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dpristin
05-25-2005, 02:06 PM
Hi everybody!

After drooling for more than a year and terrorizing David F. with my questions / concerns I finally did it. James was extremely understanding and even quickly agreed to call me at work in order to avoid questions from my wife like: “What speakers?”, “How much did you say?!...” etc… I’ll deal with her later… Really hope she'll have that jaw-dropping experience so vividly described here by so many Ascend-owners.
Just wanted to ask advise from the people who’s been in this situation (had to wait for speakers to arrive) before – did you use any kind of medication, psychoanalyst, anything? I’ve never had any setup even remotely approaching hi-fi level even though music is my lifelong obsession, but, you know, there is always something more important to spend your money on (or so my wife says :)). But after I scored Marantz SR8400 last week on ubid I couldn’t resist any longer so 340 mains + 340 center + 170 surrounds are finally on my horizon! Can’t wait!! Valium might help…

With trembling hands,
Dmitry.

BradJudy
05-25-2005, 04:06 PM
Since I highly recommend getting a RadioShack SPL meter for calibration, you can always entertain yourself by measuring the volume of everything around you. Although your wife might not take well to you pointing an SPL meter at her while she's talking. :D

bikeman
05-25-2005, 04:14 PM
Hi everybody!

After drooling for more than a year and terrorizing David F. with my questions / concerns I finally did it. James was extremely understanding and even quickly agreed to call me at work in order to avoid questions from my wife like: “What speakers?”, “How much did you say?!...” etc… I’ll deal with her later… Really hope she'll have that jaw-dropping experience so vividly described here by so many Ascend-owners.
Valium might help…
With trembling hands,
Dmitry.

I took a bit of a different approach to the same dilema. I brought in the the 340M's with stands first and once they were part of the landscape, I brought in the340C. I already have a sub and surrounds so when I upgrade those later this year, it won't be quite so dramatic. The other thing that helped a bunch was that my wife is really into music. Once she heard the 340's, I knew I was home free as far as keeping them. I don't know if Valium will do any good but might I suggest flowers and dinner right before the brown truck arrives? ;)

Best of luck on the home front. Accoustically, you just hit a home run.

David

dpristin
05-26-2005, 06:58 AM
Hmm, flowers and a dinner might help... For a while... and the speakers could be disguised as her birthday present which is in a week... Well I’m exaggerating the problem a bit of course :); we have music playing in the background 24x7. I’m an amateur musician, my daughter takes piano lessons, my wife knows to play piano and my 2.5 year old son’s favorite DVD is the collection of Queen’s videos (and I’m not talking about a collection of Elizabeth II speeches :)). So I think they’ll appreciate the change which should increase my survival chances…

Cliff_L
05-26-2005, 09:23 AM
You may want to set them up while she's out of the house, and then when she comes back, put in **her** favorite CD, movie, etc...and then sit back while she learns to love to listen to music/watch movies all over again. :D

Eddie Horton
05-26-2005, 01:32 PM
Welcome to the family. Be sure to let us know what happens and feel free to ask any and all questions you may have.

dpristin
05-26-2005, 01:43 PM
Thanks, it's good to be here.
But if I keep silence for too long you know where to call and who to blame...

dpristin
05-26-2005, 06:39 PM
I have no idea how they do it but I received my tracking number today. It's not even funny...

curtis
05-26-2005, 07:51 PM
Good luck and have fun!

I like Cliff's idea. :)

dpristin
05-26-2005, 08:26 PM
Come on, you (we?...) need to introduce some dissonance here. It just doesn’t feel right – message board is nice, sales people are nice, have no slightest inclination for pushing (and are profoundly understanding – did I mention this already?), the merchandise is shipped ahead of time… I’m already pinching myself… Are you sure medication is not the way to go?..

shane55
05-26-2005, 11:07 PM
Welcome to Bizarro World :D

All good, all good, all good.
Yeah, and I get more enjoyment out of my system every day, with each thing (movie or music) that I play.

Saw 'Ladder 49' this evening and the sound was amazing. It was so completely enveloping... like we were inside the buildings!

Yes, if all purchases went this smoothly, and resulted in such complete satisfaction... well... you fill the rest in. ;)

Good luck and let us know how it all goes.

cheers

shane

BGHD
05-27-2005, 08:54 AM
Just wanted to ask advise from the people who’s been in this situation (had to wait for speakers to arrive) before – did you use any kind of medication, psychoanalyst, anything? Couple suggestions:

1) Spend some time reading-up on speaker placement, running wires, filling the 340 stands, etc, so when they arrive, just plug 'em in.
2) Spend the time at BB listening to all their crappy setups, so when yours is done, it'll sound that much more gratifying.
3) Xanax will work too.

Cliff_L
05-27-2005, 10:59 AM
I had mine shipped directly to my workplace - that way I had them in my hands as soon as they arrived and I didn't stew for the entire afternoon knowing that they were sitting at my house. In fact, one of my friends here at work had a receiver so we hooked them up as soon as I got them!

Anything to keep the "waiting" to a minimum helped! ;)

dpristin
06-05-2005, 11:15 AM
OK, I finally got them (after my wife missed the brown truck) and hooked up everything but haven't calibrated yet and tried only 2ch. stereo. I feel sorry for my neighbors. They will be hearing a lot of music from now on. On another hand it’s going to be good music played by excellent speakers. Excellent, excellent. Regardless of the price. But taking into account how much I paid for them (my system is B-stock and I haven’t been able to find any signs of it yet) – it’s quite remarkable. More to follow… Need to take a deep breath.

dpristin
06-05-2005, 03:19 PM
...and here comes the pucture - it's not pretty yet but what a potential!...

jermy4
06-05-2005, 06:08 PM
...and here comes the pucture - it's not pretty yet but what a potential!... I think it looks great. Nice setup!

dpristin
06-05-2005, 06:44 PM
Well, my "not pretty" comment was about all those wires visible everywhere. It's clear to everyone that Ascends are the most good-looking speakers ever made ;) . Seriously - they look fine to me and (most importantly!) to my wife. The disaster struck when the center speaker didn’t fit into my stand - I went through quite a few tense moments :) so now it's pretty much standing on the floor with its back edge. Yes I know it's not a perfect situation but as a temporary solution it'll work this way for a while. I haven't calibrated the system using SPL meter yet, but I've played with my Marantz's settings and listened a little but for a DTS version of Queen videos - I know it was said so many times before but I DID HEAR ALL THESE SOUNDS THAT I PREVIOUSLY HAD NO IDEA ABOUT! My wife was very impressed with the way "Breakthrough" sounds in DTS. I guess she accepted the fact that these speakers are not going anywhere and started to enjoy them as much as I am (I might exaggerate a little here). I’ll get everything calibrated and post some new details (until you guys get sick of me :) ). But – these speakers are great, many thanks to David F. for designing them and being so generous about the pricing; and to the Ascend community for spreading the word and making this forum the way it is.

dpristin
06-07-2005, 01:13 PM
Well - one more day with Ascends. Yesterday I listened to my favorite pieces from 4 different CDs (classical mostly). I’m absolutely positive that I’m not going to be looking for a different set of speakers any time soon. I purposely chose very different music (instruments- and vocal - wise) and the CMT-340 nailed every detail, ambience, character - you name it. The orchestra feels alive; the strings had that slightly-tiny screeching quality to them – they way they should sound; the piano on the Rachmaninov 2d concerto was sounding exactly the way big grand piano should sound in the large concert hall with appropriate fullness and ambience, clarinet (Mozart’s last concerto) was spot on making perfect sense of why these kind of instruments are called woodwind and vocals and chorus where absolutely perfect (Mozart C-minor mass). Dynamics wise it was a treat as well - I guess I should partially contribute this to the power reserves of the Marantz SR-8400. By the way – I used to boost treble (all the way up) and bass (slightly) on my old system but I haven’t even thought of doing this with my new setup. Music just sounds the way it should – period. Absolutely amazing. Never thought I’d ever own anything of this quality. I’m really struggling right now to squeeze as much music listening as possible into my daily routine. I guess it’s hard to explain how speakers can change the way you listen to the music – I’m a lifelong music lover and I can’t say that I ever suffered from the lack of attention while listening to the music but Ascends simply grab your attention and make you notice all these slightest details that you’ve never heard before and do absolutely amazing job at conveying the true character and mood of the piece. I think this is as close to a live performance in a hall with good acoustics as it gets (I’m not an audiophile though). I haven’t tried watching movies yet (I don’t have too much time for this unfortunately) but I’m sure it’s going to be an eye-opening (or, rather, ear-opening :-) ) experience as well. Need to get that SPL meter first.

dpristin
06-09-2005, 10:04 AM
By the way - can anybody tell me what does CMT and CBM mean?
Just curious...

Mag_Neato
06-09-2005, 10:08 AM
By the way - can anybody tell me what does CMT and CBM mean?
Just curious...

Compact Monitor Tower

Compact Bookshelf Monitor ;)

dpristin
06-09-2005, 11:20 AM
LOL ! Yeah, I can appreciate that wink related to the "Compact Bookshelf Monitor" ! My wife was impressed with their "compactness" (especially after they replaced really compact surround speakers).

Quinn
06-09-2005, 01:44 PM
And the numbers are the millimeter width of the drivers.

BGHD
06-09-2005, 10:13 PM
Compact Monitor Tower

Compact Bookshelf Monitor ;)

Actually, CMT is Compact Mini Tower.

Mag_Neato
06-10-2005, 07:07 AM
Actually, CMT is Compact Mini Tower.

Hmmmm........kind of redundant, eh! Compact/Mini.......Mini/Compact. :D

BGHD
06-10-2005, 03:07 PM
Maybe they should change to:

MT 340
&
BM 170

Well, maybe "BM" (bowel movement) isn't it a good acronym. :)