Ascend Sierra Tower ELX RAAL Ribbon Review

I finished up my ELX RAAL tower upgrade a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share my impressions, apologies for it being long:


History:

Back in early 2019, I stumbled onto Ascend Acoustics website after reading some positive feedback on their products on various forums. I found that I liked Dave's approach to product improvement and engineering. I'll admit....the old website back in the day was sort of a slight turn off though.....lol. After doing some repainting and rearranging to my "man cave" in late 2019, which is a typical bonus room (17'x14'x8') over the garage, I snagged a pair of the Sierra 2 EX speakers when they first launched. I enjoyed the warmer sound and clarity of them over my set of PSB Imagine speakers.

Fast forward to today, and I'm running the now upgraded Sierra 2 EX v2s as surrounds, a Horizon center, and Sierra Towers in a 5.2 setup powered by an Anthem MRX 540 and an Anthem PVA5. I also use a pair of Luna v2s in a bedroom system powered by a Sonos Amp. Things sort of escalated since 2019.....and also, Ascend has a better website. :)

My Sierra Tower v1s were purchased in 2020 during the height of all the turbulence that year contained. When I first heard whispers about the big tower upgrade sometime last fall and the dimensions required (156.4mm) to perform the upgrade, I was a bit disheartened, as one of my towers had a cutout measuring 156.2mm. I decided to just wait it out for the v2 update. I think Dina sort of helped sway me to go with the full ELX upgrade as it was about the same amount of work, which finally arrived in early May.


Upgrade Process:

The first tower with the smaller woofer cutouts was a bit of a struggle and made me question why I decided to go all in on the ELX upgrade. I select fit the woofers with the smallest measurements using a caliper, sanded the driver finish, and also sanded the inside of the cutout as it tapered down to 155.9mm towards the bottom of the cutouts. You'd have to look very close to see any scuff in edges of the finish by the woofers.....that took the most amount of effort! A call to Dina and she also mentioned using some WD40 and applying it to the edges of the drivers to help them slide in. After sanding, I didn't have to resort to this. The second tower was easy and sort of like a Lego set, just with some soldering required. If your speakers have the cutout space needed, you should be fine. I was just a "lucky" winner with one tower.....

The other minor challenge was creating two new mounting holes in the cabinet and keeping the screw upright, but the painter's tape trick (shared in the Ascend forum) helped.


First Impressions:

The first tower took a lot longer than I'd planned, so after finishing one, I decided to plug it into my system and level match the v1 and ELX together using my standard 80Hz crossover settings. What I heard was surprising and matched many other impressions I've read. The v1 towers had a much flatter sound to them while the ELX tower had significantly more bass and mid-bass to the sound, plus a wider soundstage. In short, the ELX was sort of like putting on 3D glasses for music.

The next day I finished the other tower and paired the two ELXs. The difference was not subtle at all. It was a huge difference in sound quality.....a very significant step up. Every recording had more depth and a dimension to it that I never before experienced. The struggle of the first tower upgrade was soon forgotten. Honestly, I'm not sure I want to impact these speakers too much by running ARC room correction.....If I do, I'll likely stick with my standard EQ at 200-250Hz and below. They sound fantastic on their own in my moderately treated room (4 bass traps at the corners, rear diffusion, and side wall treatments).

Overall, I highly recommend the ELX towers!!


Music used for speaker evaluation (YouTube links):

I typically use this group to stress test my amp and speakers....their name is interesting to say the least, but there is a lot of "epicness" in this song and the ELX speakers handle it well. Also check out their live album. They are well known for movie, TV show, and video game trailer music:

Two Steps From Hell - Impossible​​​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qTghUgMOeY


I discovered this group during a workout at the gym. A lot going on in this song:

The SIDH - Utopia​​​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asm_8UmGXVo


One of my favorite songs to turn up and demo to friends. I love piano music:

​Jennifer Thomas - Illumination​​​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEw629Bp7vU


Great song as it sort of has that "3D" sound effect feel to it on the towers. I got to see her live for her Christmas concert. Amazing show!

Lindsey Stirling V-Pop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFDMjGpPX9k

Thank you for reading!

Wonderful review and thank you! So glad you are enjoying the ELX.

Going to check our some of the music you listed right now :)

Thanks Dave!

Looking forward to finishing up the Horizon ELX. Plenty of space to work with for the drivers, so I don't anticipate that drama again like on the first tower. Looks like my RAAL tweeter will arrive on Monday next week. I plan to finish up the upgrade sometime next week. Glad to hear it was just a "wrinkle" and not anything serious.

As far as music goes, the Ascend forum has been a great place to check out new bands and music. I think that is what buying speakers is all about....enjoying music! My tastes range from 80's rock to symphonic metal to classical, folk, and anything in between.

I've been on business trips to California a few times in the past. Hope to some day stop over for a visit in the future, but I'll have to leave my wallet behind....haha. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robert

Looks like my RAAL tweeter will arrive on Monday next week. I plan to finish up the upgrade sometime next week. Glad to hear it was just a "wrinkle" and not anything serious.

I've been on business trips to California a few times in the past. Hope to some day stop over for a visit in the future, but I'll have to leave my wallet behind....haha. :)

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Yeah, in many thousands sold, we have only seen one 70-20xr with a tear and that was due to a customer getting a belt buckle a bit to close to the ridiculously powerful magnets and it pulled the metal buckle into the tweeter. The 70-20 has a very unique design compared to all other RAAL tweeters and really any other true ribbon tweeter that prevents the ribbon diaphragm from tearing even under tremendous power and stress.

You are welcome to visit us anytime and we really hope you do soon!!!