I can't call this a review because I don't really enjoy writing reviews and I'm not going to get all that detailed. I just want to share what I've found about the Proteges over the last couple of months.
Obviously they're darn good or I wouldn't have kept them. I think the 30 day in home trial is a wonderful thing. I will never again purchase most types of audio gear unless I can try at home. I've had some weird experiences taking speakers into stores to do compares. I've actually caught salespeople tyring to cheat with levels and stuff like that. I don't need that. I'll let my own ears decide thanks!
I first did about 70-90 hours breakin. Then I set uip the Protege Vs in place of my Sapphires in my stereo setup. Although I expected them to beat the Sapphires in dynamics, I figured the Sapphires would pretty much beat them otherwise. Well it was tough to work out a way to just compare them above 80Hz since this makes a big difference. So I eventually came up with two setups using my Force subs. One sub was adjusted to the Sapphires, and one was adjusted to the Proteges. This made it pretty easy to go back and forth. Here's the shocker, the Protege easlily holds its own with the Sapphires! In fact, besides better dyynamics, we found it more open and for whatever reason, the soundstage seems to go as deep, but actually also come more forward when required. Vocalists are rendered very well with both speakers and it is pretty close to call overall. I think the highs on the Prots have a bit more extension and air, but aren't quite as silky smooth, but darn close. Mike D is always saying that even his HT speakers are deisnged to do music right, and this is certainly true here. What is interesting is that the Proteges are physically quite a bit larger, more drivers, considerably more dynamic range, and cost less! Of course you do have to have a sub, and with the Sapphires a sub is optional.
Moving into the HT, and adding the Protege center has giving my soundtrack capability that just makes me want to keep trying new movies. For now, I've stacked my two Force subs and am using the Sapphires as rears. When funds allow, I plan on using the Emerald inwalls for sides and rears 7.1 and adding the Maestro. The Sapphires and Force will go back to a separate stereo setup. A friend has Emerald Onwalls and we've tried them in my system at 5.1 and they are really terrific.
I guess I'm surprised to not see more on the Protege, they just might be the ultimate ACI sleeper. I've listened to some really nice setups with Aerial LR5s and CC3s and CC5s etc., and I'd love to sometime do a really direct compare with my Proteges, I think they'd hold their own quite well at less than a 1/3 the cost. Good job ACI!
