I have contacted Ascend through email and will wait to see the costs involved.
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I have contacted Ascend through email and will wait to see the costs involved.
Sorry. I did read your original post, but forgot about you living in Australia by the time that I replied. In that case I will say that I thought beforehand that the Sierra 2s would be better than the Aperion Verus Grand Towers and the SVS Ultra Bookshelf speakers before I listened to them. This was mainly because it seemed that the Aperion speakers were putting more money into the drivers and cabinet construction and I could tell that Dave was very good at designing speakers. Also, it was hard to hear anyone that had bad things to say about Ascend. In fact, most things people had to say were very positive. I wanted to listen to all of them, so that I was sure that spending the extra money would be worth it for me. After all, I am planning to expand to a 7.2.4 setup in the future. After listening to all three I had no doubt in my mind that spending the extra money was worth it. Again, I thought that the Sierra 2s were worth the extra price when the Aperion Verus Grand towers were less money.
I do mostly use the Ascend speakers for movies. But, I will say that when I listen to music through them I am still floored at how good they sound, especially with great recordings. With those you really can close your eyes and imagine that they are playing in your room.
Hi MaxTemp,
As you can probably already figure out - our prices on the products you are considering are already priced as low as is possible. We are trying to sell a considerably higher priced product (what they cost us to build) in a market typically reserved for China-made products. Our profit margin on these products is absurdly low (almost laughable) and at our current prices, we will never have a sale on these.
I would be willing to bet that the cost of just 2 of the custom 70-20XRam ribbons we are using is similar in component costs to the fully completed pair of the 2 towers you are considering from our competitor. In other words, it is nearly impossible to compare prices.
That being said, at that sale pricing - the Aperion system is certainly attractive and there is really no way to determine which you would actually prefer without auditioning them. It really comes down to what you are looking for in your speakers. The RAAL in our tower and horizon is considered by myself and by many other professionals to simply be the best tweeter in the world and we aim to compete with speakers costing 10x + the price of ours. Add to that our phenomenal custom midrange and true made-in-the-USA bamboo tower and horizon cabinets, combined with assembly, testing and packaging here in the USA - and you can quickly see what type of performance and quality we are offering for the price...
Regrettably, we will likely be raising our tower and horizon prices in the 1st quarter of 2018.
I'll look for your email and try to get back to you this evening or tomorrow
It always makes me smile when that thread helps someone trying to make the same decision I was. I still have zero regrets about my Sierra tower/horizon purchase.. I even added some Sierra 2 surrounds for good measure!
Last night was another reminder of how much I enjoy these speakers. I had just added a couple of PB13 subs to the media room and decided to redo the front stage completely. I ended up with the towers sitting 11 ft. apart with some mild toe-in and the main chair is around 7 ft. away.
I was concerned about them being so far apart while sitting so close (difficult room) and decided to sit and listen to a few songs in 2.1. A few songs turned into a few more and 3 hours later I noticed the time.. yikes!
Even with the speakers so far apart.. a center image just snapped into place. I heard sounds overhead, sounds off to the sides.. it was great!
Did I mention how much I like these speakers?
For anyone still on the fence about Ascend.. do yourself a favor and try them!
I bet you won't regret it.
Just out of curiosity, I know running Luna's in surround is nice, but completely overkill unless you're listening to multi-channel audio. I believe Dave uses the HTM-200's as surrounds in his listening room. In movies, surround sound is only used for ambient sounds, and special effects. As long as the speakers are voice matched, which all the Ascend speakers are, then you'll have the same immersive experience. Also, again for primarily HT use, you'll be fine with the Sierra-2 vs the Sierra Towers w RAAL unless you need more db's or want a little more quality in the midrange. Stereo music is where you'll notice the bigger difference between the Sierra 2's vs the towers. As for me, for my HT, I went with Sierra-1 NrT's for my mains, Horizon RAAL for my center (this is where the bulk of the work is done, dialog), Rythmik FVHP15 sub, and some paradigm bi-polars in the rear. I couldn't waste the Luna's and have them in my office, and my Sierra-2 are in my dedicated 2.1 stereo system in the bedroom. I'm planning on upgrading the Sierra-2 to Sierra Towers and now that I know that Dave is raising is prices... now is that time
Glad to hear you're still enjoying your Sierra set up. You know.... I followed your progression and fully agree the Sierras imaging is their highest attribute. I've often gone days or perhaps weeks without listening to single song but when I do....I ask why...lol.
It's been several years...corny I know but I'm still in the honey moon phase with these speakers.....
Last edited by billy p; 03-02-2018 at 06:14 PM.
Speakers 5.1.2: TitanTowers v2 & STC(RAAL v2), MA CP-WT&CT260
Sub: Funk Audio 18.0 SantosRW
Source: Denon X3800H, Oppo BDP 103D, UBK-90 4K & LG B9 65"
Office 2.0: Philharmonic True Mini(coming-soon), Fosi TB10D via Wiim mini.
-curtis
Speakers 5.1.2: TitanTowers v2 & STC(RAAL v2), MA CP-WT&CT260
Sub: Funk Audio 18.0 SantosRW
Source: Denon X3800H, Oppo BDP 103D, UBK-90 4K & LG B9 65"
Office 2.0: Philharmonic True Mini(coming-soon), Fosi TB10D via Wiim mini.
If I’m understanding you correctly, you have tried the Sierra Luna’s as surround and found them to be overkill for your HT use, so you moved them to an office setup?
I too use my Sierra 2s for a HT setup and I am debating the Lunas for surrounds. I’m pretty much convinced to use HTM 200s for surround backs.