Hi Dave,
Thanks for replying. Dialogue with you was probably the main reason I went with these towers, and you were most generous with the time you spent writing to me.
Now, it is a hard question to pose to the speaker's designer without seeming to be asking an impolite question about how the parts of the speaker could be improved. But perhaps there are parts in, say, the crossover which are "very good" but could be better, if someone was willing to spend the money.
One thing I discovered about my tube amp, was that it was built to a very competitive price point. Inside, the caps used were reliable but not great. By changing them, I improved the sound of the amp signficantly. Same thing with the preamp's caps.
To put the question another way, if Ascend were to release a "deluxe" version of this speaker with a few upgrade options, what would be changed? One can see other companies do this to let the customer set their final price point. (See, e.g. Cary Audio, who offers different upgrade options on their preamps
https://carydirect.com/shop-now/prea...s/slp-98l.html )
Thanks for entertaining this question. I don't want to insult the product or cause buyer's remorse or anything like that. I have other gear where the product I got initially was SO excellent (my Quicksilver, e.g.) that taking it to the next level was a no-brainer. I suspect my Towers are just like that.