Just back from "The Show" and here are my thoughts...

With all the crazy $50K speakers and off the wall 1K cables i thought I'd share my thoughts of all the speakers I listened to at this huge event. First, after listening to a set of Sierra 1's at my new close friend Curtis home I had a auditory visual and the standard was presented. I want to also thank Curtis for opening his home and allowing me to audition his awesome setup, mucho thanks sir! Ok, now with perfectly measured hearing I know what I hear is either what I have been trained and educated to hear or what i've not been trained to hear so on to my listening thoughts...

Most natural and realistic: TAD by far was the most real sounding musical speaker at the show. Of course for the cost of a Bakersfield average home you too can own all the gear needed to make those mercedes priced speakers shine.

Clearest: $50K YG Acoustics were the clearest and threw the biggest and widest soundstage and I auditioned off and on axis, crazy sounding with extremely detailed bass, did not expect that! But, with the TAD being the most real and the YG's being the clearest, for sound quality which one is better??? Being just super clear and bright doesn't always present the true picture of the sound but, for HT I would choose the YG's for sure over the TAD's. Music goes to the average home priced TAD's.

Shocked category: The Legacy products produced some of the nicest midrange of most of what we heard, very clear high end, but it ends about there on those. The isobarik open baffle design was sure crazy looking in person and the bass was really non existent.

Dissapointed: HSU bookshelfs sounded good with music but distorted in HT mode, was a huge let down. The salesman there said "yeah were listening to $179 speakers with $5K cables..." Subs were outstanding and extremely powerful, A+ there for them!

Really most were thumpy sounding, very localized sound even with the guys touting the hours taken to set most things up for auditions. Lot's had such un-natural sounding low freqs and too damped highs that most were very colored in their music presented. I would have presented the Sierra 1's up against most and would have blown them out of the water with the free sounding single point source driven sound and rich midrange energy that Curtis setup provided. I should have been walking around with one at this event proudly displaying it! I could have sold a set of $50K Statements to a guy sitting next to me only because i explained why they weighed 1K lbs for the pair. Point is this, Ascend has amazing products that cannot be matched for performance vs. dollar. The Sierra was the winner for me yesterday!


My ears are tired!

Brian in Bakersfield...

Glad you had a chance to visit my place and you thought it was worthwhile.

Wish I had a chance to hear the YG Acoustics speakers.

I didn't realize how young Mr.YG is. He looks like he just graduated from college. They did provide an obvious "holy smokes thats huge sounding" sensation right from the start.

Also a let down was the Magico stuff with over damped and thumpy bass, it really sounded bad and I think it was their new something 3's, whatever they were. I had high hopes for those and all the crazy bracing and aluminum builds.

Interesting how many were using Peerless drivers, Scan-Speak woofers, and Accuton with those nasty screens over the drivers. To each is own I guess. My dad really enjoyed Rogers Sound Labs and hearing the story the son gave us about the history of his father starting the company. Their room was running a 7.1 setup +4db above THX reference level with an Integra receiver and those little 4" Peerless drivers didn't skip a beat and they sounded very clear with tons of dynamics, crazy loud. Rogers is also Cali based out of San Fernando Valley.

I heard the 2.1 setup of the RSL's. Sounded good...but the $1250 price tag is too high compared to other ID products.

A pair of CBM-170SE's or HTM-200SE's and a Rythmic sub would be a MUCH better deal if you were after sound quality. A pair of 340SE's and a good sub would blow it out of the water.

I used to visit the RSL's Torrance store with my Dad back in the late 70's.

Just found this thread. Thanks Brian for sharing, I love hearing stuff like this.

It's fascinating to me that there could be a tradeoff between between whatever produces that naturalness/musical realism and what produces clearness for home theatre. I'm supposing that the Sierra strikes a very happy balance!

Mark

Oh yeah, the Sierra rocks the house and i've not even heard the NrT version yet. It was awesome to have been there with my dad and experience those products I probably will never see again. I did have high hopes for some and was let down, maybe just marketing hype and my personality that I will trust what you say until I discover other wise. The YG's were pretty awesome and so big sounding but so were those fridge size Statements. I just know this for a fact, I could have presented ANY of the Ascend products with class, personality, experience, and just flat telling the truth. I drive an Audi because "there is truth in engineering" well, Ascend products promote the finest "truth in engineering" :cool:


Thank you for reading it made my morning!

My pleasure Brian. I hope to be auditioning some Sierras near Toronto this summer (no pressure at all, Billy, hehe) and then I'm off to my first audio show - TAVES here in Toronto at the end of September. The Sierras will serve as an excellent reference for me, as they were to you. I fairly enjoy my humble Altec Lansing FX6021 computer speakers, but I know there is so much more.

Similarly I drive a humble 2002 Hyundai Accent (which has served us very well!) but alas it's no Audi :)

Mark