This post is to Azanon in specific and others in general. To everyone, I’m sorry for the length this grew to – good luck reading it if you choose. Jake the troll: have what fun you will - I will continue to enjoy laughing *at* you.

Azanon, I also like some bite in my humor, but I’d like to share a feeling that’s developed over a few years of living. To ensure the humor is enjoyed I believe you need to make the friend *first* and then make sure they understand when you are using humor. That being said, we are all still human, and make mistakes in what we say and write. Sometimes things need to be retracted if it becomes clear they were misunderstood.

Now to the bulk (and it is bulky) of my message. IMO a lot of misinformation has been stated (mostly by the aforementioned Jake), and many have seen red too much to respond well. Anyway, here’s my rambling take on a lot of the bashing that’s been going on:

I laugh at comparing the CBM-170s to the Rocket 750s. That a comparison would even be interesting shows what value is available with the Ascend monitors. I actually tune that out as the only comparison I’d be interested in would be bookshelf to bookshelf - the 170s vs. 250s, or Onix Ref1 for that matter.

Re speaker measurements: I'm not knowing how the speakers were measured, but it seems obvious to me that if you put the microphone too near to one part of the speaker and some drivers are more distant, that the speakers aren't going to sound "right." The drivers extend a large physical distance on the 750s while the drivers on the 170s are right next to each other.

I'd also guess that one could use the CBM-170s as nearfield monitors and place them near your ears - heck, maybe even strap them onto your ears. The same goes for other bookshelf/monitor speakers (personally, I happen to like headphones - I find them lighter. []) Interestingly, I'd also think that a tower speaker that uses only two drivers could be used that nearfield – it just comes with it’s own stand built in, Ok, maybe the larger enclosure buys you something too. However, the 750s have a driver array, take some space for the soundwaves from the driver array to coalesce. That can be bad for some applications but good for others. What do I get out of the whole discussion: that 750s shouldn’t be used as headphones.

Re SOCS: SOCS is for *any speaker.* It just happens to have been demoed on the 750. Heck, if you want you could use that “$1500 program” for $100 speakers. The interesting question is, is it better to spend $40,000 for speakers, or $100 + $1500. It’s an audiophile question. Without the extra $1500, don’t ask it. It is *not* $1500 more to correct a $1500 mistake.

IMHO, this technology is going to be a lot more widely applied in the future. It’s something to enjoy speculating about as it is only just about to be born. One speculation is that sometime in the future, when you buy your Ascend CBM17,000s and they will come with a little flashcard. You plug that flashcard into your receiver and it will do the correction. My personal hope however is that they will license the full RCS system to receivers, including the MMK programming and coefficient derivation software. It's probably a HTPC thing...

Re cables: Hmmm, Ascend sells speaker cables. Jake's malicious comments could be used there just as well. Why isn’t plain zipcord enough? The same goes for high-end vs. throwaway interconnects – that’s a whole different flame war that will rage forever… It's just brought in here for machine gun effect.

Re 750 stands - I agree with his point, but in no way his phraseology. Interesting also that Ascend has speaker stands for exactly the same price as the Rocket Risers…. In general, I increase the cost of any monitor speaker by the needed price of stands. Maybe the 750s are just monitors with a 4-driver woofer array. (OK, so they still suck for nearfield applications [] ).

But I'd like to return to the whole “how to conduct ourselves on these kinds of forums” question. I for one marvel that we get to interact with all levels of people from the audio world on these forums. There are the people creating the products, like Mr. Fabrikant or Mr. Schifter. I am respectful to these people. To me, it’s an amazing opportunity afforded us by the internet - I think it’s a shame to waste it by insulting them. I may have no interest in a micro-cube/bass module Lifestyle system; but I would not treat Omar [edit] Amar [:I][/edit] **** with anything but respect and I’d be mightily interested in what he had to say.

There are people who’ve spent a lot of time on this hobby – from them I hope to “cheat” and avoid the lessons they may have painfully (expensively?) had to learn. But many of them are highly opinionated. I listen to what they say, try not to insult them, and take what they say as anecdotal. Here, I apply a quote from Dr. Dean Edell: “The plural of anecdote is not data.”

Then are others like me, who want to learn, share a little of what they see, and maybe a little humor. There’s a lot of us out there, some of them pretend to more knowledge than they have. To that end I remember a phrase from a long time ago (I can’t remember the source for it however): “The Internet is an exercise in anarchy.”

Finally, there are those I can’t understand, nor do I enjoy, Here’s a quote from Robert Heinlein from which I derive how I treat them: “Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate–and quickly.”

I am in *no way* advocating any kind of violence. In applying it here, I make major effort trying to understand wherever someone comes from in their writing. If I can’t find any way to read it that makes any kind of sense, or if it seems needlessly malicious – I dismiss it and don’t let it aggravate me.

In *major* risk of being pedantic, I hope this has been helpful. It is my way of trying to give back to the forums that have given so much to me.

enjoy,

Eric