There's a pretty lengthy review of the Sunfire at Secrets that was posted just this week. The Grand III is definitely in a different price bracket than the 950 (with an MSRP of $3495, it's closer to the Anthem AVM-20 or Krell Showcase than the 950).

The Sunfire no doubt can offer superior sonics, and the reviewer at Secrets seemed very pleased with the "holographic imaging" processing for two-channel material. It also offers several additional features for those who need them, and some of the user interface features sound pretty slick. The signal acquisition time may actually be longer than the 950's, based on the Secrets review (he indicated that it typically took 3 to 4 seconds, which could make channel surfing with satellite a bit of a headache for some people -- and I haven't read the manual yet to see if there's a way to "lock" an input's format). I think if I were looking at a $3,000+ pre/pro, I'd look very closely at the Sunfire and the AVM-20. After reading the review (and with no other experience with the Sunfire than the review and Sunfire's web page), I did see a few possible drawbacks to it. Personally, I prefer being able to assign digital inputs to sources -- more flexibility, even if it does possibly make initial setup a little more complex (one more step). Also, I prefer having the display tell me what processing mode is being used rather than having an LED light up next to a silkscreened label on the faceplace. Little stuff, but they reminded me of the lengthy debates we've had here about the 950's user interface and made me wonder if some users would end up disappointed.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review