Any Ascend owners in SouthBay Los Angeles? Possible audition?

[flyingturtle]

Hi everyone,

New poster here. I've been curious about Ascend speakers, particularly the Sierra-1. I had a couple chats over the phone with Dina (I hope I spelled her name correctly) at Ascend and she said that there are several Ascend owners in my area that are willing to audition their speakers. She suggested that I post here.

Anyone in Los Angeles, near the SouthBay area open for a quick audition? Anyone where near Torrance, Palos Verdes, Manhatten/Redondo Beach, etc?

I'm considering Ascend loudspeakers to see if they are worth upgrading over my 14 year-old EPOS ES14 monitors for 2-channel music and for HTPC usage (TV and Movies playing). I may consider getting a subwoofer later, but I hear Sierras have great bass from all the reviews I've read.

Anyway, let me know if anyone is open for an audition.

Thanks!

[soundseeker]

I live in northeast Long Beach. I won't be available this weekend but we could schedule something for next week. Send me a PM.

[curtis]

I'm in Manhattan Beach!

Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evenings of next week would be best for me.

Send me a PM if interested.

[flyingturtle]

Terrific! Thanks for the responses. Manhatten Beach or Long Beach works for me.

I'll notify you by PM as requested.

[hearing specialist]

I'm also going to audition mr. curtis on my way down to the "show" in June so I too look forward to hearing those awesome Sierra 1's.

Curtis are you going with anyone? I'm taking my dad but would be really cool to go with founder of my many hours spent a day creator. Just a thought.

[curtis]

I'm also going to audition mr. curtis on my way down to the "show" in June so I too look forward to hearing those awesome Sierra 1's.

Curtis are you going with anyone? I'm taking my dad but would be really cool to go with founder of my many hours spent a day creator. Just a thought.
There is an LA Audio/Video group that I am involved with. I am sure some those guys are going as well, and we will meet up there.

[flyingturtle]

As a follow-up to my original post, I just wanted to thank both soundseeker for answering my various online questions and especially to Curtis for letting me audition his speakers at his place. I just came back from listening them.

Curtis has a very nice home theater and 2-channel setup and he was very gracious in allowing me to take my time in listening to the music that I brought over, as well as letting me pester him with numerous audiophile-related questions. Especially cool, from a gadget-geek standpoint, was using his Android-based smartphone via an app to control and browse digital music from his server. Pretty nifty! His natural finish Sierra-1s look especially nice on his custom-made bamboo speaker stands, too. Very aesthetically pleasing.

We listened to both music and movie clips, and Curtis was nice enough to let me listen to the Sierras as full range speakers without the subwoofer, and also with the subwoofer. I'd honestly be perfectly be happy with the Sierras without a subwoofer, but the subwoofer definitely adds another layer, especially for home theater. I definitely will consider one in the future.

I won't write much of a review as I feel that I need to audition them in my home first in order to write a more accurate assessment but I have to say I was impressed. The Sierras throw a big wide sound and the female vocal tracks I played especially sounded good, like Corrine Bailey Rae's "Like a Star" and "Breathless" tracks. Her voice was articulate and seemed to hang in the air. The Sierras seemed to disappear altogether, with no" boxy" sound. Very transparent. The imaging on the Sierra were really good, more impressive than the Axiom M22s that I have heard before.

I also brought several tracks to listen to guitar and bass as I feel sometimes that some speakers, while they will make guitar and bass sound good, they don't sound "right" as I play guitar and drums, too, and I know how they are supposed to sound. Thankfully the Sierra-1s did justice to Keith Richard's guitar, especially on the "Jumping Jack Flash" track from the remastered 40th Anniversary "Get Yer Ya's Ya's Out" Rolling Stones live album, which has a full and meaty think growl on the guitar recordings. As a side note, Curtis told me that Dave himself, the owner and designer of Ascend Acoustic, also plays guitar, too.

From some of the tracks with more detailed highs on them, I did slightly miss the airy quality and sparkle from my metal tweeters on my Epos ES14 monitors at my home, as opposed to the soft dome tweeters on the Sierras but this was minor, plus I have not yet decided if I need the sparkle from metal tweeters anyway as I find that non-fatiguing speakers, like the Sierras, are more important to me. This may be a non-issue anyway if one gets the NrT upgrade on the Sierra-1s which I hear improves the sound significantly especially on the highs, although I have not yet heard these.

Anyway, I came to Curtis' place just to listen to music, but I came away thinking maybe I should consider increasing my budget to do home theater, too! I even liked his TV, a Vizio model with in-built streaming capabilities. While movies sound great, I was also impressed just watching regular TV. I don't know I ever heard a basketball game sound so good. We watched part of a NBA playoff game on TNT which had 5.1 audio, and the audience/fan sounds sounded so clear that it felt like I was there.

Thanks again Curtis.

[curtis]

You are very welcome! Glad it was helpful!

[Sam1000]

You are very welcome! Glad it was helpful!
Curtis:
what are you running for your surrounds? 170SE?

[curtis]

Curtis:
what are you running for your surrounds? 170SE?
I used to use 170SE's for sides and 170(classics) for rear, but last year took all the surrounds down for remodeling.

I swapped my 170SE's with mziegler for the 200SE's he was using in his classroom (with a Hsu sub). I mounted the 200SE's directly to the side walls (before I had the 170SE mounted to exposed ceiling beams). As a result, 5.1 instead of 7.1, it is a much better look for the room, and I am very happy with the sound as well.

[Sam1000]

I used to use 170SE's for sides and 170(classics) for rear, but last year took all the surrounds down for remodeling.

I swapped my 170SE's with mziegler for the 200SE's he was using in his classroom (with a Hsu sub). I mounted the 200SE's directly to the side walls (before I had the 170SE mounted to exposed ceiling beams). As a result, 5.1 instead of 7.1, it is a much better look for the room, and I am very happy with the sound as well.

Yes, 200se are great performers. I have then mounted on a wall for surround duty as well for 7.1. With the new pre-pro (Onkyo pr-sc 5508), I'm getting to enjoy them a lot more with it's different listening modes.

To the PO, thanks for the very good writeup. Sierra's are great bang for the buck.