We Saved The Best For Last!

[Robert]

Finished up my ELX upgrade for the towers. The first tower was a fairly "dreadful" experience. I was a lucky winner of a cabinet that had narrow cutouts. My tolerances also seemed to diminish further inward towards the mounting corners due to variations in the finish. I initially measured 156.2mm with the original drivers installed on the outer edges, but further inward it resulted in 155.9mm.

Some loss of finish near the drivers and the cutouts and it eventually fit....4 hours of "fun" total doing that....sort of made me wonder if just sticking with the original V2 plan would've saved me the frustration. I eventually found a combo of selecting slightly smaller drivers in my kit plus finish removal (sanding) to the drivers and cutouts to finally get it completed.

The second tower had plenty of room to spare and was an easy and straight forward drop in replacement. No major issues with the 2nd tower at all. A polar opposite of the first tower.

I've listened to the towers and they sound great. I don't think I can add more description to what has already been said and will need time to evaluate further. It sort of feels like moving from a 2D to a 3D listening experience where on the v1 it was "flatter" and the ELX has more depth to the soundstage. With my room being 17'x14'x8', they are significant overkill for a room this size. I still have my Horizon upgrade kit in the box and am deciding if it is really necessary to complete the upgrade as I mostly listen to stereo and only use surround for gaming and the occasional movie. The "vanilla" v1 Horizon does well enough being about 9ft away and performing center dialog duty.

[diesel79]

Your experience mirror what I saw in my head if I were to perform my Horizon upgrade myself. Lol. I sent mine in to Ascend.

That being said, the ELX Horizon is amazing. Definitely a noticeable upgrade for movies over the V1. IMO it is much clearer and adds that 2d to 3d effect you mentioned. If you find the time and patience I’d definitely recommend doing it.

[racrawford65]

I agree with diesel79.

[Robert]

Thanks - definitely a step up in performance. In the end, the tower with the smaller cutout has very small areas of finish "scuffs", you'd have to look closely....I think all the time spent was trying to do as little damage as possible, but many swear words were said....lol. Thankfully, the second cabinet was easy.

Yeah - I'm still mulling it over on the Horizon. I'd sort of compare it to buying a fancy SUV with the fancy offroad package, but the only adventures it would see for my usage case would be driving over potholes at the local mall....

The ELX series is high performance that is for sure.

[NegativeEntropy]

Question for Dave or owners of ELX Raal and Sierra-LX:

I plan to upgrade my OG NrT towers to ELX and get Sierra-LX for surround duty.

Need the LX surround for the vertical dispersion (plus, frankly they seem like ideal movie surrounds

80% home theater/games, 20% music.

Unknown if I'll take a liking to surround music or just use 2.x or 3.x when doing music.

Would the Raal ELX towers and Horizon blend well with Sierra-LX surrounds or should I stick with the ELX Titan tower and horizon upgrade so all the tweeters match?

For music listening, tastes are very varied from classical (from only strings to full symphony), and classic rock, modern pop, rock and metal of various types - basically everything but country and rap.

I know the LX tweeters are solid for rock/metal, but thinking I'd like to experience the Raal for classical and acoustic guitar (though piano and french horn are my favorite old school instruments).

Thoughts?

[racrawford65]

I think all the Ascends blend well - at least the ones I have (ELX Raal towers and Horizon, S2, htm200s, LX, Duo v2 center)

I’ve only heard the Titan in my LX. Great speaker/tweeter but I still prefer the RAAL in the Towers… aireness, details, etc. even with rock/metal (which is what I primarily listen to) along with jazz and some classical. As you, no country, rap, hiphop

[davef]

Dave,

Your thoughts on optimal sub cross-over settings for ELX Titan towers/Rythmic F15 HP?

Thanks, Dave

This is very room and placement dependent. That stated, with a subwoofer size of 15", I would recommend crossing at 60Hz or even lower. As others have stated, to get this perfect - it would be best to take some room measurements.

[shinny]

Hello Dave,

I have a pretty big room, 27'wide, 16' ceilings, 30 plus deep, open to the house, and am producing plenty of seamless base using one sealed F 15" Rythmik sub with my ELX/Titan converted towers . I previously had sub crossover set at 80 with my old towers but now w/ ELX Titans have been moving lower, currently at 60 and sounding amazing, as you're suggesting. And regarding measurements, that's really not my thing as I'm more of how it sounds to me guy... I'm probably missing out, I guess.

The bottom line is, I feel like I have a new set of $8K plus speakers for the price of a $2K upgrade, thanks to you and Dina. Unbelievable really. Have a nice day.

[shinny]

Oh, and my system is:

Wyred4Sound 250x2 amp, Odyssey Candela tube pre-amp, Schiit Bifrost DAC, Rythmik F15 sealed sub, ELX/Titans, streaming via USB or TV/optical connect, no center necessary whatsoever, to me anyway.

[Robert]

I agree with diesel79.

You guys sold me on continuing with the Horizon upgrade. I started it today. Before I start a project, I usually do a quick overall check before I begin just to make sure there are no sudden surprises and plan accordingly. Plenty of room for the LX woofers at 156.6mm. I slid off the RAAL tweeter cover for a quick check (then reinstall once all is ok) and noticed a small horizontal line on the tweeter (very small). The lighting in the room is very good, so anything unusual is more noticeable. A call to Dina and it sounds like a small tear is forming. I sent it in to get repaired and inspected and hope to get it back soon.

Special thanks to Dina, Dave & team for their help! Ascend has some of the best customer service around. I've checked off more experience boxes for the recent upgrades.....ELX tower upgrade, Sierra 2 EX v2 upgrade, Luna v2 upgrade, and soon the ELX Horizon once the tweeter comes back.