Ascilab C8C Active Speaker Review

[Scrutable]

@829 Yes, the trim rings are still there. The magnets hold solidly though not super firmly - if you bump them they will fall off. However, I preferred not to have to remove the trim since this way I can quickly go from one aesthetic to another, and I don't expect any heavy weather in the living room. ;-)

My speaker stands are 20" Dayton Audio flatpack with about 15 lbs. of steel shot in plastic bags in each cavity. They come with 2 large and 2 small top plates. The large one is just a bit smaller than the C8C base. They were ~$90/pair and are very well suited for the C8C. The tweeter is about 32" above the ground and ear level is about 35" on my. furniture, so very close.

 

[Coltr@ne]

but this way you ruin the diffraction at the edges that @AsciLab has so well controlled

 

[Scrutable]

@Coltr@ne - If I read the post correctly, they were referencing the large side woofers and why they did not supply grills for those, I believe. There may be some sonic effect from the front grills as I have them also, but I listened and it is not noticeable at least to me.

Again, this is a real and acoustically imperfect room whose primary duty is a working living room. It has lots of opportunity for sonic misbehavior. The speakers sound great and WiiM RoomFit tamed all the obvious issues. When I do the big room tuneup I will check grills on/off measurements also.

 

[EngineerNate]

Question regarding the side woofers. Do they act both to reinforce the bass and provide cardioid behavior above 200hz or are they dedicated to cardioid duty?

 

[kharan]

Question regarding the side woofers. Do they act both to reinforce the bass and provide cardioid behavior above 200hz or are they dedicated to cardioid duty?

The former, and cardioid behaviour extends to a fair bit lower than 200 Hz.

 

[EngineerNate]

That’s very cool and a great reason to do active vs passive cardioid if you have the amps/dsp to do it.

 

[829]

It is out of range. It should be flush mounted on the side plane. Would you please share more pics and situation through DM or Email?

Email : [email protected]

Sorry if I ask again @AsciLab, but what would a customer need to do if encountering such a situation? Push the side woofers' trim rings back in; or remove and re-glue (how?) etc.?

I am enquiring because I would like to know before I place my order for a pair of C8C. Wouldn't want to waste time and ask your local dealer for a fix, if required. The trim rings sometimes seem to move out of position probably during international transport, according to the publicly available pictures of C8C I have seen so far.

 

[Purité Audio]

One ring on one of my C8Cs had been jolted out of position during transit, just needed to slightly re-orientate and it simply pushed back in.
Keith

 

[markstein]

Sorry if I ask again @AsciLab, but what would a customer need to do if encountering such a situation? Push the side woofers' trim rings back in; or remove and re-glue (how?) etc.?

I am enquiring because I would like to know before I place my order for a pair of C8C. Wouldn't want to waste time and ask your local dealer for a fix, if required. The trim rings sometimes seem to move out of position probably during international transport, according to the publicly available pictures of C8C I have seen so far.

My experience:

I just pushed the slightly protruding side woofer trim rings back in. It feels like they are fixed with an adhesive foam tape. Now they are very slightly sticking out, about 1-2 mm, which is considered normal and "within spec" per Ascilab technical support. I am okay with that, and IMO this is nothing to worry about.

 

[AsciLab]

Sorry if I ask again @AsciLab, but what would a customer need to do if encountering such a situation? Push the side woofers' trim rings back in; or remove and re-glue (how?) etc.?

I am enquiring because I would like to know before I place my order for a pair of C8C. Wouldn't want to waste time and ask your local dealer for a fix, if required. The trim rings sometimes seem to move out of position probably during international transport, according to the publicly available pictures of C8C I have seen so far.

The ring is sticked at the inner edge. Is it looks a bit pulled out, you can push the ring gently like circling. If it looks it doesn’t fit, please contact us.

 

[829]

@Purité Audio @markstein @AsciLab

Excellent. Thank you for the information!

 

[danielst2711]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the ASCILAB C8C, and I hope someone from the community or ASCILAB can help me.
There are 3 presets that can be selected using the button on the back of each speaker. What confuses me is that on both speakers, when I switch to Preset 1 (P1), shows “Left.”
In the software, however, I already assigned the speakers correctly:

• one speaker is assigned as Left
• the other speaker is assigned as Right

So now I am confused because even though the software assignment seems correct, both speakers show “P1/Left” on P1 when I select it using the rear button.
Is this normal, and is the left/right assignment from the software enough?
Thanks a lot for any help.

 

[markstein]

Hi everyone,

I have a question about the ASCILAB C8C, and I hope someone from the community or ASCILAB can help me.
There are 3 presets that can be selected using the button on the back of each speaker. What confuses me is that on both speakers, when I switch to Preset 1 (P1), shows “Left.”
In the software, however, I already assigned the speakers correctly:

• one speaker is assigned as Left
• the other speaker is assigned as Right

So now I am confused because even though the software assignment seems correct, both speakers show “P1/Left” on P1 when I select it using the rear button.
Is this normal, and is the left/right assignment from the software enough?
Thanks a lot for any help.

P1 / P2 / P3 on the back of the speaker mean "minimum phase mode" / "linear phase mode" / "BX8C mode". Left/right channel assignment (only relevant for digital input) need to be selected in HFD software.

 

[TheKoC]

P1 / P2 / P3 on the back of the speaker mean "minimum phase mode" / "linear phase mode" / "BX8C mode". Left/right channel assignment (only relevant for digital input) need to be selected in HFD software.

Yes, and you can / have to do the input selection individually for P1 / P2, for example when I had my right speaker on optical and my left on S/PDIF loopthough in Preset 1, I had to redo that again when I switched to Preset 2

 

[danielst2711]

Thanks for your reply. my speakers are digital connected via the rme Digiface. but I am a little bit concerned about the print on the backside of the speaker P1/Left on both speakers. In my logic it should be called P1/Left (Left speaker) P1/right (right speaker) What am I disregarding?

 

[goat76]

Thanks for your reply. my speakers are digital connected via the rme Digiface. but I am a little bit concerned about the print on the backside of the speaker P1/Left on both speakers. In my logic it should be called P1/Left (Left speaker) P1/right (right speaker) What am I disregarding?

Do you suspect that both speakers are playing the left channel audio?

You can easily check that with an old school "ping pong" stereo recording as the stereo version of The Beatles - All I've Got To Do. The guitar track should be coming from the left channel, and the vocal track should be coming from the right channel.

 

[AudioJester]

Its just hylex plate amp labelling.

In other uses/scenarios its programmed P1 = left speaker, P2 = right speaker etc.

Thats NOT how Ascilab have programmed the presets. If you want, use a bit of electrical tape to cover up the left/right. Then it will make sense

 

[danielst2711]

alright, via aes: configure left and right speaker in software p1 for both - got it. Thanks you all for the help!

 

[LordxNohman]

This may have been asked, but I couldn't see it in thread...how would these compare to the kef ls60?

 

[markstein]

Thanks for your reply. my speakers are digital connected via the rme Digiface. but I am a little bit concerned about the print on the backside of the speaker P1/Left on both speakers. In my logic it should be called P1/Left (Left speaker) P1/right (right speaker) What am I disregarding?

My assumption: the print on the back is a standard print of the Hypex Fusion amp, and AsciLab is simply using a custom configuration different from the Hypex standard configuration.