Are Ascends ugly or is it just me?

[Picus]

This thread makes me sad.

[Skisax22]

everytime someone attacks another speaker company a puppy dies. keep that in mind

[curtis]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Picus

This thread makes me sad.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Picus, being a Rocket/ELT owner, and someone who's thoughts I respect. I would love to know your thoughts on this.

-curtis

[Gregisme]

Hmm.. I thought it was, "everytime you masturbate, God kills a kitten??" (and I've got the pictures to prove it). []
but I digress..

Here's my take, nuanced a little differently than the rest, perhaps.

The 170's are a boxy or very square-ish speaker (fairly similar H,W,D measurements), and lacking contours or angles to make them more "interesting" in shape.

The 340's are fairly conventional in their shape or style, nothing terrifically interesting here either.

Now, how much those shapes/styles contribute to the achievement of quality sound at their respective price points, I have no idea. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I can see someone wanting a little more 'excitement' from their speakers in this respect.

One of the benefits to both of these speakers, however, is there ability to blend in fairly inconspicously with ones decor. If you want eveyone to notice your speakers, to have a dramatic presence in your room, then Ascends may not be the best choice and that choice is a perfectly valid one.

One aspect of their design which seldom gets talked about with regard to speaker aesthetics is the style of the woofers/tweeters. I find them attractive in the Ascends, particularly the woofers. There are some speakers that I find less attractive in this regard. I saw some fancy Revel bookshelves in Tweeter the other day. Beautiful cabinet, but the appearance of it with the grill off (how many people like to listen to their speakers) was just plain ugly. The parts were ugly, and it looked too busy in general.

I love the white woofers in the Rockets, but I am also troubled at times by the amount of contrast they bring, as the white woofers are something that will compete for attention with the rest of your room as they stand out so much.

I was also considering the Odyssey Epiphony speakers at one time, but given how ugly I think their speaker parts look, I have to pass on them too. I may be unique in my feelings here, as I seldom see these parts addressed from an aesthetic point of view.

Of course, you can throw on speaker covers for company, but if you like keeping the grills off, then it might be an issue for some, like me.

Honorable mentions of current Ascend designs/finishes/options:

1) the stock black finish (love what I hear about their unique ability to hide or minimize dust!)

2) the rounded corners of the 170's (more difficult to "ding" the corners and safer for kids to bump into).

3) custom finishes (even if price doubling is the case, they would still be the same price or less than their competitors. It's a unique way to dress things up a bit, as this is a seldom seen finish option. It also gives you incredible color control, which affords you the benefit of precisely blending in with your decor to whatever degree you choose. Again, unique among the competition).

[Picus]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by curtis

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Arial, Verdana, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Picus

This thread makes me sad.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Picus, being a Rocket/ELT owner, and someone who's thoughts I respect. I would love to know your thoughts on this.

-curtis

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Hi Curtis - I actually bought those 340/170s I mentioned about 2 months ago so you can add "Ascend owner" to that (plus an SVS PB2-ISD I am absolutely loving). I've decided since then (and because I love the Ascends and Rockets both so much) to kind of back off from posting my thoughts on specific speakers or give many recommendations (aside from broad generalized ones). There are just too many folks who misconstrue whatever you write or think that you're somehow slighting 'their' speakers if you don't recommend them, so I decided it wasn't worth it. I still hang around the AV123 forums but mostly just post in the funny threads, and I lurk here every day but it's a lot quieter.

Anyway, why does this thread make me sad? Well, I've just seen a lot of thinly veiled aggression lately (for example, the HTF thread about the small floor stander shootout) from people who I respect and excepted better from and it's really too bad. I'm not pointing figers because it's coming from every direction. I think AV123 and Ascend make really awesome speakers at ridiculous prices and I don't think either are ugly (far from it, I think the Rockets are gorgeous and I think Ascends blend in with a decor beautifully). So all this talk of poor sound at the cost of aesthetics or great sound not worried about looks or amway conventions or comparisons where someone hated X speaker just seems like a lot of misplaced self-defense to me.

Some of us like Ascends better both sonically and aesthetically, some of us like Rockets/Aperion/Axiom/ACI/AudioInsider better sonically and aesthetically. There is no reason to slight any of them just to defend our individual opinions.

[Lou-the-dog]

Haveaniceday, I'm curious, have you seen the Ascends in person? If not, you might be jumping the gun thinking they are ugly. When I purchased my system I was determined that I wanted something different than the standard finish but I also didn't want to pay for the custom finish. I'm pretty handy with automotive finishes so Ascend sent me some unfinished 170's along with some standard finished 340's. The plan was, since there were no unfinished 340's in stock, I was going to return the 340's for unfinished cabinets when they became available. Anyhow, when I recieved the speakers my wife and I were so impressed with the factory standard finish that I returned the unfinished 170's and had the standard finish units shipped.

That said I'll have to say that your original question and subsequant follow-ups seem to come off a little strange so if you sense you are ruffling a few feathers then you're probably correct. For example, try calling your best friends wife ugly and see what the reaction is! When it comes down to it, you only need to please yourself in the decisions you make and it's not important to know if the rest of us are really pleased "deep,deep down."

Randy

[metalaaron]

cmt-680 limited editions...

http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/s/f/1049626909.jpg lol

[J.A.P]

Come on. I'm sure you're not that ugly.

[curtis]

Thanks Picus! Once again, a very correct post.

So you did buy them! I was going PM you and ask, and if you didn't buy them, ask if your friend wanted to post them for sale.

Someone can now just go to your place and kill a few birds with one.

-curtis

[bikeman]

Your comment:

"So all this talk of poor sound at the cost of aesthetics or great sound not worried about looks or amway conventions or comparisons where someone hated X speaker just seems like a lot of misplaced self-defense to me."


My original comment:

"The AV123 Forum reminds me of an Amway convention. I mean that in a positive sense."


I'm at a loss to understand your comment. Could you explain?

Thanks,
David