The Tower Discussion Thread!

[millerwill]

Yes I am aware. I was just curious about owner's experiences overall regardless of which tweeter. I was just curious which tweeter they had so I would know what model they were talking about if they commented about specific aspects of the sound quality.

There were some comments several weeks ago in this thread, from Dave F and others, that the NRT tweeters were probably the better choice for HT.

[steven1110]

While I don't have a ton of experience listening to speakers especially in my house, I will offer my opinions on the Dome Tweeter Towers.

I'm upgrading from Infinity Beta 20's which I've had for a few years now and I've had limited listening sessions with the Sierra-1's and Aperion 6B's in home. I've also listened to Paradigm Studio 20's, Focal 908's, and Dali Helicon 400's (I believe). I'll soon have the Focal 908's in house for a bit to do direct comparisons between the Towers and Focal. I'll post back afterwards to give my opinion.

First, the appearance is more than you could ask for. The espresso satin finish is smooth & even and allows the bamboo grain to really show through which is a big plus for me. The espresso coloring nearly matches the rest of our AV furniture and very nicely compliments our bamboo flooring. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

Second, the sound. I've been listening to a variety of music ranging from rock (Hurt, Coheed & Cambria, Fair to Midland, Awolnation) to bluegrass (Alison Krauss, Nickel Creek) to folk (Bon Iver, Dawes, Kate Rusby) to instrumental guitar (Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds, Andy McKee, Antoine Dufour, Nicholas Barron) and trumpet (Chris Botti, Louis Armstrong) and I can say while the speakers do very well with rock, I feel that they excel in music where there is separation & articulation of the instruments within the band. The Towers give each instrument presence and seem very accurate. The one instrument that I have heard consistently & intimately throughout my life is the acoustic guitar and to me, the Towers replicate it's sound nearly perfect.

I'm not good at describing what I hear but I will just say that the more I listen to them, the more they astound me. The mids are smooth & articulate, the bass is full and punchy, and the highs are crisp and airy. As far as I can tell, the drivers are very well integrated. There have only been a couple times where I felt like the bass was either lacking or slightly bloated and the highs being slightly sharp or fatiguing but that very well could have been the recording since my Beta's didn't have the range or presence to expose the "flaws". I'll try to note the songs and test them against the Focals.

As far as HT goes, which is(was) 75% of my usage, I haven't been able to pull myself away from music enough to give them a fair shot yet. However, I have watched a couple movies since receiving them and I can say that I'm hearing more, and experiencing greater dynamics than what I had with the Beta's...not surprising.

The only issue I'm having with "them", and it's a room problem, is the wider dispersion. I guess that's the best way to put it. My left channel is along a long & tall wall whereas the right channel is next to open dining room space. The wall is giving the left channel some major reinforcement so I'm having a tough time getting them set up to give accurate imaging and soundstage. The Beta's didn't seem to have this problem or maybe they did but extra umph of the Towers has brought issue to light. I may just have to add a wall treatment as the first reflection point to see if that helps. Suggestions are welcome.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the Towers and am looking forward to discovering new music. It is a very fine product that you and Ascend Acoustics has provided the public Dave and it's easy to see why you're proud of it.

Thanks for reading and if you guys have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Steven

[Tower]

Photos

[DavidD]

Just beautiful

[Don1953]

Just beautiful

yes they are very nice, thinking about picking them up, but still looking at zu audio, goldenears tritons, aperion as well - so many great internet choices

[Don1953]

yes they are very nice, thinking about picking them up, but still looking at zu audio, goldenears tritons, aperion as well - so many great internet choices

the ascend's really are fantastic and beautifull.

Don

[soundseeker]

....

The only issue I'm having with "them", and it's a room problem, is the wider dispersion. I guess that's the best way to put it. My left channel is along a long & tall wall whereas the right channel is next to open dining room space. The wall is giving the left channel some major reinforcement so I'm having a tough time getting them set up to give accurate imaging and soundstage. The Beta's didn't seem to have this problem or maybe they did but extra umph of the Towers has brought issue to light. I may just have to add a wall treatment as the first reflection point to see if that helps. Suggestions are welcome.

.....

Have you played with toeing them in more? Should cut down on the side wall reflections. Either that or some sort of non-reflective or absorbtive wall treatement, perhaps some artwork at tweeter height?

[steven1110]

Have you played with toeing them in more? Should cut down on the side wall reflections. Either that or some sort of non-reflective or absorbtive wall treatement, perhaps some artwork at tweeter height?

I haven't played the toe-in yet, no. I do think I've found roughly the best width position with the speakers toed into the same spot on the wall behind LP but I haven't played with the toe-in beyond that. So I guess the width position could still change a bit.

A wall treatment is a possibility but being as it's in the living room, I'd like to get away with not needing it if possible.

I'll keep tinkering and see what happens. Thanks!

[davef]

Really looking forward to hearing about how the Tower Center is coming along. Any pictures of a prototype? Estimate of when it might appear?

Moving along nicely I hope to have the crossover finished by the end of this weekend and then the cabinets will go into production.

Here is a pic of the new prototype next to a 340 SE center. The STC cabinet dimensions are now 23" wide x 10.875" high x 12.5" deep.

[choirbass]

Good Job Dave, definitely looks nicer

At first I wasn't quite sure what was different, just that it seemed less 'massive'. But after finding the previous tower center photo in the thread, you can see it definitely isn't as wide as before, just a bit deeper, and about the same height. A+