Head to Head Review: Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 SE vs Wharfedale Diamond 10.1

A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
Well, if you go impulse shopping again one you might want to check into is the XTZ 93.21 (I'm listening to them as I type this). I own the NHT Absolute Zero's as well; the XTZ's cost less and are nicer speakers IMHO. The Classic Two's are probably the 93.21's direct competitor, more so than the Zero's, and the Two's sell for a 60% premium.
You know... I was actually looking at the XTZ 93.22 when they were running the 10% off sale... It's a speaker I'll probably try out at some point... Of course, the 93.21 would work too if I end up with a smaller room or closer wall placement.
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
You know... I was actually looking at the XTZ 93.22 when they were running the 10% off sale... It's a speaker I'll probably try out at some point...
It looks interesting - however, I am not a fan of tweeter switches,
it concerns me a little about a balanced smooth crossover.
 
A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
I've never owned a speaker with a switch like that. I remember the Outlaw version of the Snell speakers had that - do the Snell K7's?
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
I've never owned a speaker with a switch like that. I remember the Outlaw version of the Snell speakers had that - do the Snell K7's?
The Snell K7 only has a bass boundary switch - the Outlaw was a somewhat modified version,
where it had switches for both bass and treble - both do measure a little different. > However,
with the Outlaw tweeter switch, it did effect the impedance when you raised the treble, where
it did cause a drop in the impedance
 
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theJman

theJman

Audioholic Chief
I can never remember, is the price on the XTZ website for a pair or are those prices for one speaker?
For the 93.21 it's per speaker. I picked them up last year during a 20% off Christmas sale, so mine were $160 each. Even at $200 I still think they would compare favorably to anything else in the price range.
 
A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
For the 93.21 it's per speaker. I picked them up last year during a 20% off Christmas sale, so mine were $160 each. Even at $200 I still think they would compare favorably to anything else in the price range.
I never knew they did a 20% off sale... thought only 10% off...

Anyway - I'll keep an eye out for another...
 
A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
I'd be interested in what you think of them... The Fountek drivers appear to be very good.
 
A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
In the listening session, we also threw my A/V-2s back in the system and I have to be honest, I may switch back to them.
BTW, if you do switch back to the GR's... I might know someone who may have an interest in the Carnegie's...
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
BTW, if you do switch back to the GR's... I might know someone who may have an interest in the Carnegie's...
A certain bookshelf aficionado? :D Most likely I will keep them; I've already discussed with Danny about modding them with an x-over upgrade, and possibly real GR M130s, since I have about 3 pairs of them laying around for other projects - a pair of shielded ones and two pairs of older standard ones.

I have pondered selling them though and picking up the Joseph Audios.
 
A

alphaiii

Audioholic General
Man you guys are on to me... (except the lawyer part).

Danny has mentioned that the Vipacor woofers are a "pretty good" imitation of the GR M130... I have wondered how much better the M130 actually is...
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Man you guys are on to me... (except the lawyer part).

Danny has mentioned that the Vipacor woofers are a "pretty good" imitation of the GR M130... I have wondered how much better the M130 actually is...
My concern is that they aren't quite as good, but he said the same thing to me that they are a decent copy.
 
2

2ndammendment

Junior Audioholic
Here you go folks.

Final Summary Compilation



Wharfedale Diamond 10.1

Build Quality: 8.5/10

Attention to Detail: 8.5/10

Treble: 6.5/10 – Treble seemed recessed

Midrange: I don't remember enough to give them a rating.

Bass: 9/10

Treble smoothness: 9.5/10 They are smooth but at the cost of detail/resolution

Tonal Balance: 8/10 Everything was pretty good other than the highs and resolution.

Resolution: 5/10

Imaging/sound-stage: Don't remember.

Value: 7/10 Decent performance, great looks.

Packaging: 9/10

Customer Service: N/A


Ascend Acoustics CBM-170

Build Quality: 6.5/10 – Finish was easily damaged and uneven face/backplates look cheap

Attention to Detail: 8/10

Treble: 8.5/10

Midrange: 6.5/10 Lower midrange recessed, other than that it is good. That is the reason for the low score.

Bass: 7/10 Not much bass for their size.

Treble smoothness: 8.5/10, fairly smooth for how detailed they were

Tonal Balance: 7/10 – Apparent lack of lower-midrange warmth made them sound flat which was their Achilles heal in my opinion.

Resolution: 8.5/10

Imaging/sound-stage: 9/10

Value: 7/10 – Pretty good performance, not so great looks

Packaging: 7.5/10

Customer Service: 7/10 – They will not talk about any other speakers other than their own, even if they have heard them before. Other brands such as Aperion were willing to not only willing talk about other companies speakers but even recommended some of their competitors models. Calls were answered and emails were responded to with acceptable delay.

Arx A1b

Build Quality: 8/10 Really great cabinet especially at their price point. Midrange driver is beefy and appears to be well built.

Attention to Detail: 8/10. Some vinyl is raised here and there around the driver area. Nothing major. Corners are pretty good.

Treble: 7.5/10 – Some parts of the treble seem a bit recessed.

Midrange- 9/10

Bass- 8.5/10

Treble smoothness: 9/10

Tonal Balance: 9/10

Resolution: 7/10

Imaging/sound-stage: 7.5/10

Value: 8/10 Good performance with decent looks.

Packaging: 8.5/10

Customer Service: 9.5/10. Jon Lane was willing to talk for a very long time on the phone and was willing to provide feedback on some of the other speakers I was looking at. He even offered to extend my auditioning period if I needed more time for the review. A lot of companies wont do that for amateur reviewers. Really great to work with.

Energy RC-10

Build Quality: 8/10

Attention to Detail: 8.5/10

Treble: 8.75/10

Midrange: 8/10

Bass: 7/10 - Some of the upper bass seemed a bit muddied.

Treble smoothness: 9/10 – Tweeter is quite smooth and easy to listen too

Tonal Balance- 8.75/10

Resolution: 8.5/10

Imaging/sound-stage: 8/10

Packaging: 7.5/10

Value: 10/10 – At $200 you might as well be stealing them.

Customer Service: N/A


Carnegie Acoustics CSB-1

Build Quality: 9/10

Attention to Detail: 6.5/10 – Gloss finish is not pristine. It is swirled/marred. I use to detail high end exotic cars for a while so I feel that I am qualified to be critical in this department. While I have not personally seen a speaker that has a flawless 100% micro scratch free finish, these CSB-1s are definitely what I would consider below average. The finish looks like it was not handled with as much care as it should have. Either they dusted the speaker off frequently during assembly or they did not do a good job polishing the finish. Either way, its not terrible and most people wouldn't notice as its not visible unless you look at the finish under a direct light source. From a few feet away they look just fine. Possibly more of an issue was that I found metal pieces stuck to the magnets of the tweeter on the outside. I had to use some pliers and carefully remove the metal debris from inside the tweeter grill. It was blatantly obvious and it should have not passed QC with those metal debris in the tweeter. As a side note, the Arx A1b has a fine mesh grill over the tweeter to prevent such a thing from happening.

Treble: 8.5/10 The highs are detailed and extended although at times they can be a little too sharp.

Midrange: 8/10

Bass: 8.5/10

Treble smoothness: 7/10

Tonal Balance: 8.75/10

Resolution: 9/10

Imaging/sound-stage: 9/10

Packaging: 9/10

Value: 8/10 – I feel they are overpriced at their MSRP but the B-stock price is a fair deal IMO.

Customer Service: 4/10 I attempted to contact Carnegie by email and phone. I never received a response on the email and their phone number appears to be incorrect as a gentleman picked up and told me that I had the wrong number and people keep calling him asking for Carnegie. Also it appears that I was given an incorrect tracking number and was not able to receive a correct one after attempting to get a hold of them.


Brightest

CSB-1 ~ CBM-170
RC-10
A1b
Wharfedale 10.1

Warmest



Most Favorite

CSB-1
RC-10
A1b
CBM-170
Wharfedale 10.1

Least Favorite





Here are some pictures of the internals on the A1b, RC-10 and CSB-1

A1b Midrange driver:

Notes: Cast metal basket, vented pole piece. It is the heaviest driver of the 3.


A1b Crossover:



RC-10 Midrange driver

Notes: Stamped steel basket, no vented pole piece(but it does have voice coil cooling via the phase-plug so it may not be needed)



RC-10 Crossover



CSB-1 Midrange driver

Notes: Plastic basket, lightest motor of the 3, vented pole piece. I was a little surprised when I saw this driver. I am not expert by and means but from a lay persons perspective it does not look to be of the same quality of the other 2 drivers. Very surprising since this speaker retails for quite a bit more than the other two. Maybe someone with more technical knowledge than I can shed some light on why this driver isn't as beefy as the other two.



CSB-1 Crossover

 
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R

Ricardojoa

Audioholic
IMO,
I think Dave from Ascend is fair enough not to talk about other speakers. This seems right to do from a manufacture perspertive as they will not say bad or good things about other speakers manufactures.
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Nice and interesting - and shows that all reviews, whether so-called pro, or layman,
or personal, is subjective.

The Carnegie and Energy, look to be under-built (which includes finish and assembly)
for their former list price.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the pictures. Continue to enjoy your system.
 
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