Introducing the Sierra-LX!!!

[RMW]

Hey Dave (or anyone else),

On the LX upgrade kit, for the woofer I’m assuming that the brown wire should go to the tab marked with red?

Thanks,
Ryan

[natetg57]

Hey Dave (or anyone else),

On the LX upgrade kit, for the woofer I’m assuming that the brown wire should go to the tab marked with red?

Thanks,
Ryan

Yes. That threw me off too at first.

[RMW]

Yes. That threw me off too at first.

Thank you! I think with the previous upgrades the tabs were different sizes, which made it mostly idiot proof. With the new woofers I figured I better ask first.

[davef]

Hey Dave (or anyone else),

On the LX upgrade kit, for the woofer I’m assuming that the brown wire should go to the tab marked with red?

Thanks,
Ryan

Thanks for the head's up -- I need to update the instructions to reflect this. Brown wire goes to tab marked with Red. (red is positive woofer input, brown crossover wire is positive woofer output)

[hometheater]

Thanks for the head's up -- I need to update the instructions to reflect this. Brown wire goes to tab marked with Red. (red is positive woofer input, brown crossover wire is positive woofer output)

I barely saw the red marking on mine so is it the one on the left or right when facing the woofer?

[davef]

I barely saw the red marking on mine so is it the one on the left or right when facing the woofer?

Left

[davef]

Sierra-LX, 6 months later…

I’ve often stressed the greatest advantage of our distribution method is direct customer feedback. Typically, when a consumer purchases a product from a retailer - rarely, if ever, will the manufacturer of that product discuss feedback with that consumer. In addition, and I’m sure it isn’t just me as I too am a consumer - calling a manufacturer to discuss issues can often be a frustrating experience. Instead, they direct you to the retailer, which in most cases is simply not that knowledgeable.

With Ascend, it is most common for us to have lengthy in-depth and often highly technical discussions with our customers regarding the product they purchased from us. This is what I call direct feedback. From customer direct to the designer and manufacturer of that product. In my professional opinion, there is nothing more valuable than direct feedback and we always put this critical data to good use.

We are now 6 months into the release of our LX and feedback has been stellar. We are currently running an exceptional customer satisfaction rate of 98%. For internet sales, that is an extremely impressive figure and leagues above the average.

Of course, we would prefer 100% - but I am not sure any such product in any category even exists. By analyzing our feedback data, the only complaint worth noting is that in small squarish rooms, where room modes dominate, the bass response of the LX can be too overwhelming.

While rare, we do understand the issue and we have developed an elegant solution.

Much like with our Sierra-1, we designed specialty port plugs which gave the owner the ability to tune the bass response using different custom deigned port plugs.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer force the LX woofer can produce, those original Q-Plugs did not perform well in the LX.

We experimented with different types of foams and densities, different plug designs and varying dimensions. I am now happy to announce revamped Q-Pugs.

Please see here: Q-Plugs

Plug "S" seals the port entirely and changes the character of the bass to -3dB at 70Hz, with a much shallower roll off slope. I was quite surprised at how well the LX woofer performs in a sealed cabinet.

Plug "O" is an open plug design. This has the effect of lowering the port tune frequency such that we now have ~3dB less energy in the room mode problem areas of 50-100Hz, while simultaneously providing more bass output at 40Hz and lower. Plug O also fully damps port resonance and dramatically reduces chuffing at extreme low frequencies.

We are now including both sets of plugs at no charge with all Sierra-LX starting today, they will be included in the packaging. We have also listed them on the website for purchase at a very fair price.

Sierra-LX now have tunable bass!

Enjoy!

[ahender]

I just did the LX upgrade on my front three, 2EX. Right away, listening without a sub, I noticed a huge amount of bass. Like many others have noted, much more than you'd expect from a compact bookshelf. Later, when I ran Audyssey, I noticed that I'm getting a huge bump around 50hz in my room. I think I'll need to experiment a bit with placement to try to get a more even response. After using Audyssey to tame the bass peaks and integrating my two L12s, I'm not noticing a huge different in midbass, from the 2EX, but again, I think I need to play around with speaker placement. The biggest improvement for me was with vocals. Male vocals have a fuller, more natural sound, and female voices in particular feel like a real person in the room with me. It's striking and my wife noticed the difference as well. On certain songs, the soundstage is extremely big...both wider and taller than before. And yes, Audioslave sounds much better now. I'm looking forward to trying out some more material and cranking the volume when I have the opportunity. There are a few times when I miss the extra detail from the Raal ribbons (acoustic guitar and violin), but overall, these are the perfect speakers for me, since I listen to 'everything'. Thanks Dave for speakers better than what I ever thought I would be able to afford!

Just curious. What are you doing with the 2-EX parts? As a long time Ascend user, it seems the LX has almost rendered the 2-EX irrelevant.

[theophile]

Wonderful news, Dave!!

LX Excess Bass response in my small 90cf dedicated music room was my main reason (the RAAL acoustical genre prowess being 2nd) for holding onto the 2EX as bass bandwidth, transients and musicality are already Superb! The LX port plugs look to be a great solution for small listening rooms like mine!!

Tomorrow, the Klippel 2EX-V2 X-Over will be the next step up for me...we'll see (urrr, Hear)!!!

Ted

[djDANNY]

Sierra-LX, 6 months later…

I’ve often stressed the greatest advantage of our distribution method is direct customer feedback. Typically, when a consumer purchases a product from a retailer - rarely, if ever, will the manufacturer of that product discuss feedback with that consumer. In addition, and I’m sure it isn’t just me as I too am a consumer - calling a manufacturer to discuss issues can often be a frustrating experience. Instead, they direct you to the retailer, which in most cases is simply not the knowledgeable.

With Ascend, it is most common for us to have lengthy in-depth and often highly technical discussions with our customers regarding the product they purchased from us. This is what I call direct feedback. From customer direct to the designer and manufacturer of that product. In my professional opinion, there is nothing more valuable than direct feedback and we always put this critical data to good use.

We are now 6 months into the release of our LX and feedback has been stellar. We are currently running an exceptional customer satisfaction rate of 98%. For internet sales, that is an extremely impressive figure and leagues above the average.

Of course, we would prefer 100% - but I am not sure any such product in any category even exists. By analyzing our feedback data, the only complaint worth noting is that in small squarish rooms, where room modes dominate, the bass response of the LX can be too overwhelming.

While rare, we do understand the issue and we have developed an elegant solution.

Much like with our Sierra-1, we designed specialty port plugs which gave the owner the ability to tune the bass response using different custom deigned port plugs.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer force the LX woofer can produce, those original Q-Plugs did not perform well in the LX.

We experimented with different types of foams and densities, different plug designs and varying dimensions. I am now happy to announce revamped Q-Pugs.

Please see here: Q-Plugs

Plug "S" seals the port entirely and changes the character of the bass to -3dB at 70Hz, with a much shallower roll off slope. I was quite surprised at how well the LX woofer performs in a sealed cabinet.

Plug "O" is an open plug design. This has the effect of lowering the port tune frequency such that we now have ~3dB less energy in the room mode problem areas of 50-100Hz, while simultaneously providing more bass output at 40Hz and lower. Plug O also fully damps port resonance and dramatically reduces chuffing at extreme low frequencies.

We are now including both sets of plugs at no charge with all Sierra-LX starting today, they will be included in the packaging. We have also listed them on the website for purchase at a very fair price.

Sierra-LX now have tunable bass!

Enjoy!

Two questions.

1) Are the port plugs needed if someone is using room correction/EQ to tame down any excess bass energy due to placement?

2) Will the plugs be included with upgrade kits as well?