bfedwards

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $450.00 from ebay

Summary:
I bought the unit on ebay years ago during the last month of the upgrade availability and did so. No regrets. One must go through the programming to optimize the settings. A pink noise generator is present for this. Each channel is balanced individually for loudness and milliseconds of delay based on placement. The Sub woofer is balanced for loudness. There is no "hiss" on any channel- only silence when no signal input is present. My components consist of a sony progressive dvd player, sansui tu 717 tuner, acurus act 3 with 7.1 upgrade, carver av 806x amplifier, sequerra met 7 speakers for front and middle channels, met 8 woofer, met 9 tweeters for front channels. My speaker cable consists of either home twisted 12g solid copper wire or double twisted 14 g ultralink cl414 cable. My soundstage is accurate. My bass shakes the floor. My vocals and instruments are natural. I have programmed the TV and DVD player to the acurus remote without difficulty. As with all multiple component systems, the weakest link influences the results. This component is not that link.

Strengths:
see above

Weaknesses:
availability

johnphaas

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I purchased an Acurus Act-3 with ABM recently-Mondial has a great rep with Aragon so I took a chance needing a clean preamp This unit is super quiet-not an ounce of the reported hiss-even though it is not super current the DAC's and processing are superb- the soundstage is great-clear highs-lows and mids-and has overall superior sound quality-highly recommeded

Strengths:
airy soundstage-broad-images great-clean quiet operation- auto dectection flawless-crystal clear sound

Weaknesses:
Remote does not program to recent equipment Mondial discontinued 7.1 upgrade so it is hard to find one

Similar Products Used:
DBX-Carver-Sony-Pioneer-SOny EX-Denon

JesusChrist

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.60 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This piece is already obsolete by today's standards and cannot compete with the current modestly priced processors which offer better sound and value. Nevertheless the Act-3 performs admirably well for budget HT systems. However, the S/N ratio is indeed a major drawback as a rather loud audible hissing noise can be heard when the volume is cranked up too considerably high, which........ahem.........proved to be quite annoying. If you're building your first HT, I would strongly suggest against getting this unit UNLESS you can get it dirt cheap, say something like $250-300. Basically you would get waaayy better performance from even standalone receivers like the Denon 3805. Even the 3803 better than the Act-3 in HT duties and virtually trounce it in 2-channel stereo. To sum it up, the Act-3 is not a worthy consideration anymore as the technology is already old and obsolete.

Strengths:
Fine piece for starters looking to build their first HT system at a cheapo price.

Weaknesses:
Already outdated.

Similar Products Used:
Denon 3801,3802,3803,3805, Yamaha AZ1, Tag Mclaren AV32R

Price Paid:  $450.00 from audiogon.com

Summary:
Let me start by saying that this thing is awesome "for the price". I had been looking for a good quality pre/pro for some time and was getting frustrated because I didn't want to spend a lot of beans until I had better speakers and electronics. I checked out the rotels, B&Ks, Adcoms and some others. I am extremely picky when it comes to audio and I worked home audio long enough to know what works and what doesn't. After reading the reviews on the act3 with ABM I was fairly certain that this would do the trick. Knowing full well that the original version was a hummer and had some other issues. I didn't like the rotel stuff and the B&K didn't give me warm fuzzies either, so I bought this on audiogon from a guy who was upgrading. The only real complaint is that the remote doesn't operate ANYTHING other than the Acurus. Not my yamaha dvd, my cable box, or my Sony TV. The sound, however is very good. I ran a Kimber PBJ from the Yamaha DVD(has burr-brown dacs) and it sounded muted and dull in comparison to the dacs built into the act-3. The dvd is a $700.00 unit so this impressed me. For less than $500.00 bucks it is hard to knock this unit. Between this and the Citation 7.1 amplifier and Spica TC-50 speakers, with an old kappa sub I am in budget audiophile bliss. I will eventually upgrade to a proceed or even the now defunct California audio labs, but for now I am happy. Make sure you are getting the ABM model! Keep in mind that there are better pre/pros out there, but not for this price!

Strengths:
Great soundstage, Excellent DAC's, Easily programmed, Nice looks. 2 sub outs, 2 center outs.

Weaknesses:
The remote is nice, but it doesn't operate any modern electronics. There are a few aftermarket remotes that already have the act-3 codes built in. No big deal. Switching is slow, get used to it. It's not a show-stopper.

Similar Products Used:
Adcom, rotel, B&K, Audio research(in a different league)

Price Paid:  $750.00 from ebay

Summary:
I bought an Acurus ACT3 on ebay and now I wish that I didn't.On dvd movies I'm pleased with it,no problems with the unit switching to what ever source I'm using[Dolby Digital or DTS] and no hum problems.Watching movies sounds good but on 2 channel stereo it sounds terrible.The bass is very very weak,and on music through pro logic sounds worse.I don't know if I have it hooked up wrong or what but this is how I have it,I have an onyko DVD player hook up by toslink digital,I have monster cable for interconnects and speaker wire,I have my tuner hooked up to the act3 analog,also with monster cable,I have my Dish satallite hooked up to analog with monster cable,I have the act3 configuration set at Zero since all my speakers are full range.MY biggest gripe about the act3 is the bass.I have an old Sansui preamp that sounds alot better on music than the act3.Thats with the bass and treble controls set at zero.I know the act3 is supposed to be alot better than the sansui but as of right now it's not.My act3 does not have the advance bass management but the way I understand that is I don't really need it since my speakers are all full range.Has anybody else experience this problem or is there something wrong with my unit or do I have it connected wrong? Any information would be appreciated. And as of now I don't have a subwoofer yet. You can email me at Stevesly007@ aol.com or stevearino37066@ yahoo.com p.s. my unit is supposed to be one and a half years old,and it was a demo at a hifi store.

Strengths:
movies,good remote,detects whatever source I'm useing

Weaknesses:
2 channel stereo or music through pro logic.The eagles when hell freezes over on DTS has very little bass.

Similar Products Used:
this is the first preamp/processor that I have had.