Great speakers can change your life! Review of 340se Right Left & Center

It's true... They can!

Until these 3 new speakers arrived in my loft, I never understood how anyone could just sit down and listen to music - not listen to music while doing something else, but actually devote one's full concentration. Now I do.

My musical tastes have also changed since my new speakers have arrived - I now have such a clear window into what I listen to that classical has become much more appealing - bubble-gum pop much less so.

Yet another change of habits has occured - I have gone back to buying CDs, and have suddenly discovered what a huge sonic difference there is between a good CD (and a good SACD - even more) and crappy overcompressed mp3s. It's not that these speakers make crappy sources sound worse - they don't. My MP3s sound much better now than before. They only make you aware of just how good quality sources can be, and the bad sources pale by comparison.

A note here: If you have one of the PS3 models that can play any PS2 game, you also have an SACD player! (Just hook it up to an HDMI capable receiver, via an HDMI cable). Unfortunately, the smaller hard-drive new versions of the PS3 do not play SACD.

I have a 92 inch screen, and it's always a problem getting the center channel to sound like it's coming from the screen, as it's way off from the actors' mouths. Something about how the 340se center channel projects sound solves this problem - it's really quite amazing.

I have also discoved that many male actors have much deeper voices than I thought, and that many of my favorite songs contain subtle background instruments and little touches that I have never heard before. I never knew what I was missing!

From reading this, you might think I used to use crappy speakers. I didn't. They weren't the very best by far, but they were all over $300 each, and they were purchased based on in-store research, in locations that provided reasonable testing environments. The thing is, to get better sound in retail speakers, after the $300 or so mark (on sale/clearance), you have to spend a LOT more. This is of course my opinion, but I have the feeling that others on this forum have seen a similar threshold.

I have also recently spent a lot of time researching speaker and sound options for the new sound section of my HDTV guide book (if you are interested, you can pick it up here: http://www.robertruffo.com/HDTV.htm). This research involved spending many hours in audiophile stores, listening to $2000 - $5000 speakers. Some of these add extra warmth that was not intended by the artist. To me this is like adding a lot of hot sauce to bland food, and if you do that, it's time to find a new restaurant or a new recipe. Nonetheless, some people do like this kind of "enhancement", and they most likely won't enjoy the 340se s as much.

I for one want a clear and accurate presentation of what was recorded, and the $5000 speakers were not noticeably better than the Ascends in delivering this - some far worse in fact.

All in all, the Ascend 340se s open a pristine, ultra-detailed window into every recording you ask them to play, and this presented in a very large, well-defined soundstage. People have said this before, but if you play music as direct-stereo you'll often have trouble believing that the surround decoder didn't somehow kick itself in.

If I had paid three times as much for the 340se s, I would still be writing as rave a review as this one. Since I paid such a ridiculously small amount of money, I almost feel guilty toward David, like I should send him another check to cover the difference between what I paid and what speakers like these are really worth.

Would I buy these speakers again? Absolutely. In a heartbeat.

In fact, I'm buying more Ascends this week!