Well, it's finally happened. After about 2 years of research and pay raises, I've finally recieved my Ascends. So far I've picked up two CBM-170s and one CMT-340 for my dedicated basement home theater along with a Harman Kardon AVR-435 (sub and other speakers will come later).

This will only be a quick review since the speakers are not actually "set up" in the theater, but are setup temporarily so I could check them out. I have not done any calibration or EzSet/Eq - I just set them to "large" (no sub remember), put them on plastic tubs from the move, stole wires from my Klipsch Promedia Ultra 5.1s upstairs, and tried them out.

Boy, I am glad I did. These speakers are simply amazing. I knew this going in, but I was still stunned. To put this in perspective: I am mostly a movie watcher, and the speakers were going to be used for about 90% movies and 10% music; I usually only find time to listen to music in my truck, and find other things to do at home.

BUT - I hooked them up (the 170s) and started listening to some of the scratched CDs from my truck. I was floored. I immediately ran upstairs to get the 340 and wired it in. After that I sat and listened to CDs for about 2 hours. Please note that I have never, in my life, ever just sat and listened to music while doing nothing else for more than about 5 minutes. I just never found it to be engaging or engrossing enough to keep my attention.

Now - Engaging? Hell yes. Engrossing? Wow. The clarity and placement of the soundstage and instruments amazes me, as does the sheer accuracy of the speakers in replicating the recordings. I now find women's voices enchanting to listen to.

I found in a stack of my old CDs a copy of "City of Angels" which I didn't even know I owned - it was under Nickleback and Ben Folds Five I think. I put it in and got chills listening to "Uninvited" by Alanis Morissette. It was incredible. I can't wait to buy more CDs and to have time to just sit...and listen. These speakers have changed how I feel about music. Now that's a good...no, a great speaker

Enough with my drooling appraisal - the true test came when I brought down my girlfriend Amanda to listen. She likes to listen to music a bit more than I do, but its usually in a car or on a little CD boombox thing. She's seen me obsess over getting this HT set up so she had one of those "okay okay"-type looks on her face as she sat down.

I turned on "Uninvited" and waited....her expression quickly changed to amazement. She sat through about half the song and then turned to me and said,

"Can we get more of these for upstairs?"

WOOOOO! Oh yeah - a keeper! Oh and Amanda is too...ha! Anyhow, can there be any better of a review than that? Here's the WAF response to Ascend Acoustics: "BUY MORE!" Haha, nope, doesn't get any better than that. And I think I will investigate a 2-channel setup for upstairs when the HT is done....hmmm....

Thanks Dave F., James, and everyone at Ascend. Keep doing what you're doing!!!

Next up: Finishing the HT, choosing a sub...Another updated review to follow when the speakers are finally set up in the home theater and I have a change to do a calibration and listen to some movies.

Jon Oliva