Price Paid:  $2000.00 from Audio Empire

Summary:
I have owned an ACT3 for just over a year now and for the money I have not heard a better sounding pre-amp for music or movies. To be honest I did experience some issues with the stereo mode channel when switching back and forth. I also had a hum noise coming from my lef rear speaker when the unit is turned off. I was told that it was an Acurus power amp problem. This lead me to send in my unit to get it checked out. I don't know if they repaired it or replaced it. But once I got it back it was performing without a flaw. I will keep this unit until I can't use it any more. Because this unit sounded so good I would have kept it even with the problems.

Strengths:
Great sound stage, clarity, and the right amount of options

Weaknesses:
The clunk sound when swithing between channels, My Girlfriend hates it.

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Dealer

Summary:
I have used the Act-3 for several years now and have been extremely pleased. I have never heard any hums or hisses from it and got my unit fairly early on off the waiting list. I use the Act-3 with the Acurus A100x3 and Acurus A80 amplifiers, the Sony S900ES SACD/DVD player and Thiel CS2 speakers. Sonically, the Act-3 delivers clean, pure sound with no audible degradation in stereo and for home theater. The auto sensing does fine with Dolby Digital or DTS sources and the remote works every piece of equipment I have. When I had trouble initially getting the output up, Mondial helped me with the bass management settings and fixed the issue. Therefore, after more than three years, I have had flawless sound and great A/V switching, so I have been very pleased with Acurus and the Act-3.

Strengths:
Great build quality and performance for the money

Weaknesses:
Took some work to get bass management correct and unit sometimes resets

Price Paid:  $700.00 from UBID

Summary:
When I was deciding to buy this, I came here to read the reviews. Seemed alot of people were not happy. This is one of the best sounding processors that I have ever heard. The remote is great also. I mention this because it is easily programable. Now we only have to look for one, instead of five. I use the ACT3 with Bohlender Graebener 420's, 220 center, Citation rear and a Citation amp for the center and front and the Acurus 125x5 for the rear's. I probably will stay with the ACT-3 for a long time because of the sound and quality.

Strengths:
Sound and looks

Weaknesses:
Found nothing I did not like

Similar Products Used:
Nakamichi CA-1

Summary:
The product is very attractive, however...
The sound reproduction is....not better than Yamaha 995. I think that This AC-3 will be better since it is separated component and just work as pre-amp, but after I change my Yamaha 995, I did not get any better sound from AC-3. Now, I plan to change to Aragon SoundStage which is better even compared to Proceed AVP. I believe that if ACT-3 for US$1999 is worsen compared to Aragon SoundStage for US4000 relatively (Value point a view)

Strengths:
Simple and nice looking

Weaknesses:
D/A Conventer does not work like what I expect. Hiss sound is always anoying me.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha 995 (I use as pre-amp)

Summary:
OK, so initially the Act 3 wasn't perfect. It was still one of the most anticipated components to come along in years. I work in the industry, and have come into contact with many fine surround processor/preamps in all different price ranges. The Act 3, despite the early noise problems, still ranks as one of the best values there is. Mondial is to be
comended.

The first unit I heard did have some problems. In addition to being noisy, it had very little gain. After a modification to replace the DSP and digital
input boards, the unit became dead quiet and much more dynamic. All in all, a pleasure to listen to.
My primary concern was its ability to handle DTS from
DVD's. It does. Yes, there are some demo DTS DVD's around, and the Act 3 delivers outstanding sound from
them... provided you have a DVD player capable of passing the bitstream. In Dolby Digital, performance was also quite good. I feel that DTS is a superior system, but there's room in the marketplace for both.

To dismiss the Act 3 based solely on early samples is not doing the unit justice. Mondial has gone out of its way to correct the problems with this preamp, and it must be heard to be believed. I'm also in full agreement with Mondial's decision not to put on screen graphics into the Act 3. The addition of a character generator would only degrade the picture
quality, even when no characters are being generated.
For the sake of visual purity, I support that idea.

To sum up, the Act 3 has matured into a very fine
preamp/processor that is easy to use and does a credible job regardless of the mode being used. While
the early samples had problems, these have been ironed out. I recommend this product 100%.