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Has anyone heard any of the speakers(not the drivers)that Parts Express sells? They are either kit or assembled, and resemble the Ascend stuff in driver size and configuration. They aren't exactly cheap either, so I am curious how they would compare to Ascends. The cabinets look well made and have a variety of finishes.
What do y'all think?
I looked into these before buying my Ascends. I thought they tried to do too much with the size of the enclosure. Everything is about trade-offs and when you get speakers in an enclosure that size that go down to 40hz, what are you trading off? They're 4 ohm vs 8 ohm for the Ascends. They're less efficient. If you have lots of power that isn't a concern but it was a concern for me. And you have to do the assembly yourself. That's worth a lot in my book. If Ascend is going to furnish the speaker assembled for roughly the same price, where's the value?
I like Parts Express and have ordered from them numerous times including yesterday. My sub came from them. I'm sure their speakers are excellent values, just not as excellent as Ascend for me.
They have discussion boards at Parts Express and some of the other forums have DIY venues where I'm sure these speakers are discussed. I found the DIY boards to be an uncool place to hang out. Many of them think they know more than the pros and feel most speakers in the 340 and 170 class are junk because they (the DIY'er) can do so much better. I'd be interested if you found any useful info on these speakers.
David
I have not researched these at all.....just saw them online while looking for a replacement woofer for a coworker's 8" Infinity sub. When the woofer came, a catalog was in the box so I looked at their speakers again. They have several different versions of each model using various different drivers at different price points. I was merely curious as to how they sounded.
Your right....DIY'ers usually think you get better bang for your buck doing it yourself. I wonder how good their crossovers are compared to the professional companies who have access to the best test and research equipment?
I don't mind that they think they can get better bang for their buck. Maybe they can. It's the attacks on anything that isn't DIY that bothered me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mag_Neato
Some of these guys think they can do a crossover that's as good or better than the pros. That's a tough one to swallow but they seem to treat it as gospel.
David
Okay, ignoring the DIY'er attitude of superiority, is it possible to best the performance, on a dollar-to-dollar basis, of the Ascends compared to do it yourself stuff? I don't mind building things.....I grew up with a high mechanical aptitude. I have disassembled many things just to see how they were put together. That's why I repaired a coworker's sub....he knew I would be able to diagnose the problem and offer a solution. I am somewhat surprised at the build quality of some so-called premium speakers. Particle board enclosures instead of MDF. Wood screws threading directly into the particle board rather than machine screws and Tee-nuts. And the driver itself is nothing to get excited about.
On the other hand, the Ascends and my Onix Rocket UFW-10 have some of the finest build and finish at their price points(comercially).
The PE stuff intrigues me because they offer finished cabinetry, which I could not duplicate since I'm not a woodworker.
I realize I probably won't find too many DIY'ers here, but like you said, if I ask this on a DIY forum I will get the "Gospel"!