Does anyone think Ascend's 340SE's would best B&W 602.s3's?

[silversurfer]

How can you call it any kind of an upgrade if you haven't heard it?

If someone would rather have speaker A over speaker B, then wouldn't that be an upgrade regardless if B did something better?

 

[gus6464]

How can you call it any kind of an upgrade if you haven't heard it?

If someone would rather have speaker A over speaker B, then wouldn't that be an upgrade regardless if B did something better?

A lot of people in these forums talk about vertical and horizontal upgrades so I am not the only one. Plus it is also known that some speakers excel at a type of music more than another. Also some people even consider the looks of a speaker an upgrade as well. So let's say you wanted to upgrade your speakers because you started listening to rock more than jazz and you find a speaker that is better with rock than your current one. Now upon taking it home you find that the speaker is clearly better with rock than your old one but with jazz the old one is still better. Now you decide to keep the new speaker because you listen to rock more than jazz, does the new speaker really constitute as an upgrade to the old speaker?

Also I have heard the old 600 series and the new 68x series side by side and the new ones are a completely different animal. I wouldn't call it better, just different.

 

[rnatalli]

I'm a big fan of ID brands, however, they don't really offer anything beyond what a regular speaker manufacturer. It's common to think that cutting out the middle man eliminates costs and that's true, however, ID brands don't get the economies of scale or won't sell at heavy discounts to simply move products like a dealer might. In the end, either choice is viable. That said, without ID brands, we be getting fleeced as no other choice is available. Gotta love competition!

Also, don't get too hung up on speakers made in China. Most are anyways. My HSU sub is made in China and Monitor Audio in Malaysia. Av123 are made in South America, SVS in China, and several others. I believe Ascends are American made, Orbs, and some others.

 

[TJHUB]

Also I have heard the old 600 series and the new 68x series side by side and the new ones are a completely different animal. I wouldn't call it better, just different.

I just wanted to comment that this is nearly the exact comment the owner of the B&W dealer made two weeks ago to me.

 

[TJHUB]

I made my decision over the weekend and ordered Ascend Sierra-1's (mains and center) on Monday. After all the reading I've done (too much), they seemed like the ones to try out. I hope they live up to the hype! I'll find out this coming Monday the 25th as that's the scheduled delivery.

I will say that they're going to have to be something special as my B&W's are actually sounding pretty damn good. We'll see what happens...

 

[corysmith01]

Sweet! I hope you'll take the time to post your thoughts. I'm currently on the fence, considering the Sierra's and a few others. Would love to hear what you think when you get 'em. Being a previous owner of both a pair of B&W 6-- series (601s3) and Paradigm Studio (Studio 20v3's), i'd like to hear how the Sierra's stack up. They sure are getting a lot of praise, and they've got me leaning.

 

[TJHUB]

Sweet! I hope you'll take the time to post your thoughts. I'm currently on the fence, considering the Sierra's and a few others. Would love to hear what you think when you get 'em. Being a previous owner of both a pair of B&W 6-- series (601s3) and Paradigm Studio (Studio 20v3's), i'd like to hear how the Sierra's stack up. They sure are getting a lot of praise, and they've got me leaning.

I'll be sure to post my thoughts. Psychologically I'm having a little problem with them being so small. I initially set out to get something bigger than my 602's. We'll see how these little guys do.

I'm rather new around here, so I've been searching a lot. I keep running into threads where guys purchased new speakers by the recommendations of others on this forum only to never post the final results. I've ran into 2 or 3 of those threads over the last weekend. They order the speakers and that's it; gone forever it seems.

BTW: I friggin' HATE waiting for stuff...

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I will be trying some good, small bookshelves tonight. If I am happy enough with them to replace the floorstanders I am using now, I will try other bookshelves (including Ascend) in the future. If not, I will be done with bookshelves once and for all.

 

[mziegler]

You always need to listen for yourself, but when I was searching for speakers I listened to, among others: B&W 602, Paradigm Studio 20s, Usher S-520, Usher V-601, NHT Classic Three, Monitor bronze something or other, Totem Rainmaker, Dali Ikon 1.

I chose the Ascend 340SE.

I have since listened to the Era Design 4 and 5

I now own the Sierra, which is even better.

I only directly compared the NHT, Totem, Dali, Ushers. I have directly compared the Era speakers to the Sierras.

At their price points both Ascend speakers to me are incredible. YMMV.

 

[TJHUB]

You always need to listen for yourself, but when I was searching for speakers I listened to, among others: B&W 602, Paradigm Studio 20s, Usher S-520, Usher V-601, NHT Classic Three, Monitor bronze something or other, Totem Rainmaker, Dali Ikon 1.

I chose the Ascend 340SE.

I have since listened to the Era Design 4 and 5

I now own the Sierra, which is even better.

I only directly compared the NHT, Totem, Dali, Ushers. I have directly compared the Era speakers to the Sierras.

At their price points both Ascend speakers to me are incredible. YMMV.

I really hope I feel the same way Monday night. I'll be a very happy guy if the Sierra's sound better than my B&W's.

I'm trying to get two friends to come over Monday night to help objectively judge the sound quality. Neither of them knows anything about the Sierra's and they both own B&W's. I just told them I have some little speakers I'm going to listen to that they may find interesting...

 

[mziegler]

The best part is that you get to hear them in the same place. If you can, get a Radio Shack SPL meter and be sure to level match the speakers before you compare--at the same volume setting the less sensitive speaker will usually sound worse.

If you don't like the Sierras, at least you can return them.

 

[TJHUB]

The best part is that you get to hear them in the same place. If you can, get a Radio Shack SPL meter and be sure to level match the speakers before you compare--at the same volume setting the less sensitive speaker will usually sound worse.

If you don't like the Sierras, at least you can return them.

That's exactly what I intend to do. I've owned a RS analog meter for at least 10 years plus. I also have an RTA setup for tuning my car setups (active).

My plan is to give the B&W's one last listen. Then I'm swapping in the Sierra's, setting sub level, then matching the volume. I have a CD with several tracks I've been using for critical listening. I'm going to run through those same tracks with the Sierra's.

I'll run the Sierra's for the rest of the week running them through everything including movies. I'm planning to switch back to the B&W's on the weekend (*IF* I want to that is). Which ever ones I seem to prefer are staying...

 

[mziegler]

Sounds like a lot of fun. I have done some testing in my home where the results I expected, base logically on my room conditions and speaker design, were not borne out by my actual experience.

Looking forward to your impressions.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I will be trying some good, small bookshelves tonight. If I am happy enough with them to replace the floorstanders I am using now, I will try other bookshelves (including Ascend) in the future. If not, I will be done with bookshelves once and for all.

Got 'em. Love 'em. Full details in the review section.
I may have to try the Sierras next.

 

[emorphien]

You can think that I was "snobbish", but if you knew me, you'd know that I'm far from it.

I want to buy ID because listening to speakers at dealers is far from an enjoyable experience. To be honest, usually they're the snobs. I'm a good and friendly person. As a matter of fact, two weeks ago when I stopped in at this very dealer, I was approached by the owner. I asked about the new 6 series sound and he gave me his best interpretation of the *SOUND*. He didn't mention the China thing until the end. Why? BECAUSE THAT MATTERS THE LEAST! I couldn't possibly care less about where a speaker is made if it sounds good. I told him I was just looking around and we spent almost an hour BS'ing with him showing me all the 8 series B&W's in listening rooms powered by Classe gear. Cool stuff, just way too much for me!

Trust me, the guy I talked to was a goof at best. When he pointed out the "FST" driver, he was actually touching and pointing to BOTH drivers on the 684's. But in his defense, they were both the pretty yellow color. Isn't it this man's job to know his products if he's selling them? I even asked him if he was VERY familiar with the B&W's and his answer was something to the affect of "absolutely" as I recall. While I really don't consider myself to be a snob, I do have very little patients for morons. Unfortunately, I found this guy to be a moron. I'll also mention that the nice guy at the Paradigm dealer did a rather poor demo job as stated in a couple of spots in my earlier post. I had no snobbish remarks to him. I was just disappointed. I mean they will only sell at MSRP, shouldn't I get more for my money there? They do have nice facilities though; really impressive. I suppose the Paradigm guy wasn't as much of a sales dill-rod as the B&W guy. I least he didn't make stuff up and he didn't point out useless information to me.

There's a shop with people like that here in Rochester, often an unpleasant experience. I'm told one of the other shops (which I liked better and have bought some components from) has closed down.

 

[TJHUB]

UPS dropped off the Sierra's this morning in perfect shape. I opened them up to show the guys at work and WOW are these things glossy!! They almost look like mirrors when things are next them. Build quality seems flawless which is impressive.

While they are pretty, I'm no fan of piano black (didn't like the natural bamboo at all). My TV is piano black but it's mostly covered by my entertainment center. It's just not my thing and over the long haul I think it's going to bug me. They were on my desk for 5 minutes and they were already were getting dusty!

Nonetheless, I'm anxiously awaiting getting home to give them a good listen. If they sound good enough, any aesthetics complaint I have will be negated.

 

[emorphien]

Have you seen the natural bamboo? I'm not a fan of light colored speakers but I can put up with it in this case because they look great.

 

[TJHUB]

Have you seen the natural bamboo? I'm not a fan of light colored speakers but I can put up with it in this case because they look great.

I haven't seen them in person, but I have seen many pictures. For me, the light colored "wood" look of the natural bamboo is nice looking, but it would stand out like a sore thumb in my room. They wouldn't accent anything in the room.

I have a black SVS sub, two black leather recliners, and a piano black TV. I felt that the piano black was about the only way to go for me for the Sierra's...

 

[TJHUB]

As to not post my BS repeatedly everywhere, I posted my initial thoughts of the Sierra's on the avsforum. Basically I'm not really too impressed as of right now.

 

[gus6464]

As to not post my BS repeatedly everywhere, I posted my initial thoughts of the Sierra's on the avsforum. Basically I'm not really too impressed as of right now.

I just got done reading your post over at AVS and from what you describe you are finding the Sierra to be boxy sounding? It's as if they are just putting out the sound instead of making it come alive right?