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Sunfire True Subwoofer Mark II

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Romeo Wolf said:
Picked one up yesterday for $385 in good working. Rattles everything in my bedroom, truly flat to 18Hz. 440W Continous, 2.7kW Peak for 1/10 of a second.
I'm surprised the neighbors haven't knocked on our door yet, considering my father lives in an HOA.

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Congrats, That's a great subwoofer and changed the game when it was introduced.

hoa= homeowners association. i.e. the debil.
 
I own a MK-IV. Was bought brand new.
Had lots of trouble with it, and like others I had the very common failure with the auto turn-on, would not power up.

Twice to Sunfire, ship the whole Sub, and neither of their repairs held up for very long.

I then was able to ship just the Plate Amp to Mike Flannery, who used to work for Sunfire. He charges a flat rate repair, and provided a parts list of what he replaces. Generally a total rebuild of the Plate Amp with all new, better quality Caps, etc.

Shipping, the costs were much less, and the better comfort and some peace of mind that a Plate Amp could be well packed and much less prone to shipping damage.

He replaced a total of 45 Caps on mine, and I had taken many before close up pics of the Boards, etc.

After his work, it was immediately apparent just how many parts were changed. And as well the very neatly done quality of his work. He's a master with soldering, you can see how the entire main board was beefed with much better soldering of the electronics.

He had mentioned poor QC with soldering with these True Sub Plate Amps, and often would have or quickly develope cold solder joints

It appears he did precisely what he said he was going to do when I spoke with him by phone.

I'd like to acquire another nice MK-IV, in fact there's a pretty nice one for sale on the big auction site currently, but thought it a bit too expensive and decided against the purchase.
 
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So we just set it up and it literally radiates bass throughout our (my mom's) apartment unit effortlessly in the fourplex apartment. I wonder what our neighbors think of us, now that we have a proper "overkill" subwoofer instead of a weaka** Cambridge Soundworks New Ensemble ii :idea:
 
cademan said:
You should see some youtube videos on the nightmares of being part of the HOA.
No thank you! :wtf: :yikes:
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Thankfully my father lives in a genuinely decent HOA. Great neighbors, quiet, no complaints in the past 3 years my father's lived there.

Also one of the neighbors has a 16 y/o German Shepherd named Terra, who I absolutely adore :D
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After I had mine fixed for the second time, first by Sunfire then by Rita's, I recognized that the problem is that they shake themselves to death. The components actually fail internally.

The solution was to pull out the amp and put it in its own cabinet, and add a block-of plate with terminals to the speaker..., which is what I did.

With the removal of the amp there is even more internal cabinet volume available, the amp has much better cooling (the back of the case is 1/4" mesh screen), and I have not had any problems since.

Anyone who doesn't do this is just living on borrowed time.
 
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markd51 said:
I own a MK-IV. Was bought brand new.
Had lots of trouble with it...

Twice to Sunfire, ship the whole Sub, and neither of their repairs held up...

I then was able to ship just the Plate Amp to Mike Flannery, who used to work for Sunfire...

He replaced a total of 45 Caps on mine, and I had taken many before close up pics of the Boards, etc.

It appears he did precisely what he said he was going to do when I spoke with him by phone...
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I too had Bill do some work for me and I agree he's a straight up guy that does super quality work.
 
So we fired up "Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1" with the Sunnyfire and...we got a complaint from one of our friendly apartment neighbors as their floor and walls were vibrating in their apartment across the corridor from ours. It was also 10PM at night. I also noticed the sub had shifted direction when we received the complaint due to the fact that it's literally a monstrous beast in a tiny box, and was set on a hardwood floor.
Admittedly we had the receiver turned up to 78/100 (it's an Onkyo TX-SR602), and the sub turned up to the 0Db point via LFE, but I didn't feel like turning it down until that point. It was well overpowering the primary speakers on certain scenes though.

Not sure why my father or brother decided to turn it that high when setting up the sub, but I would certainly not be that kinda dumbo if I set things up myself.

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So now I adjusted the volume on the sub to a significantly more reasonable level for apartment use, and it sounds much better now that it blends in with the Philips MCD-708 bookshelf speakers. The risk of annoying the neighbors has also been reduced (although this fourplex apartment building is rather well built on its own). I still need to get some stands for those speakers though - and to support the 45lb sub so it doesn't dance across the floor again :)

I will also mention that this is the first noise-related complaint that we got from a neighbor.
 
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Not to get too off-topic (but OK, getting off topic) but a friend of mine who came into some money lives in a big house in a neighborhood with an HOA, where people are nosy and pretty consistently complain about the smallest things. My friend is a kind of happy go lucky type who isn't bothered by much and for a long time was OK with the HOA complaints, dealing with each one without complaint. Lately though, they really seem to be nitpicking and complaining about things on his property that are pretty hard to see from the street (but maybe from someone's second story window?) and my friend who seems mostly unflappable has had enough, is now thinking about moving, I kind of hate the HOA concept, myself.

I love dogs too and that shepherd looks like a really handsome one. 16 years is a good run for a dog, particularly a larger breed like that...

Glad that you're digging that new subwoofer...
 
There's people that don't want to hear such at any time of day, let alone at 10pm.

There's a large host of reasons as to why regular law abiding neighbor folks will turn into raged zombies and will want to behead you.

Through apartment walls, all they hear is boom boom boom, shake, buzz, distortion, uncomfort, you're disrupting their lives, peace of mind, and some shred of sanity. It is a form of trespass, and assault.

Some people can only tolerate so much, and then they'll act in a retaliatory way, they will likely first call the police, eventually you will likely be cited-fined, then go even further if no joy, key your vehicle, Ice Pick your tires, and so on. Whatever it takes to stop such mayhem they feel, and people can and will become pretty vicious.

For lack of consideration and sensibility, hate to say it, but you will become the "bad guy".

Even music lovers cannot tolerate someone's else's sonic charades, and often at any time of day. I know I can't.
 
As for the Sub "walking", yep, they're known to do that.

When I first auditioned the Sunfire Sub many years ago, the dealer had perfectly integrated the sub with a pair of Proac SC-1 Speakers. They had 50 lbs of Steel Plate sitting on top of the Sub to keep it firmly planted.

The way I've used my Sub is usually output set to 0db, other dials set to default, and even that sometimes is too much output.
 
Romeo Wolf said:
So we fired up "Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 1" with the Sunnyfire and...we got a complaint from one of our friendly apartment neighbors as their floor and walls were vibrating in their apartment across the corridor from ours. It was also 10PM at night. I also noticed the sub had shifted direction when we received the complaint due to the fact that it's literally a monstrous beast in a tiny box, and was set on a hardwood floor.
Admittedly we had the receiver turned up to 78/100 (it's an Onkyo TX-SR602), and the sub turned up to the +15Db point via LFE, but I didn't feel like turning it down until that point. It was well overpowering the primary speakers on certain scenes though.

Not sure why my father or brother decided to turn it that high when setting up the sub, but I would certainly not be that kinda dumbo if I set things up myself.

View attachment 2311131

So now I adjusted the volume on the sub to a significantly more reasonable level for apartment use, and it sounds much better now that it blends in with the Philips MCD-708 bookshelf speakers. The risk of annoying the neighbors has also been reduced (although this fourplex apartment building is rather well built on its own). I still need to get some stands for those speakers though - and to support the 45lb sub so it doesn't dance across the floor again :)

I will also mention that this is the first noise-related complaint that we got from a neighbor.
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You should be aware that most complaints about subwoofers being slow and/or boomy are because the level or crossover frequency are to high. Frequently it's both.

If you can hear that a subwoofer is in use it's almost always because it's too loud. If a subwoofer sounds boomy the crossover frequency is too high.

The only time a subwoofer should be noticed is when it's turned off. The lack of bass is easily noticeable.

Suggestions for setting up a subwoofer:
Set the crossover frequency at the -3dB point of the main speakers.
Set the subwoofer level so you can just barely hear it working. Then, turn it down a notch.

These two suggestions will get you close to what the entire system is capable of doing. To get even better integration you need an SPL meter and some test tones to measure things.

I usually suggest doing the subwoofer crawl to find the best location for it. However, that requires a lot of choices for placement.
 
JoeESP9 said:
You should be aware that most complaints about subwoofers being slow and/or boomy are because the level or crossover frequency are to high. Frequently it's both.

If you can hear that a subwoofer is in use it's almost always because it's too loud. If a subwoofer sounds boomy the crossover frequency is too high.

The only time a subwoofer should be noticed is when it's turned off. The lack of bass is easily noticeable.

Suggestions for setting up a subwoofer:
Set the crossover frequency at the -3dB point of the main speakers.
Set the subwoofer level so you can just barely hear it working. Then, turn it down a notch.

These two suggestions will get you close to what the entire system is capable of doing. To get even better integration you need an SPL meter and some test tones to measure things.

I usually suggest doing the subwoofer crawl to find the best location for it. However, that requires a lot of choices for placement.
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@Romeo Wolf This is all good solid information. You'd do well to follow it.

It took me years and years to learn most of the info in this one post. You're already a step ahead of me now!
 
I have a Sunfire Signature True Subwoofer that was given to me by a friend in the HT business. It's an outstanding HT sub but I've not been able to integrate into a music only system to my satisfaction nor have I needed too with other diy sub options on hand. With its hair trigger controls and extreme power output I feel like a safe cracker trying to adjust the output level. Things are much easier using the bass management signal from an AVR. I believe the plate amp in this monster makes over a thousand watts. Earthquakes have never sounded so realistic but it's so darn heavy I have to move it with a dolly. Only a few pictures so here it is some 15 years ago with my first HT system. Usually had it in the corner so I probably slid it over to be in the picture.

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