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Thread: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

  1. #11
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    Aug 2007
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    S.E. La. - USA
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    Exclamation Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by curtis View Post
    Is that a new diamond ring for Dina?
    No Curtis, those will be for my new Sierra 3's!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Bout right, just got my S2's playing music today, then Dave orders the Diamonds...

    Oh well, what kind of credit can I get on 2 slightly used RAAL's???

    Great info here Dave and a perfect question and timing from Goldark!

    Ted
    Sierra RAAL V2 Towers, Axiom EP 500 Sub, Morrow SP7 Grand Reference Speaker Cables, Phillips CD880 XLR Balanced Variable Line Output to Orchard Audio Strakrimson 375w/per ch Stereo Ultra GaNFET Amp..... (Dedicated 2.1 Acoustical Music Listening Room)!

  2. #12
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    Dec 2005
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    148

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    I think the biggest upgrade would be cosmetic. Not saying the Sierra Tower lack style, but you have some pretty wide variety of interesting finishes with exotic/high end speakers, not to mention stuff like curved cabinets and maybe more decor friendly designs outside of the typical rectangular box.

  3. #13
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    Mar 2004
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    SouthWest of Cleveland
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    1,924

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by Asliang View Post
    I think the biggest upgrade would be cosmetic. Not saying the Sierra Tower lack style, but you have some pretty wide variety of interesting finishes with exotic/high end speakers, not to mention stuff like curved cabinets and maybe more decor friendly designs outside of the typical rectangular box.
    Perhaps Dave will start yet another line of speakers aimed at the custom cabinet market, say.....Ascend Elite Series!!
    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

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    132

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Not trying to be a fanboy, but you won't find a better neutral speaker than the Raal Towers (that is until Dave works his magic with the diamond tweeter).

    Anything beyond the towers and you will be on a quest for a signature sound and look. So you would be looking at more of a subjective upgrade.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    72

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by sludgeogre View Post
    Salk seems to share more in common with Ascend than differences. Where I see them diverging is with how custom Salk is. They are more catered to doing one-off speaker sets, while the Song3 is really getting into production like Ascend does, where you only specify a cabinet finish. Also, from what I understand, Salk build their cabinets and are really cabinet makers at their heart, which is why they only buy drivers from other companies and don't do custom versions like Ascend does. It would be great if someone could chime in here and correct me. I've been wondering about this and this is all I've really found out.
    I see this posted from time to time ,that the heart of Salk Speakers are the cabinets or Salk is just a cabinet builder , the heart of the Salk Speakers is GREAT sound , Salk builds a high quality cabinet for sure , Salk uses world class drivers from all around the world , Salk has been utilizing RAAL tweeters for a very long time .
    I own several Ascend ,Salk and Rythmik speakers and subwoofers , I love the look/build quality of bamboo cabinets on the Sierra speakers and they sound great , Salk does offer several more speaker models and many more finish options but are priced fair I think , the salk sound tower with raal tweeter is about the same price as sierra tower with raal tweeter , both are outstanding speakers for the money , I guess the main difference between Salk and Ascend ,other than the finish options ,would be that Salk builds at all price ranges . Maybe once a certain level of sound quality is achieved the money spent to get better sound becomes disproportionate ,in other words, the returns are lower for money spent .
    BTW ,Jeff Meier from Accucal is the one that turned me on to both Ascend and Salk speakers ,he is top quality for calibration of audio gear .Jeff has great tools and knowledge .
    Last edited by qwknuf6; 06-08-2016 at 08:17 AM.
    Bunch of speakers

  6. #16
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    Aug 2007
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    Exclamation Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by Asliang View Post
    I think the biggest upgrade would be cosmetic. Not saying the Sierra Tower lack style, but you have some pretty wide variety of interesting finishes with exotic/high end speakers, not to mention stuff like curved cabinets and maybe more decor friendly designs outside of the typical rectangular box.
    There is definitely exotic high end "works-of-art" in the speaker world, usually to compliment their transducer system design integration, resonant control and of course, furniture of beauty, alias "SAF"!

    I really don't believe Dave is going to travel down that "never ending Rabbit hole" of esoteric visual perfection. Ascends business model seems to have always been an honest audio performing product that offers excellent customer investment cost. AA has achieved that and more. Actually, I find within their model design extremely well made and attractive visually simplistic products that Function perfectly.

    Although I have been impressed over the past 40 years with what I've "Seen" in the speaker world, it didn't mean Anything if accurate audio reproduction wasn't there!!! After the lights are turned down and the musicians, venue and acoustics are with you in your listening music room, all visuals disappear, it's just you and the glorious musical performance. For me, that's what it's all about.

    IMHO, give me the opportunity to spend my hard earned $$$ on top-end Sound, not looks...then, I'm All In!!

    Just My .02 cents,

    Ted
    Last edited by theophile; 06-08-2016 at 04:28 PM.
    Sierra RAAL V2 Towers, Axiom EP 500 Sub, Morrow SP7 Grand Reference Speaker Cables, Phillips CD880 XLR Balanced Variable Line Output to Orchard Audio Strakrimson 375w/per ch Stereo Ultra GaNFET Amp..... (Dedicated 2.1 Acoustical Music Listening Room)!

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    360

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    How about a Sierra Tower with RAAL and a Rythmik F8 built in! That would be awesome. Unfortunately a competitor already did something like that, so I'm not sure if Dave would want to do the same thing.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
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    USA
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    5,538

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by qwknuf6 View Post
    I see this posted from time to time ,that the heart of Salk Speakers are the cabinets or Salk is just a cabinet builder , the heart of the Salk Speakers is GREAT sound , Salk builds a high quality cabinet for sure , Salk uses world class drivers from all around the world , Salk has been utilizing RAAL tweeters for a very long time .
    I own several Ascend ,Salk and Rythmik speakers and subwoofers , I love the look/build quality of bamboo cabinets on the Sierra speakers and they sound great , Salk does offer several more speaker models and many more finish options but are priced fair I think , the salk sound tower with raal tweeter is about the same price as sierra tower with raal tweeter , both are outstanding speakers for the money , I guess the main difference between Salk and Ascend ,other than the finish options ,would be that Salk builds at all price ranges . Maybe once a certain level of sound quality is achieved the money spent to get better sound becomes disproportionate ,in other words, the returns are lower for money spent .
    BTW ,Jeff Meier from Accucal is the one that turned me on to both Ascend and Salk speakers ,he is top quality for calibration of audio gear .Jeff has great tools and knowledge .
    I don't believe anyone here is saying Salk doesn't produce great speakers -- If so, I would be the first to strongly disagree. I believe this was just a discussion between the differences between our two companies. Again, small business tend to align with the skills and capabilities of the owner. I have tried my hand at woodworking, multiple times, -- we could never build our own cabinets here at our shop, and since we purchase our drivers in very large quantities from our vendors (necessary for custom components and to get the best possible pricing) , nor could we possibly manage so many different speaker models. Again, great respect for Jim...
    .
    .
    .
    Good Sound To You!

    David Fabrikant
    www.ascendacoustics.com

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
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    455

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by mikesiskav View Post
    How about a Sierra Tower with RAAL and a Rythmik F8 built in! That would be awesome. Unfortunately a competitor already did something like that, so I'm not sure if Dave would want to do the same thing.
    The best place in the room for the subwoofers is almost never the same place that you want to midrange and tweeters for imaging. I know that the audiophile industry thinks otherwise, but Harmon established the best places for subs in a room about 10 years ago now. The good news is that it is cheaper all the way around if they are in separate boxes anyways.

  10. #20
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    Dec 2013
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    360

    Default Re: Upgrading past Ascend's flagship speakers?

    Quote Originally Posted by N Boros View Post
    The best place in the room for the subwoofers is almost never the same place that you want to midrange and tweeters for imaging. I know that the audiophile industry thinks otherwise, but Harmon established the best places for subs in a room about 10 years ago now. The good news is that it is cheaper all the way around if they are in separate boxes anyways.
    No doubt there is some validity to that statement. But then again JBL by Harmon does have this speaker, the M2, with a built in 15 inch woofer and response all the way down to 20hz.

    http://www.jblpro.com/products/recor...l#.V1jFestlBnF

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