Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1 V2 - Review & Measurements by Erin

[AscendDF]

I just tried to checkout.

For me it said:
"There is one shipping rate available for British Columbia, Canada.
We will contact you with the best available freight quote. You will not be charged until you approve the quote, please continue. "

But I won't know the shipping, until I enter my credit card, and complete the checkout process first.

Sorry - it can sometimes be a bit confusing for our international customers. You aren't actually charged when you enter your credit card info and the data is 100% secure and guaranteed (by Shopify), we don't have any access to your CC info. When you complete the order by entering your CC, we then provide you the best shipping rate we can offer as we do use several different carriers. If you approve the freight quote, you will then receive a separate invoice via email where you can simply click on the link to pay for the shipping charges. You absolutely will not be charged for the initial order or the freight until you approve the freight quote. If you decline the freight quote, the order is simply canceled.

We regularly ship worldwide and we found this method works best because different carriers often offer better rates than others to different locations and we want to give our international customers the absolute best rate possible. If we stick with one carrier for all international orders, thus simplifying the checkout process, the customer can often be charged quite a bit more for shipping compared to using a different carrier. We prefer to spend the 10-20 minutes of time it takes to find the best rate from the various carriers we use for international shipping.

Of course, the other option is to simply send us an email or give us a call and we can give you the freight quote before you place the order. We are old-school when it comes to customer service, and actively try not to be a completely automated on-line company. We encourage interested consumers to call or at least send us an email, or better yet - come visit us! We love when people visit but we do require at least 48 hours advance notice.

Hope this clarifies...

 

[sweetchaos]

Understood.
Consider adding this to your Shipping page, since that page has rather limited info about this process.

 

[delta76]

Based on our NFS measurements, PS = 6.8 With sub, PS = 8.73

All hail the new king (of bookshelf)
any plan to bring this to Europe any time soon

 

[Thomas_A]

Output capability would increase with an active version.
Wonder if actives are in the Ascend Acoustics plans?

Isn't output related to driver spec and limits? Distortion can actually be lowered using a passive filter.

 

[AscendDF]

I was shocked at the $500 price difference between the Sierra LX and the Sierra 1 v2. Then I realized what Seas is charging for those Titan woofers on Madisound and it all made sense.

Just to clarify, the woofer in the LX is actually a customized version of the SEAS L16RNX3. We are using the more powerful motor system pulled from the 7" version, this gives the woofer even longer throw and better punch. We also made additional optimizations. If you are interested, I discussed the details about this woofer in our own forum in the Sierra-LX thread.

 

[AscendDF]

Understood.
Consider adding this to your Shipping page, since that page has rather limited info about this process.

Thank you! I fully agree, when we redid the old website, this is one page I did not pay any attention to. It needs to be updated ASAP.

 

[AscendDF]

All hail the new king (of bookshelf)
any plan to bring this to Europe any time soon

We ship worldwide, please send us an email with your complete shipping address and the speakers you are interested in and we will provide you with the best shipping quote we can offer.

Thanks for your interest!

 

[Thomas_A]

Based on our NFS measurements, PS = 6.8 With sub, PS = 8.73

This speaker is probably one of the best monitors available, IMO. The frequency response is perfect, IMO, and room response super smooth. If you ever make a v3, keep the response of this v2.

 

[delta76]

We ship worldwide, please send us an email with your complete shipping address and the speakers you are interested in and we will provide you with the best shipping quote we can offer.

Thanks for your interest!

While I can see some will take this approach, but most European folks will want to buy from a local retailers, especially when it comes to speakers. for things like try it at home, right of withdrawal, service and support should anything goes wrong.
Of course I understand that you are fairly small manufacturer (which means even more to produce such good measured speakers), so you don't have the financial or network like the bigger makers. But hope to see your partnership with some distributors.
I will remain hopeful. It's good for everyone to have great speakers in selection

 

[Sokel]

While I can see some will take this approach, but most European folks will want to buy from a local retailers, especially when it comes to speakers. for things like try it at home, right of withdrawal, service and support should anything goes wrong.
Of course I understand that you are fairly small manufacturer (which means even more to produce such good measured speakers), so you don't have the financial or network like the bigger makers. But hope to see your partnership with some distributors.
I will remain hopeful. It's good for everyone to have great speakers in selection

It could also work through the usual suspects,Audiophonis,Soundimports,etc as they have a good reputation around.

 

[AscendDF]

While I can see some will take this approach, but most European folks will want to buy from a local retailers, especially when it comes to speakers. for things like try it at home, right of withdrawal, service and support should anything goes wrong.
Of course I understand that you are fairly small manufacturer (which means even more to produce such good measured speakers), so you don't have the financial or network like the bigger makers. But hope to see your partnership with some distributors.
I will remain hopeful. It's good for everyone to have great speakers in selection

I completely understand. However, retailers / distributors typically demand a 40-50% profit margin. We truly price our products at direct to consumer pricing (wholesale), there is no retail markup whatsoever.

If sold through a retailer, Sierra-1 V2 would then cost between $1800 - $2000. Our pricing model does not work for distributors because we can not offer them enough of a discount for them to make the profit they want, even with large volume purchases. We've tried this many, many times (we have been in business for 23+ years now), it was always a lose-lose scenario, the distributor wasn't happy, and neither were we.

Honestly, there isn't even much profit for us at this pricing, these are expensive components and the bamboo ply we use is 12 times the cost of MDF.

 

[192kbps]

Yeah, unfortunately a perfectly measuring speaker still needs more to sound great in our compromised home spaces. Cardioid/dsp is the current trend to address this.
But, wow! They are allready brilliant

Kii
8c
LXmini

That's all I can think of, but yes, too expensive.

 

[8bits]

Ascend needs to do some active speakers, I would jump all over them since I trust the quality and the fair price offered of their products.

 

[Sokel]

This speaker is probably one of the best monitors available, IMO. The frequency response is perfect, IMO, and room response super smooth. If you ever make a v3, keep the response of this v2.

It does reminds me one of my favorites,the (older) Genelec 8030.



I wonder if that dip up in 2-4Khz is deliberate and my condition* is not so uncommon.

*can't stand anything even remotely pronounced there.

 

[delta76]

I completely understand. However, retailers / distributors typically demand a 40-50% profit margin. We truly price our products at direct to consumer pricing (wholesale), there is no retail markup whatsoever.

If sold through a retailer, Sierra-1 V2 would then cost between $1800 - $2000. Our pricing model does not work for distributors because we can not offer them enough of a discount for them to make the profit they want, even with large volume purchases. We've tried this many, many times (we have been in business for 23+ years now), it was always a lose-lose scenario, the distributor wasn't happy, and neither were we.

Honestly, there isn't even much profit for us at this pricing, these are expensive components and the bamboo ply we use is 12 times the cost of MDF.

Makes senses. I just sent an inquiry now. To be honest though I'm interested, I will need to know the cost of everything before even considering making a purchase (budget plan, risk, competitions). I hope that is fine with you, as I know researching shipping options (and sometimes, regulations) takes time and effort.

But thumb up for making another great speakers. I hope to see more from you and of course, more market share!

 

[Thomas_A]

It does reminds me one of my favorites,the (older) Genelec 8030.

View attachment 328956View attachment 328957

I wonder if that dip up in 2-4Khz is deliberate and my condition* is not so uncommon.

*can't stand anything even remotely pronounced there.

I agree, and I believe it is due to several factors. The Revel M16 is another example - should sound "smooth". Our sensitivity in the 3 kHz region is high, and the stereo system errors enhance the problem both with the dip 1-2 kHz and the peak at 3-4 kHz. So it is important, and needs to be a compromise both on- and off-axis. I ended up with the similar curve in my own DIY speakers:

 

[thewas]

KEF is going to have a run for their money. I hope Ascend Acoustics shakes up the audio space! Price, performance and finish. You can have your cake and eat it too!

As a direct sales company Ascend currently really offers great value for money but unfortunately but such cannot be really compared outside of USA as shipping of bulky stuff like loudspeakers isn't cheap, there are also additional costs like taxes, risks of transport, the possible problems returns and repairs etc. There exist also in other countries such very good and great value loudspeaker companies but to above mentioned reason they are not really competitive in a worldwide basis. Just as a comparison if there would be at least a small dealer with a warehouse and some minor support in Europe such a speaker would probably not cost less then 1500€ where it would compete for example with a bigger and in some disciplines better 3-way KEF R3. If I could get those Sierras locally here for $1000 I would buy them instantly but there is no thing like free lunch.

 

[tw 2022]

I agree with this, but the flip side is in knowing what spl you tend to listen at. It's a good idea to figure out for yourself what kind of spl you need, even if you sit at longer distances.

the key *is* knowing what you want, good call...just as "for instance", i have a small room with moderate volume needs .. this might be exactly what i need....end game type happy...

 

[tw 2022]

That is an absolute proof of Dunning-Kruger is ever there was one! Danny Ritchie correcting Siegfried Linkwitz ... the mind boggles! (And the stomach churns!)

Jim

the ego does funny things to reality...

 

[Matias]

Now on Spinorama.org:
Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1 V2
Price: 500
rating
Tonality: 6.4
Bass extension: 42Hz
Flatness: ±2.6dB

Measurements for speaker Ascend Acoustics Sierra 1 V2

www.spinorama.org