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Ascend Sierra 2 Speaker Review

Samib

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My Sierra 2 woofer seems to have some white stuff on the magnet. Any suggestions on what this is and how to get rid of it? Doesn't seem to be causing any performance issue far as i can tell
11.jpg
 

Samib

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Looks like there's some rust spots occurring too, in addition to the white rust. Are you in a damp area? Do both woofers show this or just one?

Might be worth posting on Acsend's forum - http://forum.ascendacoustics.com - and tagging @davef.
Thanks.
i am not in a damp area. My other speakers dont have this issue. I suspect this is how they were when i got them from Drop
 

therobin

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Is it confirmed the Sierra Towers and Seirra 2EX are going to subbmited by a member for review? If so, is there any word on timeline for the review? The Sierra Tower is a speaker I am considering ordering.
 

goldark

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Is it confirmed the Sierra Towers and Seirra 2EX are going to subbmited by a member for review? If so, is there any word on timeline for the review? The Sierra Tower is a speaker I am considering ordering.

I can't answer your question, but I would have to the assume the Towers would measure at least as well as the Horizon does, seeing as they use the same drivers and have the same cabinet volume without the constraints of designing it for horizontal use: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...coustics-horizon-center-speaker-review.15199/
 

ribosradagast

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Is it confirmed the Sierra Towers and Seirra 2EX are going to subbmited by a member for review? If so, is there any word on timeline for the review? The Sierra Tower is a speaker I am considering ordering.


I believe that @echopraxia was the one offering his Sierra Towers to Amir to test, but alas that hasn't happened and now he's trying to sell them.

So I'd assume not at this point.
 

ctbarker32

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I just did the upgrade from the Sierra 2 to the EX version. I created a video. Initial listening tests reveal this to be fantastic upgrade. Possibly the best update so far. Hope to see measurements one day?

 

Shazb0t

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JimB

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@MZKM is out but was kind enough to compute the preference scores for me:
Preference Rating
SCORE: 4.1
SCORE w/ subwoofer: 6.3
Very EQ'able speaker but not as neutral as I was expecting. I've heard some say that these are a bit thin sounding as well, which the measurements definitely back up but with a bit of EQ in the mids/highs I bet that would go away and they'd be much better.

Hopefully someone will send in the new Sierra 2 EX soon to compare, I've read they are voiced "warmer" than these and they should be more neutral considering the better midwoofer.
I definitely prefer my S2s more after converting them to -EXs. Subjectively more balanced.

EDIT: They are my bedroom system. Just 2-channel. Full range.
 
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Photony83

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Hey,
I definitely prefer my S2s more after converting them to -EXs. Subjectively more balanced.
hey JimB, on the same boat as you.. went from 2 to 2ex for my R/L. are you using subs? or running full range?
 

goldark

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I definitely prefer my S2s more after converting them to -EXs. Subjectively more balanced.

When I upgraded the 2's to the 2-EX's, the midrange was definitely improved and it sounded more neutral to me. Would love to see the EX's measured on here.
 

Shazb0t

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When I upgraded the 2's to the 2-EX's, the midrange was definitely improved and it sounded more neutral to me. Would love to see the EX's measured on here.
I'm assuming that because of the improved woofer in the EX that it has the crossover to the ribbon higher up. That ribbon is better at playing the higher frequencies and struggles with distortion the lower it has to go. That is probabaly what you're hearing.
 

CoolHandDuke

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As a new owner of the 2-EX it's disappointing to see this review. I love them though, and the RAAL does something (that for me) is really special.
 

JonCr

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As a new owner of the 2-EX it's disappointing to see this review. I love them though, and the RAAL does something (that for me) is really special.

i don’t think this review is bad at all. He said it was a good speaker, but not exactly his cup of tea. Fair enough.
 

goldark

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As a new owner of the 2-EX it's disappointing to see this review. I love them though, and the RAAL does something (that for me) is really special.

Yeah this isn't a bad review at all. Amir used the word "good" several times to describe the speaker and it did get the second highest panther rating if that means anything to you. The EX is an improvement to the original Sierra 2 and Dave says it's more neutral and measures better than the 2.
 

CoolHandDuke

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Yeah this isn't a bad review at all. Amir used the word "good" several times to describe the speaker and it did get the second highest panther rating if that means anything to you. The EX is an improvement to the original Sierra 2 and Dave says it's more neutral and measures better than the 2.
I definitely see what you mean. You just hope that the manufacturers measurements are backed up by Amir's. Easy to get caught up on objective measurements, but my ears should be my guide. Still, it's nice to have both. Lol
 

liquidman101

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This is a review and detailed measurements of the Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2 "Reference" Stand-mount Speaker with "RAAL tweeter. It is on kind loan from a member. I *think* they cost $738 each or $1448 for a pair.

The model I have is made out of bamboo but finished in black:


The back panel shows a large, flared port and nice quality binding posts:


I was impressed with how stiff the cabinet was as even under heavy load of pounding bass, it would hardly transmit much to the outside. It is still a small speaker but even using one unit, it could fill my large space with sound. You won't confuse it with a 6 foot tower speaker but didn't sound like a little clock radio either. :)

Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections. It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room. All measurements are reference to tweeter axis with the grill removed.

Around 800 points around the speaker were measured (from 20 to 20 kHz) which resulted in well under 1% error in identification of the sound field across full frequency response of 20 to 20 kHz. Final database of measurements and data is 1.2 Gigabytes in size.

Spinorama Audio Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker can be used. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:

View attachment 52388

We don't have a dead flat response but with variation being mostly peaks, a bit of EQ in those areas should tame them.

One oddity is that the company measurements show a rising response climbing to 20 kHz. Don't know what explains the discrepancy. Regardless, I rather have it my way than theirs when it comes to sound. :)

Directivity index is not perfect either but is close enough that should allow for some judicious EQ per my note above:

View attachment 52390

Finally, this is a prediction of what sound you may get in a typical room:

View attachment 52391

It is as to be expected based on measurements we saw before it.

Basic Speaker Measurements
The company specifies minimum impedance of 6 ohms but my sample dipped well below that:

View attachment 52392

Given the bass efficiency of 85 dB and lower, you better have lots of power for amplification.

Distortion measurements showed a concerning peak:

View attachment 52393

The ribbon tweeter likely hitting some kind of mode and running away on its own. We have a peak in frequency response after it that may be caused by this.

Advanced Speaker Measurements
View attachment 52394

View attachment 52395
View attachment 52396

In the following two graphs, look for least amount of "beard" below the main axis response:

View attachment 52397

View attachment 52398

Eye-candy Speaker Measurements
Contour graph shows that good response remains for a wide window of +- 80 degrees:
View attachment 52399

That means you can have a wide sweet spot, or ability to point the speaker forward and listen to them off-axis.

Vertically is the opposite though:

View attachment 52400

Best to put them at ear height (relative to center of the tweeter as I measured).

View attachment 52514
Casual Listening Tests
I don't have a controlled setting for hi-fi speaker testing yet. I just place a single speaker close to my Revel Salon 2 and use its amplifier to listen to single channel. There, the Sierra 2 produced better than expected sound. Its nice and solid enclosure allowed me to turn it up quite high and most of my reference tracks sounded "good." I could move around the speaker left and right with almost no tonality difference (i did this prior to confirming with contour plots above). Vertically though, the angle is quite limited so per earlier note, use stands that allow you to have them at your ear height.

Conclusions
The Ascend Sierra 2 is not perfect but overall, it seems to be a good package. You are getting much better build quality and SPL capability in a small package. And frequency response variations should be correctable to some extent with EQ.

I personally want more perfection in the speaker so would not be buying it myself but you have the data to decide for yourself.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

I have been so busy with equipment testing that I have not started my vegetable seedlings. Fortunately, I read on the Internet that they sell a special liquid you put on the seeds that makes them sprout 10 times faster! I love to get some but they want $100 for a little bottle. So please donate some money so I can afford to get them and catch up on my gardening using : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/


I live in Australia and I just sent an e-mail to this company asking what the shipping costs would be to get them shipped over here. Then I thought - better see if any one has done any objective testing of this brand..............
Look I don't want to sound lazy but if you wouldn't buy this brand - (or more specifically this speaker) what brand would you buy? Yes I know I should go and listen to some speakers, and I do, but not all brands are available in Australia and some are located in other states.

I have around $5000 grand to spend on the speakers alone. The space I want to fill is modest - just a square room - 4x5 metres?

Many thanks if you'd like to offer an opinion.
 

Ilkless

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I live in Australia and I just sent an e-mail to this company asking what the shipping costs would be to get them shipped over here. Then I thought - better see if any one has done any objective testing of this brand..............
Look I don't want to sound lazy but if you wouldn't buy this brand - (or more specifically this speaker) what brand would you buy? Yes I know I should go and listen to some speakers, and I do, but not all brands are available in Australia and some are located in other states.

I have around $5000 grand to spend on the speakers alone. The space I want to fill is modest - just a square room - 4x5 metres?

Many thanks if you'd like to offer an opinion.

I would try to snag a demo with a well-engineered speaker at the top of your budget just to get a sense of how such speakers perform. Think Neumann KH310A.
 
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