Anyone have links to pro and consumer reviews?

[JC1]

Anyone have any links to pro and consumer reviews of Ascend speakers and in particular the Sierra 2's? I am just not finding much which surprises me a bit. Nothing on You tube really either. Why wouldn't there be a lot of reviews you think? Thanks for any help.

[davef]

Anyone have any links to pro and consumer reviews of Ascend speakers and in particular the Sierra 2's? I am just not finding much which surprises me a bit. Nothing on You tube really either. Why wouldn't there be a lot of reviews you think? Thanks for any help.

Not sure what you mean by youtube reviews, but here is a professional review of the Sierra-2:

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/ascend-acoustics-sierra-2-loudspeaker/

which then led to us winning the positive feedback writer's choice award

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/positive-feedback-writers-choice-awards/

I don't believe in "youtube" reviews by non-professionals - as such, when these self-proclaimed reviewers ask for us to supply them with speakers, we say no.

In addition, we don't advertise - anywhere - and as such, most review sites have no interest in reviewing as most of these sites are driven by ad revenue...

[Beave]

I don't believe in "youtube" reviews by non-professionals - as such, when these self-proclaimed reviewers ask for us to supply them with speakers, we say no.


Dang! There goes my plan for free Sierra 2s!! ;)

[davef]

Dang! There goes my plan for free Sierra 2s!! ;)

Right? I should post some of the crazy review requests we get.

[JC1]

Not sure what you mean by youtube reviews, but here is a professional review of the Sierra-2:

https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/ascend-acoustics-sierra-2-loudspeaker/

which then led to us winning the positive feedback writer's choice award

https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/positive-feedback-writers-choice-awards/

I don't believe in "youtube" reviews by non-professionals - as such, when these self-proclaimed reviewers ask for us to supply them with speakers, we say no.

In addition, we don't advertise - anywhere - and as such, most review sites have no interest in reviewing as most of these sites are driven by ad revenue...

Yeah I agree that you tube speaker reviews are almost always horrendous. I figured the fact you don't advertise meant no reviews in any mags. Audioholics I thought would but in the end they are no different than any other review site, money talk and you know the rest. Thanks for the links.

[N Boros]

Audioholics reviewed the Sierra Luna:

http://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/sierra-luna-speaker

And the Sierra 1:

http://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/ascend-acoustics-sierra-1

The Luna review was not quite the full treatment usually given, but probably still more depth than given in a magazine review, like say Sound and Vision.

[JC1]

Audioholics reviewed the Sierra Luna:

http://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/sierra-luna-speaker

And the Sierra 1:

http://www.audioholics.com/bookshelf-speaker-reviews/ascend-acoustics-sierra-1

The Luna review was not quite the full treatment usually given, but probably still more depth than given in a magazine review, like say Sound and Vision.

I'm just starting to not trust Audioholics a little bit. The Luna's get a "pretty cool" and the new Def Tech's get a "gotta have it". Something fishy. Money talk and you know what walks.

[N Boros]

I'm just starting to not trust Audioholics a little bit. The Luna's get a "pretty cool" and the new Def Tech's get a "gotta have it". Something fishy. Money talk and you know what walks.

Any review magazine or website that takes advertising dollars is going to be biased. I wouldn't write them off just because of "pretty cool" vs. "gotta have it". The content of their reviews is still quite good. I think that their review of the Lunas seemed good and quite correct, as I own the Sierra 2s which are voiced very similarly. In fact, I think they are one of the top sites in my opinion on speaker, subwoofer and amplifier/receiver reviews. And data-bass.com for subwoofers. Too many other sites and magazines either have very little substance and mostly talk about the history of the company and paraphrase what the company is using for their materials and their design philosophy. Or on the other end of the spectrum, it becomes almost an exercise in the reviewer trying to impress us with their creative writing abilities that have little relation to reality, like when they describe the sound as "chocolaty". :)

I do think there are better sites for TVs and Projectors though than Audioholics. For TVs, I really like the depth of http://www.rtings.com/. For projectors I like the depth of http://www.projectorreviews.com/ . However, I do think that the later review site is slightly lacking in their understanding of HDR capable projectors. I've read reviews where the reviewer discusses trying to hit 500 and 1,000 nits with a projector for specular highlights on an HDR projector, in light of the fact that Dolby cinemas calibrate peak brightness at just 100 nits for projectors. So I try to look at their measurements to add a little more substance to Sound and Vision's review of projector. I'll stop their so that I don't veer too far off topic.

[JC1]

Any review magazine or website that takes advertising dollars is going to be biased. I wouldn't write them off just because of "pretty cool" vs. "gotta have it". The content of their reviews is still quite good. I think that their review of the Lunas seemed good and quite correct, as I own the Sierra 2s which are voiced very similarly. In fact, I think they are one of the top sites in my opinion on speaker, subwoofer and amplifier/receiver reviews. And data-bass.com for subwoofers. Too many other sites and magazines either have very little substance and mostly talk about the history of the company and paraphrase what the company is using for their materials and their design philosophy. Or on the other end of the spectrum, it becomes almost an exercise in the reviewer trying to impress us with their creative writing abilities that have little relation to reality, like when they describe the sound as "chocolaty". :)

I do think there are better sites for TVs and Projectors though than Audioholics. For TVs, I really like the depth of http://www.rtings.com/. For projectors I like the depth of http://www.projectorreviews.com/ . However, I do think that the later review site is slightly lacking in their understanding of HDR capable projectors. I've read reviews where the reviewer discusses trying to hit 500 and 1,000 nits with a projector for specular highlights on an HDR projector, in light of the fact that Dolby cinemas calibrate peak brightness at just 100 nits for projectors. So I try to look at their measurements to add a little more substance to Sound and Vision's review of projector. I'll stop their so that I don't veer too far off topic.

No I still like them, but its a bit fishy some of these recommendations. Overall they do a great job of reviews and yes its nearly 100% on the audio side. They do great reviews of speakers in particular.

[curtis]

I'm just starting to not trust Audioholics a little bit. The Luna's get a "pretty cool" and the new Def Tech's get a "gotta have it". Something fishy. Money talk and you know what walks.
It’s because different reviewers/writers have different preferences. There is no standard.

[Blutarsky]

So many tastes indeed. I remember attending the CES and there were rooms with large full range speakers blasting rock and symphonies while other rooms had a hushed group gathered around small stand mount monitors listening to chamber music.

[sharkman]

I'm just starting to not trust Audioholics a little bit. The Luna's get a "pretty cool" and the new Def Tech's get a "gotta have it". Something fishy. Money talk and you know what walks.

Audioholics has a bias just like anyone else.