Intro & Methodology:
This weekend, I finally got around to doing a proper blind listening test between the following two tower speakers:
Methodology is same as before with my KEF R3 vs Ascend Sierra 2EX blind test, except this time:
In-Room Measurements:
In-room REW measurements were posted and can be downloaded here.
Blind Listening Test Log and Votes:
Note that while all the comments as transcribed here in this post mention the speakers by name (for your reading convenience), during each test, no participant was aware of which speaker they were listening to. So when they described their preference and comments, they were speaking in terms of “Speaker A” vs “Speaker B”, where the identity of the speakers behind these are unknown and the roles of A/B are also randomly shuffled between each song.
Valley of the Yuccas - Live from Joshua Tree - RÜFÜS DU SOL (Spotify)
Portland, Maine - Donovan Woods (Spotify)
River - Leon Bridges (Spotify)
Only Now (feat. Tyler Graves) - Seven Lions, Tyler Graves (Spotify)
Come Down - Anderson .Paak (Spotify)
Rain On Me - Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande (Spotify)
I Feel You - Sun Soaked Mix - Kaskade, Zip Zip Through The Night, Penguin Mofex (Spotify)
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin (Spotify)
People Get Ready - The Impressions (Spotify)
Prelude in E Minor - Gerry Mulligan Sextet (Spotify)
Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield (Spotify)
The Duel - John Williams, Anne-Sophie Mutter, The Recording Arts of Los Angeles (Spotify)
Selenium Forest - Plini (Spotify)
Back In Black - AC/DC (Spotify)
Every Piece Matters - Plini (Spotify)
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears (Spotify)
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins (Spotify)
The Island, Pt. I (Dawn) - Pendulum (Spotify)
Cleric Beast - SIE Sound Team (Spotify)
Dance of Eternity - Dream Theater (Spotify)
Your Body Is A Wonderland - John Mayer (Spotify)
Pneuma - Tool (Spotify)
About A Girl - Nirvana (Spotify)
Final Vote Tally
Ascend Sierra RAAL Towers: 14 votes in favor.
Revel Performa3 F206: 14 votes in favor.
It’s a perfect tie!!
Additional Comments
What’s really interesting here to me is not just how this happened to be a perfect tie overall, but how consistent the results are: Preference in treble usually goes to the Ascend and preference in bass goes to the Revel.
But while the Ascend have a bit deeper bass extension, the midbass of the Revel was unanimously preferred by all four participants for its more “full bodied” and “tactile” experience, with few if any exceptions.
And while the Revel’s treble is excellent, the Ascend renders a treble experience (thanks to the RAAL tweeter I’m sure) that all four participants unanimously preferred when describing the treble.
If you’re thinking of buying either of these speakers, I do not think you can really go wrong. They are both fantastic speakers. But between the two, I would lean towards Revel for home theater (due to likely higher midbass SPL capabilities at least), and Ascend for music if you are willing to use an equalizer to tune the bass to your liking -- since there is some evidence here that the Ascend is the higher fidelity speaker aside from midbass. In my own listening experience (not blind), I add a moderate midbass boost to the Ascend, and over ~1 year I have found I prefer in most (but still not all) cases over the Revel.
If I could use this as feedback for Ascend, I'd urge them to consider designing a higher end tower with more of a bass/midbass tilt and more woofer area/displacement capable of significant EQ and SPL headroom there as well. I believe if they did that, there's a good chance they'd have a product that could win over the Revel F208 (and who knows, maybe even the PerformaBe line too) without audible compromise.
Lastly, in these tests, I was Participant 2. I preferred the Revel for most of the songs I tested. If I had picked more treble focused songs, I probably would have preferred the Ascend. I didn’t test many songs here because I didn’t want to skew the results — I stopped testing when I realized I could clearly identify which speaker I was listening to with my eyes closed. I made a note of which speaker I thought I was listening to with my eyes closed, and when I stopped testing more songs and checked later, I found my identification was correct 100% of the time. This was also the case for Participant C near the end — where it was becoming quite obvious to him which speaker was which, independent of shuffling the roles of “Speaker A” and “Speaker B” randomly. He referred to them as “Mr Treble” and “Mr Bass” with consistency when describing them to indicate he clearly heard one of the speakers had superior treble to his ear, and the other had superior bass.
It is also interesting that everyone’s blind impressions here aligned exactly with my sighted listening impressions between these speakers initially, and over time. I love them both, but each has slightly different strengths.
This weekend, I finally got around to doing a proper blind listening test between the following two tower speakers:
Methodology is same as before with my KEF R3 vs Ascend Sierra 2EX blind test, except this time:
- No subwoofers were used (which I figured is somewhat appropriate since these are both towers).
- This time we have four participants (including myself), with somewhat different musical tastes, but all music lovers.
- Due to music taste variety, each participant was invited to simply play whatever songs they want on the spot (rather than forcing a single list of songs on everyone).
In-Room Measurements:
In-room REW measurements were posted and can be downloaded here.
Blind Listening Test Log and Votes:
Note that while all the comments as transcribed here in this post mention the speakers by name (for your reading convenience), during each test, no participant was aware of which speaker they were listening to. So when they described their preference and comments, they were speaking in terms of “Speaker A” vs “Speaker B”, where the identity of the speakers behind these are unknown and the roles of A/B are also randomly shuffled between each song.
Valley of the Yuccas - Live from Joshua Tree - RÜFÜS DU SOL (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Ascend wins. Ascend sounded more full and was able to capture each of the different aspects of the song clearly, like the deeper bass. Revel sounded a little bit more flat, and was more piercing on the symbols.
Portland, Maine - Donovan Woods (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Ascend wins. Revel sounded like the artist was far away, yet still clearly. Ascend has vocals so strongly it’s like the artist is in front of me and instruments in back. In Ascend the guitar treble is better, whereas on Revel it’s more piercing. Prefer Ascend because vocals are up front, felt more live like artist is right in front of me.
River - Leon Bridges (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Ascend wins. High frequency of the bells are more harsh on Revel. Ascend sounds more equal and blended. On Revel, the vocals and instruments are more separate. Can imagine having recorded and mixed the tracks when hearing the Revel, whereas on Ascend it’s more blended together. Revel background noise more pronounced. Prefer the blended sound and because treble is less harsh here.
Only Now (feat. Tyler Graves) - Seven Lions, Tyler Graves (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Ascend wins. Revel sounds pretty bad here. Ascend is okay and easy to listen to, though a subwoofer would make it better yet. Revel sounds cheap as the really deep bass is entirely missing.
Come Down - Anderson .Paak (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Revel wins. Revel is missing something, but I feel like if we were to add the sub it would sound complete. In this one, I prefer how the instruments are more separated and distinct in space on the Revel.
Rain On Me - Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Revel wins. Revel sounds much more full bodied. Ascend is missing something in the mid bass.
I Feel You - Sun Soaked Mix - Kaskade, Zip Zip Through The Night, Penguin Mofex (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Revel wins. Ascend sounds more blended. Revel feels more full. Can physically feel the bass more from the Revel, hear the vocals, doesn’t feel as flat.
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin (Spotify)
- Participant 1: Revel wins. Guitar is louder on Revel. Vocals stronger on Ascend. Revel sounds more full. Sounds more correct. Treble feels a little too forward on Ascend.
People Get Ready - The Impressions (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Revel wins. Slight preference due to lower frequencies.
Prelude in E Minor - Gerry Mulligan Sextet (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Ascend wins. Slight preference due to higher frequencies.
Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Revel wins. Moderate preference due to lower frequencies.
The Duel - John Williams, Anne-Sophie Mutter, The Recording Arts of Los Angeles (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Revel wins. Slight preference is due to lower frequencies, but note that the violin sounds better on Ascend.
Selenium Forest - Plini (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Revel wins. Slight preference due to lower frequencies, but note that guitar sounds better on Ascend.
Back In Black - AC/DC (Spotify)
- Participant 2: Revel wins. Slight preference due to mids and lower frequencies, but note that treble guitar sounds a bit better on Ascend.
- Participant 3: Ascend wins. Sounds more real and live, feel like you’re there. Revel sounds more ‘studio mastered equalized’.
Every Piece Matters - Plini (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Ascend wins. Revel has more bass, but Ascend was able to render the treble better. Guitar were much more clear, which is very important for this song.
- Participant 4: Ascend wins. Same reasons.
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Revel wins. Ascend treble too much at times.
- Participant 4: Ascend wins. Prefers more forward presentation.
In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Revel wins. Treble too much on Ascend, bass of Revel preferred — sound is fuller bodied.
- Participant 4: Revel wins. Same reasons.
The Island, Pt. I (Dawn) - Pendulum (Spotify)
- Participant 3: No winner.
- Participant 4: No winner.
Cleric Beast - SIE Sound Team (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Revel wins. Fuller bodied sound.
- Participant 4: Revel wins. Same reason.
Dance of Eternity - Dream Theater (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Ascend wins. Treble and mids are better on Ascend. On Revel, the highs get washed out into the mids.
- Participant 4: No winner. Both sound equally good.
Your Body Is A Wonderland - John Mayer (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Ascend wins. More clear acoustic instruments.
- Participant 4: Ascend wins. Same reasons.
Pneuma - Tool (Spotify)
- Participant 3: No winner. Notes that Ascend treble sounds better and more accurate to in-person concerts attended, whereas Revel has more well rounded bass but is lacking in treble fidelity vs Ascend.
- Participant 4: No winner.
About A Girl - Nirvana (Spotify)
- Participant 3: Ascend wins. Better treble, more forward “live” sound.
- Participant 4: Ascend wins. Sounds more like a live concert.
Final Vote Tally
Ascend Sierra RAAL Towers: 14 votes in favor.
Revel Performa3 F206: 14 votes in favor.
It’s a perfect tie!!
Additional Comments
What’s really interesting here to me is not just how this happened to be a perfect tie overall, but how consistent the results are: Preference in treble usually goes to the Ascend and preference in bass goes to the Revel.
But while the Ascend have a bit deeper bass extension, the midbass of the Revel was unanimously preferred by all four participants for its more “full bodied” and “tactile” experience, with few if any exceptions.
And while the Revel’s treble is excellent, the Ascend renders a treble experience (thanks to the RAAL tweeter I’m sure) that all four participants unanimously preferred when describing the treble.
If you’re thinking of buying either of these speakers, I do not think you can really go wrong. They are both fantastic speakers. But between the two, I would lean towards Revel for home theater (due to likely higher midbass SPL capabilities at least), and Ascend for music if you are willing to use an equalizer to tune the bass to your liking -- since there is some evidence here that the Ascend is the higher fidelity speaker aside from midbass. In my own listening experience (not blind), I add a moderate midbass boost to the Ascend, and over ~1 year I have found I prefer in most (but still not all) cases over the Revel.
If I could use this as feedback for Ascend, I'd urge them to consider designing a higher end tower with more of a bass/midbass tilt and more woofer area/displacement capable of significant EQ and SPL headroom there as well. I believe if they did that, there's a good chance they'd have a product that could win over the Revel F208 (and who knows, maybe even the PerformaBe line too) without audible compromise.
Lastly, in these tests, I was Participant 2. I preferred the Revel for most of the songs I tested. If I had picked more treble focused songs, I probably would have preferred the Ascend. I didn’t test many songs here because I didn’t want to skew the results — I stopped testing when I realized I could clearly identify which speaker I was listening to with my eyes closed. I made a note of which speaker I thought I was listening to with my eyes closed, and when I stopped testing more songs and checked later, I found my identification was correct 100% of the time. This was also the case for Participant C near the end — where it was becoming quite obvious to him which speaker was which, independent of shuffling the roles of “Speaker A” and “Speaker B” randomly. He referred to them as “Mr Treble” and “Mr Bass” with consistency when describing them to indicate he clearly heard one of the speakers had superior treble to his ear, and the other had superior bass.
It is also interesting that everyone’s blind impressions here aligned exactly with my sighted listening impressions between these speakers initially, and over time. I love them both, but each has slightly different strengths.
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