I recently upgrade my CD player to Marantz CC 67. I use Carver CT26v preamp and Carver 500X power amp. The sound is simply outstanding! I like classic music. This pair of speakers have almost reproduced the entire Symphony orchestra. I can clear hear each instrument from each location so live like! Five Star!

When I first got these speakers home, they sounded a bit muffled I would say. I have heard these speakers require a break-in period of about 30 hours. I found that was not quite enough. After about 1 month of listening, these speakers hit their stride. If you think they sound great, wait till you get a lot of power behind them. I first had a Carver 55x. Not enough power. I upgraded to the A760x. In my opinion, better, but not enough power. I purchase another A760x and bi-amped the speakers. One A760x drives the woofers, the other drives the ribbons. UNREAL!!! These speakers are rated at 600 watts into 8 ohms, I'm giving them 760 watts. What a match! The louder you play the speakers, the better they sound! And when you think they won't sound any better, I turn it up a little more! I've gone into very high end stores just to hear the salesman brag about the $5000 amps and $10000 speakers in their DD Theater. My Carver's along with the Velodyne F1800-RII smoke all I have heard. Not just in power, but in detail and soundstage as well! I use a Magnepan MGCC for my center channel and just sold my Maggie 10.1 surrounds for another pair of ALIII+'s speakers for the rear channel. I use a third A760x for the rear ribbons and a 250x3 753x for the woofers in the rear and the center channel Maggie. HOLY YOU KNOW WHAT!!! When I get all these babies out of the huge great room with vaulted ceiling (which it already blows off) and in to the theater in the basement with the Elite recessed into the wall and a normal ceiling height, forget it! All of you have posts on this page or those of you considering the purchase of these speakers, forget about the one amp! Take off the binders and biamp these speakers and they will do things you won't believe! Throw in the price of these speakers and nothing else comes close! Enjoy!!!

These speakers are amazing. The sound quality and soundstage are great. The cymbals sound real and the sound doesn't seem to come from one single place like regular speakers. I had listen to many planar speakers like Martin Logans, Apogees, etc. and for the price they don't come close to what Al III deliver. A lot of ban for the buck. I paid about $1500 a year ago. Too bad they are not selling them any more.

I've owned the ALS-IIIs for about 2 years now and I just came across this site.I agree with the other reviewers and emphasize that cones or spikes really
clean up the sound of the speakers on carpet. Room placement is critical and
a minimum of 3 ft from the back wall is needed to attenuate the rear wave and
maximize the imaging capabilities of these remarkable speakers. You will also
cut the HF zing coming off the back wall at the same time. Finally, they are
transistor power hungry...but I'm running a 40 WPC tube amp with no problems.
(A 1964 HK Citation V, stock). I switched after running a Hafler 220 on the ribbons and a Hafler 500 on the woofer - they never seemed powerful enough.
And they ran hot, even at low volume...

Now the system sounds good and I rarely run out of headroom. These speakers are almost a purely resistive load (at 3.6 ohms) which tubes (push-pull, not single ended) match very well. Or maybe I just don't listen that loud? Anyway...before spending lots on multiple solid state amps I'd suggest auditioning a good 35 to
65 watt push-pull tube amp to get a different perspective on these speakers. I
have even driven them with a 3 watt 2A3 single ended amp - not loud, but really
clean.

I puchased a pair of AL-IIIs about a year & half ago through mail order,& at a substantial savings, at what i think is a good price ($1500/pair, after hearing a pair at a local Ciruit City & falling in love with them, even though they were way underpowered. After getting them in place, i hooked a KENWOOD amp rated at 250 watts @4ohms, this did not do them justice. So on the advice of a friend i decided to get a QSC professional amp rated at 500 watts @4ohms. This does a good job, but if you are thinking of buying a pair(BTW, they can only be bought through the factory, to my knoledge), & you have a really big room you will probably need more power. They produce incredible bass, more than the four large speakers i use as my mains in my HT,(i only use them for music),& i also turn my sunfire sub off when listening to then. There imaging & soundstage is incredible, & the louder you play them the better they sound,(they do not "lose there sound" as some speakers do, & they sound better the further away you are. "It would be nice to have a bigger house". The only downsides are they are very heavy & awkward to move & have a low sensitivity of 86 db, "i think it may even be lower" because they are very power hungry. But if you have a big house & money for a good amp they are well worth it!

The Carver AL-III Plus is a large (14.5"w x 16.5"d x 72.5"h, weighing 80 lbs. each) two way speaker with a 48" ribbon driver handling the frequencies above 150 Hz and a 10" down firing woofer handling the lower frequencies. They are nominally 4 ohms, and are fairly inefficient at 86 dB @ 1 watt @ 1 meter. However, they are not nearly as inefficient as many of the posts below seem to indicate (as can be told also from the specifications above), and I can only suppose that many of the people below are tempted to play them very loud because they like it very loud. They may end up losing their hearing, which would be most unfortunate, particularly as these are great sounding speakers. Carver's suggested minimum amplifier power of 65 watts seems quite reasonable to me, as I have heard them at uncomfortable levels in a large room at about that power (I used the power meters on the amp to judge this, being careful to multiply the reading by two for the 8 ohm calibrated meters). While it is true that they do not reproduce bass as well as a good subwoofer (Carver claims a frequency response of 34-20,000 Hz, +/- 3 dB), the bass is more than adequate for most music. Frankly, I do not know what to add to what has already been stated by others reviewing these speakers, except to say that speakers do not get much better than these at any price. Sure, you can get a little more bass, or they may be slightly better in some other way, but I have never heard any speaker that is significantly better, even at many times their price.

I had this pair of speakers 5 months .It make me very happy with the sound .The sound is very clean and clear
If you can find one ,buy it

The side is really big you have to have the big room for it

Good speaker with the price is fair

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Carver Amazing

stunning presence, superb power and control, the ONLY word is amazing

your amp could get sucked into them and you'll never see it again

The best free standing speakers ever made - far better than electrostatics or film speakers. Clarity and presence are beyond belief. Imagine the Berlin Philharmonic in your house or African tribal music live. I too picked up a pair at Circuit City for $1150. Mine are powered with a Carver 760x. In the dark with the volume up you will not believe such an experience was possible in this plane of existence...

Bought them in December of '98 at a camera / audio store going out of business (1/2 price). I hadn't listened to them but had read something about them in the past and thought at $1000.00 why not. Now I would like to have another pair of them. Just to have them. That is how good they are. If you find a pair, get them, hook them up, and don't get hung up too much on what you are driving them with.

My experience had been with dynamic, front projection speakers, but I was interested in seeing what a dipole planar format could achieve. I felt that logic suggested a hybrid arrangment for reasonable bass extension, bass from a planar never impressed me. I looked for a "reasonably priced" hybrid of an electrostatic, planar, or ribbon with a dynamic bass driver. For a while, I didn't think it would ever happen, but Carver ALS-3s can be had for about $1500. Not exactly reasonable to most people, but downright cheap for this type of speaker.
So, how do they sound? In a word, great. The sound stage is large, the midrange detail is great, and the bass is surprising for only 10-inch drivers. The lack of a box and the large sonic projection of the 48-inch ribbon really eliminates the chronic problems of boxes and cone/dome drivers. I strongly recommend these speakers especially if you have a large room and listen to orchestral, or large ensemble music. They really fill the room with realistic sound.

I will list drawbacks, but the strengths far outweigh these problems.

1. They are large and optimally placed away from walls. Proper placement can be a problem in many rooms.

2. I have found that small format music (i.e.,a single performer or small group) may sound a bit diffuse and distant. Pop music is generally mixed for box speakers and may in some cases lack impact on these speakers in comparison to boxes. I must admit, however, that my boxes (AR98s) sounded a bit distant in the large room when they were there. Perhaps dynamic boxes are better in small rooms.