I did it...

[shane55]

Welcome to Bizarro World

All good, all good, all good.
Yeah, and I get more enjoyment out of my system every day, with each thing (movie or music) that I play.

Saw 'Ladder 49' this evening and the sound was amazing. It was so completely enveloping... like we were inside the buildings!

Yes, if all purchases went this smoothly, and resulted in such complete satisfaction... well... you fill the rest in.

Good luck and let us know how it all goes.

cheers

shane

[BGHD]

Just wanted to ask advise from the people who’s been in this situation (had to wait for speakers to arrive) before – did you use any kind of medication, psychoanalyst, anything?

Couple suggestions:

1) Spend some time reading-up on speaker placement, running wires, filling the 340 stands, etc, so when they arrive, just plug 'em in.
2) Spend the time at BB listening to all their crappy setups, so when yours is done, it'll sound that much more gratifying.
3) Xanax will work too.

[Cliff_L]

I had mine shipped directly to my workplace - that way I had them in my hands as soon as they arrived and I didn't stew for the entire afternoon knowing that they were sitting at my house. In fact, one of my friends here at work had a receiver so we hooked them up as soon as I got them!

Anything to keep the "waiting" to a minimum helped!

[dpristin]

OK, I finally got them (after my wife missed the brown truck) and hooked up everything but haven't calibrated yet and tried only 2ch. stereo. I feel sorry for my neighbors. They will be hearing a lot of music from now on. On another hand it’s going to be good music played by excellent speakers. Excellent, excellent. Regardless of the price. But taking into account how much I paid for them (my system is B-stock and I haven’t been able to find any signs of it yet) – it’s quite remarkable. More to follow… Need to take a deep breath.

[dpristin]

...and here comes the pucture - it's not pretty yet but what a potential!...

[jermy4]

...and here comes the pucture - it's not pretty yet but what a potential!...

I think it looks great. Nice setup!

[dpristin]

Well, my "not pretty" comment was about all those wires visible everywhere. It's clear to everyone that Ascends are the most good-looking speakers ever made . Seriously - they look fine to me and (most importantly!) to my wife. The disaster struck when the center speaker didn’t fit into my stand - I went through quite a few tense moments so now it's pretty much standing on the floor with its back edge. Yes I know it's not a perfect situation but as a temporary solution it'll work this way for a while. I haven't calibrated the system using SPL meter yet, but I've played with my Marantz's settings and listened a little but for a DTS version of Queen videos - I know it was said so many times before but I DID HEAR ALL THESE SOUNDS THAT I PREVIOUSLY HAD NO IDEA ABOUT! My wife was very impressed with the way "Breakthrough" sounds in DTS. I guess she accepted the fact that these speakers are not going anywhere and started to enjoy them as much as I am (I might exaggerate a little here). I’ll get everything calibrated and post some new details (until you guys get sick of me ). But – these speakers are great, many thanks to David F. for designing them and being so generous about the pricing; and to the Ascend community for spreading the word and making this forum the way it is.

[dpristin]

Well - one more day with Ascends. Yesterday I listened to my favorite pieces from 4 different CDs (classical mostly). I’m absolutely positive that I’m not going to be looking for a different set of speakers any time soon. I purposely chose very different music (instruments- and vocal - wise) and the CMT-340 nailed every detail, ambience, character - you name it. The orchestra feels alive; the strings had that slightly-tiny screeching quality to them – they way they should sound; the piano on the Rachmaninov 2d concerto was sounding exactly the way big grand piano should sound in the large concert hall with appropriate fullness and ambience, clarinet (Mozart’s last concerto) was spot on making perfect sense of why these kind of instruments are called woodwind and vocals and chorus where absolutely perfect (Mozart C-minor mass). Dynamics wise it was a treat as well - I guess I should partially contribute this to the power reserves of the Marantz SR-8400. By the way – I used to boost treble (all the way up) and bass (slightly) on my old system but I haven’t even thought of doing this with my new setup. Music just sounds the way it should – period. Absolutely amazing. Never thought I’d ever own anything of this quality. I’m really struggling right now to squeeze as much music listening as possible into my daily routine. I guess it’s hard to explain how speakers can change the way you listen to the music – I’m a lifelong music lover and I can’t say that I ever suffered from the lack of attention while listening to the music but Ascends simply grab your attention and make you notice all these slightest details that you’ve never heard before and do absolutely amazing job at conveying the true character and mood of the piece. I think this is as close to a live performance in a hall with good acoustics as it gets (I’m not an audiophile though). I haven’t tried watching movies yet (I don’t have too much time for this unfortunately) but I’m sure it’s going to be an eye-opening (or, rather, ear-opening :-) ) experience as well. Need to get that SPL meter first.

[dpristin]

By the way - can anybody tell me what does CMT and CBM mean?
Just curious...

[Mag_Neato]

By the way - can anybody tell me what does CMT and CBM mean?
Just curious...

Compact Monitor Tower

Compact Bookshelf Monitor