Ascend Sierra Luna Mini-Monitor Review

[TimW]

In preparation to bring back one of my speakers as a kit, I noticed a port resonance very similar to this one. The cabinet is part of a commercial kit that I modded, and it wasn't practical to change the basic port dimensions or cabinet size.

Hey Dennis where will I be able to find info on this kit when it becomes available? A thread on this forum would be great.

 

[Rick Sykora]

The port design issue here is predictable and can even be found in simulation. A port resonance at 1.2 kHz shows up in Bassbox sim using a comparable Seas driver.

Note there is no mention of whether Ascend's posted measurements are smoothed so comparison with Amir's is not possible. Since quality of parts appears high, likely is salvageable.

P.S. Please excuse if this is redundant. Was hopping between this and the other review and missed some earlier parts of this thread.

 

[snackiac]

I'm the owner of these and just wanted to conclude that my experience matches Amir's summary. With a sub and Dirac I'm actually pretty happy with them in the living room for HT. I don't have enough experience to say the directivity helps but they do seem to create a spaciousness that seems better than others I've tried, so I dunno, ymmv.

Oh someone asked if I had the original data sheet, but I tossed them

 

[richard12511]

I'm the owner of these and just wanted to conclude that my experience matches Amir's summary. With a sub and Dirac I'm actually pretty happy with them in the living room for HT. I don't have enough experience to say the directivity helps but they do seem to create a spaciousness that seems better than others I've tried, so I dunno, ymmv.

Oh someone asked if I had the original data sheet, but I tossed them

The directivity is excellent, and it kinda got overlooked because of the really bad port problems. It's 140° wide, and quite consistent . I'm not surprised that it gives a great sense of spaciousness.

 

[snackiac]

The directivity is excellent, and it kinda got overlooked because of the really bad port problems. It's 140° wide, and quite consistent . I'm not surprised that it gives a great sense of spaciousness.

I was happy to see the shrugging panther rather than headless, that seems fair, as in check out the stats and make sure you understand the limitations. Had it not been for quarantine and me moving these to my desk for work there's very little chance I ever start investigating these.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Hey Dennis where will I be able to find info on this kit when it becomes available? A thread on this forum would be great.

I'll post all the deets on my philharmonicaudio.com website. I'm just waiting for Bennic to build the crossover boards. I'm hoping to get things up and running before Xmas.

 

[GimeDsp]

Happy to oblige if you deposit $1,000 in my paypal account. Otherwise, I have other speakers to test....

Like the Pardigm Se I sent in that are now on sale for 25% less than I paid!%%$#$##

 

[amirm]

Like the Pardigm Se I sent in that are now on sale for 25% less than I paid!%%$#$##

These were sent well before yours so will get to yours after them.

 

[GimeDsp]

These were sent well before yours so will get to yours after them.

Awsome, also looking forward to more classD amp reviews in the under $600 range.

 

[amirm]

Awsome, also looking forward to more classD amp reviews in the under $600 range.

Picked up a couple of amps today....

 

[goldark]

Ascend implies they will try to make improvements to the speakers based on these measurements: "That stated, we do not mess around here and we take both measurements and feedback very seriously and as such, we are already deep into working on this. The Luna and Duo will be better speakers because of you, as will our production line testing procedures."

http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sh...h-center-Luna-S2-or-Horizon&p=64388#post64388

 

[Chromatischism]

That's the right answer.

 

[Roen]

Yeah Dennis is pretty honest about the Pros and cons of the Raal while the quotes you posted from Dave at Ascend is much more marketing speak which obviously doesn't match the measurements we see here. I didn't know Dennis is developing a new mini monitor, the Mini Phil with the Raal was the 1st speaker I bought to hear the Raal and I agree there was something missing in the 2-3k range before the tweeter takes over. I built the Zaph ZA 5.2 at the same time to compare the Raal with a dome and preferred the Zaph because of that issue but they were also a bit bright, the Mini Phil could be listened to forever without fatigue. More than just the different frequency response, I was really trying to compare the tweeter range to see exactly what I'm gaining by going to a Raal ribbon over a $20 dome tweeter and for me it's not worth it. Compared to the typical dome they do have slightly stronger early reflection response by about 1 decibel and I really doubt that is going to be audible to the average person, a neutral and smooth response is much more important in my experience.

Which mini-RAAL speaker, in your opinion, works best for Surrounds / Heights?

As unpopular as Ascend is on this forum, I'm pretty happy with my Sierra-2's, and will probably trade out my L/C/R Sierra-2's for L/R Sierra-2 and Sierra Horizon Centre. Just need to fill in Surrounds and Heights and would preferably like to have ribbon tweeters for timbre matching.

 

[Roen]

Have there been any ASR Philaharmonic Audio speaker reviews?

 

[hardisj]

Have there been any ASR Philaharmonic Audio speaker reviews?

I don't know if Amir has measured any, but I measured the Philharmonic BMR:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/philharmonic-bmr-speaker-review.14781/

 

[aarons915]

Which mini-RAAL speaker, in your opinion, works best for Surrounds / Heights?

As unpopular as Ascend is on this forum, I'm pretty happy with my Sierra-2's, and will probably trade out my L/C/R Sierra-2's for L/R Sierra-2 and Sierra Horizon Centre. Just need to fill in Surrounds and Heights and would preferably like to have ribbon tweeters for timbre matching.

I'm not an expert on RAAL tweeters as I went a different way but I think you would want to match the tweeter to have the same dispersion pattern between them, I personally like identical speakers for my front 3 if I can, is there something wrong with using a 3rd Sierra 2?

If you're eventually planning on getting the Sierra towers with the ribbon then the Horizon could make sense since they all use the 70-20 RAAL.

As far as surrounds, the Luna would be ideal since it's small and uses the 64-10 RAAL but I'm guessing you're having 2nd thoughts because of the measurements. The small speakers I tried were Dennis Murphy's Mini Phils with the 64-10 and those are ideal for surrounds if you keep your sierra 2 but I don't think he makes them anymore.

 

[Chromatischism]

Dennis Murphy's Mini Phils with the 64-10 and those are ideal for surrounds if you keep your sierra 2 but I don't think he makes them anymore

But wait! http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/

 

[Dennis Murphy]

But wait! http://www.philharmonicaudio.com/

Close, but no kumquat. The new mini's don't use the RAAL ribbon or any ribbon for that matter. I prefer a lower crossover point than the RAAL's can handle gracefully in a 2-way, so I switched to the Arum Cantus AMT. It provides 90% of the spaciousness of the RAAL while allowing for a crossover point around 800 Hz lower than I could achieve with the RAAL.

 

[Roen]

I don't know if Amir has measured any, but I measured the Philharmonic BMR:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/philharmonic-bmr-speaker-review.14781/

This is getting pretty OT

I'm not an expert on RAAL tweeters as I went a different way but I think you would want to match the tweeter to have the same dispersion pattern between them, I personally like identical speakers for my front 3 if I can, is there something wrong with using a 3rd Sierra 2?

If you're eventually planning on getting the Sierra towers with the ribbon then the Horizon could make sense since they all use the 70-20 RAAL.

As far as surrounds, the Luna would be ideal since it's small and uses the 64-10 RAAL but I'm guessing you're having 2nd thoughts because of the measurements. The small speakers I tried were Dennis Murphy's Mini Phils with the 64-10 and those are ideal for surrounds if you keep your sierra 2 but I don't think he makes them anymore.

Just harder to arrange with the taller Sierra-2 speaker under an OLED TV, while keeping the OLED centre wall-mounted at an ideal eye level.

The other option was a third Sierra-2 EX as well.

 

[Roen]

Close, but no kumquat. The new mini's don't use the RAAL ribbon or any ribbon for that matter. I prefer a lower crossover point than the RAAL's can handle gracefully in a 2-way, so I switched to the Arum Cantus AMT. It provides 90% of the spaciousness of the RAAL while allowing for a crossover point around 800 Hz lower than I could achieve with the RAAL.

I was wondering why the "RAAL" on the mini looked odd......because it's not a RAAL at all haha.