Santa brought me a pair of 170s for Christmas (okay, it was my wife--don't know how you can verify it but let me know). I'm a former audio engineer and have worked with lots of great gear including plenty of monitors--from the classic NS-10M to giant Westlakes and lots in between. But over the years I moved around a lot, started a family, etc., and my music became more portable, digital, and poor quality. That changed just over a year ago, when I got Steven Wilson's blu-ray 5.1 remix of Yes' Close to the Edge--I've been a man obsessed ever since.

I now have about 50 surround sound audio discs in various formats--I was playing them all through a Vizio HTiB I got to see if I liked the format--and now I'm beginning the upgrade path to a "real" system. Here's my current gear:

AVR: Yamaha HTR-3066
Fronts: Ascend Acoustics CBM 170 SE
Center: N/A (I'm saving up for a 200)
Surrounds: 10-yr old **** Acoustimass 3
Sub: Dayton 10"

Impressions: Not knowing what to expect, I thought the 170s might sound like a blend between the old NS-10Ms and maybe my friend's nice Audioengines that he was playing some Devandra Banhart on for me recently--I expected them to be a bit clinical and neutral, but maybe with a little of that Audioengine warmth on the low end (I don't know why, I was totally just making it up in my mind).

What I've found so far is that the 170s have far more depth, a bigger and more exciting soundstage, and yet can still disappear better than just about any other speaker I've personally experienced. Although I'm not a ****-basher, the difference between the 170s and **** is striking--there's just no comparison (and the **** cost more, even back in 2005). But they work pretty nicely together, and until I can save up for a pair of 200s (or the sierra sats?!) I'm fine with them where they are.

Back to the 170s: they haven't fully broken in yet, but I've already put about 20 hours of Music/Movie/TV listening on them. My surround discs are coming alive with details I never suspected: some of my favorite surround discs are Talking Heads "Remain In Light" (Eno!!); Flaming Lips "Yoshimi"; Yes "Relayer" and Who "Quadrophenia"--I can't fully express yet what brilliant little musical devices these speakers are, and how surprisingly full and commanding they sound--not at all what I was expecting from a bookshelf speaker, having been a floorstanding snob in my previous life who wouldn't have considered a bookshelf speaker 20 years ago.

Also, I wasn't impressed at first until I discovered the Yamaha defaulted the crossover to 200 Hz; following other reocmmendations I dropped it to 80 and everything just started humming. I ran the YPAO and found that made a nice balance.

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I'm so glad I talked my wife into getting me these to try out...she's digging them too, but she's even happier that I'm so happy. Thank you, Dave and Ascend...you have won over another (very happy) customer.

(I just noticed that one brand I mentioned is reduced to **** -- rhymes with "nose"--was it something I said? )