First theatre- Ascend seems to be for me

[Prairie]

Basically, I am choosing Ascend as my first "real" set-up in the home theatre world(i've had HTIBs in the past). The reasons for this include the stellar reviews as well as these forums. The community here seems very warm and the fact that the employees/owners of the company contribute seems very cool. The support here has definitely swayed me away from Axiom/Athena/HTD.

I will be building my system up slowly, the room I am putting this in is approx. 15x12...very much a square.

My first purchases will be a set of CBM-170's and the Pioneer VSX-815 receiver. I chose the Pioneer as it is in my price range and very feature packed leaving me room to expand in the future. Can anyone reccomend a decent and inexpensive stand that will suit the CBM-170's?

For my sub I have chosen the Dayton 10" sub from Parts Express. Value and performance considered this seems to have the best bang for the buck.

Sometime down the road (I will be running 2.1 for a while) i'll purchase the CMT-340. For surrounds I hope to be able to purchase the HTM-200's. Placement is an issue as my couch is backed into a corner and surrounded by all sides (with the exception of the front, where you sit of course ). There is no room for stands beside the couch, so the only viable option I have is to mount them on the walls. They will end up being very close to your head if you sit down on the couch and I wonder if I should be concerned as to how this will sound with the speakers only a foot or so away from your head. Should I mount them higher on the wall? I could take a picture if that would help anyone visualize the situation.

I'm trying to do this the right way and build my system up properly over the next few months...if anyone has any suggestions for me please do not hesitate to jump in!

Thanks in advance and I hope I can stick around,
Philip

[Mag_Neato]

Here's the stands I use with my 170's...

http://www.racksandstands.com/prods/...1/0PWT0045.htm

They match the asthetics perfectly with the radiused MDF base.

You can explore the site for other options as well.

[chas]

There are also these stands:
http://www.hififorless.com/categorie...categoryid=694

as seen in this thread:
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=789

[Prairie]

Thanks guys...the ones on HiFiforLess seem to be a good option for me. Nice and tall as well.

Now that i'm back at home here is a picture of the space I have to work with for surrounds...not exactly optimal.

[Kurt C.]

My first purchases will be a set of CBM-170's and the Pioneer VSX-815 receiver. I chose the Pioneer as it is in my price range and very feature packed leaving me room to expand in the future. Can anyone reccomend a decent and inexpensive stand that will suit the CBM-170's?

For my sub I have chosen the Dayton 10" sub from Parts Express. Value and performance considered this seems to have the best bang for the buck.

Good choices but... can I offer a suggestion?

As you're starting from the ground up, I'd recommend buying a center speaker before you get a subwoofer. The 170s actually provide rather good bass. Your room configuration makes me think you'll need a center to get a good soundstage and with your head in the corner, you're going to hear quite a bit of bass boost from the room.

To save a bit, consider a 3rd CBM-170 rather than the 340 for your center. Several of us feel that matched 170s across the front will provide a more seamless soundstage. The 170s will play loud enough for your room.

Finally, once you get used to the sound quality of good speakers like the Ascends, you may want more out of a subwoofer than the Dayton can provide.

[Prairie]

I had been debating on whether or not to get the center or the sub first...thanks for the suggestion.

I had seen on another site (Nicholas Mosher's) that the CBM-170 could be used as a center...my only concern was how to mount it...could it sit on the TV as well? What happens in that situation?

As for the sub...down the road when I actually get it i'll probably end up getting an HSU sub...hard to predict my budget at that point.

[Eddie]

I have to disagree with Kurt on getting the center first and going sub-less in the meantime. That's a good idea only if:

1. Your tastes in movies are dramas, comedies, and other low-LFE stuff rather than action/thriller flicks.

2. Your tastes in music are mainly vocals, classical and jazz which are mostly mids and highs.

You can call me a "basshead" but the 170s do NOT deliver anywhere near decent levels of bass IMHO...they were expressedly designed to go with a sub after all.

If your usage is primarily HT then you should be fine with the Dayton sub.

Also the exact timbre-matching that 3 cbm-170s across the front gives you would IMO only be noticeable if you do a lot of SACD/DVD-A multichannel music...for movies and TV the 340 center is well worth the extra money and bulk.

If you're short on cash I'd wait on the surrounds rather than the sub.

Oh and BTW here are some speaker stands you might want to look at which I’ve been very happy with. They look good, were easy to assemble and very reasonably priced. They're only 30" not 36" but the nice thing is they are sand/shot-fillable which the stands from hififorless.com don't appear to be:

http://www.wood-tech.com/product.php?cat=ss&series=mu

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...299225-8744028

Other good sources for good affordable stands:

partsexpress.com
hififorless.com
cousinsvideo.com
racksandstands.com (expensive but huge selection)
accessories4less.com

[Kurt C.]

I had seen on another site (Nicholas Mosher's) that the CBM-170 could be used as a center...my only concern was how to mount it...could it sit on the TV as well? What happens in that situation?

Nick is very methodical and, in my opinion, his approach to choosing the best available component for a given amount of money is excellent. In many cases, I doubt you could find a better choice for ANY amount of money.

Unless you have a wall-mounted TV, the CBM-170 will sit nicely on top.

Read on if you want to hear a long-winded expansion on why I think the 170 is the best choice for a center. Quit now if you don't.

Noted speaker expert Tom Nousaine and several others say that putting the center speaker upright ie same orientation as the left and right is better than laying it on its side. (By traditional center speaker I mean the ones that, like the 340s, have are two identical side-by-side woofers flanking a tweeter). His tests show that the side off-axis frequency response of most speakers is better than the off-axis frequency response above and below the speaker. The result of this is that placing a speaker upright improves the sound for listeners that are sitting off-center and, it minimizes differences in direct versus reflected sound.

Laying center speakers on their side is popular because consumers think it looks better. Most speaker manufacturers have responded to the demand by making center speakers with this side-by-side orientation. Really good center speakers (like the 340 center) are engineered mimize off-axis problems that arise when such a speaker is placed on its side, but I'm not sure if the problem totally goes away.

[Kurt C.]

Also the exact timbre-matching that 3 cbm-170s across the front gives you would IMO only be noticeable if you do a lot of SACD/DVD-A multichannel music...for movies and TV the 340 center is well worth the extra money and bulk.

I'm interested in what exactly makes the 340s a better choice than the 170s?

The 340s ability to handle louder volumes isn't a factor in a room of this size. The center channel handles mostly voices and a sub will eventually take over low bass, so the increased bass capability of the 340s won't be used. Combining the factors I described from Tom Nousaine's studies and the fact that, including shipping, the 170 will cost $114 less makes me see no compelling reason to go with a 340. Unless you like the way it looks...

[curtis]

Kurt...if you do a search, DaveF has a pretty detailed post of the differences between the 340 and 170 and he also references the Cumulative Spectral Decay graphs.