After waiting a year i finaly purchased the ACT3 from my local dealer. I was close to getting the Denon 5700, or the Yamaha DSPA1. Well seperates won out. I'm still building the system. Hopefully I will have the new amps soon. I'm totally impressed with the ACT3 as a preamp and a D/A converter. Very clean, and very smooth. I don't think you can beat this unit at it's price. I really love this unit and I recommend it to anyone looking for a great unit at a great price. Find a dealer who will let you audition it and get a feel for it before you buy.

I bought the Acurus Act3 as a demo unit from a local dealer a month ago for $1200. I could not pass it up for that price! I auditioned receivers from Yamaha and Denon and seperates from Sunfire and Lexicon and found the Acurus to have the best performance for the price. I am a minimalist and enjoyed the simple styling of the Act3. The unit sounded great in stereo and digital surround playback. The bass was tight but not laid back with vocals sounding very natural and warm.
A week ago I upgraded to the new bass management e-proms. A great preamp became even better with the ability to select seperate high and low pass crossover points for Dolby Digital, Pro-Logc and stereo. The only problem I had with the new module is that when I powered up the unit for the first time the unit flashed "Searching for Dig In...Not Found". I e-mailed Acurus who told me with the new module you should have your digital input hooked up to the unit before you plug it in. If you do not have a digital input you have to hit the "0" then the "mute" button on the remote with the unit plugged in and turned off whick turns off this message and allows the unit to power-up properly. You only have to do this once. If and when a digital input is used hit the "0" then the "t/v" button to return to a digital detect mode. I thought I should post this solution to others who may have had a problem.

The technical support for Acurus is excellent. E-mailed questions were answered in minutes and their support was very knowledgeable and friendly which is rare for an audio company. For those of you who build their own speakers my system consists of 5 identical bass reflex speakers using Vifa P17SJ woofers and D27SG tweeters with 2 subwoofers using NHT 1259 woofers. My power comes from an Acurus 200x2 and a 200x3 amps.

I finally decided on an ACT3 to replace my old ACT1, and after living with it for the last month.. I can safely say that this is a FANTASTIC sounding processor ! In my system, I use it strictly for processing video sound (it feeds my Aragon Aurum to drive the main channels) so, I have to base my judgements strictly on the fact that I am using it as a processor, and NOT as a fully functional pre-amp.As the unit has been breaking in.. it has become smoother, and Very dynamic. On some DVD's I have actually run out of steam on my Acurus 100x3 that drives the center and rears.. ! (I think it may be time for a 200x3 or maybe and Aragon 8008x3)
The functionality is more than I could ask for, and pretty much everything that I could want is handled. My unit doesn't have the enhanced bass management chip updates.. it will be installed AFTER the break in period (My dealer is the Canadian distributor, and has advised that he wants me to get the feel for the unit before the update) and to be honest, if he didn't do the update, I don't think I would be crying for it.
The rest of the system is:
Aragon Aurum and Palladium Pre-Power amps
Acurus 100x3 for center and rears.
Aragon D2Amk2 DAC for music.
Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 transport for music.
Toshiba SD-2108 DVD player
Toshiba Hi-fi vcr
Toshiba CN32H95 32inch direct view monitor with component video used for DVD.
Martin Logan Aerius i's Main speakers (work great in my room, besides.. the Palladiums make them WORK !)
Mirage MC-2 Center channel (sounds awesome bi-wired !)
PSB Alpha's for the rear
PSB Subsonic 3 for the bottom.
All cabling is by Transparent on the main music system, and a combination of Ultralink and Van-den-Hul on the audio portion of the video system, and MIT cabling for the coax and video hook-ups.
Panamax 1000 on all source products.
Transparent Power-link cables on the Palladiums and on the Aurum (soon to come for the ACT3
Overall.. I give it a 5 speaker rating.. since I think that if you NEED to spend more money than this on a processor, you're nuts ! and should spend it on a better amp or speakers.

I recently purchased an ACT-3 after taking a demo home for a week. The build quality is solid, and all its functions work neatly. Movies in Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, and especially DTS sound exceptionally good, even better to me than the formidable Marantz AV-9000 I took home at the same time. But what really swayed me towards the ACT-3 was the way it brought out CD music through its optical digital input. It was the first taste I've ever had of the real audiophile sound in my living room. All in all, this is a wonderful unit.

Great sound at a resonable price.

A very slight hiss from the speakers, and kind of hard to understand manual.

This is a very great sounding pre-amp. In 2 channl music, the sound is amazing and the sound stage is as wide as you could want. The depth of the sound stage lacks just a little but that might be a factor of my amp and not the ACT 3. In DD the sound also is fantastic. The steering is superb, and it makes you feel like you are right in the middle of the experience. I can't say how the DTS sounds because at the moment i have no DTS disc's. That will soon be rectified when i recieve "Saving Private Ryan" encoded in DTS, Can't wait! Like i said there is a slight hiss coming from the speakers but i have to be about 1ft from them to here it. Yes there are better PRE amp out there but not for $1800. I'm kinda waitng for the new Aragon Soundstage to come out so i can audition that peice as well. Never know might just upgrade.

My system:
Acurus ACT 3, preamp
Rotel RB 991, Amp (fronts)
Rotel RB 993, Amp (surrounds)
Toshiba 2108, DVD
Toshiba CZ36v51, Direct view TV
Rotel RCD 975, CD
JVC, VCR
Yamaha, tuner
Paradigm Studio 100's, Speaker (fronts)
Paradigm Studio 80's, Speaker (rears)
Paradigm CC 450, Speaker (center)
AudioQuest and Striaght Wire, cables

Great Sounds

No digital out

After killing my pre-college speakers in a post-college party, I decided to upgrade my speakers to NHT 2.5i. Suddenly, my whole system was choking for sound. Frankly, I couldn't understand why it sounded so bad. So, I blamed my old CD player for the lack of sound and I purchased the CAL DX1. After a year with CAL and NHT, I was very disappointed with both products and was about to write a nasty review here.

After reading the reviews here, I decided to retired my old Yamaha 1000 receiver and upgrade my whole system. I don't recall how many different receivers, pre-amps, and amps I listened to, but I decided on ACT3 because it sounded great in the showroom and the price was reasonable.

When I came home and hooked all the wires, I received an urgent call from the office. I needed to fly out to the West Coast to baby sit a client. I decided to leave the DVD player on and playing Paul McCartney's Band on the Run DTS version. (I bet the neighbors loved it ;-))

After the trip, I swear that Paul was there singing. Like overnight, I was able to hear things on my CDs that never heard before. The two-channel music was amazing and the sound stage was wide as I can imagine.

The DD and DTS also sounded fantastic. While watching "Saving Private Ryan", you feel that you are in the middle of the invasion. You heard all the bullets and bombs all around you.

In conclusion, ACT3 was the best pre-amp under $2000. I agreed that there are better pre-amps out there, but for the price of some of them, I rather pay Paul to play live in my apartment.

My system:
Acurus ACT 3, preamp
Acurus, A100 (fronts)
Acurus, A100X3 (surrounds)
JVC 701, DVD
CAL DX1, CD player
SONY 902, MD player
Mitsubishi, VCR
NHT 2.5i, Speaker (fronts)
NHT Superones, Speaker (rears)
TDL Center, Speaker (center)
AudioQuest, Monster, MIT, cables

You should have read the owners manual. Barring that, as it seems that that was too difficult, you could have contacted your dealer, or Acurus to ask them how to use the ACT-3. You obviously did not understand how it worked. If a DVD switches from Dolby Stereo to Dolby Digital 5.1, that is because the DISC is switching from DD 2.0 to DD 5.1, not the processor. The ACT-3 will automatically decode whateevr signal it is sent. It doesn't have to have a BUTTON to switch to 5.1, as it switches itself when the signal changed. You bought a product that was twice as expensive, to replace the ACT-3, because you couldn't understand how to use your DVD player, and the processor. All you had to do was use an Audio/Video input for the PCM digital output, and an Audio only input for your Dolby Digital output. Select one if you put a Laserdisc with Dolby Digital in. Select the other if you put a regular LD, or DVD in. Simple. You see....it DOES allow you to choose which input. All you had to do was read!

Easy to operate (once you read the manual and do setup), incredible stereo and Dolby Digital performance

Electrical connection of all connected components should be properly grounded to remove noise (don't really think this is the fault of the Acurus unit but it is more sensitive than my previous pre-amp), only one S-Video output

Digitally connecting my source components to the unit was an incredible revelation. I found that my laserdisc player (Pioneer 704) was vastly superior as a transport for CDs than my DVD player (Sony 500). I added the Bass upgrade and bought the line-level Vandersteen sub (sorry, I'm at the airport and don't have the actual model #s) and I was able to adjust the sub using the ACT-3 for music and movies. My Maggies have never sounded better. Please listen to a properly set-up unit and you will buy nothing else -- unless you have money to burn :)...

Similar Products Used:

This is my first processor/preamp -- previously used ADCOM 555 preamp

I've owned the Acrus Act3 since 8/98. I love it. I've not had a problem with hiss or noise at all.Everything works properly, although the manual could be a bit clearer in some of the explainations. I was also initally confused about just how the Bass Management worked ( I use the full range signal all around ) I was expecting very good surround sound performance and I was not disappointed, what did surprise me was just how good it sounded in straight 2 channel Stereo.It was so good in fact, that I decided to sell my all tube "Quicksilver Audio" PreAmp and just use the ACT3. It is really that good.
I think this is one of the real bargins in Home Theater equipment. With sound this good, all the current surround formats and future upgradability, the ACT3 is a bargain.

Just listened to the ACT-3 with a Muse CD-transport, Hales Revelation 3 speakers and a Acurus 2 channel AMP (can't remember which) and it sounds
fantastic! Music had a sense of depth with a crisp sound. The top end seems
a little rolled off but it could be due to my 8 year old Muse CD-transport.
Sure enough with a Transport that cost US$2000 from my dealer, nothing could
be further from the truth. Tested the DAC section of the ACT-3 with a
Aragon DAC that cost about 3/4 of the ACT-3 did improve the sound somewhat
but hey.. we are talking about a fantastic Pre-amp/DAC cum Digital/DTS
processor at less then US$1800! What more can you ask for. I understand the
bass management features are avialable now for US$200? It should have been
part of the package as the current bass management features are rather limited
so make sure you check to see if it fits your needs first. I have since ordered
my unit and hope to recieve it soon!