Craig Amrine
Auditioning
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2002
- Messages
- 9
Well, I got my Sapphires on Tuesday and have been "breaking" them in for the past several days. This consisted on reversing the polarity on one of the speakers and having them face eachother, then covering them with enough pillows and blankets to quiet them, then playing about 20 hours or so of Blues Travelers and George Clinton at moderately loud levels. yeah, I realize that they need additional break-in time to really sing, but I finally took a critical listen anyway.
Before I give my impression, I'll give you some background from what I was originally considering: Paradigm Studio 40's or the Polk Lsi9's. I've listened to both in stores, but not back to back. They were nice......but were different from eachother. Polks were a bit more in-your-face....soundstage was wide, but not that deep.
I've been listening to a custom made sattelite/(passive) sub combination from friend built 12 years ago. The satellites were acoustically suspended two-ways with a 5.5 inch (super-pro) woofer and a silk-dome tweater. These babies are dense as hell, very dead cabinets. The sub was a ported tower with 2 12 inch super-blue(?) woofers. That's really all I know about them. Pleae avoid the flames here...I liked 'em....I paid $ 300 for the set-up and they completely blew away some polk 2.5 way bookshelves that I had at the time..can't remember their names.
How they sound compared to these Sapphires? My listening was done with a bunch of acoustic guitar and jazz driven from an old & ratty HK AVR-25 receiver.
Well the Saps aren't so in-your face with the details. They are velvety/smokey smooth. Sorry, can't find a better word to describe them. The details are there, yes...with better resolution than the home-growns, but they are more laid-back. They've got to be driven a bit harder with their lower impedence.
The soundstage is where the most striking differences occur. The Sapps are deep.....meaning their is true depth to the music that I hadn't noticed before...I like that. The homegrowns are brighter, with lots of detail....but thats about it.....Sapps draw you into the music more...kind of get you more involved. I like-em....yes this may be simply buyer's remorse considering I've never spent so much on speakers before, but i doubt it.
Just though I'd share,
-Craig
Before I give my impression, I'll give you some background from what I was originally considering: Paradigm Studio 40's or the Polk Lsi9's. I've listened to both in stores, but not back to back. They were nice......but were different from eachother. Polks were a bit more in-your-face....soundstage was wide, but not that deep.
I've been listening to a custom made sattelite/(passive) sub combination from friend built 12 years ago. The satellites were acoustically suspended two-ways with a 5.5 inch (super-pro) woofer and a silk-dome tweater. These babies are dense as hell, very dead cabinets. The sub was a ported tower with 2 12 inch super-blue(?) woofers. That's really all I know about them. Pleae avoid the flames here...I liked 'em....I paid $ 300 for the set-up and they completely blew away some polk 2.5 way bookshelves that I had at the time..can't remember their names.
How they sound compared to these Sapphires? My listening was done with a bunch of acoustic guitar and jazz driven from an old & ratty HK AVR-25 receiver.
Well the Saps aren't so in-your face with the details. They are velvety/smokey smooth. Sorry, can't find a better word to describe them. The details are there, yes...with better resolution than the home-growns, but they are more laid-back. They've got to be driven a bit harder with their lower impedence.
The soundstage is where the most striking differences occur. The Sapps are deep.....meaning their is true depth to the music that I hadn't noticed before...I like that. The homegrowns are brighter, with lots of detail....but thats about it.....Sapps draw you into the music more...kind of get you more involved. I like-em....yes this may be simply buyer's remorse considering I've never spent so much on speakers before, but i doubt it.
Just though I'd share,
-Craig
They stuck to their word at didn't charge me any extra for them. Kudos to ACI for their very courteous service!!!!!!!
