Ascend SE Owner's Thread - Page 112

That's encouraging. I may make a project out of this.

Did you run Audyssey to set up your speakers? I ordered the boom mic stand and adapter linked to in the Audyssey thread so I can run the Audyssey calibration. In the meantime I will run Audyssey without the stand so I can try my speakers out.

Nice looking setup! Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is definitely on my list of favorites. ;

I like to run Audyssey whenever I make any changes to the room whether it be moving or tilting a speaker, hanging a new picture, etc. Anything that could change the acoustics, Audyssy will make corrections. It would be nice if I had a boom stand, but I have to make due without one.


Thank you. Rock N Rolla and Snatch were also good, but Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is my favorite out of the Guy Ritchie lot.

The boom mic stand was $24.95 and the adapter was $9.95. I ended up paying $12.92 after the $23 promotion (2% back in Rewards) from buying my 55ST50 was applied.

My ear height is ~42-45" depending on how I sit. The tweeter on the CBM-170 SE's is ~9" from the bottom of the speaker. If I get the Sanus SF34 speaker stands the tweeter would sit at 43". Is that fine, particularly if my ears are at 45"? Is there any (acoustic) riser I could put between the SF34's top plate and speaker to add a couple of inches?

http://www.sanus.com/us/en/products/speaker-foundations/sp-steel/SF34#

I wouldn't scrutinize over a 1 or 2" difference. Your speakers will still sound great plus or minus a few inches from the tweeter height, and especially if you are sitting several feet away from the speaker. Near field might be a different story.

Just measured to the center of the tweeter on the 170's on the 34 in stands on carpet with floor spikes screwed all the way in and got 42 1/4 inches. You sitting on a booster seat!
I'm 6 foot and my new couch sits higher than my old one, if I sit as straight up as I can my ears are at about 42 inches. I never sit like that usually I usually have the couch reclined some or all the way and I can't hear a discernable diifference. In other words I think you would be fine.

For what it's worth I got mine from Vanns through Amazon for 129 shipped but I see Amazon has them from Stands and Mounts for 159.99. I went to Vanns website but they are sold out too bad they had them for 99 bucks including shipping. So i only found them at Wayfair.com for 126.99 with shipping.

Booster seat, lol. I have my 55ST50 in my bedroom. It sits on a 33" tall dresser. I watch from my bed which is 26" high, which puts my eye-line a little below the TV's center line when I'm sitting upright and in the bottom 1/3 if I'm laying back, which is ideal. Unfortunately at that height my ears are at 42-45", thus the need for such tall speaker stands.

A funny (or maybe not so funny) thing is now I have to be conscience about my dang ear height in relation to the tweeter whenever I look at new furniture purchases, e.g. AV furniture stand, bed frame. "Ooh, that stand looks nice...nope it's too short." "That stand is the right height, but wait it's $1500." "That bed looks good, but how high are the slats where the mattress lies?"

On a more positive note I just got back from seeing Zero Dark Thirty in a theater with Cinemark XD. The screen was huge and the bass was incredible. A couple of explosions startled me. Me wants a sub now!

Hi all -

My query is in regards to placement of these particular speakers for my proposed front soundstage: Sierra 1s (LCR) & CMT 340SEs (LCR). For my particular HT room, I would only be able to locate the speakers 12 inches from the back wall & 10 inches from the side wall. My concern is the fact that the Sierra 1s & CMT 340SEs are both back-ported. My usage is pretty much only HT with occasional music being from Blu-Ray concerts (essentially my listening habits are: Movies (99%) and Blu-Ray concerts (1%). How flexible is the Sierra 1s & CMT 340SEs with placements (especially since the right speaker will be beside a brick wall).

**I have even considered the HTM200 SE (L&R) for the front soundstage with the Sierra Horizon Center (both of which are not back-ported) if it is more practical because of speaker placement issues, that may be the only solution, but of course there may be issues with timbre matching.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Pics below.

Pic of Left side of Wall (Actually, we are having our contractor put up a wall (sheetrock, stud joints, etc) over the windows on the back wall where my 'make-shift' PJ screen is located now.




Pic of Right Side of Wall:




Pic of HT Room:




The dimensions of the room are length: 11.4ft & width: 9.3ft (& cathedral ceiling).

With regards to my listening habits for 99% movies, placement restrictions of the speakers for the front soundstage, would the majority recommend going with the Sierra 1 (LCR) configuration or the CMT 340SE (LCR) configuration. Basically about a year ago, I set up an HT for my parents and ordered the CMT 340SE (LCR) and HTM200SE (Surrounds) and was EXTREMELY impressed and amazed by the setup, so just wanted to get professionals opinion based on my listening habits on what would work best for my setup. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Cheers all!

12" from the back wall should be fine.

10" from the side wall will work, but farther would be better for any speaker.

My bedroom is similar in size (11'x11'x8'). I went with the CBM-170 SE's over the CMT-340 SE's because after reading about the two and getting feedback from people I decided that I didn't really need the extra SPL of the 340 SE's. I also couldn't justify the price to benefit ratio considering my room's size. I did consider the Sierra 1's, but in the end decided they were too expensive, especially factoring in all the other things I wanted to buy.

The 340 SE's would make a bold statement in that room and be an improvement over the 170 SE's, plus they would allow for placement in a larger room if that became a reality down the line. With 99% movies you'll probably get a lot of votes for the 340 SE's. They have tremendous output and shine with HT. The Sierra 1's have less output, but given the size of the room I doubt that would be a problem with movies. The Sierra 1's also have good bass for a speaker that size. You didn't mention if you are planning on getting a sub so I thought I'd mention that. How much value you place in music vs output could factor into your decision. I see a lot of people who are really into music choose the Sierra 1's over the 340 SE's.

Is that room closed off or does it open into another room?

@cschang:

Thanks for the feedback. I could possibly push out the speakers 14" from the back wall, but am limited to 10" or 11" from the side wall because of the width of my 92in. Fixed Frame screen along with the width of the room being just 9.3ft (I'm fortunate that I can have a PJ setup in this size room ).

@p3Orion:

Thanks for the feedback. My subwoofer plan is either: HSU vtf15H (which would then lend me the option, based on my budget, to either get the Sierra 1 (LCR) or CMT 340SE (LCR)) or the SVS PB12-Plus (which would then make my speaker easy, since my budget would only allow for the CMT 340SEs). I just want to avoid the 'upgrade-itis bug' and the Sierra 1s are aesthetically more pleasing (but I guess in a dark room, that won't matter ).

The room can actually be closed off by french doors, so its isolated. The main issues would be the brick wall, the limited width of the room so the speakers can't 'breathe' as well since they are back-ported, and the room has cathedral ceilings. I got an XPA-3 to power my front soundstage, so I think in this size room, I will not run into any distortion. I will be using an Onkyo 809 as the processor.

So yeah, if you have any additional thoughts, that would be greatly appreciated. And its great info because we have similar sized rooms. Cheers.

malc_345, I don't know if this would work (or something you would even want to do) given the 11.4ft length of the room and seating location (just an idea that popped into my head), but an acoustically transparent (AT) screen placed away from the wall would allow placement of the LCR behind the screen allowing closer placement of the L/R, thereby moving them farther away from the side walls.

HSU vtf15H? I guess you subscribe to the idiom go big or go home.

I'm looking at the HSU VTF-1 MK2, SVS SB1000 & PB1000, and Outlaw LFM-1 Plus

I don't think you will need to worry about running into distortion. I have my 340's 11-12 inches from the wall and they breath just fine, I have one of my 170's 4 inches from a side wall and it breaths just fine. I listen to movies and music at reference levels, sometimes a little louder and never have heard distortion from my speakers. I;m also running 2 Klipsch RW12-D subs. Remember that when you set up the crossover for the sub it makes it so the speakers don't have to play all that low stuff which would be what is pushing most of the air coming out the port. I also don't think you need that amp since Ascend speakers are pretty efficiant, but since you got it....
Also either one of those subs will probally destroy that little space, but to me thats a good thing. My setup in an area that is probally 3 times the size as yours is more than enough.

Hi all, researched a bit today and have settled on Ascend so here I am now with a couple questions. I've decided to order the CMT 170 as my LR speakers and the CMT 340 as my center.

1. Does my set up look okay for the bedroom? Anything I should add?
2. Do you recommend a sub for this set up?
3. Do I require a receiver? If so, which one?

Thanks all!

I'm thinking about going with Ascend for my next Home Theater. Looking for clarity at lower volumes, since I'm in an apartment and the living room is 12.4 ft x 12.4 ft. My entertainment center is 72 inches wide, and has three shelves that are 21 inches wide. I can put LCR all on top, or the C in the middle shelf. Do you think the CMT-340 SE for LR will too big for this room? I'm probably going with an HSU STF-2, or the VTF-2 MK4 for the sub.

I'm not a fan of the logo on the front mesh, is it removable?

I also don't like the matte finish much, but I think I can special order a different finish.

Anyone in the Houston area (Kingwood or Sugarland) that has the 340's and wouldn't mind me taking a listen? Also, since they seem to be rear ported, would it make a difference if they are wall mounted

1/ Not knowing anything about your bedroom hard to say. Should be fine, although I'd personally add a subwoofer.
2/ see (1)
3/ Since they're not powered (active) speakers, how do you plan to provide amplification otherwise? An integrated amplifier would also work, as would a pre-amp/amplifier combo. They're fairly efficient so you don't need a monster amp rating in any case. I'd look for something in the 100 wpc range.

A few nitpicky placement questions... feel free to tell me to just enjoy my speakers and not worry about it because I won't be able to hear a difference anyway... in addition to providing some practical advice too of course

1) distance from rear wall: the manual recommends 1-2 feet from the rear wall, but 3 inches is minimum if wall mounting. I'm looking at 5 inches (but on a stand, not wall mounted). Is that okay? I will be setting a crossover and typically listening below reference level.

2) tweeter height: I know ear level is optimal, but is 5-6 inches below worrisome?

3) speaker distance: I either can't get my speakers far enough apart or my listening position is too far back. How much does that matter?

4) toe-in & baffle reflections: My speakers are on a tv stand. I can pull them to the very front of the unit, but when I toe them in a bit, most of the speaker sits behind the edge. Do I need to worry about reflections?

Thanks!

`/ As long as it sounds good and no strange port induced effects, I wouldn't worry about it.

2/ No

3/ Might not be the best sound but you have to deal with what you've got, too.

4/ see (3)

IMHO only

I would try it how you intend and try it how Ascend suggests and see if the sound is different for you to notice and additionally care. If you don't notice or care then it really doesn't matter does it?

Travis

If you find yourself in Austin, I may be able to accommodate a demo.

For those that mention prefering the 340's over the sierras for ht, why so?

Apparently due to the slightly higher efficiency and larger size they get a bit louder and fill a larger room slightly better and are at the same time less expensive. At least that's what I've gathered, the 340s are speakers I haven't tried (I have Sierra-1s, 170SEs and 200SEs). The Sierras do fine in my fairly large room.

What size room? Im 20x14x8. One 20ft ft wall is 6ft open to kitchen. Other wise closed off.

Much larger than yours, don't remember exact dims but around 4500 cuft, open to a stairwell (cathedral ceiling, wood mostly). That's with the Sierra's across the front L/C/R, 170SEs for surrounds, 200SEs for rear surrounds (and several subs ).

Aaaah, the sub. That's the crux of the situation. I have an older hsu vtf-2. The 10", so basically a current vtf-1 equivalent. It's placed nearfield so the output I would say is sufficient. It's ok with movies but no so great with music. This leads me to wanting a rythmic sub, but that would probably mean stepping down on the speakers. I could go with the sierra/170 or 200 combo and keep the hsu, or 170's with an f12, maybe the 340's with an f12. I'm not really a bass-head, but I would say I'm an spl-head. If anyone has coined that term. I do like it loud, although those opportunities have diminished. Therefore I can live with a little less volume. I'm struggling with the ht vs. music thing too. My system is in the living room so it's used for general tv watching, movies along with music. In real terms, it's probably 80% tv/10% movies/10% music. But I'm not going to build a system to watch tv, lol!!! Music would be my biggest priority, but probably the least used.

Has anybody purchased a custom finished cabinet (CMT-340SE, or CMB-170SE) through Ascend? I'm not too fond of the the black matte finish, or the logo. I sent an email to Ascend, but haven't heard anything back in the last couple days... I'll probably get a response next week sometime. Figured I would ask around here to see if anybody has gone through with a custom purchase, until I get an official response.

Can't speak for custom finishes as the more basic and inexpensive finishes work best for me on my 170 and 200 sets; I think the piano black on my Sierras is quite nice, though that's a different material than the others (bamboo). I did peel off the logos from the grill fabric easily enough, though.