New Ascends Arrival/CBM-170
My Ascends arrived yesterday,CBM-170's all around. Was up at 5am waiting for ups to arrive. Speakers arrived at 11am well packed and in great condition.
Some thoughts
Build Quality-The first thing that went through my mind was these are little battle tanks. Very heavy and sturdy with rugged binding posts. Great fit and finish and well worth the money from a build standpoint.
Set-up
I set up the rear surrounds on 40in stands and the fronts on 28 in stands. The center was mounted on a speaker stand tilted directly at the listening position. The front speakers were toed in directly at the listening position. All speakers were attatched with blu-tak. All speakers were then calibrated using MACC on pio 1015 and then tweaked using RS meter. All speakers were set to large by MACC so I changed them to small with an 80hz crossover.
Old speakers/listening habits
My old speakers were about 7yrs old DCM speakers from CC. They all have 6 in woofers with phase plugs and 1in tweeters. They were not good speakers but they were all I could afford so I set them up properly, callibrated them, and did all of the things that we do in A/V to try and make them sound as good as they could. My listening habits or 50/50 music/HT. It is nothing for me to spend 2-3 hours just sitting down and listening to music or staying up all night watching movies. I truly believe that when people say they are not audiophiles they are wrong because everyone has a sound that they feel is good and this hobby is all about opinions.
2 channel listening
The first cd I popped in was the new Stevie Wonder -A Time To Love. I have been listening to this disc since it came out and find it to be well recorded. When I heard it with the 170's my first impressions were clarity, subtsance, and detail. In every song I heard something I never heard before. It was as if I could see what Mr. Wonder was trying to convey with each song. What he was trying to add as well as take away. From here I bombarded these speakers with everything from jazz, rock, country, rap, metal and pop. Each time the music took on a life of its own and took me to where each artist wanted you to be. Layers of instruments, textures of chordes, and every whisper, breath, and note of each singer was conveyed in stunning detail and clarity.
HT listening
I began my HT session(5hrs after listening to music) with Barbershop a movie I was watching before the speakers were delivered. In this movie while in the shop the buzz of the clippers and the snaps of the scissors came through with a level of detail that was amazing. Beats from the soundtrack and words from the actors were very clear and well defined. Each movie I popped in to check for certain effects and clarity were all conveyed with a sense of space and realism that I just did not have in the past.
Conclusion
I am very happy with my purchase and would recommend these speakers to anyone looking better their sound with music as well as movies
Questions
What will adding a power amp give me in terms of sound quality?
Will adding the 340c give me better sound?
CBM-170 L,C,R,LS,RS,BS
Pioneer 1015
HSU VTF 3 MK II
Originally Posted by moehop
