I re-posted this edited version here.
Hello,
I had heard Mike's Sapphires in my DH Labs room for the last two CES at the Alexis Park. Mike Dzurko had loaned us his speakers and stands. Both times our DH Labs dealer and Prima Luna distributor Kevin Deal let me borrow the Prima Luna 3 KT88 integrated amp and a nice sounding Ahh! Tube CD player Kevin loaned us, and I keep the top off for folks to peek in. Tube CD player with a bunch of upgrades. I wired the PL 3 to the CD player with DH Labs Revelations interconnects. We used a standard pair of Q-10 speaker cables.
After a few days of breaking in at fairly loud levels, sans any sub: the room was rocking and heads were banging! Even the deepest bass lines from Groove Armada's LoveBox and Hooverphonic's Jackie Cane had folks coming in from outside and staying a very long time. They were treated by my copy of Yello's Pocket Universe at thunderous levels. They wrote down the album info and we shared great music and had a great time!
If any of you were fortunate to drop in and sit a spell, well you know what "good is". The richness, the bass, the 3D, the smoothness, the palpable soundstage deapth, the speed, the claririty...I could go on describing what most desire from each piece of their elctronics. That includes tube selection.
Yep, damn great little speakers with a big sound! We did not even need the sub in that room. I bought a pair of the Sapphire XL and the Force XL from Mike at the show!
I have taken my Ruby Heart Merlin VSM-Ms out of my room and replaced them with ACI Sapphire XLs in Rosewood. Where the Velodyne HGS-10 had been sitting in the corner, I placed the Force XL. The Sapphires XLs have replaced those Very Scary Monitors with aplomb!
I have my Sapphire XLs up on my old Osiris 24" stands filled with Tidy Cat Clumping Litter. These are fully adjustable stands of my own design, and a put a dab of Home Depot White Tack, BB size at each corner. I put folded toilet paper in the center on top the stands and positioned the XLs so that their curved front edge was even with the matching curved edge on the stands. The tweeters were on the inside for the break in period, then I had just swtiched them so that they were on the outside edge...but I started feeling the need to start to shut down my 24/7 system! The terror!
Everything here is cabled with my DH Labs Revelations, Air Matrix and a pair of Q-10s (10 ga.) up my new Sapphire XL speakers from the Paul McGowan tweaked HCA-2 amp. The Force XL sub is sitting on top little silicone beads on my granite, neoprene, MDF amp stands I placed next to each other. Here is why I bought the Sapphire XLs and Force XL Sub.
I recently had to tear down everything and box it up so the painters could
move about my home, home theater, and music room.
14 days without music except from my little 512 MB iRiver and Shure 3x ear buds each night.
I now have everything back in their place. I used a small air compressor and blew the painter's dust, silica off everything piece of gear. Then took my time sweeping it off, wiping it, blowing it off...
I had to take apart each piece of gear in the music room. The silica dust got under the plastic trash bags I had taped around everything. My Metronome Signature transport and DAC had to be disassembled and reassembled! My Hovland Company HP100 preamp had dust in it too.
I put everything back and popped in Godsmack to help get those surrounds exercised, and the Force XL sub loosening up.
It was very difficult to remove myself from my chair and get back to work!
Bottom line: the Sapphire XLs are great speakers capable of recreating a sonic landscape and reproduce music as the composer intended it to be heard as well or better than speakers that cost 5 times more! They handle cleanly handle treble, open and airy...smooth. Their mirange is uncolored. And they play BASS...! The bass extension from such a small speaker had definition that is excellent for a speaker at its price. I get a nice holographic image in my listening room just as we had at CES! These are really seductive litte speakers. I have heard many small speakers and these are quite excellent in the areas that are important to me. I am still tweaking the Force XL sub as it "breaks in".
I've got it in the left corner on a heavy granite stand behing the speakers.
Music for Break-in:
Groove Armada: Lovebox
Godsmack: Godsmack
Yello: Pocket Universe (European Version)
Hooverphonic presents Jackie Cane
Best regards,
Terry Rossen
TRI Audio Marketing
