Diamond Tweeter?

[davef]

Interesting development here, but this will be WAY above my budget.

Dave, there will no doubt be a market for these. I would offer this advice:
If/when you and SEAS develop a more cost-effective, proprietary version for a "Super Sierra" do yourself and ascend a huge favor......Pay for the rights to the design so that it will not be available for general consumption and show up in copycat designs!!

Just my $0.02

Hey Mag,

Believe me, I hear what you are saying I will likely never make that same mistake again...

That said, SEAS would not be developing a lower cost version of this tweeter for us. To be clear, the only changes we would be making would be to the faceplate - in the hopes that we can get the White Diamond to mechanically fit into our current tweeter cutouts. The advantage we can offer, is that by selling direct, we can offer speakers with these tweeter at significantly less $$$ than what is currently available.

For example, if it costs $3k to build a pair of White Diamond bookshelf speakers, we can then sell this pair for ~$5500. For retail with typical margins, if it costs $3K to build a pair, they would sell it to their dealers for $6K and then the dealers would sell it for $12K. For higher priced items like these, selling direct has huge advantages...

[davef]

On a serious note, I like having the option as a current Ascend owner to move up the ladder so to speak. Having a cost no object bookshelf at or around $5k and possibly a Tower version for $6-$7k would in my opinion gain some traction in the industry. I was at Axpona in Chicago recently and you would not believe the overpriced crazy high end stuff they sell there. People have the money for $20k speakers! Not me. Best of luck bringing this to fruition. I hope SEAS and Ascend can make it happen. It does not sound as if a whole lot of your time and money would be invested, mostly theirs

Pretty much sums up my exact thoughts. There are a lot of speakers out there at ridiculous prices that have absurd markups... If SEAS comes through for us, it is not a large investment for us to develop upgrades and even new models. The way this tweeter measures, developing an appropriate crossover for it is relatively simple.

[Johnny_Mac_III]

Yes! Keep pushing the envelope, especially when you can sell them in the 5K range. The closer to the holy grail of being at the concert or the recording the better. Go for it!

[astr0b0y]

What's the timbre match with the RAAL speakers like, Dave?
If I was to put a pair of Sierra-2 Diamonds in my set up as LRs would they match well with my Horizon? Would I suffer endless torment and then need to buy a Diamond upgrade for the Horizon ?

[Mag_Neato]

What's the timbre match with the RAAL speakers like, Dave?
If I was to put a pair of Sierra-2 Diamonds in my set up as LRs would they match well with my Horizon? Would I suffer endless torment and then need to buy a Diamond upgrade for the Horizon ?

I am thinking if the Diamonds make their way into a Sierra class speaker the model name would surely be Sierra-3. Then, of course, you would need a matching Sierra Sat!

[SGCSG1]

Five grand would be my limit. Six would be a reach that I don't think I could do.

But I'd love to see a five grand Sierra take on the 'seven grand monitor' usual suspects.

[davef]

What's the timbre match with the RAAL speakers like, Dave?
If I was to put a pair of Sierra-2 Diamonds in my set up as LRs would they match well with my Horizon? Would I suffer endless torment and then need to buy a Diamond upgrade for the Horizon ?

Of all the dome tweeters I have spent time with, this is the closest in timbre to the ribbons we use, which is likely why I became so enamored with it so quickly.

It is good that we are having this open discussion as I believe SEAS is also reading these posts. I am hoping that they come through and offer us this tweeter with a faceplate that fits into our standard cutout.

That said, until we have these units on hand and are able to design an upgrade to directly compare against a RAAL or even our NrT, it is all just speculation -- but fun.

Keep in mind though, while we will be able to beat retail pricing on upgrades and products, it is still going to be very expensive (at least for an Ascend product )

[Blutarsky]

Expensive and a risky endeavor for Ascend. It would take a lot of capital to get the Mighty Diamond speakers going. We are all loyal but might be reluctant to buy expensive speakers in quantity.

Keep up the good work Dave. And thanks for always including us in the process.

[davef]

Expensive and a risky endeavor for Ascend. It would take a lot of capital to get the Mighty Diamond speakers going. We are all loyal but might be reluctant to buy expensive speakers in quantity.

Keep up the good work Dave. And thanks for always including us in the process.

Thanks!

The main idea behind this is that it is of little risk to us. We would not be stocking these tweeters, not even Madisound stocks them. Stocking these tweeters, even 50 of them, is crazy

SEAS keeps a small supply on hand so if we get an order for a diamond model or upgrade, we would then simply have SEAS ship us the matched pair of tweeters to fulfill the order. Lead times would likely be 3-4 weeks.

[sludgeogre]

The more I think of it, the more I am open to eventually upgrading to the Diamond tweeters after a few years with my RAAL setup, after I finally get my Sierra Sats. The only way I would consider it, though, is if vertical dispersion was vastly increased over the RAALs, and if everything else remained just as fantastic. Really the only thing I miss over the Aperion speakers I heard a couple years ago is the excellent veritcal dispersion they had, even though horizontally they were probably less wide than the Sierras, although that doesn't matter too much to me since I only deal with seating two people, max. The Sierra Towers beat the pants off of all of Aperion's products in every other way, especially extension, as the Aperion speakers sounded quite veiled by comparison.

Although, I haven't gotten my speakers in a good room yet, and I haven't done any room treatments, so this opinion may change based on how my RAAL towers and Horizon center sound in a dedicated, treated room.