Ascend Sierra-1 V2 Speaker Review

[AscendDF]

If you consider they are both 2-way speakers designed using a Klippel, not a huge surprise. If Directiva r1 had the resources of Ascend, might have even used the same Seas tweeter. Ascend gets good performance from its smaller woofer, but without the speaker being much more expensive, is not in the same league as the Purifi 6.5 woofer. Would be more interesting to compare to the Sierra LX.

Have made this exact comparison a dozen+ times. Happy to privately discuss with you if you are interested. There are pro's and con's to both (our LX and various Purifi woofers) Like nearly all things audio, it depends on the usage and design goals.

That stated, yes - our little 5 1/4" in our S1V2 is not in the same league as our LX woofer or the Purifi.

 

[Sokel]

The growing number of speakers like this,measuring nicely above 100-200Hz or so in terms of distortion is disproportional with the offered W371A-like woofer modules for people who try to make a 3-way out of them using traditional subs (yes,I know they have to be under of beside the mains with x-overs higher than 80-100hz but people talk about it all the time trying to make a budget 3-way) .

I think that the clever thing companies have to do is design and start offering solutions like that.
As far as I have seen the only budget alternative of W371A woofer (without the cardioid) is a Rythmic one.

Overall,nice for what it is,thanks Amir!

 

[ZolaIII]

@AscendDF Fb of 38 Hz, well then it's upon buyer's to set a DSP high pass filter. I referred to the beyond woofer crossover slope 5.3 KHz resonance peek all do it doesn't influence visually FR. It's connected, I am a bit spoiled with digital crossovers and implementing them.
It's still remarkable what you menage to achieve with 5.5" woofer and it's not even forced more than other brand designs (one size larger) but as all of them it needs stressing out under Fb or a relief bit over the woffer Fs. I am not a a supporter of such port tuning as a extension, more towards relief filament and a bit of a extension but then everyone would complain that it doesn't have "enough bass extension". Guess that's how things go now and physics are physics.

 

[thewas]

I can understand this logic, but using a passive high pass filter in a crossover to remove deep bass is a design no-no. Not only would this create far more problems than it would solve, it would require a MASSIVE capacitor in series with the woofer. We are talking about a 100V MPP capacitor with a value of over 500 uF. I don't think I have ever seen an audio grade metal film capacitor of this high of a value. A 100 uF MPP audio grade cap is nearly the size of a soda can, imagine 5 of those? This alone would cost us about $200 and use up the majority of the internal cabinet volume while also creating a host of other problems.

Canton uses such a "infasonic" filters in their better series called DC technology:

Canton DC – mehr Bass, weniger Verzerrungen - LowBeats

Schon seit den 1990er Jahren arbeitet Canton mit der Displacement Control- (DC) Schaltung, die den T

www.lowbeats.de

It seems the do it by combining several capacitors, see exemplary:

Source of above photo: https://www.hifi-regler.de/marken_highlights/canton/die_neue_canton_reference_2023.php

I agree that such isn't cheap though.

 

[pma]

I looked at the linearity test and wondered how that large ~3KHz dip manifested

I have also been very surprised to see that large and wide dip in the “non-anechoic” measurement. This must be very audible and I experience the same issue only in case that the crossover is not phase optimized.

 

[JakeK]

Amazing! I'm wondering if they sell to the UK? These are in the right price bracket to be my new desktop speakers. Not sure if they are made for nearfield use though. Also not available in white plus they look very similar to my existing pair so my wife would be wondering where the $1000 went. It is about a lot more than looks though.

 

[AscendDF]

Canton uses such a "infasonic" filters in their better series called DC technology:

Canton DC – mehr Bass, weniger Verzerrungen - LowBeats

Schon seit den 1990er Jahren arbeitet Canton mit der Displacement Control- (DC) Schaltung, die den T

www.lowbeats.de

It seems the do it by combining several capacitors, see exemplary:

Source of above photo: https://www.hifi-regler.de/marken_highlights/canton/die_neue_canton_reference_2023.php

I agree that such isn't cheap though.

Those are electrolytics, they will not only lose capacitance over time, but eventually dry out completely. I wouldn't use them in a series high pass filter.

 

[IAtaman]

Thanks, nice to see that you subjectively prefer having the resonance further up.

If it was at 21kHz people here would be saying it is inaudible.

You can see KEF R3 Meta has it over 30kHz

KEF R3 Meta Loudspeaker Lab Report

Lab Report No 'fantasy specifications' here as the most compact of KEF's R Meta series delivers exactly what it says on the tin (ok, website). The 3.2ohm minimum/4ohm nominal impedance rating is met in practice with 3.17ohm at 142Hz although the load is

www.hifinews.com

Personally I'd say inaudible even if it was 20KHz. Causation, correlation.

 

[_thelaughingman]

This speaker is a knockout especially for something that is passive and has no DSP. Great job.

 

[thewas]

Those are electrolytics, they will not only lose capacitance over time, but eventually dry out completely. I wouldn't use them in a series high pass filter.

It can happen but it must not, owning many vintage (over 30+ year old) loudspeakers, I have measured many such and most of good quality brands had surprisingly kept their values, exemplary:

Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?

If you wonder why the phase of the measured capacitors (which should be at -90°) suddenly becomes "inductive" (phase at +90°) from a certain frequency on, this is due to my laziness. The correct calibration of Arta-LIMP is time consuming and was not necessary for these measurements (up to...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[AscendDF]

I have also been very surprised to see that large and wide dip in the “non-anechoic” measurement. This must be very audible and I experience the same issue only in case that the crossover is not phase optimized.

You are not fully understanding what you are seeing. Please see my response to this way back on 2nd page.

Ascend Sierra-1 V2 Speaker Review

I looked at the linearity test and wondered how that large ~3KHz dip manifested. Might the mic not have been on axis? It’s a near-field and non-anechoic measurement I believe; all that matters is relative difference though.

www.audiosciencereview.com

It would be best if Amir explained this in his measurements to avoid confusion... @amirm

 

[Ze Frog]

This is exactly why audio companies truly passionate about what they do should actually really appreciate the work done by Emir and Erin and others who measure their gear. Personally, any company or individual that's rails against such things is clearly not really passionate about good sound or the customer and are literally just in it for stripping people's wallets.

Good stuff Amir as always, and well done Dave and Sierra Acoustic's.

 

[AscendDF]

It can happen but it must not, owning many vintage (over 30+ year old) loudspeakers, I have measured many such and most of good quality brands had surprisingly kept their values, exemplary:

Capacitor upgrade in crossover - Is it audible?

If you wonder why the phase of the measured capacitors (which should be at -90°) suddenly becomes "inductive" (phase at +90°) from a certain frequency on, this is due to my laziness. The correct calibration of Arta-LIMP is time consuming and was not necessary for these measurements (up to...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Were they such high values (it matters) and in series or in parallel? I have had bad experiences with exactly this issue at a previous company. Of course, much depends on the capacitor itself - but as a manufacturer with a long 7 year warranty on our Sierra line, it could be a potential nightmare. In either case, the phase shift caused by the series high pass on the woofer would be difficult to deal with. So much simpler and much more effective to use active bass management to filter deep bass, if that is the goal.

 

[thewas]

Were they such high values (it matters) and in series or in parallel? I have had bad experiences with exactly this issue at a previous company. Of course, much depends on the capacitor itself - but as a manufacturer with a long 7 year warranty on our Sierra line, it could be a potential nightmare. In either case, the phase shift caused by the series high pass on the woofer would be difficult to deal with. So much simpler and much more effective to use active bass management to filter deep bass, if that is the goal.

Definitely, but as you know, many old "audiophile" stereo fans don't know or want such active filters...

 

[Shadrach]

Considering the price and the measurements this is a great little loud speaker.
Well done @AscendDF
What I'm not so pleased about is amirm's review and some of the comments in the thread.
I don't know what people expect. AscendDF have made a major effort to produce a well measuring speaker at a competitive price.
I think the review is too critical given the measurements. Many speakers will sound subjectively better with a bit of tweaking either through positioning or DSP, but each listener in each room is likely to prefer slight differences, so the filters amirm thought improved the sound are not particularly relevant, nor are his listening impressions.

 

[er|κzvio1in]

Very nice read and a very interesting speaker (for the US market).


There's an obvious tradeoff and that's the low 81 dB sensitivity @ high impedance, so the price/performance ratio of the separate speaker is very good, but additional costs of a "matching" amp counteracts this.

It got me thinking: it would be awesome if they developed a similar speaker, but then meant to be used with a subwoofer. So a speaker with great (off axis) linearity and directivity like this, but less bass and improved efficiency.

 

[B.A.T.]

I rarely see good speakers like this, what a pleasure! Thanks for the measurements!

 

[beagleman]

Very nice read and a very interesting speaker (for the US market).


There's an obvious tradeoff and that's the low 81 dB sensitivity @ high impedance, so the price/performance ratio of the separate speaker is very good, but additional costs of a "matching" amp counteracts this.

It got me thinking: it would be awesome if they developed a similar speaker, but then meant to be used with a subwoofer. So a speaker with great (off axis) linearity and directivity like this, but less bass and improved efficiency.

On Their site it lists sensitivity as
83db Anechoic

87db In room

 

[mj30250]

The frequency response response is stunningly good, but the distortion in the bass region is stunningly poor. How does that warrant a recommendation? Did people stop reading after the frequency response? Did I misread the results?

As has already been mentioned, it's not poor when weighted against its size and class of speaker, which is generally what Amir does when subjectively describing bass extension, distortion, and output. If that level of distortion showed up in a 5-figure tower with 4 8" woofers, that would be a very different story.

As Dave said, if you desire better bass performance, there are several larger Ascend models to choose from that provide it.

 

[Sokel]

On Their site it lists sensitivity as 83db Anechoic
87db In room

Yes,but we now have Amir's measurement where we can see what happens.
Generally,sensitivity estimation has to come with data,a single number tells nothing.