Hi y’all , looking for some opinions please …

[Gyosa]

Hello , new here …

I’m looking for a new pair of towers .
I currently have a pair of Salk Supercharged SongTowers - Raal 70-20 tweeters - which I absolutely love. Driving them with a Parasound A21 amp and a Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer/preamp …. Sounds fantastic.

I’ve been looking for a pair of Salk Veracity ST’s or Beat 3’s , used , as Salk closed up shop this past Fall … I’m not having much luck …

Whatever new speakers I get will either replace the Salks in the main rig if they’re a substantial upgrade from the SCST’s , or if they’re not , the new speakers will go into the bedroom system being driven by a PS Audio S300 amp.

What are y’all’s thoughts regarding the ELX towers or the Sierra towers ( both obviously with the Raal tweeters ) compared to any of the Salks - the SCST’s , Veracity ST’s or Beat 3’s ?

I’ve never laid ears on any of the Ascends , but I figure they’re similar to the Salk offerings - I love the Raal 70-20 , btw - best tweeter ever…

Thanks

BK

[SunByrne]

I would in the general sense put Salks in a similar category to Ascend in terms of the design goals and execution. Dennis Murphy has worked on some of the Salk designs and I'd say Dennis and Dave are cut from similar cloth. Not exactly the same, true, but if you like Salks, you'll probably like Ascends.

The place where they differ the most in my mind historically is price/performance. Salks are just much more expensive than Ascends. I mean, you can get all those gorgeous custom finishes (and they are stunning, to be sure) but it costs. Having the huge lineup also increases overall cost. I think Dave always feels guilty when he has to charge a little more and I don't that's ever fazed Salk. That's not a knock, it's just a different business model.

The other thing is that over the last few years, Dave has seriously innovated. The Klippel has made a huge difference. Ascends were always great, particularly for the money, but things have just been on a whole other level since the Klippel. Salk did not, as far as I could tell, seem to be headed in that direction.

On this basis, though admittedly without having heard any of these, I'd bet good money that the RAAL Sierra ELX towers are more than competitive with the Song3 Beat or the Veracity ST. They are not as pretty, though.

[curtis]

I will add one thing that is often overlooked.

I don't believe any of the drivers that Ascend uses are "off the shelf". Dave has a long relationship with Seas and has engineering input. Also, even though the RAAL tweeters that Ascend uses look off the shelf, they are custom spec'd as well.

[davef]

Hello , new here …

I’m looking for a new pair of towers .
I currently have a pair of Salk Supercharged SongTowers - Raal 70-20 tweeters - which I absolutely love. Driving them with a Parasound A21 amp and a Eversolo DMP-A8 streamer/preamp …. Sounds fantastic.

I’ve been looking for a pair of Salk Veracity ST’s or Beat 3’s , used , as Salk closed up shop this past Fall … I’m not having much luck …

Whatever new speakers I get will either replace the Salks in the main rig if they’re a substantial upgrade from the SCST’s , or if they’re not , the new speakers will go into the bedroom system being driven by a PS Audio S300 amp.

What are y’all’s thoughts regarding the ELX towers or the Sierra towers ( both obviously with the Raal tweeters ) compared to any of the Salks - the SCST’s , Veracity ST’s or Beat 3’s ?

I’ve never laid ears on any of the Ascends , but I figure they’re similar to the Salk offerings - I love the Raal 70-20 , btw - best tweeter ever…

Thanks

BK

Jim certainly produced some great performing and stunning looking speakers over the years. No doubt a high premium was paid for those gorgeous finishes.

That stated, if you believe that objective performance translates well to subjective performance (of which current science has proven to be the case) - we have far surpassed Salk's capability with regard to R&D and technology. There is no speaker that exists in the Salk lineup, including their top of the line Soundscapes, that I would not be absolutely comfortable with putting our ELX Ribbon Towers up against.

There is no question that our ELX Ribbon Towers would be a very noticeable upgrade in all performance aspects compared to your supercharged SongTowers. Neutrality / Accuracy, dynamics, bass response, spaciousness and directivity... It is very difficult to surpass our ELX Towers in these categories, one would have to spend a ton more money and go with a manufacturer that has similar R&D capabilities.

*** Also, I replied to your email twice, both times I am getting a notice that it has been returned undelivered. Did you receive my reply?

[Gyosa]

Dave ,
I did get it !

Thanks for the input everyone!

Bk

[Gyosa]

Oh, forgot…
Do they have some kind of adjustable/replaceable spikes - can’t tell from the website pictures ..

Thanks again

Bk

[racrawford65]

yes, the Towers come with metal spikes which attach to the base (which I assume still comes unattached to the speaker for the end user to install).

[James]

If the newer ones are the same as my older Towers, you can attach the spikes directly to the speakers or install the base and attach them to it.

Removing the base and attaching footers directly to the bottom of the speakers made a surprisingly large improvement to the sound.

We changed the footers at the same time, though, so I don't know how it would sound with the spikes attached to the speakers.

[Gyosa]

Thanks guys !

[Gyosa]

Done !

Just ordered a pair of ELX Ribbons ..

Bk