How do you guys feel about a mini tower from Ascend??

[parimento1]

I was thinking that it might not be a bad idea to manufacture a small tower like having a Sierra 1 2-way floor stander or a small 3- way floor stander with 1 woofer and small midrange. I know many people aren't into the bookshelf speakers, because of the look of it or whatever, but have rooms that may be too small for the Sierra Tower. Their rooms would be perfect for a mini tower or smaller tower than the Sierra Tower. Also you could tune it to produce deeper bass than a similar sized bookshelf. Just a thought...what do you guys think?

[Mag_Neato]

This was my very last post in the "Sierra-1 NrT: Next phase?" thread.

I speculated that this could be the "uber-upgrade" to the Sierra-1/NrT which Dave referred to as the "Sierra-2". If he is creating a new mini-tower cabinet which could use the existing Sierra-1/NrT drivers along with a revised X-over, then we may be on to something.:cool:

[Blutarsky]

Personally, I advocate for a high efficiency 3 way stand mount, and a Tower with an 8 inch Woofer (or two)

B.

[parimento1]

a tower with 2 8 inch woofers would be good for the HT crowd I guess. A 3 way standmount is a good idea and would free up the midrange in the Sierra 1s. I actually had a the Polk LSiM703s, which were a 3-way bookshelf, for a few weeks before a defective tweeter reared its ugly head. Those were damn good, but were very, very big. I would say almost too big to be standmounts, as finding stands for them were next to impossible. I think when you get into 3-ways they become too big to be stand mounted. The Polk I had were precariously perched on top of Paradigm J-29 stands, I was holding my breathe, even with the stands mass loaded...lol. I like small floorstanders, because they are more stable. I feel that bookshelf speakers are good for computer audio, wall mounting, or a 2nd system.



Personally, I advocate for a high efficiency 3 way stand mount, and a Tower with an 8 inch Woofer (or two)

B.

[Blutarsky]

I would find the stands. Dayton has a reasonable one. Might be worth having Sound Anchors build one. High efficiency is the other descriptor meaningful to me. I like my SPL. Be nice to get it with less than 200W.

I had Rock in mind for the 8 inch woofers.

I have a pair of these...

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=240-744
B.

[RicardoJoa]

I was thinking that it might not be a bad idea to manufacture a small tower like having a Sierra 1 2-way floor stander or a small 3- way floor stander with 1 woofer and small midrange. I know many people aren't into the bookshelf speakers, because of the look of it or whatever, but have rooms that may be too small for the Sierra Tower. Their rooms would be perfect for a mini tower or smaller tower than the Sierra Tower. Also you could tune it to produce deeper bass than a similar sized bookshelf. Just a thought...what do you guys think?

But the tower are already quiet small in terms of foot print. How much smaller do you mean by smaller? Maybe shorter? If there room is such small, i thought bookshelve speaker would be easier to manuver and with the sierra1 that is not super heavy, you can put them on shelves and save the stands, if space is so important.
I have a different thought. If such a great tweeter like the NRT could be upgraded to an even better Raal, then that could be said to the woofer of the tower. Im sure they are good, obviously for a small 5.25 woofer they do dig pretty low, but just a thought. Sometimes is not about how lows it digs, but the overall tone, as with peple have different taste.

[choirbass]

This is just my opinion, but what would essentially be just a taller sierra-1, isn't quite a Sierra tower, but would almost be as large. Or rather, dimension wise it might be similar to the compact mini tower 340 se.

I dunno, personally just the thought of a RAAL Sierra-2 (thereby having overall improved midrange as a result since it can cover lower frequencies than the NrT, thus negating the need for other major driver changes) really is the best option to have.

[GirgleMirt]

but have rooms that may be too small for the Sierra Tower. Their rooms would be perfect for a mini tower or smaller tower than the Sierra Tower.

I'm fairly sure that could be true for a minority of people... Besides, speakers tend to sound good when they're placed correctly. So I find the whole make a better speaker that will not be placed correctly I don't know... Bit pointless...

I think a bookshelf + tower is already fairly complete as a speaker line, but I guess adding a 3 way bookshelf à la tower might round things up a little more... But maybe a MTM styled MTW instead of the TMW bookshelf could be cool, now that I think of it, never really seen such a speaker before... Also, while you're at it, why not use a bigger woofer to compensate for the fact that the bookshelf has 1 woofer instead of 2 for the tower? It would mean more bass extension, probably improved bass, and so an interesting choice for potential Sierra-1 purchasers... Or yeah I guess with internal mid sealed cabinet & necessary port the TMW would be more practical (port being behind tweeter on top..)

Anyhow I guess there's countless designs ideas... In the case of Ascend, I think that time is the critical factor, and working on one design means other designs aren't getting worked on... (limited numbers of speakers models)