Theater Grand III Overview and Deficiencies
It's not very often that Audioholics declines a detailed review of hardware, but every once in a while, we receive a product that doesn't meet our expectations. Sunfire's Theater Grand III (TGIII) is such a product, where we felt its performance and refinement did not match up to its $3,500 price tag.
The Process of Review
Giving every product as fair a review as possible, we had three listeners and operators use the Sunfire Theater Grand III for a weekend long extravaganza. It was initially installed in our Reference System 2, which was once home for the Sony TA-9000ES processor and now hosts the Integra Research upgraded RDC-7 processor. After our review, we verified our findings by checking out an additional processor at a local dealer where we had the Theater Grand III in a sound dampened room equipped with the B&W Nautilus 800 Series. Our findings using a completely different processor with completely different speakers in completely different room acoustics were the same, Disappointing! Primarily due to it's only moderate performance, a lengthy list of deficiencies and it's price.
Back in our Reference System 2, we switched several times between the Sony, Sunfire and Integra Research, listening to multiple Satellite TV movies, CDs, DVDs and SACDs each time. The procedure was painful as there are tons of connections to remove prior to moving out the heavy 29-lb Sony and even heavier 37-lb Integra Research. It was a bit easier to install the lighter weight 25-lb Theater Grand III.
Deficiencies
Prior to presenting our listening comments, it's worth mentioning the Theater Grand III shortcomings. The deficiencies are as follows:
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Main volume only +/- 1dB incremental adjustments.
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Channel Level adjustment trim accuracy of only +/- 1dB. If you are a serious home theater buff, as most of us are, you probably use a sound meter to calibrate your speaker levels. With only a +/- 1dB volume adjustment for each channel, it's next to impossible to get equal readings for speaker volumes.
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No subwoofer group delay adjustments. This can often be a critical feature when attempting to match a subwoofer with other bass capable speakers in the system.
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Only one global speaker level/channel trim adjustment setting. Most operators will use these global settings for CD and DVD movies. This becomes problematic when switching between SACD / DVD Audio and back to DD / DTS sources due to the inherent level subwoofer differences of the formats. In DVD-A / SACD, the subwoofer output is significantly lower than DD / DTS (as much as 15dB!). Without additional calibration levels, you are forced to change subwoofer level and speaker level settings on the fly when listening to DVD-A, as these setting can not stored without over writing the global settings previously calibrated for CD and DVD movies. When switching back to the stored settings, the DVD-A settings are lost and must be readjusted the next time you listen to a DVD-A. Many new receivers and processors provide independent 6-channel speaker level trims in analog bypass. These trims, although digitally regulated, operate in the analog domain.
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The analog bypass (source direct mode) doesn't offer subwoofer output. Many receivers and processors offer sub-out in analog mode via an electronic relay while the 2-channel still bypasses all digital circuitry. This is useful for those with small main speakers or those who wish to utilize their subwoofers to compliment bass extension of their large tower speakers.
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Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is merely average for a product of this caliber.
Note: Most well designed $1500 receivers have better SNRs than this. In fact, state of the art is about 10dB better (equating to 18 to 19 bits of resolution). SNR is an essential metric in determining fidelity of a system, especially since most critical listening is down at low power levels. A noisy system can mask the details and subtle nuances which the serious audiophile cherishes. Regardless of the only moderately published noise figures, our listening tests seemed to indicate that this unit was even noisier, which made us wonder what method/reference and weighing the manufacturer used to evaluate SNR.
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Pink Noise for speaker level calibration is distorted and crackled.
- There is only one IEEE 1394 connector. With this the IEEE cannot be daisy chained. The Integra Research RDC-7, for example, has a pending upgrade that will offer three IEEE 1394 connectors. Granted, there are many other processors and receivers that only offer one connector, so this statement is extended to them as well.
- Feature lights, such as radio station presets and mode settings, remain on regardless of their function and use.
- Dimming of the lights is not operable via remote.
Some may consider a few of the deficiencies listed here as only partially important and maybe even forgivable, but we feel compelled to point out that for $3,500, the list should not be this long, especially since most receivers at half this price do not share these deficiencies. Now, coupled with the average Signal to Noise Ratio, and the fact that our subjective listening tests revealed this processor lacked the subtle details and micro dynamics in both analog and digital modes makes one wonder why such a price tag.
