Ascend Acoustic Ribbon Towers

B

Beave

Audioholic Chief
Re: The Ascend Sierra Towers, the two woofers are in a ported enclosure (edit for clarity: they share the same enclosure with a single port). The midrange driver is in its own sealed enclosure.

And I *think* I saw somewhere that the midrange driver has no electrical lowpass filter, meaning it relies on its sealed box tuning for it highpass rolloff.

To me that makes the speaker somewhere in between a 2 1/2 way and a true 3 way. Maybe call it a 2 3/4 way? :)
 
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Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Re: The Ascend Sierra Towers, the two woofers are in a ported enclosure (edit for clarity: they share the same enclosure with a single port). The midrange driver is in its own sealed enclosure.

And I *think* I saw somewhere that the midrange driver has no electrical lowpass filter, meaning it relies on its sealed box tuning for it highpass rolloff.

To me that makes the speaker somewhere in between a 2 1/2 way and a true 3 way. Maybe call it a 2 3/4 way? :)
I remember reading the same thing, that they used the box's natural tuned rolloff instead of an active filter.
 
little wing

little wing

Audioholic General
You should see how @Danzilla31 loosens up the ports on his speakers... :p

I took them up to reference today for 1 song, Chocolate Chip Trip. It's a drum solo and the kick drum ain't no joke. It's a pretty good stress test. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for something to pop the whole time, but they seemed to handle it well. I'll tell ya tho, it was a little alarming being able to see all 3 drivers bounce back and forth from my seat 15' away. They were jumping very hard.


I don't listen at reference levels very often, but every once in a while I'll crank it up. It made me kinda nervous with the Sierras tho... am I fussing over nothing or are these just not the type of speakers to play at high spl? For the record, my normal listening range is -20 to -15 for music and less for tv. It's Audyssey calibrated so I'm assuming reference is at least close to 85 dB.
Hey man, hope you are enjoying your new speakers. Just wanted to share with you my experience with these at volume. When I first received my towers, I had some questions for Dave at Ascend. He was nice enough to call me one evening for a chat. I don't remember the entire conversation as it was a few years back, but two things he said stuck out. One - Give the towers room to breath. Two - Don't be afraid to crank them. Of course I took that, don't be afraid to crank them within reason. Now your reason and my reason might be a little different. I know you more power than I do :cool:. But you get the idea. I can tell you that the Ascends survived two fairly loud parties. I am talking volumes at or around -15db for 4 or 5 straight hours. I am pretty sure I was using Dolby surround instead of the all channel party mode. I noticed at one point that somebody had hit -10db but I got nervous and turned it down a bit. Like I said..they survived. They are definitely not high output party speakers, but they did the job. Have fun with them.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Hey man, hope you are enjoying your new speakers. Just wanted to share with you my experience with these at volume. When I first received my towers, I had some questions for Dave at Ascend. He was nice enough to call me one evening for a chat. I don't remember the entire conversation as it was a few years back, but two things he said stuck out. One - Give the towers room to breath. Two - Don't be afraid to crank them. Of course I took that, don't be afraid to crank them within reason. Now your reason and my reason might be a little different. I know you more power than I do :cool:. But you get the idea. I can tell you that the Ascends survived two fairly loud parties. I am talking volumes at or around -15db for 4 or 5 straight hours. I am pretty sure I was using Dolby surround instead of the all channel party mode. I noticed at one point that somebody had hit -10db but I got nervous and turned it down a bit. Like I said..they survived. They are definitely not high output party speakers, but they did the job. Have fun with them.
Thank you for sharing, I do appreciate it. You know, they seem pretty stable even up to -5 on my system. It's when I hit 0 that I started getting really nervous.

-15 for 4 or 5 straight hours straight is just another day at my house, and that's with bumping them up to -10 for the good stuff! At those levels, crossed over to my subs they barely break a sweat. Things are moving pretty good, but not strained at all. Yes, I am really enjoying them. These are very, very nice sounding speakers.
 
little wing

little wing

Audioholic General
Thank you for sharing, I do appreciate it. You know, they seem pretty stable even up to -5 on my system. It's when I hit 0 that I started getting really nervous.

-15 for 4 or 5 straight hours straight is just another day at my house, and that's with bumping them up to -10 for the good stuff!

LMAO. I heard that, no pun intended...
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Okay, this I wasn't expecting. My amp runs cooler with the Sierras, even tho they're 4 ohm speakers. It's never gotten HOT no matter what speakers I've had hooked up, but it would get warm with the Ultras. It's almost cool to touch now with the Sierras. They are more sensitive so I guess not a huge shocker. You guys think bi amping the Ultras contributed to the heat as well?
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Okay, this I wasn't expecting. My amp runs cooler with the Sierras, even tho they're 4 ohm speakers. It's never gotten HOT no matter what speakers I've had hooked up, but it would get warm with the Ultras. It's almost cool to touch now with the Sierras. They are more sensitive so I guess not a huge shocker. You guys think bi amping the Ultras contributed to the heat as well?
Bi-amping shouldn't have contributed to the heat since each amp wasn't working as hard for the same SPL.
 
John Galt

John Galt

Junior Audioholic
Okay, this I wasn't expecting. My amp runs cooler with the Sierras, even tho they're 4 ohm speakers. It's never gotten HOT no matter what speakers I've had hooked up, but it would get warm with the Ultras. It's almost cool to touch now with the Sierras. They are more sensitive so I guess not a huge shocker. You guys think bi amping the Ultras contributed to the heat as well?
I’m curious to see what you’re latest Audyssey custom EQ curve looks like if you wouldn’t mind sharing...not that that’s related to the cooler running amp.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
I’m curious to see what you’re latest Audyssey custom EQ curve looks like if you wouldn’t mind sharing...not that that’s related to the cooler running amp.
I don't have any full sweeps yet and Jon scared me in the ratbuddy thread, lol. This is currently where I'm at with my bass curve tho.

06-03-20 Subs+Sierras FR.jpg
eq1 v eq2.jpg
eq1 v eq2 deq on.jpg


EQ 1&2 sub settings in the 2nd chart and DEQ, RLO 0 in the bottom.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Are you running Audyssey EQ? A custom Audyssey curve? Flat? Default Reference?
Yes, running Audyssey EQ, Reference, no custom curve. I dial it in flat and use DEQ as my curve, RLO -10 and it works really well. I haven't been brave enough to to much with the app yet.

Here's an example of the effects from a previous calibration of the different RLO settings in DEQ
04-05-20 House Curves-600x256.jpg
 
CajunLB

CajunLB

Senior Audioholic
Yes, running Audyssey EQ, Reference, no custom curve. I dial it in flat and use DEQ as my curve, RLO -10 and it works really well. I haven't been brave enough to to much with the app yet.

Here's an example of the effects from a previous calibration of the different RLO settings in DEQ
View attachment 36956
Hey @Pogre. Can you try and explain RLO offset if you don’t mind? I have mine set to 0 . What would changing it to -10 do?
 
V

VMPS-TIII

Audioholic General
Okay, this I wasn't expecting. My amp runs cooler with the Sierras, even tho they're 4 ohm speakers. It's never gotten HOT no matter what speakers I've had hooked up, but it would get warm with the Ultras. It's almost cool to touch now with the Sierras. They are more sensitive so I guess not a huge shocker. You guys think bi amping the Ultras contributed to the heat as well?
If you were using four channels with the Ultra's (bi-amp) and now only two with the Sierra's that would create less work for the amp. It would be reasonable that less demand = less heat.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I hope someone like @PENG can correct me if I am wrong, but ultimately, whether you bi-amp or not, you are asking the amps to drive the speakers the same way (assuming the system is properly balanced and the SPL is the same). So the amount of energy required would be the same. There may be a little more energy attributed to having the extra two amps energized during quiet spots (it take more energy for four amps to "do nothing" than two); however, I would expect the fact that you are distributing that same load over four sets of heat sinks to result in an overall lower temperature. If you are anywhere near working the amps, I would rather have the load (and heat) spread out more than concentrated.
 
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