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**Official Ascend Acoustics Tower Thread**

197K views 2K replies 198 participants last post by  doctors11 
#1 ·
I figured it was time to start a thread dedicated to just the Ascend Towers. They have yet to be given a formal name, and once they do, we can update the thread title to reflect the change.


The towers will be coming soon and I hope to have the first pair



Dave just posted a few pics of the prototypes he plans to demo this saturday. More info can be found in the Tower thread over at the ascend forum.
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=4392


Preliminary data:

MTWW design

Mid - proprietary 5.25" (roughly) with gold phase plug. Could also be a bit larger, closer to 6.5"....unsure as of now. Pics look deceiving.

Tweeter - Seas Proprietary Nrt (neo ring tweet) 29mm dome. -3dB at 28kHz (taken from sierra-1 Nrt measurement)

2 Woofers - similar driver found in the sierra-1(custom / proprietary) but tweaked for use in a larger enclosure

Rear ported - port plugs from sierra-1 will work and help accomodate placement options

Size - 7.5" wide, 43" high, 10.5" deep (based on pre-production models)

Cabinet construction - Bamboo, same VLAM construction as Sierra-1. Finish options are still TBD but a High gloss black (very similar to the current Piano black) will be offered.



More info to follow.




 
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#29 ·
Curtis..... is that the crossover laying on the ground behind the speaker there...


Bamboo towers - that should be a nice inert cabinet....

Any sketchups of the full tower in bamboo in the various colors...?


I'm curious, is it possible that the speakers may measure a bit different and still need some tweaking to the crossovers when drivers are finally placed in a more dense/inert bamboo cab...


Also, have you sketched up a design for a matching center with dedicated mids or 3 way design...

What type of alignment would be used if so.....


Things are looking nicely there David.... Keep up the good fight... !!!
 
#31 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by cschang /forum/post/19524323


Very well.

Excellent
! I look forward to the release of the Towers and what the overall impressions will be. Does Dave have an idea of pricing and when the Towers might be available? I know the chances of getting the first pair is definitely out of the question
.


Bill
 
#32 ·
Very excited about this new Ascend Tower!

In fact I can't think of a single new product I'd rather see.

To me speakers are far and away the most personal component of the components that make up our music/HT systems. And speakers effect what we hear from our systems way more than any other component.

So being more of a tower guy than a bookshelf/monitor type of guy, but also a big fan of the Ascend Sierra's, when I heard Ascend was coming out with a Tower speaker based on the Sierra, well let's just say my first thought was.... sign me up!


DreamCatcher
 
#33 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Warpdrv /forum/post/19524736


Curtis..... is that the crossover laying on the ground behind the speaker there...


Bamboo towers - that should be a nice inert cabinet....

Any sketchups of the full tower in bamboo in the various colors...?


I'm curious, is it possible that the speakers may measure a bit different and still need some tweaking to the crossovers when drivers are finally placed in a more dense/inert bamboo cab...


Also, have you sketched up a design for a matching center with dedicated mids or 3 way design...

What type of alignment would be used if so.....


Things are looking nicely there David.... Keep up the good fight... !!!

Yes...that is the prototype crossover on the floor behind the speaker.


We'll have to wait until Brandon gets his towers before we see what it looks like in bamboo.


Dave is a tweaker, so I am sure when he gets the bamboo enclosure, he will do some evaluating.


Dave mentioned that he is working on a matching center, but nothing definite yet.
 
#36 ·
These new Ascend towers, in what ways will they be better/inferior to the Songtower speakers? I believe the Songtowers are 4ohm, are less sensitive and don't have a dedicated midrange, advantage to the Ascend towers, right? How about imaging, detail, bass response and pricing? It looks like these two speakers will be direct competitors to each other in terms or performance (sound quality) in the $2,000 range or so. Songtowers have great reviews but perhaps the new Ascend towers will match/beat them (I'm hoping).
 
#38 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by cschang /forum/post/19535042


merrymaid has updated the first post with information about the tower.

I will continue to do so as more information is released by Dave. Please continue to check the first post for details. Full production is still a bit away yet, so be patient, Dave/Ascend has a lot on their plate at the moment with the Sierra-1 NrT upgrade and so forth
 
#40 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by cschang /forum/post/19526481


Tarp, it plays deeper for sure. I believe that in the demo room, Dave said measured 36hz.

Hmmm, thats interesting considering the only difference is an improved tweeter and crossover. All indications would be that the improvements would be at the highest frequencies (tweeter) and at just below the crossover frequencies of the woofer. The bottom end shouldn't change.
 
#41 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by soundseeker /forum/post/19536204


Hmmm, thats interesting considering the only difference is an improved tweeter and crossover. All indications would be that the improvements would be at the highest frequencies (tweeter) and at just below the crossover frequencies of the woofer. The bottom end shouldn't change.

The bigger enclosure alone gets you more bass. There may be other differences as well.


Ron
 
#42 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Mac /forum/post/19525612


Excellent
! I look forward to the release of the Towers and what the overall impressions will be. Does Dave have an idea of pricing and when the Towers might be available? I know the chances of getting the first pair is definitely out of the question
.


Bill

Howdy Bill,

I think he is shooting for them to come in around $2K, but final price is TBD. Some guy supposedly already has the first pair ordered......impatient I guess.



 
#44 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by merrymaid520 /forum/post/19536243


You could be right! I will adjust the first post. Some thread starting expert I am.

I don't think he is, they're all the same size. I believe Curtis is the source of this confusion, him and his distorted cell phone pictures which makes the top woofer look bigger because he takes the pic from a downwards angle and the mid is closer than the woofers to the lens... But if you look at the pics on the first post, considering the front of the cabinet is rectangular, the woofers are all the same size





You people and your crappy lenses... Tilt/shift lenses lenses exist for a reason!!! Just kidding, the above pics and others were nice, as were Curtis sneak preview cell shots!



For the name for the towers, I think the Ascend Descent would be pretty nice...
 
#45 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by spanish68 /forum/post/19532340


These new Ascend towers, in what ways will they be better/inferior to the Songtower speakers? I believe the Songtowers are 4ohm, are less sensitive and don't have a dedicated midrange, advantage to the Ascend towers, right? How about imaging, detail, bass response and pricing? It looks like these two speakers will be direct competitors to each other in terms or performance (sound quality) in the $2,000 range or so. Songtowers have great reviews but perhaps the new Ascend towers will match/beat them (I'm hoping).

Spanish,


I believe some folks can possibly answer your Salk ST vs Ascend tower question over on the ascend Tower thread



Once my Ascend towers arrive, I hope to meet up with my buddy Brandon (nuance) who has the Salk ST's with the Ribbons to do a comparo and will report back the results.
 
#46 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandarf /forum/post/19536273


I don't think he is, they're all the same size. I believe Curtis is the source of this confusion, him and his distorted cell phone pictures which makes the top woofer look bigger because he takes the pic from a downwards angle and the mid is closer than the woofers to the lens... But if you look at the pics on the first post, you can see that all drivers are all the same size.



Considering the front of the cabinet is rectangular, the woofers are all the same size

You make a valid point. I originally had the size as 5.25" but figured since curtis seen it this past weekend, I adjusted accordingly. From that pic, it has to be awfully close to the same size as the woofers which we know are 5.25".


Sorry for the confusion.
 
#47 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by spanish68 /forum/post/19532340


These new Ascend towers, in what ways will they be better/inferior to the Songtower speakers?

We did instant A/B switching (level matched) between the earlier version of the Ascend towers and the Songtowers at the previous get together in August.


The difference in imaging was obvious. One of the posters here at AVS (ivanpino) noticed that tilting his head out of the sweet spot, even a foot, caused the centre image for the Songtowers to disappear. Some of us had trouble believing that, considering the reputation of Salk speakers. So we took turns listening for ourselves and ended up confirming what Ivan heard.


By comparison, the Ascend towers continued to image well outside the sweet spot. Naturally, the centre image pulled towards whichever speaker you were closest to, but that's normal for a phantom image. At the get together last Saturday, I ended up sitting near one of the side walls for a time, almost in line with the right speaker. Dave F was standing next to me and we both noticed that there still was some imaging between the speakers, even that far out of the sweet spot. I'll admit it was impressive.


Some of the A/B switching at the previous get together was done using one of each speaker, placed directly in front. This took away the distraction of soundstage and imaging, letting us concentrate on tonal qualities (Harman always does speaker comparisons this way). From what I remember of the previous get together, bass response was on par between both speakers. The Ascends were a little clearer, especially on female vocals, maybe due to the midrange driver. When playing louder material, the dual woofers in Salks bottomed out a couple of times (was easy to repeat). No such problem with the Ascends.


Listening to the towers at the recent get together, the bass sounded deeper and cleaner on the same material I had listened to last time. Unfortunately, we weren't able to compare them to the previous version to get a better handle on how much it had changed. Other attributes (imaging, detail, etc) seemed to remain the same as before. They still excelled at reproducing vocals.
 
#59 ·

Quote:
The difference in imaging was obvious. One of the posters here at AVS (ivanpino) noticed that tilting his head out of the sweet spot, even a foot, caused the centre image for the Songtowers to disappear. Some of us had trouble believing that, considering the reputation of Salk speakers. So we took turns listening for ourselves and ended up confirming what Ivan heard.

Sanjay,


I am listening to Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue right now and tried tilting and turning and my head outside of the sweet spot. I am really not hearing the center image disappear. I am hearing the image come off center to a small degree but not to the point of losing the center image. My STs are only about 6' apart so I'm not sure if the lack of distance apart makes a difference. When you say the center image disappears do you mean vocals which should be centered are coming from the speaker one is tilting their head towards?

Quote:
By comparison, the Ascend towers continued to image well outside the sweet spot. Naturally, the centre image pulled towards whichever speaker you were closest to, but that's normal for a phantom image.

I have to admit the above statement has me baffled. It almost sounds like the same thing is happening with the Towers as with the STs in that the center image is being pulled towards the speaker one is the closest to.


I am not in any way trying to say that the STs image better than the Towers just that the description of the two instances are very similar. I will have to break out my Sierras and do a side by side comparison
.

Quote:
At the get together last Saturday, I ended up sitting near one of the side walls for a time, almost in line with the right speaker. Dave F was standing next to me and we both noticed that there still was some imaging between the speakers, even that far out of the sweet spot. I'll admit it was impressive.

I just tried standing 8' back and directly in front of the right speaker then the left and the imaging is still quite good. I did this a number of times back and forth and the imaging does not get to the point where it seems that the music is only coming from one speaker. Sounds radiating out of the left speaker still are placed there even when standing by the right speaker and vice versa. Naturally the vocals lose that center image you talked about earlier but still sound quite good. I am doing this test with Eva Cassidy's Live At Blues Alley CD playing. I have never heard Stormy Monday sound so good
.


Bill
 
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