**Official Ascend Acoustics Tower Thread** - Page 16

Yea, the weekend may be a little rough, with the speakers breaking him in.

Have fun, and enjoy!

The new Ascend towers w/Raal sound great, does anyone know what a pair goes for? Couldn't find the tweeter upgrade price on the website. It would have been cool if there were a pair of Selah Tempesta's at the GTG, should be similar to the M7's at the price of the Ascends..

RAAL~$700.00pr... http://www.ascendacoustics.com/Merch...t_Code=SRT1PRE

My new Sierra espresso towers...
Attachment 236199

Those Tempestas(not sure if the same RAAL is used) would be ~$600 more/pr and much less efficient to start.

A lot of information on the Sierra Tower and the RAAL upgrade can be located on this page:
http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages...s/SRT/srt.html

I'm confused, when I do the checkout and put qty 2 (I'm assuming the speakers aren't 949/pair), the total comes out to 3270 with the raal box checked. Or should i only have qty 1 and then it would be 1649 with the raal..

Can the Sierra-1 bookshelves be upgraded to the RAAL versions?

Below is a quote by Dave F. from the Ascend web site.

"We have been getting a lot of requests for this, at least one per day... I think at this point it is something we are going to have to investigate. Due to the depth of the RAAL ribbon we are using, it will not fit into the current Sierra-1 cabinet so a new cabinet will have to be designed."

Having had a Sierra apart, it isn't the depth of the cabinet, it's the port tube that the ribbon would interfere with.

Jay

Towers are $949 each, RAAL upgrade $350 each = $1299 each. Tower center is about fifty bucks more.

When you click to buy, you are getting a pre order charge which is half of the pair (1 speaker), but also if you pre order you must pay full upgrade price for the two RAALs (2speaker upgrades) = the total you came up with.

Jay

Ah I see, so the real total will be $2626, pretty good deal. Tough choice with all of these ID speaker companies out there. I should have mentioned with the Tempesta I would be going the kit route which would put me right with the Sierra towers. They use the 70-10 Raal I believe, but from what I understand its not "worse" than the OEM version. The Sierra's are a lot more efficient but certainly thats not the only thing one needs to look at.

It takes half the power to drive even the Sierra-1 bookshelf, let alone the Sierra Tower.

Definitely other things to look at...like the bamboo cabinet.

More seriously though, the engineering is not really the same as well. The Tower's woofer and mid-range drivers are proprietary. While both are ID, they really are different business models and engineering executions.

Ha, I get that you really like the sierra towers. What was your take between them and the M7's?

I do like the Sierra Towers, but I have not heard them with the RAAL tweeter, and I have not heard the M7. That is a question for merrymaid and Nuance.

Or perhaps the owner of the M7's ------------

Sorry Warp...didn't mean to leave you out.

Hi Curtis, you've probably answered this already before so I apologize if this is already in the thread but how do you like the Towers versus the Sierra bookshelves? (both the original and NrT versions).

I know you directed this question to Curtis....but having owned both the mid range is what really stands out with the Towers...it's much more prominent and blends perfectly with the rest of the speaker. The Towers play louder with less effort but I am still tinkering with placement at the momment. So far I feel the imaging is even better given the location of the tweeter found in the Tower in relation to the Sierras on stands(I had 26" stands) the extra ~2" or so...made a difference..it seems to me anyways. Most of my early listening has being at lower level background volume...no time yet for some critical or higher volume listening...I might need to use a sick day or two....

Regards, Bill

Ps: I am sure Curtis could elaborate further...I am quite new to all this but these Towers are sweet....

In my system with a Sierra NrT currently in center position, ARC set a level difference of 2.5 db higher compared to the Towers, they are exactly the same distance from the listening position.

Just got done watching/listening to Harry Connick, Jr. "In Concert on Broadway". This is a Blu-ray with a 96 kHz/24bit TrueHD soundtrack. I would seriously suggest anyone comparing another speaker against the Sierra Tower to pay close attention to the dynamics.

As a for instance, track 13 "Light the Way" Harry is going solo in the beginning of the performance, after a while the band kicks in full force. The impact of these Towers belies their rather diminutive dimensions, these babies ROCK HARD and just about knock you out of your seat. I'm not talking "oh so smooth, and warm", I'm talking about what it sounded like at the live performance, with a full size string, rhythm, and horn section belting it out at the same moment. Dynamic dynamite!

The dynamic impact of these Ascends is truly amazing, I haven't heard anything yet that they don't do well, but the dynamic capabilities are what stand out to me, even above their other terrific attributes.

Jay

Thanks, Bill - I welcome comments from anyone who could offer comparisons.

From what you've said, could it be inferred that the midrange on the bookshelves is somewhat recessed, then? I assume a "prominent" midrange is a good thing here - with my own thinking/definition, when a speaker has a prominent midrange I've found it to sound too nasal or box-like, or like a PA system, but you probably mean something that is balanced and lifelike.

By prominent I did not mean forward or aggressive in nature but rather more defined making vocals appear lifelike and music sounding more natural...I know what you mean about sounding like a PA system and this is not a knock against my other speakers(Axioms) but they sound congested or nasally when comparing....while these(Sierra's) sound airy and full of life.

I haven't had as much time with the Sierra Towers as others since I don't own them, but your thoughts are inline with mine. The dedicated midrange driver just offers up a lot more. Of course the Tower plays bigger and deeper, and can be more dynamic. Imaging is outstanding.

Great reviews and info on the towers.

I'm so torn between the Sierra Raal Tower and the Phil 2s I dunno what to do!

Has anyone here heard both and willing to offer opinion?

I'm most certainly ordering the Sierra Tower Center no matter the mains choice.

I was in the same boat, likely can't go too far wrong with either choice. Ultimately, the Tower Center, Sierras for surrounds, and aesthetics made the choice clear for me. I couldn't be happier, might be good for me NOT to audition others now LOL!

In addition to those two, I was also considering JTRs for their well documented sensitivity, and ability to effortlessly produce astounding dynamics, and SPLs.

It's been a comfort to me that the Ascends excell in reproducing amazing transients themselves even if they aren't as capable in the sound pressure level department. They go louder than I'm comfortable with in my rather small listening area, so the point is likely moot in my case.

Maybe the double Brandons can give a comparison if Nuance should end up with a pair of the Phils?

Jay

Thank you Bill and Curtis for your impressions of the differences between the towers and the monitors. Yes, I definitely should stop reading this thread because I am do not want to buy anything now. Maybe by summer, though!

Just enjoy the process of choosing/buying speakers.

Can anyone tell me where I can find info on the Sierra-1 tower center? I currently have a 3.1 with the Sierra-1 bookshelves, but, I am thinking about possibly getting a Sierra-1 tower center. I believe that the center channel is the most important speaker in the entire system so I am hoping that the Sierra-1 tower center will give me some better performance.

It is definitely a better speaker than the Sierra center.

What kind of information are you looking for?

Same set of drivers that are in the Tower, front slot ported.

Here are measurements that Dave posted in Oct.
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sho...&postcount=685

Pics and dimensions:
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sho...&postcount=732

More pics:
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sho...t=4630&page=21

I was just messing about Curtis.....

Hey can someone save those pics to a photo website.. It would be nice to see the pics for those without an account of the ascend forums....

I was in the same boat. Always had a curiosity for JTR but due to a lack of dedicated home theater room, I decided to pass on it. Was somewhat torn between the Phil 2 & sierra tower but it came down to WAF and ascends 30 day return policy. I've had my sierra tower for two weeks now and I will say that I'm done researching for the next best thing within this price range. I was originally 70%movie/30% music, now, it's about 50/50. This is with the Nrt twetter by the way. I'm sure the RAAL will be even more of an improvement but regrettably, I could not afford another $700

I know you were Warp.

Attached a pic just for you.