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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Awesome!!! Here we go...
I would calibrate using the "Front" but not include your subs in the calibration. You would need to unplug the patch cords to them so YPAO cannot sense them or trigger them to come on, even if you have the bass set within the receiver to only be "Front" it will still turn the subs on. Unplug the patch cord! You will hear a completely different sound out of your mains doing this allowing YPAO to do its magic mainly on your towers and forcing your rears to mimic their performance as well, win, win. I am so confident in it because the "Front" just focuses on the problems while still allowing the mains to exercise their talents. All of this I believe is necessary to hear what the leader of this fine company has intended thru proper design and engineering. It's all about extracting all its designed to do within your listening space. Time alignment is too powerful to ignore. My opinion based on tried and true experimentation with the YPAO systems.
Yes treating the room is important, but also use of existing Parametric assistance can't be argued either. If it doesn't sound better I will allow you to poke me in the eye and kick me in the junk!:D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GaryB
Brandon, when you get a chance could you please measure the height of the binding posts above the floor? From Dave's pics I would estimate ~ 18" but an exact measurement would help.
Speaker cable considerations... :)
You got it! When I get home today, I will take a look.
Brandon
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hearing specialist
Awesome!!! Here we go...
I would calibrate using the "Front" but not include your subs in the calibration. You would need to unplug the patch cords to them so YPAO cannot sense them or trigger them to come on, even if you have the bass set within the receiver to only be "Front" it will still turn the subs on. Unplug the patch cord! You will hear a completely different sound out of your mains doing this allowing YPAO to do its magic mainly on your towers and forcing your rears to mimic their performance as well, win, win. I am so confident in it because the "Front" just focuses on the problems while still allowing the mains to exercise their talents. All of this I believe is necessary to hear what the leader of this fine company has intended thru proper design and engineering. It's all about extracting all its designed to do within your listening space. Time alignment is too powerful to ignore. My opinion based on tried and true experimentation with the YPAO systems.
Yes treating the room is important, but also use of existing Parametric assistance can't be argued either. If it doesn't sound better I will allow you to poke me in the eye and kick me in the junk!:D
You are very convincing:) I will give it a whirl using the techniques you mentioned above. Can I just turn off the sub or do I have to unplug the sub cable from the Yamaha? I am also debating on whether or not to buy a better mic/preamp combo for taking more accurate measurements plus the RS meter only is accurate up to around 5Khz. I might not like what I find though(room issues):(
Thanks.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Since the auto (turn on) feature for sub is signal based I would turn them off but more importantly and a must do is unplugging the rca's from either the sub itself or receiver. I'm sure it's easier just to do it at the sub amp. You want YPAO focusing on your mains and rears/surrounds only.
Use the mic engineered for YPAO from Yamaha when calibrating and i'm sure you will but just wanted to be sure. I've spent a bunch of time e-mailing Yamaha engineers about the supplied mic and YPAO boundaries. It really is a good system and when I upgrade to the Aventage 3000 receiver that will have their best calibration system with the ability to see what its fixed and adjust off of it by taking the Parametric calibration and then copying it straight into the manual side and tweak till your hearts content.
Sourcing a better mic for REW is always good and the Dayton mic is a good choice and wife friendly (cost), fwiw. There appears to be a lady in your life based on one of your pics, how does she like them and curious what her first reaction to them was???
If I could just figure a solution for the WAF... I would be a rich man...:D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
merrymaid520
Brian,
Thanks for the comments. My yamaha is the Rx-V2600 and does have YPAO and the "front" setting. I have choosen not to use this approach since I already EQ my Rythmik sub using a RS SPL meter(with the calibration file) and REW. I then make the appropriate adjustments on my Behringer FD to flatten the bass repsonse below 80hz in my room. The other issues above this crossover point are typically room related.
Just picking your brain:)
Brandon
I'd be careful putting too much stock in the RS SPL meter with the calibration file. When I calibrated my sub using a more well regarded calibrated mic, I got much different (and better) results, even on the low end frequencies for sub calibration, which supposedly the RS SPL meter is decent at measuring.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
I have yet to read thru this whole thread; but first things first: the speaker looks beautiful, Dave-- great job! the ~34hz - ~27khz is also amazing, I'm curious how you go about fixing some of those dips, but as a whole that's amazing.
anyone plan on wiring in a series pair per channel? ;D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GaryB
Brandon, when you get a chance could you please measure the height of the binding posts above the floor? From Dave's pics I would estimate ~ 18" but an exact measurement would help.
Speaker cable considerations... :)
Gary,
15.25" from carpet to binding posts
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scape
I have yet to read thru this whole thread; but first things first: the speaker looks beautiful, Dave-- great job! the ~34hz - ~27khz is also amazing, I'm curious how you go about fixing some of those dips, but as a whole that's amazing.
anyone plan on wiring in a series pair per channel? ;D
What dips?
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
merrymaid520
Gary,
15.25" from carpet to binding posts
Thanks, Brandon... much appreciated.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hearing specialist
Since the auto (turn on) feature for sub is signal based I would turn them off but more importantly and a must do is unplugging the rca's from either the sub itself or receiver. I'm sure it's easier just to do it at the sub amp. You want YPAO focusing on your mains and rears/surrounds only.
Use the mic engineered for YPAO from Yamaha when calibrating and i'm sure you will but just wanted to be sure. I've spent a bunch of time e-mailing Yamaha engineers about the supplied mic and YPAO boundaries. It really is a good system and when I upgrade to the Aventage 3000 receiver that will have their best calibration system with the ability to see what its fixed and adjust off of it by taking the Parametric calibration and then copying it straight into the manual side and tweak till your hearts content.
Sourcing a better mic for REW is always good and the Dayton mic is a good choice and wife friendly (cost), fwiw. There appears to be a lady in your life based on one of your pics, how does she like them and curious what her first reaction to them was???
If I could just figure a solution for the WAF... I would be a rich man...:D
Ignore my previous post here....I figured it out. With the yamaha setting the front speakers to large, I have a huge suckout below 30hz. It looked as if the sub was not running but I believe the towers low bass when set to large was canceling out the subs bass in that same freq area.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
OK, if you ran with the sub on you will need to go thru the receiver setup to the "Levels" section and scroll thru until you find "SUB". You will notice that YPAO will turn sub level almost all the way down. Re-adjust the sub level to whatever you like, half signal or whatever. If your sub is super efficient it will do that or in your case super awesome.
Running YPAO without sub: You will need to go to the "Configure" section within "Setup" and you will see that "Bass" will be set to "Fronts". Your choices should be SWR, Front, or Both. Re-set "BASS" to "SWR" and re-plug in your signal cable and should be good to go with however your subs were calibrated.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
What I chose to do is save both the YPAO configuration and my original one in the yamaha's memory and do some listening. Of course I need to change the YPAO setting of my front speakers from Large to small to eliminate that huge suckout.
Brian,
The wife said "wow those are big" when she first saw them but she's a great sport in supporting my audio/video obsessions:)
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Dave, and crew, I haven't been on here in a while, but just wanted to stop in and say that those towers look fantastic. My first "real" HT system was put together in 2004 and consisted of 3 CMT-340's and 2 CBM-170's with a HSU VTF-3MkII sub. That system kept me smiling for years. After our daughter was born, the system was sold to unclutter the living room and scale back a little. Over the years, I've continued to work on the downstairs theater and went with mostly pro-audio high sensitivity designs, but I'll never forget the sound of that first "real" system. Many thanks for years of happiness and for getting me hooked on HT that real folks can afford. Continued success!
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Hi Dave,
Did you have a chance to measure off axis response while the speakers were in the shop?
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jonnyozero3
Dave - any updates on the center channel would be welcome as well!
Matching center is in the works :)
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GARY410
Hello everyone! I'm the new guy lol.I must say those speakers are very nice.I was wondering is their a ETA on these Badboys our pre-order? Thanks for your time.
The towers are available for pre-order right now. Please send me a PM or an email for full details.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Please excuse me if I have over looked the specs for the towers, could someone point me to this info or is it to come soon ? Thank You
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lugnut
Please excuse me if I have over looked the specs for the towers, could someone point me to this info or is it to come soon ? Thank You
Did you see page one of this thread? It has just about all the specs;)
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Thank You , I don't know how I missed that !
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
I would like to read a review of the Towers with a good 2 Ch. system instead of a HT Receiver. I envision them as primarily for music without a Sub.
If anyone in Monterey gets them I would love to hear how they sound.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Blutarsky
I would like to read a review of the Towers with a good 2 Ch. system instead of a HT Receiver. I envision them as primarily for music without a Sub.
If anyone in Monterey gets them I would love to hear how they sound.
I might be able to help, although I am not local to you;)
See below.....
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Ascend Tower Review
Its been a week and I felt it was time to post some more formal thoughts on the Towers. I have been spending each night after work listening to various tracks, movies, trying different configurations, locations, etc. After about a week of tweaking and of taking measurements using my RS SPL meter and REW, I have them dialed in as best I can for now.
First off I want to say I am not overly experienced in writing my thoughts down in regard to audio reviews. I am not one to go out to various A/V stores and listen to various speakers from different manufacturers. I have instead gone the Internet direct route based on all of the positive reviews from all of you over the years. Plus, I just don’t feel as comfortable going into these stores and sitting there for quite some time listening to music other folks in there may or may not like including the sales folks. To summarize my musical (speaker) resume it would include the following:
Most of the Ascend Acoustic models from the little HTM-200SE’s to the Sierra-1 Nrt’s and everything in between.
Boston Acoustic Towers from about 10 years ago (VR-950’s or something)
Salk Song Towers (Ribbon Tweeter)
Paradigm S8’s, their matching bookshelf, and the Studio 100’s and matching bookshelf as well.
AV123 Towers speakers, 850’s maybe?
Dynaudio Contours (don’t know model)
SVS MTS line of Towers and Bookshelf’s including both first and 2nd versions
Emotiva Bookshelfs
Various other smaller speakers from some of the previous GTG’s I have attended.
On to the goods! I will start out by describing my setup so everyone knows what they are being run off of.
Proceed Amp 3 – 150w @ 8ohms for front three speakers, 250w @ 4ohms per channel (the Towers fall somewhere between 4-6 ohms so I imagine they are being fed over 200w easily)
Parasound 2100 2ch Preamp with HT bypass
Squeezebox Touch - as source playing mostly FLAC files.
Rythmik D-15SE sub EQ’ed pretty flat in room with a Behringer FD and REW.
Ascends bulk 11g speaker wire for front three speakers – nothing fancy here, sorry.
Room is 17’ wide and about 30’ long splitting into an area with a pool table, and it also open up into the Kitchen and hallway. Ceilings are vaulted and peak at about 13’. Speakers are toed in slightly, I sit about 13’ from them, and they are about 9’ apart.
I choose to create a CD / playlist of my personal favorite tracks that I feel were well recorded. I use these 18 tracks for most of the critical listening.
Track list:
Nils Lofgren – Keith don’t go and Man in the Moon
Daryl Stuermer (from genesis) – In too deep & Man on the corner
Dire Straits – Ride across the River
Jesse Cook – Switchback, Virtue, Matisse the cat, Café Mocha
Jack Johnson – Breakdown, Rodeo Clowns, Upside down
Rob Thomas – all that I am
Santana – Corazon Espinado
NIN – Into the void
Fleetwood Mac – Go insane (Live), Seven Wonders, Family Man
To start my review I must publically thank Dave F over at Ascend for all he did for me during the creation of these speakers. I had actually ordered the Salk songtowers and ended up cancelling the order after speaking with Dave one day when he told me he had some Tower ideas being thrown around☺ I opted to wait it out, not knowing it would take over 18 months, but now that I look back, it was well worth the wait. Along the way, he provided me updates and even asked for my feedback(not sure how helpful I was). I probably emailed him weekly asking “are they done yet” ☺ Anyways, he is a perfectionist and made sure every aspect of this design was fully optimized before he would release them. The results definitely exceeded me expectations. Thank you Dave!
Delivery –
The Towers arrived packaged in separate boxes (I took a pic of the UPS truck pulling up just to follow in the footsteps of all the Salk owners over on AC) ☺ Each one double boxed, held in place with foam and wrapped up well.
Finish –
This was maybe one of the largest roadblocks Dave encountered along the way. He originally was shooting for a local CA vendor to do a specific finish and things did not quite work out. He then opted to try another local Guitar finishing company that does a true hand finished Piano Black. The results are stunning! Here is what Dave posted
“This pair is a very unique true piano black. What makes them unique is that they are 100% hand finished, hand buffed Made in the USA - and the finish is a polyester resin based piano black. Most piano black finishes (especially from Asia) are polyurethane. Polyester buffs to a higher sheen and is harder. The finishing on this pair was completed by an experienced guitar finishing company.
Regrettably, this is a very expensive option and will add $700 to the introductory base price of $1898/pair.”
In my opinion, the finish on these look much better than the sierras I have although my sierras were very early run models and things have improved greatly since. They are truly mirror like. Construction - Full bamboo cabinet, which is probably the most inert tower speaker I have felt.
Sound (finally right)
Originally I had them running off my 2100 preamp with a 80hz crossover setting from my previous Sierra setup. Both Dave and others convinced me to run them full range instead (the only other option with the 2100). So I did. If you did not know already, the Towers are a full 3 way speaker design with 2 modified sierra-1 drivers for bass duty only, the same 1” SEAS NrT tweeter used in the upgraded Sierra, and a new 5.25” SEAS midrange driver housed in its own enclosure. With the mid driver in its own enclosure, leaving the 2 two woofers to play deeper bass will not negatively effect the mid range performance, hence me running them full range. With the sierra-1, running them full range with too much bass material will ultimately effect the mids(in a negative way) since the driver has double duty.
First thing I notice, the IMAGING! These things image like crazy and fill my room much better than the sierras. Where as the sierras had a great soundstage and imaged well, the Towers take it to the next level if not more. Vocals float in the air centered between the two speakers while other instruments come from all around. Certain tracks especially the NIN one (why I chose it) is crazy. The opening part has this buzzing sound emanating all around you like surround sound, I had never heard it quite like this until now, very impressed.
Bass – I’ll admit, the sierras have phenomenal bass for such a small bookshelf speaker and only a 5.25” driver. So I had pretty high expectations for the Tower version. I was not disappointed. They are by no means a bass monster, but the bass is very articulate and clean. I can say the bass has more “texture” or detail to it than the transmission line design of the Salks(its easier to remember bass notes over mids or highs) They provide plenty of low end if one chooses to forego a sub. Although I have not heard these directly compared to other speakers, some Towers with larger 6.5” or bigger drivers will probably reach a bit lower. Dave has admitted his design goals were not for extra low bass reproduction. For music, they are more than sufficient, for movies, I still firmly feel a sub is needed to satisfy that extra low material found in many modern Blu ray releases. Lately I have been experimenting with the Rythmik on and off while listening to music. I still prefer the Rythmik playing although without a real accurate sub with servo like the Rythmik, I would lean towards leaving the Towers to run solo. The bass hits hard and low with authority and I have not even come close to their limits.
Power Handling –
Another thing that jumped out at me right off the bat was they require less volume on the preamp, they are obviously more efficient! Plus my amp is probably feeding them quite a bit more juice than the sierras received. So those with mid level receivers, don’t worry, they don’t need much power. Although, they do rate around 4-6 ohms, so make sure your gear can handle it. I have not taken any max in room SPL numbers thus far, but the Towers will blow your socks off if asked to do so. They provide a lot more output than the sierras. I did crank them pretty loud several times and they handled it effortlessly. I know Patrick (warpdrv) can attest to this, the sierras can max out without trying to hard(of course they were being fed over 250w). I highly doubt the Towers will run into this issue, in fact I do not want to find out how LOUD they go.
Mid Range / vocals
This was one of two areas I felt the sierra-1s needed improving on. After first hearing the towers were going to be a true 3-way design, I knew good things were in store. Most of my listening consists of male vocals but so far, all vocals have more weight and detail to them without being “honky” or muddy in any way. The vocals are very airy like and simply fill the room with clean, and very articulate sound. It was much easier to pinpoint the vocals coming out of the sierras when you closed your eyes during listening. Now with the towers, they hover all around from the front soundstage and you don’t get the feeling they are coming from a music “box” per say. I listened to several tracks, which really stood out, and one is the Rob Thomas track I listed. His vocal performance on this track is amazing and the way its portrayed on the Towers is very intoxicating. The vocals move around and it’s a neat experience. I did listen to Stevie Nicks voice on several of the Fleetwood mac tracks and even some Diane Krall not listed above. So far, all sounded improved on over and above the sierra-1 even the Nrt version, which has a little better mid range over the standard version.
After hearing Nuances Songtowers for the first time, I knew what a great midrange sounded like. It was this sound I was hoping for on the new Towers. I cannot say which speaker is better(my audio memory in this regard is not that good), but the Towers provide better mid range and vocal performance over the sierras which I will use as my reference point.
Highs
After first hearing the NrT tweeter on my sierra-1, I was sold. Myself, and a few others I know had always felt the sierra-1 needed a bit more energy and detail up top. I would not call it veiled, but it lacked that sparkle some highly refined tweeters have such as the Be one found in the Paradigm S8’s. The Nrt tweeter is spectacular and closes the gap. I have not heard a ton of soft dome tweets, but this is by far the best one for me to date. Its very airy(sorry to use this term again) and extremely detailed without the negative attributes such as sibilance. Its very snappy if that makes sense. Cymbals and other similar instruments sound much more natural and realistic. The Nrt is far from laid back or veiled, in fact if you prefer that type of sound, you may not like it. I like my highs to be somewhat forward as long as they do not cause any fatigue or harsh sibilance. After hearing live music up close, it always seems the cymbals and etc playing back on my previous speakers could not match the timbre accuracy or “power” of the live performance. With the Towers, I feel like this frequency range is portrayed much more accurately. I will not call them “forward” speakers but rather a very very accurate speaker.
The tracks here that really showed off the Nrt tweeter(and mid woofer) were the acoustic guitar tracks from Nils. This live album was recorded so well. Its unbelievable how realistic the guitar sounds in my room. The intricate plucks, finger sliding, etc is portrayed so well and with so much detail, its very cool. The “Keith don’t go” track is highly recommended if you want to hear some awesome guitar work. Other tracks by Jesse Cook provide some ear candy for highs as well. His work is very unique and it incorporates such a variety of instruments and interesting sound. It really showed off the Towers and their ability to accurately reproduce complex passages. In my mind, I am most critical of a speakers top end as it seems to jump out at me first. Some metal dome tweeters sound too harsh while some soft domes sound veiled. After hearing The Salks Ribbon tweeter, and the Be tweeter form the S8’s, I truly feel the Nrt can hold its own against them.
Conclusion
Overall as you can tell, I am very impressed with the Ascend Towers. They improved upon the two areas I felt the sierras needed work on(mid range & highs). I feel the 3-way design was crucial in improving upon those areas allowing each driver to focus on what its best at. I know 3-way designs often falter due to poor crossover integration among the drivers, but Dave definitely did his homework here and it shows. I would not have the slightest clue on how to “describe” how the proper blending of the drivers sounds, other than I don’t hear it. Simple as that, they sound like one unit, all playing together in harmony☺ If you were to ask me what I like best or what the biggest difference is between it and other speakers such as the sierra-1, I would say the imaging is phenomenal and the detail and accuracy of the mids/highs is very realistic. I wanted to get this review completed before I host a small GTG at my place next weekend. I will be curious to hear others thoughts on them and if they mirror my own impressions.
Thank you guys for sticking with me as I waited for my dream speakers! I feel very privileged to own the first Ascend Tower speakers.
Brandon
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
You're not going to be driving through Oklahoma with your towers in your trunk by chance are you:D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
edmondwolfman
You're not going to be driving through Oklahoma with your towers in your trunk by chance are you:D
Had not planned on it:p
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Brandon , thank you much for spending your time and keeping us informed on your thoughts and impressions of the new towers. Can't wait to hear other's impressions of them. Now on to the questions for Dave. When are they going to be officially released ? Any pictures yet of the other colors ? i am on the pre-order list, is it long ? Maybe a PM back !
Thanks Rich
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Merry, if you had the Songtowers and now had heard the Ascend towers would you be disappointed that you had the Songtowers? Would you sell the Salks and replace them with the Ascend Towers?
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
A very intriguing seres of opinions. My last Towers had a very low SAF. They were Genesis 6.1s from my friend Arnie Nudell. I think they represented the end of a quest for me. I down sized to Usher Be-718 Monitors with a Martin Logan Depth i Sub. It is a pretty good set up.
I feel it lacks Mid Range warmth and, is a little bright. Thus, The new Ascend Towers appeal to me.
Keep the reviews coming....
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
edmondwolfman
Merry, if you had the Songtowers and now had heard the Ascend towers would you be disappointed that you had the Songtowers? Would you seel the Salks and replace them with the Ascent Towers?
Edmond,
I have not heard the ST's in quite a while. I did hear them in my room with my gear. I have a feeling the bass and sheer power handling will be better on the Ascends. As for the highs and mids, I'm not sure its fair to judge without comparing side by side. I will say I did compare the original sierras directly against the ST's while they were at my place. During the comparison the ST's had noticeable better mid range (not leaps/bounds) and a bit more sparkle/detail on top end (Ribbon tweeter). Using that info, the Ascend Towers have quite a bit better mids, much more airy and detailed. The highs have better extension and timbre accuracy as well. The mid driver in the Ascend may give them the edge in the midrange, but I would need too hear them both side by side to judge the highs.
If I can convince my buddy to bring them back down next weekend for my speaker event, that will answer all inquiring minds.
Hope this helps,
Brandon
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
merrymaid520
Edmond,
I have not heard the ST's in quite a while. I did hear them in my room with my gear. I have a feeling the bass and sheer power handling will be better on the Ascends. As for the highs and mids, I'm not sure its fair to judge without comparing side by side. I will say I did compare the original sierras directly against the ST's while they were at my place. During the comparison the ST's had noticeable better mid range (not leaps/bounds) and a bit more sparkle/detail on top end (Ribbon tweeter). Using that info, the Ascend Towers have quite a bit better mids, much more airy and detailed. The highs have better extension and timbre accuracy as well. The mid driver in the Ascend may give them the edge in the midrange, but I would need too hear them both side by side to judge the highs.
If I can convince my buddy to bring them back down next weekend for my speaker event, that will answer all inquiring minds.
Hope this helps,
Brandon
Now that would be great. You could put those suckers side by side using the same equipment and same music. That would be an apples to apples comparison. Bribe him if you have to:D
Hey Merry, do you like your "touch" as much as I do? I think the touch has been one of the best additions I've done in a long while. I also use a 4th generation iPod (with iPeng) as a wireless remote :D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
edmondwolfman
Now that would be great. You could put those suckers side by side using the same equipment and same music. That would be an apples to apples comparison. Bribe him if you have to:D
Hey Merry, do you like your "touch" as much as I do? I think the touch has been one of the best additions I've done in a long while. I also use a 4th generation iPod (with iPeng) as a wireless remote :D
I will be bribing him with good micro brews;) My other buddy coming has the Salk HT2-TL's which are quite a step up from the Songtowers too. If one of the guys can bring theirs, I would be grateful!
I love the Squeezebox Touch! It replaced the SB3 I had before. I love not having to fiddle with CD's and the analog outs to my preamp sound great, I even tried a PS Audio DacIII to compare, and sold the DAC:)
Forgot, I use ipeng on my iphone as well, works great!
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Hey Merry, do you like your "touch" as much as I do?
omg, take it to pm you two love birds... This isn't the place for that kind of ero-sensual thing! :D
Quote:
Bass – I’ll admit, the sierras have phenomenal bass for such a small bookshelf speaker and only a 5.25” driver. So I had pretty high expectations for the Tower version. I was not disappointed. They are by no means a bass monster, but the bass is very articulate and clean. I can say the bass has more “texture” or detail to it than the transmission line design of the Salks [.....] The bass hits hard and low with authority and I have not even come close to their limits.
Thanks for the detailed review :) Curious, how much better is the bass on the towers vs the bookshelves? Think I read you had the Paradigms S8, or maybe it was someone else... Anyhow, how would you rate them compared to them, or maybe another speaker besides Salks? (Salks being un-hearable) Thanks!
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GirgleMirt
omg, take it to pm you two love birds... This isn't the place for that kind of ero-sensual thing! :D
Thanks for the detailed review :) Curious, how much better is the bass on the towers vs the bookshelves? Think I read you had the Paradigms S8, or maybe it was someone else... Anyhow, how would you rate them compared to them, or maybe another speaker besides Salks? (Salks being un-hearable) Thanks!
HA! ^^^ He asked first;)
anyway,
Ok Tower vs Sierra. To me, same quality of bass, not much difference in that regard. I credit that to the same drivers and bamboo cabinet. Amount of extra bass is noticeable on the towers but not a large night/day difference. I believe specs say roughly a 3-4db deeper (anechoic) for the towers. Previously there was no way I would run the sierras without a good quality sub, with the towers, I could live without one(music only). Hope that answers your question.
I have heard a friends Sig8's, not at my place, only the bookshelf version here. They IIRC had larger 6.5"-7" drivers and put out a touch more bass. As for other comparisons, I have not really heard many other Tower speakers lately other than the Paradigms and Salks. I would consider them(Ascends) well above average for bass response but not necessarily in the league of really superb highend big towers with real large cabinets, drivers, etc.
Hope that helped somewhat,
Brandon
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GirgleMirt
omg, take it to pm you two love birds... This isn't the place for that kind of ero-sensual thing! :D
Oh I forgot...this is the tower thread. Let me rephrase. Merry do you like your "touch" as much as I do...WHILE IT'S PLAYING THROUGH YOUR NEW ASCEND TOWERS? :D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
OK for the geezers in the group...what the Harry is a "Touch". And do I need it? Would I want it?
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TomK
OK for the geezers in the group...what the Harry is a "Touch". And do I need it? Would I want it?
You need it and after you try it you will be glad you have one :cool:
Logitech Touch using Squeezebox server to stream music from your computer and will play HD music with sample rates up to 96kHz/24 bit. It has a touch screen but comes with a remote. It also displays the album art of the music playing (if your music is tagged appropriately). It plays probably 1000's of radio stations and knows by location which ones are local to you.
What I like is to use an iPod touch or iPhone (a device you can add to your wireless network) like Merry and install an app called iPeng. That will work as wireless remote control that you can control from outside, another room or anywhere your wireless network will reach. iPeng displays album art also and you can display by artist, album, genre, year, etc. If you use the search feature it will find and display the music you are searching for most of the time before you are finished typing.
If you don't want to play music on your computers across your network you can plug a USB or SD card directly into the Logitech touch and not even need a network but I use a network as I have thousands of songs.
And to keep in line with this thread you can listen to it through YOUR NEW ASCEND TOWERS! :D
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Mr. Wolfman I understand now. Not sure if I want it but I may need it.
As for the Towers; I'm waiting to see a layout on the "Home" page showing photos of the finish choices, listing of specifications, and ordering info. I wonder why the delay.
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TomK
Mr. Wolfman I understand now. Not sure if I want it but I may need it.
As for the Towers; I'm waiting to see a layout on the "Home" page showing photos of the finish choices, listing of specifications, and ordering info. I wonder why the delay.
My guess for any delays would be parts availability. The NrT drivers & crossovers were all spoken for and Dave was awaiting the next shipment. That's for the Sierra's. I suspect it is a similar situation for the towers. Remember, the first pair of towers that Merrymaid received are more or less the prototype. I'm sure Dave needs to finalize the little details like cabinet production and parts supply, as well as official packaging. I think he may have underestimated demand, which is a good thing!
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Mags,
If they are half as good as I think they are they will sell like hot cakes!
I was extremely happy with my original 340s (not the improved ones.) So I am anticipating really fine speakers. Your answer makes sense. Before putting the final Towers up for sale all the ducks have to be in a row. So I'll be patient.......times up.!
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Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Very Sexy looking....if they sound half as good as they lo......................
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2 Attachment(s)
Tower finishes
Hi Guys,
Sorry for all of the delays.
Below are pictures of the initial finishes that will be offered.
Here are Espresso and Dark Cherry, both have a satin finish to them (20 sheen).
These finishes match the Sierra-1, but are not nearly as glossy and don't hide the grain as match.