quality. If so, we'll be able to continue the M-500t mkII for years to come!

Yes. It's not yet complete though. I've worked out that most of the work is needed in the power supply area. It's looking like the mkII mod will be an extra $500.

Any updates on this? I have a Sunfire Cinema Signature II in for a refurb right now. best Regards, Matt

After servicing quite a few Sunfires, I've noticed their shortcomings as well as areas which can be improved. I am currently working on a relatively universal upgrade for Sunfire AMPs. The upgrade will include updates to the amplifier circuits and tracking down converter for more power, better durability and much better soundstage.

We have our own solutions and I can custom order rare parts sometimes. In fact, my custom solutions are often better than a stock part. So my point is about the manufactures and their ignorance/ADHD/neglect of the market. A rather large market! Not about whether we have solutions. Of course we have solutions! It's just in some cases, I'd rather not have to make custom solutions...especially when the parts are out there but distributors just don't keep them in stock, which hints to the manufacturers that they aren't in demand.

I've seen vertical Arrays. Two shorter caps with adaptors. Stack em up. Screw mount on the bottom adaptor and run heavy gauge wire on either side to connect the stacked caps in parallel.

The old school tube amps ran into this issue with the multi value can caps going away. The old guys started restuffing the factory cans with bundles of modern electrolytic caps inside the old can. Needing a single value could be easier to bundle inside the old can as shown in the link. Some blue shrink film and maybe it's a way out? https://www.antiquetvguy.com/WebPages/MyMethods/Electrolytic Can Restuffing/ElectrolyticCanRestuffing.html This company reproduces vintage caps.

Sure, you can order 1000 @ $59.99 a unit, which is about $60,000. Pretty hard to recover that in a fiscal year, unless you're getting a lot of units in for repair that need those parts. Mouser and Digikey sometimes carry these types of parts - but they sell out in just a few weeks, and never bother to restock. It...is...so...strange!

doesn't Cornell Dublier list on their mouser listing for those big cans "on demand" with a large order of 1000 minimum? That's 500 amps that each take two of these..., I think Cornell Dublier makes these in South Carolina, IIRC..., I am wrong a lot. I recall someone suggesting a group buy, to distribute the cost. ...just thinking out loud, not more than that as a strategy to address the change in the market.

That's right, pony!

I think what we need are more manufacturers, particularly ones located in the US with competitive product lines and pricing.

Finding new capacitors to replace old ones is still a real challenge. My favorite excuse on the part of new parts manufacturers is that large can screw terminal capacitors are 'cheaper and better' if they are made with a gigantic diameter and short length. For anyone that's spent any time in vintage amplifiers, these large can capacitors were usually pretty tall (long) with a moderate diameter. First of all - what's the bother of making something already expensive a little 'cheaper'? These large can caps are already demoted to 'on demand' manufacture and I don't think anyone will care if they spend $59.99 a piece or $69.99 a piece to fix something that needs it...and I would bet they'd pay an extra $10, or more, to get the same freaking size they were made in the first place! Then there are the voltages...It's just as easy to find a 22,000uF 25V capacitor as it is to find a 10,000uF 450V capacitor. But exceedingly rare to find a 6,800uF or 10,000uF 125V capacitor. Weird? So much money lost, really, because these new parts cannot fit in old stereo gear anymore. Not even not so old equipment! The ways around the size issue don't involve buying any other kinds of screw terminal capacitors, so the void is nothing more than a complete loss of money and waste of resources on parts that frankly, can't be used. It would make sense to make parts that can be used over a wide range of applications...like...make them the same size they were made for decades before. Millions of applications. But, they don't want that market. Instead, only a small niche market that doesn't need more than 'on demand' manufacturing. OLD vs NEW These don't fit in the same space!!!!!