The following observations were posted to AVSforum on March 9th, by a person who participated in a comparsion of the Ellis 1801, ACI Sapphire, and Onix Reference 1. However he doesn't really say much about how the Ref 1 sounded vis a vis the 1801. Indirectly he says that the new Sapphire comes very close to matching the 1801 and then later, that he would have a hard time telling the Ref 1 apart from the Sapphire in a blind test.
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I had a great time at Jack's house yesterday. Thanks for letting us use your home and equipment.
As previously stated, we started off with the Ellis 1801s. I have heard them before (vs my Sapphire IIIs) so I knew what the Sapphire and Ref 1 were up against. They are amazing speakers. The midrange is very sweet and warm. The treble is smooth and all of the vocals we listened to were amazing. They lack in low bass, but they more than make up for it in midrange and treble. The only real downside to these speakers is the wait to get a pair.
Next up was the Sapphire. It is a large improvement over the Sapphire III, which was also a great speaker. The Sapphire's soundstage is great - instruments are very precise and their location is well defined in the soundstage. I love listening to female vocals on these, as the midrange and treble are wonderful. I do prefer the midrange of the 1801, but it is by a small margin.
The Sapphire has a very tight, low and fast bass. Since owning these I have stopped using my SVS subwoofer when listening to non-rock music.
When I originally compared my Sapphire III to the 1801, the 1801 was clearly the 'winner'. When I heard about the new Sapphire that ACI was designing, I hoped that it would match what I heard with the Ellis. They have come very, very close to matching what I would consider the best monitor I have heard.
I was very interested to hear the Reference One, as I was impressed with the Rocket 750 and wanted to see what they could do with a monitor.
The first thing I noticed was the great treble. It was very detailed and well defined. One of my complaints of the 750 was that the treble wasn't as detailed as I would like. They got it right (IMHO) with the Ref One.
The midrange was very similar to the Sapphire. I honestly have difficulties telling the two apart. The Ref 1 is a bit more forward, but not in a bad way.
The bass is amazing for such a little driver. It isn't quite as low as the Sapphire, but it is tight and fast. That little driver had quite a workout and handled everything we threw at it with ease.
On the drive home I thought "I doubt I could tell the difference between the Sapphire and Ref1 in a blind test." When I saw that hectic1 said the same thing, I laughed a little. Both of us had a hard time distinguishing between the two (and three sometimes). All of these speakers are so 'perfect' that differences between them are very minimal.
They are all wonderful speakers, and I would be very happy if I owned any of them (and since I do own one of them, I am happy). Mike Dzurko at ACI, Mark Schifter at av123, and Dave Ellis are doing all of us a great service by offering world-class monitors at incredible prices.
