They've Arrived...

[doc5]

Well, I sat like a child watching for the UPS man to arrive all day. And, as is typical, he showed up just as my wife and I were leaving to have supper with my parents. So, all I could do was load my 340SE boxes into my house and drive off.
Dinner finished, we rushed home to hook them up... First impressions below.

Started off listening to the digital cable music channels with just them mains on while I made a new speaker cable for the center. They were, hmm, less than impressive. Then I realized I had the HK AVR635 set for surround (as it is coming from the cable tv box) and that most signal was going to the 'center' that wasn't there. Well, by that time, I got the cable made, shut it all down and hooked up the center. Back on to digital music in surround mode, much better now. Just listened for a few minutes, nothing familiar to me, so off to a CD.

I'm only 1 CD into these things and WOW! Switched to 2.1 for this CD of Celtic fiddle music. Played around with settings- large and no sub, large with sub, small with sub crossed at 100, 80 and 60. They were nice full range without sub, but I am really enjoying small and crossed over at 60. This is fun. Celtic fiddle can be quite 'harsh.' Not at all. In fact I had volume quite loud and was very comfortable. I would not call these speakers bright. They are detailed, yes, but harsh no. I think I would call them 'vibrant' if forced to use a single word. Of course I have a lot more listening and tweeking to do, but I am very pleasaed thus far. I have turned them some moving from significantly towed in to dead straight, and I think I've found a happy medium, but time will tell.
Movies over the weekend, and of course more music.
DaveF- again, congrats on the new-addition-to-be and to the new edition of this speaker. I don't think you'll be getting this set back
-doc

[JohnnyCasaba]

Thanks for the impressions, as a classic owner, I enjoy reading about the SE's. If your digital cable music channels are like mine, I don't think they are the best to test out the capabilities of the speakers. Here they are in Dolby Stereo and sound very compressed. Have fun with the new toys and let us know what you think after a few more days and a few movies.

[doc5]

Well, a few days into these loudspeakers now, they sound just wonderful.
I am certainly not an expert at this, but I'll tell you about them so far. For referance, my old systems were a pair of sony's with 8" woofers and a very old set of marantz also with 8" woofers. I don't know model numbers. Both cabinets larger than the ascends.
I auditioned Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, and DefTech at the only 'high end' audio place around (I live in the middle of nowhere PA) prior to ordering the Ascends.
I have been listening tonight to Norah Jones and Diana Krall CD's. The female vocals are absolutely stunning. Clear, beautiful. When Diana first came on my wife didn't believe I had it in 2ch stereo mode. The lead vocals sounded front and center. She (my wife) got off the couch to put her ear next to the center to make sure I wasn't lying to her. "oooh I like these," she says This is good for me
Anyway, I let the HK EZSET/EQ set them up as I was noticing a slight predominence from the FR speaker (It's due to my room setup). Afterwards, what a difference. Much more evenly balanced, and the imaging is of course even better. The auot setup chose crossover of 40 and set FR/FL to large, but I think I prefer small and 60 for crossover, but I am still deciding.
The 340's blow away my old speakers, and are better than the above that I auditioned.
Oh, yeah, the digital cable music... I really never noticed how the sound, well, sounded from it with my old speakers, but yes, 'compressed' is a great term.
I have so much listening and learning to do, but darn this is fun.
-doc

[Wiseguy]

Well, a few days into these loudspeakers now, they sound just wonderful.
I am certainly not an expert at this, but I'll tell you about them so far. For referance, my old systems were a pair of sony's with 8" woofers and a very old set of marantz also with 8" woofers. I don't know model numbers. Both cabinets larger than the ascends.
I auditioned Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, and DefTech at the only 'high end' audio place around (I live in the middle of nowhere PA) prior to ordering the Ascends.
I have been listening tonight to Norah Jones and Diana Krall CD's. The female vocals are absolutely stunning. Clear, beautiful. When Diana first came on my wife didn't believe I had it in 2ch stereo mode. The lead vocals sounded front and center. She (my wife) got off the couch to put her ear next to the center to make sure I wasn't lying to her. "oooh I like these," she says This is good for me
Anyway, I let the HK EZSET/EQ set them up as I was noticing a slight predominence from the FR speaker (It's due to my room setup). Afterwards, what a difference. Much more evenly balanced, and the imaging is of course even better. The auot setup chose crossover of 40 and set FR/FL to large, but I think I prefer small and 60 for crossover, but I am still deciding.
The 340's blow away my old speakers, and are better than the above that I auditioned.
Oh, yeah, the digital cable music... I really never noticed how the sound, well, sounded from it with my old speakers, but yes, 'compressed' is a great term.
I have so much listening and learning to do, but darn this is fun.
-doc

Do the EZ SET/EQ in manual and set the crossover first and then you can run the EQ tests and have the EQ on with your own crossover settings. Best of both worlds.