Ascend Acoustics Sierra LX Review

[robh]

Alright, I just placed my order for 3x Sierra LX in Satin Espresso. They come in around $800 cheaper than the R3 Meta + R2 Meta I'm testing right now, so if they sound better and cost even less than I can't really go wrong here. My only concern is the Sierra LX being a worse center than the R2 Meta, but man I can't really handle the Kef listening fatigue. Toe-in, etc didn't change much in that aspect so they're back to being straight out. Now, it may be room acoustics and the Sierra LX do the same thing but I'm really hoping not.

Let us know how it goes. I love hearing from people who have "sensitive" ears and if the LX passes your muster, all the better. Even though I don't personally experience any fatigue doesn't mean everyone I invite over will be the same.

 

[Audio Science Pal]

I have been listening to the LX for a few days now. No EQ. Sounds good.

 

[Kylo Ren Amamiya]

I have been listening to the LX for a few days now. No EQ. Sounds good.

View attachment 375988

With or without port plugs? Size of room?

 

[Audio Science Pal]

With or without port plugs? Size of room?

In that picture above, I inserted the "S" foam plugs, because of the confined area the speakers are sitting in.

I also set up the LX using the "O" port plugs and no plugs, depending on the music type, in another room, 20'x30'/ 6mx9m, carpet, drapes and furniture. Very good sound and respectable SPL for a compact size speaker.

 

[audioje]

I also find the o plugs work very well (regardless, sounds good with or without them). Both are 10 inch away from the wall and one of them is 15 inch away from the side wall.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Have you run the LX full range without room EQ and if so was there too much bass at times with certain content?

Keeping in mind my huge and volume dependent room gain, and my typical speaker placement, yes and yes.

When I do that with speakers that roll off in the 60s, things are flat out to 20hz (5 second white noise peaks). For the LXs, I ended up low shelfing -2db to bring things back in line.

I still go no eq for hip hop and pipe organ.

I tried the Q plugs, they can help. I liked the included frequency curve for each plug included with the speakers, btw. But in the end, if I wanted earlier roll off, I would have gotten different speakers.

 

[Guddu]

I have just added Sierra-lx to my setup, small room about 11 x 10 m feet, thick carpeted with curtain & some furniture but no specific room treatments.
I have found entire base region getting unexpectedly elevated and leading to unpleasant results.
I am playing with possible placements, q-plugs etc at the moment but this makes me think if these are even good idea for relatively smaller rooms.
I have had better results with Elacs and a bit disappointing but still okay results with Revel bookshelves.

On a side note, Galion seems to follow Ascend speakers. Is it just me or anyone else has similar observations?

 

[goldark]

I have just added Sierra-lx to my setup, small room about 11 x 10 m, thick carpeted with curtain & some furniture but no specific room treatments.
I have found entire base region getting unexpectedly elevated and leading to unpleasant results.
I am playing with possible placements, q-plugs etc at the moment but this makes me think if these are even good idea for relatively smaller rooms.
I have had better results with Elacs and a bit disappointing but still okay results with Revel bookshelves.

On a side note, Galion seems to follow Ascend speakers. Is it just me or anyone else has similar observations?

Bass response is largely affected by your room which seems to me like it's giving you huge peaks. Do you have a way to EQ bass frequencies?

 

[Guddu]

Bass response is largely affected by your room which seems to me like it's giving you huge peaks. Do you have a way to EQ bass frequencies?

I understand that, however I have had several other speakers (even floor stands) in the same room and never observed anything else getting this much messes up.
Will definitely see with some measurements to see what’s going on and I will try rew + equalizer apo probably over the weekend.

 

[umberto]

I have just added Sierra-lx to my setup, small room about 11 x 10 m, thick carpeted with curtain & some furniture but no specific room treatments.
I have found entire base region getting unexpectedly elevated and leading to unpleasant results.
I am playing with possible placements, q-plugs etc at the moment but this makes me think if these are even good idea for relatively smaller rooms.

Welp. I have basically the same sized room, and these will be delivered tomorrow. I have a house EQ on Arc Genesis which tames the bass peaks in my room, so that should hopefully help paired with the plugs. I've actually really come to like the R3 Meta I'm testing once I took the grills off, as they give me a very holographic sound which fully surrounds me and feels like full on surround sound with only LCR. I'm hoping the LX can match or beat that imaging - what are ya'll experience with the Sierra's in that aspect?

 

[Guddu]

Welp. I have basically the same sized room, and these will be delivered tomorrow. I have a house EQ on Arc Genesis which tames the bass peaks in my room, so that should hopefully help paired with the plugs. I've actually really come to like the R3 Meta I'm testing once I took the grills off, as they give me a very holographic sound which fully surrounds me and feels like full on surround sound with only LCR. I'm hoping the LX can match or beat that imaging - what are ya'll experience with the Sierra's in that aspect?

To me - No problem with imaging and sound stage at all with Sierra-lx, probably as good as it gets (at least around this price).
KEF R3 Meta are a bit higher in this regard in my opinion, have heard it many many times next door but them you pay almost double price for it.

 

[umberto]

To me - No problem with imaging and sound stage at all with Sierra-lx, probably as good as it gets (at least around this price).
KEF R3 Meta are a bit higher in this regard in my opinion, have heard it many many times next door but them you pay almost double price for it.

Great to hear. My main issue with the R3 is that I listen at pretty low volumes, and they don't start to sound great until I start pushing the volume a bit more. How are the LX in terms of lower volume listening and fullness of sound? Sorry for all the Q's, and appreciate your responses.

 

[Guddu]

Great to hear. My main issue with the R3 is that I listen at pretty low volumes, and they don't start to sound great until I start pushing the volume a bit more. How are the LX in terms of lower volume listening and fullness of sound? Sorry for all the Q's, and appreciate your responses.

This is more or less same with almost every speaker, I think. You have to get to certain SPL to start feeling along with listening everything. Its more apparent with low sensitive speakers.
Sierra-lx, I thought would be more like Elac DBR62 w.r.t. SPL however these are not. They probably need double the power in comparision, as I observed.
Sierra-lx is surely a candidate for higher power amplifier, probably around 150W @8ohm.

 

[Audio Science Pal]

small room about 11 x 10 m,

I am curious, what size are your regular rooms?

 

[Guddu]

I am curious, what size are your regular rooms?

Just realized I wrote m but it’s feet, so this one is about 11x10 feet.
* Corrected in original post as well.

 

[umberto]

This is more or less same with almost every speaker, I think. You have to get to certain SPL to start feeling along with listening everything. Its more apparent with low sensitive speakers.
Sierra-lx, I thought would be more like Elac DBR62 w.r.t. SPL however these are not. They probably need double the power in comparision, as I observed.
Sierra-lx is surely a candidate for higher power amplifier, probably around 150W @8ohm.

I'm running only L,C,R on Anthem MRX540 8k, so plenty of power for my tiny room + listening distance. Excited to spend all of Sunday with them!

 

[Audio Science Pal]

Just realized I wrote m but it’s feet, so this one is about 11x10 feet.
* Corrected in original post as well.

Cool. Seems that your room/speaker combo has some boundary gain. Will be interesting to learn how you treat that. Maybe the "S" plugs will help?

My experience with the LX is very enjoyable, normal listening at 70 to 80+ dBA @ 15 ft. distance

 

[Guddu]

Cool. Seems that your room/speaker combo has some boundary gain. Will be interesting to learn how you treat that. Maybe the "S" plugs will help?

My experience with the LX is very enjoyable, normal listening at 70 to 80+ dBA @ 15 ft. distance

I am going try several things over next few days, including some bass traps if I can borrow from someone.
I have tried both the plugs, it does help but just not that much as I need.
I have noticed chassis vibration, even on very heavy stands which normally I shouldn’t see but let’s see what I can do.

 

[sethr]

I just picked some LXs as well, for nearfield and midfield use. I'm using a computer as a source and will be using system-wide EQ with PeaceEQ/Equalizer APO, with a low cut provided by SlickEQ (not shy about using these aggressively in my small room, as I did with my M16s, I'm sure I'll need a more agressive slope with the LXs).

 

[Guddu]

I'm running only L,C,R on Anthem MRX540 8k, so plenty of power for my tiny room + listening distance. Excited to spend all of Sunday with them!

I am sure your Anthem can pump up more power than my Topping PA7.