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Ascend Acoustics Sierra LX Review

Narek

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Feb 4, 2023
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The LX's arrived yesterday and I have listened to them for a good 4 hours. Definitely not enough time to really bring out what these are capable of, but nonetheless, I am impressed. They are large for bookshelf speakers, each one is about 20 pounds and hasabout 14.25 inches of height.

They sound much larger than they appear. I have owned many types of speaker brands, from Focal, SVS, Klipsch, and those sound like they appear, usually very small and narrow. The LX on the other hand, it sounds more full than most floorstanders I've listened to. It casts a wide soundstage and is the most holographic speaker I've heard. They create a "wall of sound" like I haven't heard before.

The top-end is very slightly bright, but not straining or annoying at all. I actually prefer it as it sounds higher definition and more detailed/accurate. Probably will get smoother with burn-in.

The mid-range is "open" and perfect for orchestras and bands. I can clearly hear the entire band, from guitars to drums, bass and vocals. Extremely smooth, especially when playing slow bluesy type songs, such as "Tuyo" by Cande y Paulo. But when switching to worser production with alot going on, such as "Effigy of the Forgotten" by Suffocation, the dirty production and guitar distortions are not as apparent or bothersome as with other speakers such as the Focal Aria 948s. Instead you get accurate sound that is slightly lower in volume, but thanks to the low end, the bass, drums and blast beats are clear and crisp. Men's vocals are great, Women's vocals almost perfect.

The low-end is no slouch. It can create window shaking bass on some bass heavy tracks with too high for listening volume, but on tracks with not alot of bass, they are smooth and non-fatiguing.

I sit about 12 feet away from them, with them spaced about 8 feet apart in an open-concept living room measuring 12x30x20. This is only the second day I'm listening to them, and I gotta say, those kippel nfs measurements show that this is truly a champion on paper, but now listening to them in person, I would have to agree, these are true high end at an affordable price ($1500 US), and a I have no plan on upgrading anytime soon, these may very well be endgame for most people.
 
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It's a bit hot > 2 kHz when looking at the in-room response, which I think is linked to the brightness.
 
It's a bit hot > 2 kHz when looking at the in-room response, which I think is linked to the brightness.
It's why I returned mine. Excellent low end, but some songs I love didn't like the extra high end
 
Wow, I'm surprised some think they're bright or have extra high end based on the measurements. PIR slopes downward very smoothly and with slightly more slope than Revel M105 or M106 or KEF R3, for example.
 
Well the 2-5 kHz region do have some inreased energy in larger angles.
 
Yeah, but just a little bit. I suppose if one's room (sidewalls) are highly reflective in that region, it could be an issue. But there are many, many speakers with more of an issue there than these have.
 
It is evident that the Ascend Acoustic LX speakers DO NOT have to be focused on the listener. Maybe is your problem.


Ascend Acoustics SIERRA-LX PAIR - measurements.png
 
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That small 1-2 dB midrange bump should be easily EQed down. I don't really see any "extra" high end ie there is no rising treble. It's that the others rapidly roll off above 16kHZ.

Ascend LX vs Wharfedale Linton.jpg


Sierra LX vs Revel M106.jpg


Ascend LX vs Revel M126Be.jpg
 
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It is evident that the Ascend Acoustic LX speakers DO NOT have to be focused on the listener. Maybe is your problem.

From the graphs, pointing out (less toe in) influences more high treble like 10 kHz than midrange 2 kHz.
 
That small 1-2 dB midrange bump should be easily EQed down. I don't really see any "extra" high end ie there is no rising treble. It's that the others rapidly roll off above 16kHZ.

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I don't think the 1-2 kHz on-axis bump is any problem here. If anything it is the off-axis that may cause trouble with a 2.5 dB relative peaking 3-4 kHz vs 2 kHz. IMO it is a "problem" on quite many speakers.
Skärmavbild 2023-08-21 kl. 13.27.34.png
 
the only comment is that the brightness might disappear with your ears getting the burn in, likely due to previous speakers don't go flat up that high?
My previous speaker was the Focal Aria 948, that one also has a hard dome but they have it inverted and yes it was a bit warmer. It's going to take a bit a time with burn in to get used to the LX tweeter, but I don't dislike their brightness, I actually prefer it for jazz and blues, but I just played Led Zeppelin and yeah it's was much brighter than I remember when playing with the 948s, but it also had better low end and mid range compared to them as well.
 
It's why I returned mine. Excellent low end, but some songs I love didn't like the extra high end
To be honest, I would have preferred the Focal Aria tweeter alongside their SEAS woofer, may have sounded better. I'm also noticing some music such as Led Zeppelin is much brighter than I'm used to. What are you going to replace them with?
 
I would attribute at least part of the subjective fullness to the bass response that is anechoically flat down to basically 50 Hz with -6 dB below 40 Hz. Any speaker with that kind of low-end extension will sound very "grown-up". In typical listening rooms, the flatness is likely to result in excessive bass without EQ unless you have considerable wall distance (and then I would expect SBIR issues) or your home sports traditional Japanese architecture or similar very lightweight build. Turning down the bass would only help level handling, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

For a 2-way sporting a 6" class woofer and a tweeter lacking a waveguide, dispersion in these is remarkably good. They had to EQ in a 3 kHz dip on-axis to make up for the widening around 3 kHz and it doesn't sort that out perfectly, but it is not at all bad.

Focals tend to have similar anomalies but higher up in frequency (5+ kHz), which might be perceived as not as noticeably bright.
Focal Aria 906 Bookshelf Stand mount speaker spinorama CEA2034 frequency response measurements.png


You can never quite get these issues sorted without a tweeter waveguide.
Revel M16 Standmount Bookshelf High-end Speaker CEA-20324 Spinorama Audio Measurements.png
 
It is evident that the Ascend Acoustic LX speakers DO NOT have to be focused on the listener. Maybe is your problem.


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Yes but even the owner used toe-in when I went to demo their ELX towers. It was a very slight toe-in, but it wasn't straight facing at all.
 
Would you mind taking a picture of them at all? I don't find the CGI renders on their site very useful. Thanks in advance if so and no worries if not.
 
Would you mind taking a picture of them at all? I don't find the CGI renders on their site very useful. Thanks in advance if so and no worries if not.
I have the piano black, if you look on the forum there is a sold sierra lx post and he has pictures of his piano black lx.
 
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