Upgrade to ELX Towers for HT?

[awinn002]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I currently have 4 Def tech BP9060 towers and the CS9080 center for my 5.1.4 home theater set up. The room is fairly large, 15ftx25ft for the theater area, but open to the entire basement of 30ftx50ft with 8ft ceilings. I've been wanting to get better sound out of my system, would upgrading to the ELX towers and horizon center make a noticeable sound improvement for my home theater experience?

[racrawford65]

Yes, very noticeable. I had Def Techs before (procinema, I recall) and they were ok (but fatiguing at higher volumes and/or longer sessions, likely due to the metal tweeters). My first Ascends were S2's - big improvement over the DT's...moved to Towers / Horizon another step up, and just recently upgraded to ELX - another big step up. You won't regret moving to the Ascends.

What sub are you using? You may also benefit from a second or different sub(s) considering your room size.

[awinn002]

Thanks for the reply. I'm using two PSA TV2112s subs, well, they're on order. Lol
What are you running as surrounds, and how big is your space? I see S2 surrounds in your signature but don't see those on the ascend website. We sit 15ft from the screen and about 12.5ft from the LCRs, with a bar area directly behind the couch at about 15ft. Surrounds are about 9ft from MLP. Would it be okay to pair RAAL LCR with Titan tweeter surrounds? I was looking at the LX for surrounds but not sure how mixing tweeters would sound. I figured matching the drivers of the LX and ELX was more important than matching tweeters, and running 4 ELX towers is cost prohibitive atm.

Also, how do the RAAL tweeters sound off axis, maybe standing up and 30ft back from LCR? We throw a lot of parties in our space and people are usually up walking around and stuff. I'm not overly concerned with their audio bliss, as the family uses this area for home theater, so I want the best experience for us. I just want to make sure that those up walking around while we're watching a basketball game can still hear what's going on, even if it's not as good as sitting on the couch directly in front of the screen.

[racrawford65]

I am running Sierra 2's for my L/R Surround and HTM200's for my 4 Atmos channels (Front/Rear on high wall). The S2 has been replaced by the S2EX (both have the smaller RAAL, but different woofers & x-over). My S2's were my mains before I moved to the Towers. At that time, I was using another pair of HTM200's for surrounds. For movies, surrounds are mostly effects/etc, so I don't really feel the need for more expensive speakers or ones that dig really deep as the bass is redirected to the subs anyway. I don't listen to a lot of music in surround so that could change my mind, although the occasional concert video or streaming where I did listen in surround, nothing lacking in current set up.

It's a pretty open space. My listening room is 16x12x11 (11 on average height as the ceiling is tiered). However, the rear is open to a foyer and then dining room (foyer is maybe 6' wide, dining room same as listening room). It is also open to the left side to the den (18x20x10), which is somewhat open to the kitchen. I sit about 9' back from the front wall (~8 feet from the speakers).

I think it is fine to pair the Titans for surrounds with the RAALs upfront. The Ascend line (from the speakers I've heard) are pretty well timbre matched.

The RAALs have really good horizontal dispersion but somewhat limited vertically as you probably saw on the Ascend website. The times I've walked around with music or a movie playing, I can hear a drop in the high end but it's not so bad. Dialog, etc. was still fine. I don't think it would be an issue for people walking around.

That said, the Towers/Horizon with the NFS optimized cross-over are also available with the Titan tweeter. So, you have an option of RAAL or Titan in these. I've not heard the Towers with Titan, but do have a pair of LX (currently in my office). I did listen to these as my mains for a few days and the LX are really very good, giving my v1 Towers a run for the money. That said, I still preferred the airiness of the RAAL a bit more than the Titan although perhaps that would have changed with more listening time.

[davef]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I currently have 4 Def tech BP9060 towers and the CS9080 center for my 5.1.4 home theater set up. The room is fairly large, 15ftx25ft for the theater area, but open to the entire basement of 30ftx50ft with 8ft ceilings. I've been wanting to get better sound out of my system, would upgrading to the ELX towers and horizon center make a noticeable sound improvement for my home theater experience?

Tremendous performance upgrade in all aspects going with our ELX Tower and Horizon. This is really not a fair comparison though as there has been major advancements in loudspeaker development since the BP9060's were first introduced, and our ELX line is at the forefront of the latest design technology.

[davef]

Thanks for the reply. I'm using two PSA TV2112s subs, well, they're on order.
Also, how do the RAAL tweeters sound off axis, maybe standing up and 30ft back from LCR? We throw a lot of parties in our space and people are usually up walking around and stuff. I'm not overly concerned with their audio bliss, as the family uses this area for home theater, so I want the best experience for us. I just want to make sure that those up walking around while we're watching a basketball game can still hear what's going on, even if it's not as good as sitting on the couch directly in front of the screen.

The horizontal off-axis response for the RAAL ribbon we are using in the ELX is unmatched. It is extremely wide (approx 140 degrees, or +/- 70 degs), but not just wide - also extremely linear. In my 35+ years of doing this, this ribbon has the best polar response of any tweeter I have ever measured.

Please don't be the least bit concerned about people sitting or standing. At 30 feet back, the ideal vertical listening window of this RAAL ribbon is +/- 8 feet from the tweeter position. Meaning that unless you have a guest that is about 12 feet tall, everyone in the room will be hearing ideal performance.

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