My son the expert auditions my Ascend HT setup

My younger son, who lives in Silver Spring MD, visited us for the first time since I completed my home theater. He's been looking forward to seeing and hearing what I've done.

I've been interested to hear what he thinks. I know what I like, but Karl has three music degrees: a BA in music performance, a Masters in music performance and a Masters in computer music. He obtained the Masters degrees from Peabody Conservatory, which is part of Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, he spent some time as a music/audio/digital researcher at Johns Hopkins. While at Peabody, he used their state of the art recording/playback stuidos, including one that can sonically mimic all the major symphony/opera halls worldwide.

My system is 7.1, consisting off 340's up front, 170's as side surrounds, 200's as rear surrounds and an SVS PB12-NSD sub. We threw all sorts of music and movies at it, including orchestral pieces, folk acoustic, popular and rock. This included multichannel SACD versions of "Layla" and "Dark Side of the Moon" as well as a multichannel DTS version of "Hotel California". Movie samples were chosen both for slam and for subtlety and were a combination of DVD and Blu-Ray sources. BTW, "TIME" on TSOTM in 5.1 puts the roto-toms in the surrounds. The 170's more than hold their own and sound great cranked.

After listening, Karl said he has heard only one system more neutral and it was a very expensive setup at Peabody. He actually preferred the Ascends, since what they gave up in neutrality was more than compensated on their forgiveness of less than optimal source material. He was also impressed with how well they blended with the SVS sub, which he felt gave great support without bringing attention to itself.

Karl couldn't get over how great the system sounded, especially for the relatively modest investment I have in it. He's another Ascend convert!

Great review. TDSOTM is nice SACD to demo the system. 'Remember that night' Blu-Ray by David Gilmour is great too. (Terrific rendition of 'Echoes' on that disc)

Great review! Who else wants to know or guess what "expensive setup" name brand that is used at Peabody? My guess is M&K.

Thanks for the wonderful review!!