Buying Advice: Please help Compare Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2EXL Towers vs Focal Sopra N1 vs Perlisten S4B

[rimmi2002]

Hi all,


I’m looking for guidance on my next speaker upgrade and would really appreciate your advice—especially if you’ve had firsthand listening experience with the following: Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2EXL Towers + Horizon Center, Focal Sopra N1, or the Perlisten S4B.


My current setup:

• Front LCR: Ascend Acoustic Sierra 2 (original 2015 version)
• Subwoofers: Dual Rythmik FV18s
• Room: My room is 30ft wide x 15ft long x 10ft tall, with the speakers about 12ft from my main listening seat. There’s a fair amount of space, and I’m interested in how each contender might fill the room or throw a convincing image at this distance.
• Listening Habits: 50% Movies, Streaming show. 50% music videos on youtube (no pure music listening), but I like my bass to be tight/articulate/punchy (not boomy)

I’ve been very happy with my system for years. But recently, I got to listen to my cousin’s Focal Sopra 2.1 setup with Paradigm XR13 sub and was blown away. The imaging, musical instrument separation, and clear vocals made orchestral movie soundtracks sound incredibly lifelike, almost as if I were in the concert hall. The bass was deep and articulate (his sub was definitely helping), but what really stood out was how the entire presentation felt more holographic and immersive.

I didn't know sound could sound so good, so he has ruined by current system for me.


What I value:

• Clean, open midrange and vocals (not recessed)
• Wide, accurate soundstage with great imaging and instrument separation
• Impactful but not boomy bass (I rely on my subs for deep bass anyway)
• Non-fatiguing/neutral-to-warm sound (I’m sensitive to excessive brightness)
• Good value for money—appreciate bang-for-buck, but willing to stretch if it’s truly worth it

Contenders:

• Ascend Sierra 2EXL Towers w/Horizon Center (I already like the house sound and value, but not sure how much of a leap this is over my Sierras)
• Focal Sopra N1 (loved what I heard, but it’s expensive—however, I’ve found reputable eBay dealers selling these new for roughly the same price as the Perlistens)
• Perlisten S4B (impressive reviews, THX Dominus certified, neutral and dynamic, but very pricey for a bookshelf)

My big questions:

1) For anyone who has auditioned or owned any of these, how does the Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2EXL Tower stack up sonically against the Focal Sopra N1 and Perlisten S4B (recognizing the Focal/Perlisten are standmounts)? Specifically interested in real-world impressions around midrange, imaging/soundstage, and overall musical engagement—especially for movie soundtracks and concert recordings.

2) Also, are the Focal or Perlisten upgrades truly "night and day" over the Ascends, or is it more a matter of taste and room matching?

3) Within the Ascend line I chose the Towers with Horizon center because its a three way design with a separate woofer for mid range. In your opinion will these speakers be a big step up from my current Sierra 2.


Would love any thoughts about:

• Strengths/weaknesses of each for my use-case
• Differences you noticed in warmth/brightness, transparency, and fatigue long term
• Whether you think the jump in price to Sopra/Perlisten is justified (for music AND movies)
• Any other models you’d recommend in this price/quality bracket

Thanks so much for any detailed feedback or comparisons—demos are limited in my area, so personal experience really helps!

 

[MarkS]

The room is hugely important, especially for bass. Do you have room correction? If not, I would start there. Also, how did you place/integrate your subs? If it was by ear only, there is likely room for improvement.

Have you listened to the same program material at your house as you did at your cousin's?

 

[rimmi2002]

The room is hugely important, especially for bass. Do you have room correction? If not, I would start there. Also, how did you place/integrate your subs? If it was by ear only, there is likely room for improvement.

Have you listened to the same program material at your house as you did at your cousin's?

Yup listened to the same material. Stark difference. I have a minidsp 2x4HD, have messed around alot with it to improve bass, but am now starting a project to do room treatment.

My AVR Onkyo NR7100 comes with Dirac Live and and I use REW+umik+minidsp to EQ the subs.

 

[Beave]

Nitpicking, but for the sake of clarity, the Sierra towers are the Sierra ELX model, not the Sierra 2EXL. There is a bookshelf model called the Sierra 2EX, but there is no 2EXL model.

On another forum, I saw that you posted pictures of your room and setup. As stated by posters on that other forum, your setup is far from ideal. Personally, I wouldn't spend several thousand on speakers if your only option is to then handicap them with poor placement and poor room acoustics.

The great sound you heard from your cousin's Focal setup probably has as much to do with the room and speaker placement as anything.

 

[rimmi2002]

Nitpicking, but for the sake of clarity, the Sierra towers are the Sierra ELX model, not the Sierra 2EXL. There is a bookshelf model called the Sierra 2EX, but there is no 2EXL model.

On another forum, I saw that you posted pictures of your room and setup. As stated by posters on that other forum, your setup is far from ideal. Personally, I wouldn't spend several thousand on speakers if your only option is to then handicap them with poor placement and poor room acoustics.

The great sound you heard from your cousin's Focal setup probably has as much to do with the room and speaker placement as anything.

Thanks I agree. on the room. In fact the biggest part of my dilemma is if its purely the room or the speakers or what percentage each played a role if the difference in my room and what I heard. I have no local dealers with this stuff. There is no way to audition these in my space right now (no local dealers)...so it's a lot of money to throw on speakers to just find out because of my room they don't sound much different or marginally better than what I have.

Any suggestions on what I can do to improve the room setup. I can't change the location of the couch or movie screen, but I can bring the speakers to the floor and put them on stands. Long term if the setup works, I can transition to get a smaller screen—perhaps go from 150" to 120" to make room. Options for the center are either under the screen angled up a little bit to hit ear level for listener, or, if that doesn't work well, when I get a new screen, I'll get an AT screen and place the center behind it. I was thinking of creating a flush mount with the wall, since centers for both Focal and AA at least have the port on the front.

 

[Beave]

The speakers you are considering could probably play louder and/or deeper than what you have now, but you probably don't need either 'benefit' because your room isn't all that big, your listening position isn't all that far from the speakers, and you have a subwoofer in use.

I definitely agree in bringing the speakers down and putting them on stands (probably 20-30" tall for the left/right speakers).

My room has a similar layout, and one big problem is the couch right up against the wall. I have the same problem. Maybe some acoustic panels on the wall would help?

Also, you lack left/right symmetry because the left speaker will reflect off that wall while the right speaker is far from a sidewall. So maybe some acoustic panels on the left wall might help too?

You can play around by putting heavy blankets or pillows in certain spots and checking whether you notice any benefit.

 

[rimmi2002]

The speakers you are considering could probably play louder and/or deeper than what you have now, but you probably don't need either 'benefit' because your room isn't all that big, your listening position isn't all that far from the speakers, and you have a subwoofer in use.

I definitely agree in bringing the speakers down and putting them on stands (probably 20-30" tall for the left/right speakers).

My room has a similar layout, and one big problem is the couch right up against the wall. I have the same problem. Maybe some acoustic panels on the wall would help?

Also, you lack left/right symmetry because the left speaker will reflect off that wall while the right speaker is far from a sidewall. So maybe some acoustic panels on the left wall might help too?

You can play around by putting heavy blankets or pillows in certain spots and checking whether you notice any benefit.

Thanks will try that, Bring them down and start by treating the side wall and then back and front wall. I have 9 Safe and Sound 16"x48" x 3" batts wrapped in fabric that I can move around and test what works.

 

[jmdesignz2]

Thanks will try that, Bring them down and start by treating the side wall and then back and front wall. I have 9 Safe and Sound 16"x48" x 3" batts wrapped in fabric that I can move around and test what works.

what happened? Did you fix your issues? Can you post the link to the other thread or post pic of your setup?

 

[rimmi2002]

Details below, but long story short... I still have a lot of work to do and messed up halfway.

I tried moving a subwoofer all around the room and took measurements at the MLP. It turns out the only spot that works better than the current two is the front left corner (to the left of the screen, next to the door). Then I did something really stupid and accidentally deleted the measurements. The plan was to run them through MSO to try different combinations and identify which two locations worked the best. Now I'll have to find time to do that again.

I also started playing around with the REW room simulator a few days ago. It's fairly accurate for my room, since it's pretty much a rectangle. It shows the front left corner as best for bass, and the current two spots work pretty well too. (I'll still take the measurements to be sure.)

---

Overall plan for the room: I’ll be changing to a 135" AT screen (from a 150" standard white now) with 14" depth for ample treatment behind, above, left, and right of it as needed. LCR at ear level and possibly room for one sub in the front. I’ll be building large porous bass traps for the room corners and ceiling/wall corners.

I’m currently seated 2 ft from the back wall (the couch is deep), but I can move the couch to make it 3 ft. I can also put absorbers at the reflection points on the left and back wall.

Hopefully that will improve things in the room. I’ll also look into building diffusers. It might be better for the front wall to be a combination of diffusers and absorbers. I think diffusers will also be better for the ceiling—I don’t like the idea of having insulation above my head. (I’m also wondering if there’s a difference in performance between skyline diffusers versus simple ones with long vertical wells.)

Lastly, I was experimenting moving the speakers down. Music happened to be playing. I had just taken down the FR speaker and was walking around the room setting things up—and I noticed things sounded better.

(Quick side note I forgot to mention before)
One of the things I hadn’t shared earlier is that I was very happy with the non-bass part of my system until I moved the speakers about 6 months ago and recalibrated for the FV18s. Since then, the system lost its warmth and started sounding harsh with music above ~-25dB and movies above ~-17dB. Before, I could easily pump it up to -10dB without a problem.

After removing the FR speaker, the setup had the same old warmth it did before the last calibration. For now, I’m enjoying my 4.2 setup with no FR speaker. I don’t miss it at all—and actually, the whole system sounds better (slightly improved bass around ~100–120Hz, and more importantly the harsh treble is gone).

I think I might be able to EQ this. I looked at the FR curve (picture below), and it shows a 2–3 dB peak at 10K and highend doesn’t roll off as strongly as my center and FL. I think adjusting that target curve a bit in Dirac will help.

For now I am actually pretty happy with the system, but i am hoping to upgrade speakers to most likely Sierra ELX towers + horizon Center. for That I'll need them at ear level.

I’ll just move the speakers down once I get the AT screen. In the meantime, I’m planning to buy a track saw and get my table saw calibrated (which I haven’t used in 3–4+ years) ready to start building traps and a false wall behind the screen. That way I can fill it with various treatment options and leave room for the center. I’ll need 14" of space behind the screen for this.

This is going to take a while as I usually have time to do such stuff on the weekends only.

 

[Ciobi69]

A good advice that I can give and everyone have to do is room treatment and after you think the rest , I had for now 10+ speaker from my first a canton karat l800dc that I truly loved paid 450€ to the blade 2 meta , If you put the blade in a bad room it will sound bad , and the old but decent project from 20 years ago it will sound better on the treated room , the dsp doesn’t dissipate sound energy only room treatment do, after the room treatment you could definitely buy your next good speaker