Ascend SE Owner's Thread - Page 2

I absolutely agree with this. I find the audio on all the new Star Wars movies disappointing. Lots of people talk about how great the pod race scene is, but I've watched that scene on my system and on my buddy's system (which includes Rotel pre/pro, Rotel 200 watt/chan. amps, B&W N802s mains bi-amped with 400 watts Rotel power, B&W DM604 S3 surrounds and B&W 600 series center, and SVS PB12 Ultra/2 sub) and we just looked at each other like, is that it?

The opening scene of SW3, the huge space battle, is amazing visually (IMO), and features a lot of cool surround effects. There's some cool LFE in this scene as well. But at the end of the scene when they crash land that MASSIVE battle cruiser on the planet's surface, well maybe I'm silly but we expected the LFE to rumble us out of our chairs... but nothing like that happened. I mean c'mon, this monstrously huge ship is bouncing along the ground and there's some screeching noises and whatnot, but nothing's coming out of the Ultra/2!! We had to check and make sure it was still on! Totally disappointing. We also felt the audio throughout the whole movie was extremely compressed -- flat with little dynamics.

Shortly after we'd watched that scene, we put on Master and Commander and watched the first scene in which the French ship attacks them out of the fog. HELLO. Yeah, the Ultra/2 was just fine.

Maybe George Lucas has so many massive subs in his mixing suite at Skywalker Ranch that they don't realize how compressed and unimpressive their soundtracks sound on ordinary humans' systems (with only a single Ultra/2 for bass)?

What type of mounting solution are you using for your center channel speaker, PureMX?

After UPS played that cruel little trick (late train. Ya right ) and delayed my speakers for a day, I finally got them this afternoon and have been putting them through their paces.

My initial if not fully formed thoughts after a few hours of music listening, in stereo with my 340SE's set to full on my HK 630:

They are very neutral, which at first made them seem a tad laid back, but the more I listened, my opinion of them began to cement as to their being very accurate. They play whats there without adding anything. It took me about 3 songs to get acclimated. After that I was loving it.

Bass. They're definitely not lacking. Tight and punchy, I was impressed with their handling of the double bass in the Dream Theater and Mudvayne tracks I listened too. Clearly defined and impactful. Flea's sick bass lines in BSSM also sounded great, with plenty of pluck and pop to them. The speakers also sounded very good on more boomy bass material. While I prefer to drown in bass, the 340SE's did a commendable job filling my 12x22 room in bass while playing some Bjork tracks off of Homogenous, and listening to the first track off of Perfect Cirle's 13th Step. Since these are going in a dedicated HT, I'm still in the market for a sub, and depending on what I get, I might use it for the more bass heavey music I listen to, but for everything else, I think the 340SE's do the job just fine.

The clarity and imaging of the speakers is also impressive. While I've done basically no calibration yet, and so can't really speak to the full imaging capabilities of these speakers, I was impressed with what I got just hooking them up on the quick. Listening to some of my old favorite acoustic stuff I had once taught myself to play and have since forgotten brought them back clearly to my minds eye, to the extent that I was able to visualize without trying exactly how the songs were played on the guitar. Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake. I could hear if they were finger picking or using a pick. I could hear the metalic scraping of the string against the fret as the guitarist formed a chord for christ's sake! It was impressive, to say the least. I also broke out in laughter while listening to "Sit Down" off of Hail to the Thief. There's that chirping beeping synthesised effect at the beginning, and the 340SE's threwh out such a clear, fully formed image of that effect that I couldn't help but imagine this noisey little robot in front of me, telling me to "sit down, stand up" in it's beepy robot language.

Until I get these fully set up, I won't comment on how far the sound stage extends past the edge of the speakers, but in the middle, there's a lot going on, with a lot of depth.

All in all, I'm very pleased with these speakers. I've waited months since I preordered, and it was well worth the wait. I auditioned everything I could get my hands on, and these guys are keepers. I'll definitely be rounding out my 7.1 setup with Ascends, and will probably go with a HSU sub from them too.

ps Please chalk up the length of this post to my enthusiasm after just getting new speakers, and not to some delusional notion of mine that I have something to say.

Capek- Great detailed post! My 340SE's will arrive Monday and you have whetted my apatite.

Capek- What're you upgrading from?

I'm not really upgrading. I'm buying speakers for a dedicated HT in a new house. I've never really spent a ton on speakers, and I'm definitely no audiophile. i've owned athena's, polks, and currently some of the lower end B&W's.

Why speaker should you use (and at what angle) if your center channel is mounted on a stand in front of a screen? (i.e. no baffle effect)

I'd ask the guys at Ascend that one.

My SE speakers are due to ship on Monday... I suddenly realized that there has been no discussion on the color. I assumed black but I was just curious to know if I should have specified that when ordering. Please tell me that the default color is black.....I surely don't want to end up with maple colored speakers to go with my otherwise all black look. Thanks in advance,

Rajiv Menon

They are black.

Ascend has mentioned on their forum that people in this situation can possibly order the center without the EXBAC modification.

This should be even easier now that the diffraction lens has been dropped for the SEs. You would just need a single CMT-340m SE rather than a CMT-340c SE.

OTOH, if your center channel is going to be located fairly close to the floor, it might well benefit from the EXBAC circuit, since the response aberrations in this location will be similar to those encountered when sited on top of a TV. You should e-mail or phone Ascend for advice regarding the specific details of your installation, Tweakophyte.

Can anyone who has these speakers comment on how seemless the front soundstage is with L/R CMT-340SE mains and the CMT-340cSE center? I want to know if pans from left to right or right to left that send the sound through the center are PERFECT or if there is any hint of timbre change when the sound goes through the center.

This has been my biggest pet peeve. I want a completely seemless front soundstage and so far, no speakers I've tried have given me this. Some have come pretty close, but nothing so far has been perfect on pans. One test I use is Charlie's Angels. Near the end, when they Angels and Bosley are all on the beach, you hear a voice off to one side that pans into the center speaker. I haven't had any speakers so far that keep the voice sounding exactly the same - I can always tell when the voice moves into the center speaker. And I don't think it's just a mixing problem in the soundtrack, because I've run my system with a phantom center, using just the L/R main speakers and in this setup, the voice stays exactly the same as it moves from the side to the center.

Anywho, just wondering if these Ascends can FINALLY give me three front speakers that all sound identical!

Jon

I own an all classic 340 front soundstage, and just heard an all 340SE front soundstage, both are SEAMLESS.

As for absolutely perfect......with conventional center channel placement and orientation, you won't get "perfect" due to placement issues and reflections. The only way is to use the same exact speaker with the same surrounding acoustics...and you can not get that in a normal room and setup. In a typical arrangement though, the all 340 front end is the best I have heard.

Curtis.... Please, expand on your listening experience with the 340SE's and how they compare with the 340 classics.

It wasn't side by side, and in a totally different setup...but I can say for sure that it does play deeper...that was very easy to detect. It did seem cleaner overall, and the highs were very nice.......but that I can only confirm with some side by side listening.

Thanks!

Thanks for the comments.
...good to know about the EXBAC option.
My speaker is 1' off of the ground on a 8" stage, so I don't think I need to consider the boundary effect. You can check out my pics in my gallery if you are interested.

I won't be getting speakers for a while. Right now I am working on acoustic treatments. Next up is a HD DVR. Still, these look interesting and I hope to hear some more comments.

bump

Hey,

I just received my front 3 340SE's last night and have them all calibrated. I could not do a direct comparison of the classics vs the SE's because I already sold the others. But what I can say is that they sound very very good. I always enjoyed the neutral sound of the original 340's but now the SE's truly sound clearer and definitely have more low end punch to them. I know this review is not perfectly ideal being not a side to side comparison, but I spent a lot of time listening to all my speakers quite often. Overall, the extra low end extension is very noticeable especially when listening to DVD audio thru my setup that does not have bass management. So, they basically ran full range in 2 channel and the bass was much deeper and very accurate. There is no need for a sub(I have a PC Ultra) when playing music now. The added kick in the low end is perfect now for me. The higher frequencies are obviously harder to define. I can only say that I noticed a bit more clarity at higher volumes "as if a filter was removed from the tweeter", allowing them to shine thru. (poor wording, I know......could not explain it any other way?) Some very revealing music I listen to for tests would be the DVD Audio albums from Eagles Hotel California & Fleetwood Mac rumours.

Hopefully this non-audiophile review helps others trying to determine whether to get the classics vs the SE's. I know I only spent around $850 for these 3 speakers, but I begin to wonder how much better any bookshelf speakers could get?(I know high end floorstanders are a different story, but other than more bass, how much more neutral or clarity could one find in a speaker this size? I guess they just sound really good to me, but what do I know right

Anyway, I am glad to finally have the new ascends and am happy I made the upgrade.

For those of you interested, my setup is as follows:
61" JVC LcOS DILA
Yamaha rx-v1300 receiver
B&K 200.3 amp for the front channels(the yamaha powers the rears only)
3 340SE's across the front
2 classic 170's as surrounds
SVS PC Ultra sub
Toshiba 4800 DVD-A & video player(waiting to upgrade into high-def format soon)

Take care,
Brandon

This is going to sound totally retarded but I'll ask anyway... how do you buy the SE speakers? I can't find them on the website and their user forum doesn't seem to explain how to do it either. Plus, I emailed them about it but they didn't email me back.

Thanks

Where are all the reviews?......c'mon stop listening to music so much and let us know.

Call em. I've never had a problem getting them on the phone.

pbmpharmacist,

I had the same experience and confusion. You have to make a telephone call to inquire about pricing or order.

I called them to order the SE's and when you call you actually get a live person!! I was in shock!! And yea, come on, where are all the reviews of the SE's

Thanks. I'll do that. By the way, do the regular stands work for these speakers or do you have to use a generic stand? I really like the way the old 340 stands look with the speakers.

I've had mine for a few days and am really enjoying them. I've made a few comments here and there, but I'm waiting to give a long review until I've had them little longer and been able to demo them against some other great speakers. Next week, I'll have a pair of Dyn Audio and Paradigm Studio 40s to compare against. Hopefully, then I'll be able to make a reasonable assessment.

Pretty sure they do, they asked if I wanted the stands when I ordred mine, but you might want to ask when you call.

Bud