CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Bob Carver, Amplifier Designer, Physicist
Dear Friend,
Thank you for purchasing a Sunfire Theater Grand Amplifier. We hope you enjoy it and the music it makes as much as we have enjoyed creating it for you.
The TGA-5400can produce 400 watts rms per channel into 8 ohms and 800 watts rms into 4 ohms.
The TGA-5200can produce 200 watts rms per channel into 8 ohms, and 400 watts rms into 4 ohms.
The big breakthrough is the uncanny tracking downconverter, which uses 18 Herculean Mosfets in the TGA-5400 and the TGA-5200. This allows the amplifier to produce phenominal power output, without the heat generated by conventional designs.
The circuit boards are heavy glass epoxy, double sided, with a Faraday shield on the back side. All resistors in the signal path are 1% tolerance, metal-film. Critical capacitors are film devices with high dielectric strength and ultra low absorption characteristics. An enormous power source built around a massive power transformer provides the ultimate muscle for limitless dynamics.
We could go on and on, but here’s the best part: we’ve included two kinds of outputs on the front left and front right channels:
(1)a standard voltage-source(i.e., near zero impedance) output for all typical applications and:
(2)a higher-impedance current-sourceoutput, which many prefer for electrostatic, planar magnetic, or ribbon speakers. Or you can biwire your system with the voltage source driving the woofer(s) and the current source driving the upper part of the system. In many cases this provides by far the best possible interface between the amplifier and the speaker system.
Whichever way you decide to hook up the amplifier, it will create a multilayered soundstage that is deep, wide, three-dimensional, and utterly believable. The optional current-source output can coax forth a sensuous, delicately detailed musical voice long associated with low-powered classic tube amplifiers. (The current-source characteristic of vacuum tubes is the dominant factor in the sound- stage delivery of classic tube amplifiers).
4
User's Manual
