After listening for some time to about all the speakers I could handle, I found the best speaker I could afford. Had them for over a year, and was very satisfied. Until I heard The Sapphire III's. WOW. I was talking with a friend at his house while he put some of my CD's in, and hearing those beautiful speakers, I stopped talking and my mouth just hung open. GEEZ these speakers sound AMAZING. I have no time to write a justified review, but everything is true whats said about these wonderful speakers. They truly are reference speakers. But I am the type that can never settle for anything other than the best. I am going to get a Jaguar Kit from ACI, (A few steps up from Sapphire III's) Not that one hair of me is saying that the Sapphire III isn't the best Cone type speaker I have ever heard in my entire existance on this earth. One more thing, the speaker is beautiful. I sat there studying the speaker for 5 minutes trying to find out how they made that Bi-Wire speaker. It was seemless, it looks like they carved it out of a big block of wood!!! It is a just a wood covering, but geez, you can't tell by looking at it.
Five stars and then some.

these things are amazing! they have re-kindled my love for music. in a world dominated by automated voice response systems, the PEOPLE at aci deserve mucho credit for great customer service and an even greater product.

I do not wish to enter a lengthy review as the better ones require little additional comments. It should however be reinforced these speakers require a good subwoofer to "open up" a wonderful midrange as well as lending needed visceral impact to the base. Therefore, these speakers should be compared to others costing more like $1700-2000 when the cost of the sub is included. I have never found the treble to be too bright. All things considered these are great speakers for the money with a subwoofer added (mine is a very quick Pinnacle Megasub 350 with dual in line 12" woofers).

Accurate uncolored sound. Competes with the best monitors made anywhere PERIOD! best customer service I have ever encountered.

As monitors they lack true low end and require a sub to rock. Tacky name plate. cabinets look good but not world class furniture finish.

For any amount of money these are among the finest speakers I have ever heard. My system includes a Bryston Amp/Preamp, Parasound 2000 belt drive CD player. This is a very simple set-up meant to play music like it was recorded and boy does it work. I could listen to this set-up all day and never tire of it's musicality and accuracy, a rare balance of each. After break-in I have never noticed any sharpness or brightness. Perhaps with lesser electronics this could become an issue.

I paired the Sapphires with a Pinnacle 350 subwoofer that mates very well. I love this setup! I spent months researching reviews, speaker designs and drivers before I determined that these speakers were of a unique and special quality almost never approached in this price range. With a little cabinet design creativity these could sell for $3,000/pair. ACI also offers a kit at an incredible price.

I would strongly suggest Sapphire III's to anyone looking for a world class performer. And at their price point most people can afford to access this special product. Good job ACI!

Similar Products Used:

Soundwave Pintsource 3.0, Duntech Pricess, Magneplanar, M&K S-90's, JMLabs Magnane Carat

I will just write to say I am in total agreement in every previous review that comes before mine. I have just purchased a pair of Sapphire III's after owning an excellent pair of Legacy Audio 1's (now called Classics). The Sapphires are smoooooth! Compared to the Legacy 1's, those speakers sounded bright! The Sapphires get the mid-range and highs just right! Everything else I could think of to describe them has been said previously. Scan below to read what others have said for me.
If you're looking for full range sound with the Sapphires, I can recommend the HSU Subwoofer HRSW12Va. I've got it seated behind me for correct time alignment. I am using it with the Sapphires Hi-Pass filter at 85 Hz and the Hsu sub low pass filter at the standard 91 Hz.

I can confidently and cockily say that my set up at home out does ALL demo rooms in every hi end or mass market audio/video store in Central Indiana.

One complaint about the Sapphires: the wood finish quality is not up to par with the likes of Legacy-Audio, Proacs, Totems or Sonus Fabers. But this has nothing to do with sound.

Benny

After hearing from all the people here who had had very positive experiences with these speakers, I thought that they were worth a try. They offered what looked like a very generous return policy, and they answered all of my emails promptly.
Out of the box, the speakers were horribly bright and scratchy, but they soon settled down. After about 50 hours of playing time, they sounded much better. Quite tight, low bass for such small speakers, and decent treble. They sounded a little electronic and artificial, though accurate, and with a decent frequency response. Part of this is most likely due to my system (Acurus preamp and amp, Rotel CD player), but I have found some speakers that did manage to sound _very_ good with my setup. Even speakers in the same price range. The Sapphire IIIs just sounded a little lifeless. With a decent 80-watt amp, at various volume levels, this should not have been the case, and these were the driest speakers I heard on my gear. Soundstage was good, but not the best I've heard in my system. The "center channel" was better than average, but not stupendous.

I should really emphasize that while the Acurus amps have a reputation of being a little dry, I have only heard them sounding dry with these speakers. With various B&W (including CDM-1, P5, P6, 805, and others), Epos, Monitor Audio, KEF of various descriptions, nice McIntosh, JMLab, ProAc, NHT, Panasonic boombox speakers even! and a slew of others, the Acurus gear has occasionally been a tad bright, but rarely "dry".

Not that these are bad speakers; they seem to be built OK (not perfectly at all; there were thin cracks between sheets of veneer). At least, they are really rock-solid. They recommend bi-wiring, whereas I tried them single-wired (MIT cables). They really don't want you to single-wire them: the jumpers they provided were nothing more than lengths of uninsulated copper wire, and were the most amazingly inconvenient jumpers I can possibly imagine. Other than that, build quality was OK, and the binding posts were definitely substantial.

Now, on to the one thing that really bothered me. They have a generous return policy. Their web page claimed that they would even pay return shipping if I didn't like the speakers. They're having a sale; free shipping is offered, so "We will refund the speakers' price, less shipping" looked pretty good with shipping at $0. No such luck. What they meant was that they would refund the price of the speakers less _their_own_ shipping costs. I guess you could have read it either way, but when I sent email which included a specific question about that, the question went unanswered. And with a 55 pound shipping weight, I'm out $60. Very annoying. I even sent them a suggestion of how they could change their web page to make their policy clearer. They ignored the email totally, and their web page has not changed.

I'd like to hear the Sapphire III in a better stereo than mine. I expect that they'd get better, but in my system (in which $1000 or $1500 speakers are not the least bit out of place) they were definitely less good than many other offerings at a similar price. Perhaps they're just unforgiving of poor equipment. They'd be very worth auditioning if it were really free to do so. If you can borrow them from a friend, do it!

I have owned my pair of ACI Sapphire's 111's for almost six months. I wanted the best sounding monitor for the best price
...but I wanted speakers that matched my existing system and potential
upgrades while being in the correct price $ and sound category.
I started off by listening to all the speakers in the $800
to $3000 category. This is the speaker $ range that compliments my system.
I did not find a speaker that produced good sound for the music I listen to...
New age..female/male vocals...jazz...guitar modern and classical.
I then read about the ACI's...spoke to all those who already owned one..
and even though I had never purchased an audio product that I had not auditined
before...was so impressed by the reviews and personal feed back..that I took the plunge.
Was I glad that I did...could not have made a better choice.
It is critical that you have a sub woofer to compliment the monitors.
But when the system is balanced...the sound is so smooth and golden.
The imaging and depth of soundstage is incredible.The speakers just dissapear.
Service and answers to questions by ACI are also 5 stars..really nice people

5 stars...and then some.

I was just wondering about the new ACI Sapphire III's and how they comparewith the sound of the Sapphire IIti's and Sapphire II's. I own two sets
of Sapphire IIti's and two sets of Sub-1's. One set I bought as a full kit
from ACI and the other I bought just the Sapphire cabinets plus parts separately
and built my own Sub-1 cabinets. My home built one actually came out sounding
better of the 2 sets. But this is not my point. I just wanted to give a quick
review of my experience with the Sapphire IIti's and Sapphire II's and then
see if anyone knows how they compare with the newer ACI Sapphire III's to
determine if I will ultimately upgrade and buy a new set of III's.

Here's my experience: Bought and built the Sapphire IIti's with Sub-1's back
in Oct. 1991. Was totally disappointed in their sound when I first heard them.
Copmplaints about the new Titanium tweeter sounding too harsh and bright led
me to order another pair of titanium tweeters from ACI. They sopunded the
same. So I left it at that. The Sapphire IIti's sounded marvelously accurate
and correct in all other areas, midrange, mid bass, even the highs were right,
BUT there was just this one knawing peak or peaks in the upper midrange to lower highs that sometimes just fatigued my ears to the hilt. I stopped listening to them and was disappointed in them at that point. I was wondering
about my own hearing and judgment of sound now. Was it me or the speakers?
I soon read a review from the (much criticised) Audio Critic magazine where
Dr. David Rich trashed the new modified titanium tweeter in the Sapphire IIti
but loved the older Sapphire II with the Kevlar tweeter. Hmmmmmm, I said to
myself. I had bought the Sapphire IIti's based really on all the rave reviews
of its predecessor the Sapphire II with a kevlar tweeter. With my luck when
I ordered them, they had already discontinued the II and went to the IIti's.

To make a long story short, I saw Madisound Speaker's advertising left over
Focal T120KT kevla tweeters and bought a pair for comparing. I received them
and they were indeed the same modified tweeters that ACI used to use on the
Sapphire II's. The hole drilled thru the magnet was there and all. It just
was not stuffed up and silicone glued like the finished ACI tweeter production
versions. I stuffed the hole and installed the kevlar tweeters on my Sapphire
IIti's. They were now Sapphire II's! Like this, there was indeed an improvement. The obvious harsh bright peakiness of the Titanium tweeter was
gone, not apparent in the Kevlar tweeter! The kevlar tweeter's are much better
than the titanium tweeters, Please TRUST me on this one! The Titanium tweeter had a 'metallic ring' sound character to it also on certain cymbal type triggers. The kevalr version exhibits NONE of these metallic ringing characteristics. Okay with that said and done, I will comment on the Sapphire II's. They are extremely accurate in reproducing musical instruments and vocals. They are EXTREMELY fussy about speaker placement with regards to your
listening position! Set them at the wrong height and toe-in angle and in the
wrong position away from your walls and they will sound too bright and not
as accurate. (This is due to their first order crossover network design which
makes the inter-driver interference more sensitive). However, once set to the
optimium height and toe-in angle and combined with a Subwoofer (I use the Sub-1's) they are truly accurate sound reproducer's and can definitely serve as
REFERENCE speakers regardless of price. In their current incarnation as
Sapphire II's I am glad I own them and give them the highest marks (5-STARS here)... But for the Sapphire IIti's, I do NOT recommend them due to the very
nasty bite of the titanium tweeter. The Sapphire IIti's only get a 2 star rating
from me. (If ACI doe'st sell you a retro Focal T120TK kevlar tweeter, you can
order the regular Focal T120K tweeter or just a replacement faceplate with
kevlar dome). Trash the titanium dome! Switch to the Kevlar ASAP! (Oh after,
7 years with these speakers and alot of others, I know my ears are OKAY.)

Now with my review, who can tell me how close the New Sapphire III's sound to
their predecessors the Sapphire II's or Sapphire IIti's? Based on feedback, I may purchase the new III's.
Thank You.

Smooth highs, neutrality of tone, breadth/depth of stage and value for the dollar

Relative to other ~$1,000 speakers ... none

I have had these speakers for 22 days and this review is based on about 100 hours of break-in.

I would agree with the reviews here and on other sites that highlight the very strong neutral charcteristics of this speaker. Music sounds as intended and its free of noticible coloration. I would say these speakers have the tonal accuracy of the Vienna Mozart monitors with the soundstage as wide as the Dynaudio Contour line. The Vienna's stage was very narrow and it was easy to pinpoint the source. I liked the JBL's and they placed third in each of my two big criteria (soundstage and tone). If money were no object, I would probably go Dynaudio, but the Sapphires were the real winner here.

The combination of the Focal woofer, the Scan-speak tweeter and the custom cross-over are simply breathtaking. I was amazed at how much the bass has tightened up since break-in and the highs just keep getting wider and smoother. I am currently upgrading many aspects of my system and had fully prepared to get a subwoofer to help out these monitors. After listening to the Sapphires ... that can now wait a bit. Granted a sub would aide the bottom end here, but these speakers don't really start rolling off until the mid 30Hz range. My lone nit-picking gripe is a sleight lack of "umph" in the midbass, but removing the grills significantly assists mid performance. HT performance has been good as well, thats what a neutral speaker can do ... reproduce the source accurately!

Aesthetically, the cabinets look nice but not awe-inspiring, and the bi-wire ready 5-way binding posts are very good for a speaker of this price. I must encourage those of you contemplating or unfamiliar with ACI that their people are first-rate. Email repsonse were fast and every recommendation has worked out.

I was initiallly hesitant mail order speakers, but its 30 day risk-free so what are you waiting for? They are shipped custom double boxed and arrive minty showroom fresh.

If your budget for speaker is ~$1,000 then give these a 30 day audtion in your home.I'll bet you won't be sending them back.

Value - Would give much more, but 5's the limit
Overall - Sure .. these aren't Grand Utopias or Dynaudio Evidence ... but diminishing returns beyond here.

PS They still have the IIIs on sale as of this review. I plan to get another pair and a shielded center of the Saphirre III LE once my other upgrades are finished.

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned Vienna's, Sonus Faber, JBL, Dynaudio

treble, midrange, bass, construction, looks

Nothing for this price range

I have made basically a month long project of finding the right speaker after having read up on message boards and reviews. I'd say that 90% of the speakers I tried couldn't match the detail that this speaker provides. Of the ones that were close, the detail came at the price of harshness. Most did not have a smooth transition between treble, midrange, and bass. The few that came close either cost $1000+ more or they lacked the dynamic range and power handling of this speaker.

I was warned that this speaker would reveal every flaw in my system. Sure enough, it did. I'm now in the process of looking for a better CD player.

I couldn't be happier with my purchase and will certainly be buying more products from ACI.

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned lots of B&W's, Spendor, Krix, Paradigm, Klipsch, JBL, and more...