We Saved The Best For Last!

I caught up on the happenings over the last ~year at Ascend over the holiday weekend (via the forums).

Very happy for you all that you've really leaned into using the NFS and iterated at a furious pace (all while supply chains are still a mess).

I am in manufacturing myself and we started using a metrology grade CT scanner a few years back to similar excitement. We can now do in ~4 hours what used to take 80-120 with respect to dimensional metrology. It really changes what's possible WRT timelines, and therefore for projects in general.

Looking forward to the detailed announcements in the coming days Dave! This may even help motivate me to complete my "on hold" home theater (on hold due to personal reasons, fortunately not financial ones). While I still love my OG Tower/Horizon NrT setup, having something next level from Ascend to use in their place would be sweet and welcomed.

Looking forward to details on versions soon and am requesting the fog machine, mirrored disco ball cabinets, and built-in laser projector versions for sure until I find out that those aren't actually features!

You’ve read my mind! I literally just emailed you asking if there are any tower upgrades in the works. Then I checked the forum and here we are! Very excited to see what’s up.

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Originally Posted by davef

In simple terms, this new crossover brings out the maximum potential of each transducer, sums them ideally and the results are clearly and instantly audible when it comes to dynamics, spaciousness and imaging.

Attachment 2432

This is a unique, expensive, highly complex, 2-layer crossover that, with specific optimizations that we perform by hand, serves as the brains for 4 new versions of our towers, and 4 new versions of our Horizon!

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Dave this is incredibly exciting. Very curious if you are finding new objective ways with the Klippel to quantify what used to be left to subjective impressions....

Dave, is this a series crossover by any chance? Or series for the woofer mid network? I'm a passive filter fan and I'm curious what you managed to do here. 3 way series networks are very unusual.

I've been very fortunate to have been using the new RAAL towers with the crossover, woofer, and midrange upgrades for several months, and the new RAAL Horizon for over a week.

In my estimation, these will absolutely be true end game speakers for many. As fond of and as impressed as I was with the "standard" RAAL towers, I did not necessarily feel that they were end game for me. The new version addresses everything that I felt could have been meaningfully improved, and then some.

I am very curious about what the other 3(!) versions could possibly be. Surely one of them is a Titan dome tweeter implementation. Could the others be crossover-upgrades that utilize the original midrange and woofers? Or something different entirely?

I'm guessing...
1&2: Drop-in replacements for existing Towers (RAAL & Titan versions)
3&4: A new (or slightly re-worked) cabinet with larger bass drivers (RAAL & Titan versions)

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Originally Posted by Natural1

I'm guessing...
1&2: Drop-in replacements for existing Towers (RAAL & Titan versions)
3&4: A new (or slightly re-worked) cabinet with larger bass drivers (RAAL & Titan versions)

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cabinet can't handle a larger woofer now, and I doubt a new larger cabinet would be introduced.

then again...maybe side firing. :)

Someone just posted on AVS on his upgrade. New midrange which looks like the Excel woofer used in the EX. Bass drivers are the new titan drivers. His upgrade kept the RAAL, but I assume a titan done will also be an option.

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Originally Posted by curtis

cabinet can't handle a larger woofer now, and I doubt a new larger cabinet would be introduced

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Hmm... You may be right, but the reason I say that is because the cabinet width on the Sierra bookshelf is the same as the towers (7.5"). The bookshelf mid/bass drivers are 6", but the towers currently have 5.25" bass drivers.