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!