Questions about Ascends

[Horsepower]

Hi all. I have a few questions about the Acends, particularly the 170's. Ok, here they are...

1. Is there any way to securely mount the 170's to speaker stands? Do they have holes to secure them to something like an Omnimount stand? I've read about the blue tack trick, but I don't think that's going to work for me. I have a kid and I'm sure that the speakers will be bumped one day. I don't want them to fall on the floor and break.

2. The speakers I choose must be good for music first, HT sound is secondary. If I don't like the way they sound for music, I don't want them. Are the 170's and 340's good for everything from hard rock, to rap and classical? My music tastes are very widespread. I have a sub. Lower bass range is not a problem with any speaker I choose.

3. I keep seeing references to the 170's being "Monitors." Exactly what does this mean? Are they studio monitor quality?

4. I like to tweak the sound of music with a graphic equalizer. Some of the purists here may cringe, but what can I say? This is the way it sounds good to me and that's all I care about. In this regard, no lectures please.

--Typically, I give a slight boost to bass ranges, cut the mid range a bit and boost the upper range. One dealer told me that getting monitor or reference types of speakers would not be a good idea because I like to tweak the sound which defeats the purpose of getting these types of these speakers. His reasoning made sense. So I guess my question here would be... given my music listening habits and the claims of Acends being monitor speakers, are the Acends the right type of speaker for me? Should I be looking for something else instead?

5. Right now I use 15 year old 4-way Kenwood floorstanders for my mains. The receiver is crossed at 80hz and speakers size set to small. Essentially, only the 6 inch mid and 1 inch tweeter are being used. It actually sounds ok like this. Once in a while I'll have a bad day at work. I'll come home and pop in a Korn or Metallica CD and crank up my system very loud, but not to clipping or distortion levels. Can the 170's play very loud while at the same time keep their clarity and soundstage?

I had a few more questions, but it's getting late and I can't remember any more of them. I'll be back to pick your brains later .

Thanks for your replies.

[Jonnyozero3]

1. Yes, I think so: You can use the "Dual 1/4 x 20 threaded inserts for trouble-free and secure mounting to popular wall mount brackets." I think you'd have to make something up yourself to connect some sort of L bracket from the speaker to the stand, but I doubt it would be too much trouble considering the crash n smash issue

http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages...170featrs.html

2. The frequencey response of the CBM-170s and the 340s are very very linear. From what I've heard from my own ears and from what others say, I doubt they'd be bad for any kind of music as long as you have a sub like you say. They are very unforgiving though - they are so accurate that they don't hide bad recordings. Some of my cds don't sound as good anymore because...frankly...they were crap to begin with but I never knew until now

3. See #2 - I believe studio monitors need to be extremely accurate and true to the source, reproducing sound in a faithful manner to the original. The Ascends fit this discription very well.

See:
http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/me...ascend_cbm170/

4. I used to do the same in my truck with my 4-way 6.5" Pioneers, but I find now after listening to the ascends for just about a week that I am already becoming sensitive to overdriven freqencies. It sounds better and more natural to me when the sound is "correct" and balanced. I know it makes you think "flat" but don't think of that in a negative way. Either way, the Ascends will play however you want them to since you have an EQ. I say if you get some, try it both ways and see what you end up liking. At $328 they're a steal....

5. They seem strong to me, but I haven't had them at extremely high volumes. I have heard they can play very loud without distortion. Check the link in #3 above - they actually tested the CBM-170 at a higher level because it did so well (loud with little distortion) they had to push it further. I also think that site has measurements of other speakers to compare against. I think those CBM-170s are amazing for the money - just look at that freq response!

Anyhow, I delibrated over many different brands for a long time: Aperion, Axiom, Rocket, PSB, Paradigm, etc etc and settled with Ascend. I am very happy & definately say you should give them a listen.

Where do you live? If you're near another Ascend owner from the forum I'm sure they'd let you come over for a listening session (I would if you're near Omaha, NE).

[Kpt_Krunch]

If I may chime in here - I have a 17 year old set of Kenwoods myself - with a 2" tweeter, 5" mid, and two 8" woofers. The ONLY way I could get these speakers to sound good was with an equalizer. Similar to your tastes Horsepower, I would boost bass and treble, and lower the mids.

With the Ascends, there is no need to do that. What the flat response does is allow the music (or movie) to come out exactly as it sounds (so long as the frequency range of the recorded material falls into the range of the speakers) without adding it's 'own' sound to it. You may find that when/if you get the Ascends, you won't need to adjust your equalizer at all. Frankly, I wouldn't dream of eq'ing them - I have my bass and treble flat, but for SACD and DVD-A those controls don't work anyway, and they sound (340's across the front and 170's for side surround) IMO incredible.

IMO, eq'ing the Ascends would be like putting half a bottle of ketchup on a $200 steak (and conversely, since I'm speaking in metaphors here, the Kenwoods I have would be like a cheap greasy hamburger - in other words, the more ketchup, onions, mushroom, bacon, and cheese, the better).

hmmm, that reminds me, I'm starving!

[bikeman]

4. I like to tweak the sound of music with a graphic equalizer. Some of the purists here may cringe, but what can I say? This is the way it sounds good to me and that's all I care about. In this regard, no lectures please.

--Typically, I give a slight boost to bass ranges, cut the mid range a bit and boost the upper range. One dealer told me that getting monitor or reference types of speakers would not be a good idea because I like to tweak the sound which defeats the purpose of getting these types of these speakers. His reasoning made sense. So I guess my question here would be... given my music listening habits and the claims of Acends being monitor speakers, are the Acends the right type of speaker for me? Should I be looking for something else instead?

Thanks for your replies.

Regardless of the speakers that you wind up buying, don't use the equalizer for at least a month. We get used to a particular sound and believe that that's the sound we prefer. We'll never know if we make the right speaker choice if we cover up the sound right from the get go. Run the speakers without the EQ for an extended period and THEN add the EQ that you used to think was your preference. Then get back to us with your thoughts. I'll bet if you choose a speaker in the class of the Ascends, you'll have some interesting things to say. Have fun speaker shopping. It's a ball.

David

[Jonnyozero3]

IMO, eq'ing the Ascends would be like putting half a bottle of ketchup on a $200 steak (and conversely, since I'm speaking in metaphors here, the Kenwoods I have would be like a cheap greasy hamburger - in other words, the more ketchup, onions, mushroom, bacon, and cheese, the better).

...dang it...maybe I should skip breakfast and get a burger. Or maybe a cheap steak.....

Anyhow, what about EQ'ing to flatten out the in-room response? Like using Harman Kardon's EzSet/EQ or a BFD (toward the upper range of the lower stuff)...that probably is a good idea right?

[Kpt_Krunch]

Jonny - I'm sure it would be! I guess I'm meaning the Old Eq's with 7 or 9 bands on it. This had nothing to do with in-room response per say, more like adjusting the bands for each frequency to make up for the lack of flatness in a speaker (My first stero -which included the Kenwood speaker, turntable, double cassette deck, and amp with 7-band eq was about $700 total brand new - the only way to make it sound good was to adjust those settings - I found making it a V was the best).

If your talking minor adjustments to compensate for your room, then yes, I would imagine that would be fine, but I wouldn't want to make a 'V' - just my opinion of course. Enjoy your steak & eggs

[bikeman]

...
Anyhow, what about EQ'ing to flatten out the in-room response? Like using Harman Kardon's EzSet/EQ or a BFD (toward the upper range of the lower stuff)...that probably is a good idea right?

EQ'ing directional sound (anything above 120hz) introduces other problems. I've got to head to the office but I'll try to post something later on unless someone beats me to it. EQ'ing below 120hz is a lot different than above it. That's why you see so much posted about EQ'ing a sub but little about EQ'ing the higher freq.

David

[Jonnyozero3]

Okay, I see. I do remember reading that it can be difficult/detrimental to EQ high like you say, but I'm wondering how that applies with the auto-eq setups like MCACC and EzSet/EQ. One of the reasons I chose the HK AVR 435 was because it EQ'd the sub along with the rest. I wish I knew how many bands it had and if it does only cuts or what.

Sorry kind of hijacking the thread aren't we? I can start a new one or something....

[curtis]

It applies to them as well. When EQing speakers, eventhough you are changing the FR of the speaker, you are also possibly changing other things such as phase, which my have a negative impact.

If you are going to EQ speakers, it is best to use a parametric EQ as a opposed to a graphic EQ.

[bikeman]

OK. I haven't looked into this topic since the last Ice Age so let me qualify what I said. EQ'ing can be beneficial. It just invloves more than just plugging in an equalizer however. If you shoot for a flat response, you may find, like I did, that the upper octaves are "bright." I found that a slightly downsloping curve worked best. I believe they're calling that a "house curve" these day.
As many of us that have played with BFD's recently have found, playing with one parameter has an effect on other parameters. This only seems to get worse as we go up in my experience.
Again, I haven't played with a full band equalizer (for music) since Ford was President but my experience told me that this is something I don't want to revisit in this lifetime.
If anyone does go this route, I'd be very interested to hear about the experience.
David