Re: The Tower Discussion Thread!
Originally Posted by
davef
Happy to hear that you are enjoying the towers and that they are comparing nicely against your Song 3A's. I believe the Song 3A's are ~ $4K pair so that is saying a lot...
Just wanted to clarify a few things... The RAAL we are using in our towers is a slightly customized version of the RAAL 70-20xr with the amorphous core transformer combined with a custom faceplate that I designed and was then carried over to our Sierra-2 tweeter. The ribbon in the Song 3A is the 64-10, a great tweeter but a significant step down from the RAAL 70-20xr and much less expensive. What makes the 70-20xr so amazing isn't just the additional radiating area (which is more than double) - it is the unique way RAAL is damping the diaphragm, which is something I am under an NDA regarding the details of. There is very little in common between the RAAL 70-20 and the 64-10, other than they are both true ribbon tweeters and made by RAAL.
With that in mind, the 64-10 is an offshoot of our custom Sierra-2 tweeter (there are differences and they are not interchangeable) There was great expense in the development of our Sierra-2 tweeter, literally dozens of different samples and loads of man hours involved on both ends. Aleks gave me the opportunity to keep the tweeter entirely exclusive to us, which due to the development expenses, we would have had to commit to a specific amount of volume per quarter. At the time, the number was scary and I was hesitant to commit. Aleks understood, so we agreed that an OEM version would be released (what is now the 64-10 etc)
Seemed like a fair and reasonable compromise to me so we agreed to it... RAAL is a small company and it is important in this industry to also help our vendors -- and this agreement worked out well for them and we have done well with our Sierra-2 as well. Win-Win if you ask me - because if we were not able to maintain the volume RAAL wanted with exclusivity -- it would have been a big issue for RAAL (who knows if they would have recovered) and also for us.
Hope this clarifies!
Dave, thanks for the recap! Still loving my Sierra-2's for sure.
What gets my shorts in a knot has nothing to do with other manufacturers using the tech you co-developed in their designs......that is just a natural byproduct of these things. What makes me want to post like this is when customers of those other companies' speakers that use the new RAAL seem to slight your stuff in favor of the other brand without knowing the real back story of how having the smaller RAAL is even possible. Not saying that is the case here AT ALL, just felt compelled to stick up for Ascend!
MarkGraz, I have been curious about Salk's stuff for a long time, just have not been able to hear any of them. As much as I admire a beautifully finished cabinet, my sense of value would kick in and hold my trigger finger back. Fortunately, my wife is typically the same way!
Ed
* Sierra-2EX's W/V2 crossover upgrade
* (2) Rythmik F12's
* Parasound Halo P6
* Audio by Van Alstine DVA-M225 Monoblock Amps
* MiniDSP 2x4HD For Sub calibration
*World's Best Cables Canare 4S11 speaker cables