But, I'm now here to report on the Ascends, although understand that their competition wasn't all that great, yet.

First, I got into my system and made certain that I had everything wired in phase, because frankly, I had never done it before.

Then, I hooked the 170s up as my fronts and turned off my sub. I listened to just the Ascends in 2 channel (well not really because I left my center channel on) and compared it to my old Rock Solids and BAs. (Well Edster, thanks for saying the old BA rears wouldn't measure up -that was the understatement of this century.)

WOW!!! The Ascends simply sounded incredibly neutral with clear highs and a great midrange. The BAs were incredibly outlclassed (now in fairness they were $100-$150/pair speakers 10 years ago.) I never realized how BAD these BA rears were.

Next, I A/Bed the Ascends and the Rock Solids (which I believe were an entry level B & W that I paid about $400 for the pair - 10 years ago.) The Rock Solids still sounded pretty good in comparison BUT they were muddier in the midrange and they were "bright" isn't exactly the right word, maybe slightly tinny. Piano sounded like piano but not quite right and violins sounded a little too "stringy" and steel guitar just didn't sound like steel guitar and horms kinda blended together. BUT, given their age and all, they sounded OK. I listened to classical, jazz, several different rock groups and an orchestral/choir collection.

Then, I added the BK sub to the mix and it filled in the low incredibly well. (I kept the fronts as "small" in the Denon 3803 so most of the bass was coming from the MK at that point.) I should add, though, I could live with the 170s without the sub BUT you would clearly be missing a fair amount of the music.

Then, I listened to the same pieces of music comparing the RSs and the 170s and the difference in musical quality was even more obvious, the Ascends just reproduced the music better/more crisply, especially with the bass filled in by the MK.

Later in the evening, I decided to put the Rock Solids in the rears and put on LOTR - Two Towers. In the scene at Helm's Deep, which I have purposely watched 3-4 in the last week so I could compare, there's a scene where Vigo is talking to a young man and playing with his sword while they're waiting for the Orcs, Kury - whatever they are, and ever so faintly I began to hear the footsteps in the background. This was probably a good 10-15 seconds before I'd heard them before.

Later, I brought my wife in and replayed that scene. She noticed it immediately and said, "I've never heard that before!!!!."

Anyway, she promptly sat down, told me restart the movie and we watched it in its entirety. I'm a little hard of hearing on highs especially, and lately I've had to use subtitles to catch all the dialogue in movies. She asked if I needed to turn on the subtitles about a 1/3 of the way through and I had not had any problem hearing the dialogue. There's that crisp, clear high again AND I know it wasn't the dang, Polk center because it's been there all along.

Anyway, I know this is too long and it was probably only 4-5 hours of listening total BUT I was incredibly impressed with the Ascends so far. AND, James at Ascend said "wait until you get 20-30 hours on these speakers before you judge them because they start getting broken in, the sound improves even more."

WOW is all I can say so far. Thanks all.