OldiesButGoodies

The Sunfire series are amazing amps - I find them comparable to much higher end amps. Mine was recapped and re-biased by Tom (these amps came with tens of Pacom capacitors that went bad quickly - an easy upgrade is to have them removed and replaced with Panasonics, I had Tomdo it because there are so many and full recapping does require recalibration). Unfortunately Tom also decorated the interior of my amp with about 60 Hello Kitty stickers that I will have to tediously remove if I ever have to sell it. The bastard put a really low light on the joules meter so that he knew I would be tempted to open the amp up when I got home from the shop and discover the stickers. I am still planning a proper revenge on him for that little joke. HEY: The preamp gain is fine - I MIS-WROTE on my first post - I am getting decent volume on my pre at around -1db, and it goes all the way to +12dbs (I have not had this pre for too long), so I have plenty of runway left to increase the output on the Amazings without swapping the power amp. The Sunfire will do fine as a match to them. Thanks, OBG

I am using an Emotiva XSP-1 gen 2.

That could be a next step. I could not find an exact 150 uf cap but Tom (OCCD) had two Panasonic 330uf 220V polars that, wired in series minus to minus, measured 149uf on the Sencore (and became non-polar as a result of wiring), so took 4 of those and went with that. Sounds pretty good. Next step is to decide if I need more power. I have heard the passive crossover can handle up to 1000 watts before the chokes start melting - I am feeding it somewhere around 600 from a Sunfire 400 x 5 (at 6 ohms - assuming the crossover presents that load). The volumes I get are pretty decent with the pre at 90% - so I may not need more. But I have a temptation to try an Emotiva XPR-2 and see if I can get those chokes to warm up the room. ;-P OBG

Thanks. I put the passive crossovers back in after replacing a 150uf non-polar cap that measuring poorly. While the passive is vastly less efficient than the active, the sound I am getting out of the ribbons feels cleaner, less compressed. So there is some magic in passive x-over design, in my opinion, that makes the speakers (and the ECS). Will continue experimenting.

I have been using my Carver Amazing Plats with an active crossover for years. For shits and giggles I would like to reinstall the original passives and try them out that way again. I am having trouble remembering how the four 16 ohm woofs were wired. Did they go all in paralell to present a 4 ohm load to the passive x-over? Are the woofers supposed to be in phase with crossover in this design? Any help appreciated! Thanks! OBG