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Listening room changes...
I made a few changes to my listening room...The Mini Monkeyhaus. Finally got some furniture (a couch), and also swapped out the Harman Kardon 3490 receiver for an Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp that I had previously purchased prior to the HK.
I wasn't sure the Onkyo would be a good match with my speakers, since both the speakers (non-NRT Sierra 1's) and the amp have been described by some as having slightly rolled off highs. I should have tried the Onkyo earlier...the sound with the Sierra's is great!...very smooth, warm and detailed. The Onkyo has loads of power, too, even though rated at only 85wpc. Stereophile magazine tested it and found that it "comfortably exceeded its rated power, clipping at 110Wpc into 8 ohms, 175Wpc into 4 ohms." Another nice feature of the Onkyo is a very subtle loudness control to add minor bass and treble boost at lower listening levels. For normal to loud listening, the Onkyo has a pure direct mode which bypasses all tone controls. The pure direct mode sounds exceptional.
I have collected and listened to music since the 70's [having spent many hours and dollars at Licorice Pizza and Middle Earth records; both local record shops where I grew up in Southern Calif]. Music collecting and listening continues to be a passion of mine. The Sierra's have reminded me that it's the music that matters, and the equipment is only a tool to enjoy the music...and that's a good thing!
Thanks, Dave, for such a great and affordable speaker.
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Cool! FWIW, your Onkyo produces 200x2 at 4ohms and 230x2 at 3 ohms "Dynamic Power". I'm sure you know this but your bass control is at 100hz but your loudness control is an octave lower at 50hz. That's probably why your diggin the loudness feature with the Sierra's. Now those would look mighty pretty sittin on some sand filled stands :D
Brian in Bakersfield...
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looking great man! i'd raise up the sierra's about half a foot to a foot and bring them away from that left side wall, if possible.
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@Rob - I remember seeing your setup on the Stereophile website; how cool is that? :D I got wood stools in an espresso finish to match my piano black Sierras and my decor. They sound awesome and totally agree with you: they are THE BEST speakers (albeit with the NrT upgrade) I have ever owned as well. BTW, what happened to the pink lava lamp?
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Hello folks, I'm a new Sierra-1 owner and wanted to introduce myself. In the late 90's I put together a system consisting of a pair of B&W DM302 speakers powered by a Yamaha RX-V595 amplifier, supplemented by a DIY subwoofer a friend of mine designed for me. The down-firing subwoofer has a 12" NHT 1259 woofer housed in an internally-braced sealed cabinet built from 3/4" mdf filled with fiberglass stuffing. This served as both my HT and music setup. After my kids were born, I stopped listening to music on this system, and listened mostly on my laptop. Recently, I bought a Yamaha HTIB, freeing up my old system, which I set up in our basement for dedicated music listening. The old Yamaha receiver was really noisy, so I bought a new NAD amplifier to replace it. At the same time, I also bought a NAD CD player. The B&W's were pretty good but I wanted to find something better in the $500-$1000 range. By chance, I read a post by someone on an online forum who mentioned Ascend. After reading numerous reviews, I decided to take advantage of the current Ascend sale and ordered a pair of Sierra-1's.
I received the Sierras last week and have been thoroughly enjoying them. The first thing I noticed is that knocking on the cabinets is like knocking on a solid piece of wood! They're beautifully finished and solidly built. And the sound! They're revealing things about CDs I've had for years that I didn't know were there. Really amazing clarity and soundstaging.
One advantage for me of having a separate setup for music only is that I don't have to compete with the rest of the household (a wife and two boys). The setup is in the basement, so I can listen any time of day or night and not worry about waking anybody up. I listen mostly to jazz, and primarily trumpet players as I am also learning to play the horn. Chet Baker is my favorite. Listening right now to his "The Touch of Your Lips", I'm in acoustic heaven.
Thanks to Dave and Dina for answering my questions and being so helpful and accommodating. I believe they will be hearing from me again within a year.
Here's my current setup:
Ascend Sierra-1
NAD C 326BEE Stereo Integrated Amplifier
NAD C 515BEE CD player
DIY subwoofer with an NHT 1259 woofer
AudioSource AMP 100 Stereo Power Amplifier to power the subwoofer
Regards,
Mark
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...enki/022ss.jpg
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...enki/019ss.jpg
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Wow, what a great setup. So clean. Thanks for the pics!
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Very nice and thank you for sharing your photos. Sometimes something like this is all it takes to nudge someone else to make the decision to get those. Your room looks awesome and I know it sounds really nice! :D
Brian in Bakersfield...
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Thank you very much for the kind words.
While listening to "Chet Baker in Tokyo" earlier today, a CD I've listened to many times, and with which I am very familiar, I noticed there were some passages where I felt the bass was a bit strong. I made a mental note to turn down the sub a bit. After the CD was done, I turned off the CD player, the amplifier, and was about to turn off the sub amp when I saw that it was already off. It had been off the whole time! For kicks, I sometimes turn off the sub just to see what the unassisted speakers sound like. I'd forgotten I had turned off the sub before I started listening to the CD. Amazing! These Sierras do not need a sub!
To be clear the CD sounded great, and the strong bass is in no way a negative observation. It's just that my previous speakers didn't produce this level of bass and so I was unaccustomed to the sound I was hearing.
It seems the bass on the Sierras has gotten stronger over the past few days. Is that what breaking them in is expected to do?
While listening to "Seven Steps To Heaven" on the same CD, I heard a faint trumpet in the distance from about 04:55 to 05:55, as if Chet were playing away from the mic. That's a sound I had never heard before! Wow! I am now looking forward to listening to all my CD's again and hearing for the first time what they really should sound like!
Kudos to Dave and team for making such an amazing pair of speakers!
Regards,
Mark
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You have a very neat looking hang out in your basement and I enjoyed reading your mini-review. Thus far, I am not an Ascend owner (I have ancient B&W Rock Solid monitors) but may be an Ascend owner by Christmas should I be so lucky.
Keep everyone informed of your musical discoveries.
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great looking setup, the gloss black for all 3 is especially nice. you might want to consider placing your sub slightly differently, maybe it sounds fine, but just a suggestion since it looks cramped a bit-- sometimes even just rotating it 45 degrees is all it takes to change the sound.
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Thank you both, and thanks for the suggestion on the sub position. I'll play around with its position and see whether I notice a difference.
Regards,
Mark
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
markenki
Hello folks, I'm a new Sierra-1 owner and wanted to introduce myself. In the late 90's I put together a system consisting of a pair of B&W DM302 speakers powered by a Yamaha RX-V595 amplifier, supplemented by a DIY subwoofer a friend of mine designed for me. The down-firing subwoofer has a 12" NHT 1259 woofer housed in an internally-braced sealed cabinet built from 3/4" mdf filled with fiberglass stuffing. This served as both my HT and music setup. After my kids were born, I stopped listening to music on this system, and listened mostly on my laptop. Recently, I bought a Yamaha HTIB, freeing up my old system, which I set up in our basement for dedicated music listening. The old Yamaha receiver was really noisy, so I bought a new NAD amplifier to replace it. At the same time, I also bought a NAD CD player. The B&W's were pretty good but I wanted to find something better in the $500-$1000 range. By chance, I read a post by someone on an online forum who mentioned Ascend. After reading numerous reviews, I decided to take advantage of the current Ascend sale and ordered a pair of Sierra-1's.
I received the Sierras last week and have been thoroughly enjoying them. The first thing I noticed is that knocking on the cabinets is like knocking on a solid piece of wood! They're beautifully finished and solidly built. And the sound! They're revealing things about CDs I've had for years that I didn't know were there. Really amazing clarity and soundstaging.
One advantage for me of having a separate setup for music only is that I don't have to compete with the rest of the household (a wife and two boys). The setup is in the basement, so I can listen any time of day or night and not worry about waking anybody up. I listen mostly to jazz, and primarily trumpet players as I am also learning to play the horn. Chet Baker is my favorite. Listening right now to his "The Touch of Your Lips", I'm in acoustic heaven.
Thanks to Dave and Dina for answering my questions and being so helpful and accommodating. I believe they will be hearing from me again within a year.
Here's my current setup:
Ascend Sierra-1
NAD C 326BEE Stereo Integrated Amplifier
NAD C 515BEE CD player
DIY subwoofer with an NHT 1259 woofer
AudioSource AMP 100 Stereo Power Amplifier to power the subwoofer
Regards,
Mark
Great looking system and thanks so much for the wonderful review!!! I am going to copy your post into our "reviews" section so it can be easily referenced...
Thanks again!
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Here is a quick video demo of my system that I posted photos for a few months ago. There don't seem to be many videos of these speakers or other components on YouTube so thought it would be worth sharing.
Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 Dark Cherry Gloss
Dared MC-7P tube preamp
Emotiva UPA-1
50" Pioneer Elite Kuro
PS3, playing a Chesky disc
http://youtu.be/9DJGt_bAO-U
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Me like! Classy. There could be some feng shui happening there! :)
Just took a look at your pics from a few months ago and saw the number nine in the last one. ;)
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rearranged my setup and built a small center channel stand-- it sounds much better with the center channel out in the open (ofcourse i had to take the time and do time-domain corrections,) but i won't be here too much longer; and by my next place i hope to upgrade to some floor standing models *wink*
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-G...-06-54_675.jpg
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That looks like one happy plant!
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haha
actually the lower half is not so happy-- i need to put it outside more often to give it a burst of sun. it's funny though, when the sub is going hard the plant gets buffeted by the port's exhaust.
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Nice stands...did you make them all?
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i did, i was going to stain them but decided the contrast looked nice. it's pine from the indoor wood section of lowes (it has shades of color which i thought was cool) and the hardware is from the build a chair section-- it allows me to spin the top panel the speaker sits on or even the whole post, depending on how i want it to look. the side stands held up for about 3 years now, they can be disassembled too, as I have moved twice in that time. i like them because they are light in weight and in looks- rather minimal.. the center channel's base is too big i think, i think i was being over cautious
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Hksvr4,
Looks great. What subs?
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^^ Epik Dragon and Legend.
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Nice setup, clean and cheery!
But gosh if I didn't know better those fish faces on the TV screen look strangely human and sentient, and a little bit ticked off!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Hksvr4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Hksvr4
^^ Epik Dragon and Legend.
Just looked at your picture, what no love for the Epik logo on those babies!! :D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gov
Just looked at your picture, what no love for the Epik logo on those babies!! :D
My Epic Valor didn't come with a badge or logo, but maybe that was just because it was a first generation model.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
kylem
My Epic Valor didn't come with a badge or logo, but maybe that was just because it was a first generation model.
My Phoenix did not either, but I bought one and put it on. Epik sells them for 5 bucks and they look great!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gov
My Phoenix did not either, but I bought one and put it on. Epik sells them for 5 bucks and they look great!
Interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks. But then again I didn't put the logos on my Sierra's either.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gov
Just looked at your picture, what no love for the Epik logo on those babies!! :D
Hey Gov what's up!! The logo fell off on the Legend, besides I'm not a fan of the logo.
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Re: Ascend Owners Photo Gallery
My gear and setup....
Onkyo TX-NR1009 - setup in 9.2 and powering the center and surround speakers
Oppo BDP-95 - for CD/SACD/DVD-A and BluRay
Emotiva XPA2 - powering the Ascend Acoustic Towers
Logitech SqueezeBox Touch - for Pandora, internet radio and to play CD's home from server
Rythmik F12SE - a pair of subs in piano black with the silver woofer
Ascend Acoustic Towers - Ribbon in piano black are on order...:)
Ascend CMT-340 SE - will be replaced by the STC with ribbon when available
Ascend CBM-170 SE - surround wide and surround side
Speakercraft AIM8 -for the back surround channel in the ceiling
Denon turntable with Shure M97xE
Monster Power Center
Logitech Harmony 1100 remote
Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT30 - 65inch
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wicked setup :) keep us posted!
I read that surround heights might be more beneficial than surround wides. have you thought of trying it?
nice plasma, i like the viera line
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Thanks. Yeah I have thought about trying out the front high. And yes the Panny VT30 is sweeeeet. Avatar in 3D is amazing!
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Cane1992,
How how do you have your plasma mounted from the ground? I'm looking to get the same TV, but not sure on mounting height.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
raggededge
Cane1992,
How how do you have your plasma mounted from the ground? I'm looking to get the same TV, but not sure on mounting height.
The proper height, which is not always the most aesthetic, is when viewing the TV (seated), the line of sight falls in the bottom third of the TV.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
curtis
The proper height, which is not always the most aesthetic, is when viewing the TV (seated), the line of sight falls in the bottom third of the TV.
I agree, that is how I have my DLP setup now. I'm looking to upgrade to plasma and I'm surprised to see how many are mounted so high. I was wondering if this worked out okay, it would help me with placement of my center channel.
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You can raise the height of a plasma without losing picture quality, just beware of raising to high and getting a stiff neck while viewing.
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:) - plasma's are still a great buy - i have a pioneer kuro 60 '' - bought about 3 years ago, still can't beat the picture:p:p:p
Don
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Room and system have been a work in progress.
Here are some pics of my mostly finished room...
Equipment:
Sony TA-F444ESX Integrated Amp (Love this amp! Was a Craigslist find)
Sony PS 1 (redbook CD playbook)
Yamaha SD1800 Universal Disc Player (SACD playback)
[Classic] Sierra 1's
Salamander Equipment Rack
Boltz CD Rack
[iPhone pics]
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Wow.... awesome!
Congrats.