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Thread: Well, I "Bought the farm" and "Chunked the Pumpkin!"

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Portland, Or
    Posts
    165

    Talking Well, I "Bought the farm" and "Chunked the Pumpkin!"

    Since Highlife wanted a new phrase, I decided to reference Lou and Dae3Dae3's suggestions.

    After a month and a half of back and forth mental wrangling over my personal "340 vs. 170 as surrounds" debate, I burned the monthly budget on a pair of 170s.

    I like multichannel audio, so my original thinking was 340s would be best if the room worked. My room sucks. Given my placement restrictions, the 170s work better than the 340s would. When I move from my current acoustically challenged room, I will consider getting 340s as side surrounds and moving the 170s to the rear.

    They ship tomorrow. Sometime next week I will FINALLY be in 5.1 surround sound. Once I have my system dialed in, I will do an in depth review of my setup. I did a quick and dirty initial impression of my 340M and VTF3 Mk II a few months ago, but I didn't feel it was worth putting in the review forum.

    Dave, thanks for letting me pick your brain off and on the past few months. Your help, as well as everybody else on this forum have made buyers remorse a complete non-issue for me. I can't say that for some other big ticket purchases I've made in my lifetime. I'm sold on Ascend as a company as much as it's products.
    Last edited by jimsiff; 05-11-2005 at 07:41 PM.
    -Jim

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Oaktown, CA
    Posts
    226

    Default

    Congrats on having made an excellent decision.
    The 170's are amazing, and I really don't think you can be disappointed with them as rear (or front!) speakers.

    I've been comparing my 340's to the 170's for the past two days, and am blown away by how clean and tight the 170's are. They are dead-neutral and extremely spacial.

    I'm having a very hard time deciding between the two for mains. I'm not sure that I can afford to keep both sets (I will keep the 340c, for sure). If I get the WAF nod, I will put the 170's as the rear speakers. Otherwise, I'll keep testing various material on these two sets.

    They are very different, but both extremely good. I can imagine this was a tough decision for you.

    Use them in good health.

    shane
    Yes Eve, I like to watch.

    My setup:
    http://www.fototime.com/5EF1F78FC789849/orig.jpg
    HT: 340SE's Front & Center - 340 Classic's Surround, SVS PB110-ISD.
    Office (2-ch): 170SE's

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    15

    Default

    Shane,

    I am very interested in your thoughts, since you are in fact directly comparing the two. In what ways would you be able to say please, that the 340's are different from the 170's? This would be extremely helpful information for me...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Huntington, Indiana
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    146

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    You Bought the farm and Chunked the Pumpkin but did you "flip the flapjack?"

    That's what is really important.
    Darren
    There's no place like 127.0.0.1

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Oaktown, CA
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    226

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by NewBuyer
    Shane,

    I am very interested in your thoughts, since you are in fact directly comparing the two. In what ways would you be able to say please, that the 340's are different from the 170's? This would be extremely helpful information for me...
    Hey there NewBuyer...
    Yeah, another day of comparing and calibrating, and comparing. Classical, Jazz, Rock, more classical and jazz. Some more rock. Oh... and some bluegrass and other acoustic stuff.

    There is more of a difference between these two than I would have imagined. The imaging is completely different as is the tonality and timbre. I haven't put much of this into concrete thoughts (let alone words) yet, but I still feel that the 170's are probably the most neutral speakers I've heard. They are almost scary flat (and that's a good thing in my book). The 340's are not. The 170's are clear, clean and revealing.

    As I said on another post comparing the 170's to the PSB Image B25's, the 170's have a cold precision to them. They do nothing wrong. Their soundstage, however is somewhat thin and narrow, and slightly directional. This is fine, but holosonics(?) and dimensionality was better in the PSB's.

    The 340's are an odd bird. Similar to the PSB's, they sound amazingly good with some music... and not so with others. They have some deficiencies and exaggerations in their tonal range. I.e. certain frequencies are extenuated and others are diminished. This gives a false quality to certain recordings, but can 'improve' others. On the whole, they are excellent speakers, but are far from 'monitor' quality as the 170's are. They are not neutral. They are colored, but not as much so as the PSB's. The 340's seem to dump some of the high mid-band and pump up the extreme high's and the low mid-band. This leaves a bit of a void... right where the middle violin strings are, but gives a 'loudness' impression. They sound more 'rich' and 'warm' than the 170's. In that regard they somewhat between the 170's and the PSB's... which is actually what I was hoping for.

    Even after almost three days with the 340's, they are still an enigma. Movies are fantastic with them. Actually, I prefer them to the 170's for most loud, action-type soundtracks. Listening to the 340's during the gunfight near the end of Open Range (DTS) is a fantastic experience. Each shot is felt in the gut, and it provides a tremendous 'presence' to the sound. Underworld, Hellboy, LOTR, etc... all kick butt with these. The 170's were also excellent, but proved the slightest bit 'harsh' and fatiguing *in comparison*... after many hours.

    I'm not through putting these through their paces. The imaging on the 340's is 'interesting'. I'm going to need to move them around to see if it's positional, or if they really do what I've experienced. I don't want to get into that too much as it may not be relevant...

    Well... you asked for it. I hope it helped.

    Sorry jimsiff if this hijacked your post a bit.

    cheers

    shane
    Yes Eve, I like to watch.

    My setup:
    http://www.fototime.com/5EF1F78FC789849/orig.jpg
    HT: 340SE's Front & Center - 340 Classic's Surround, SVS PB110-ISD.
    Office (2-ch): 170SE's

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Posts
    15

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    It helped a lot. Thank you for the very thorough response, I really appreciate it. You do a really good job of describing the experience, in fact an extremely good job IMO.

    Thanks again. I (and probably others too) would love to hear your continued impressions in the future too, if you are interested in sharing them.

    Regards!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Portland, Or
    Posts
    165

    Default

    Shane, don't worry about hijacking this. I started the thread to BS a bit about the "New Phrase" thread and announce to the forum that I did everything but pull the trigger. Basically I'm happy to have made a decision to complete my 5.1 package.

    Run with it if you want to, but it might be best to continue your thoughts and impressions in a new thread. It would make it easier for future forum users to skim through the BS.

    And yes, Dae3dae3, I did flip that flapjack. I also took a leap, jumped off the fence, sprung into action and finally made a decision.
    -Jim

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Oaktown, CA
    Posts
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    Thanks...

    Yeah, I had actually planned on starting a new thread once all my testing and decisions were complete, and my thoughts crystalized into words. NewBuyer just gave me an opportunity to dump some preliminary thoughts here.

    cheers!

    Ps... I guess it's bad when the ears begin to bleed, eh?
    Yes Eve, I like to watch.

    My setup:
    http://www.fototime.com/5EF1F78FC789849/orig.jpg
    HT: 340SE's Front & Center - 340 Classic's Surround, SVS PB110-ISD.
    Office (2-ch): 170SE's

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2004
    Posts
    13

    Default I had to

    Quote Originally Posted by jimsiff
    Since Highlife wanted a new phrase, I decided to reference Lou and Dae3Dae3's suggestions.

    After a month and a half of back and forth mental wrangling over my personal "340 vs. 170 as surrounds" debate, I burned the monthly budget on a pair of 170s.
    Welcome Aboard!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    calgary ab
    Posts
    61

    Default

    well im not a farmer so i didnt buy the farm. but i did jump into the hudson and order a system and h/k335 just now

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