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Independent measurements of Ascend Acoustics Sierra-LX?

kenshone

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The only measurements I can find are provided by the company itself. While I'm sure they have every reason to be as honest as they can be, it's always good to have confirmation from third parties.
 

muad

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The only measurements I can find are provided by the company itself. While I'm sure they have every reason to be as honest as they can be, it's always good to have confirmation from third parties.
Yeah, I'm hoping Erin gets a hold of one. I want to specifically see how it does under compression testing.
 

HooStat

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If an independent test verifies their spins, they will be the mother of all bargains
Personally, I don't need an independent test to think of them this way. Even if they somehow gamed the system a bit, it would be hard for it to become something horrible. Of course, replication of results is important, so I am all for someone else validating the results. It could even be someone at home doing some basic measurements with REW.
 

muad

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Personally, I don't need an independent test to think of them this way. Even if they somehow gamed the system a bit, it would be hard for it to become something horrible. Of course, replication of results is important, so I am all for someone else validating the results. It could even be someone at home doing some basic measurements with REW.
Well I would be willing to get my preorder shipped to Amir, Erin or Napier, but I'm not sure how long they would need it for... Considering their backlog.
 

mj30250

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I can think of little reason why the NFS data that we have from Ascend would be anything less than truthful and accurate, so I would prefer Erin and Amir to focus their efforts on speakers for which NFS data doesn't already exist. I agree it would be nice to see some compression data, though.
 

amirm

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Well I would be willing to get my preorder shipped to Amir, Erin or Napier, but I'm not sure how long they would need it for... Considering their backlog.
I can turn it around quickly in special cases if we organize it in advance.
 

jhaider

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If an independent test verifies their spins, they will be the mother of all bargains.

If you live and die by Olive scores, maybe. They're still a fairly large midwoofer crossed to a tweeter on a flat waveguide, and the measurements prove geometry is close to destiny. Look at the dispersion disruption above the crossover. I'm sure many will love them. I also know based on the excess midrange energy thrown into the room I probably wouldn't, except in a room that's too big for them in the first place.

Kudos to Ascend for taking the steps needed to get better visibility into their designs, though. Hopefully other companies are following, and others will follow, their example. I almost want this thing to be a smash hit, even though I know it's not my kind of loudspeaker design, just to nudge other companies to take the same step.
 

muad

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If you live and die by Olive scores, maybe. They're still a fairly large midwoofer crossed to a tweeter on a flat waveguide, and the measurements prove geometry is close to destiny. Look at the dispersion disruption above the crossover. I'm sure many will love them. I also know based on the excess midrange energy thrown into the room I probably wouldn't, except in a room that's too big for them in the first place.

Kudos to Ascend for taking the steps needed to get better visibility into their designs, though. Hopefully other companies are following, and others will follow, their example. I almost want this thing to be a smash hit, even though I know it's not my kind of loudspeaker design, just to nudge other companies to take the same step.

I really want to see how these compare to the m106 and m126be. The wave guide on the revels definitely helps with the dispersion mismatch but I wonder at the audibility of the mismatch in room.

The PIR, LW and overall directivity on the LXs are excellent and better than the revels, I wish that the GitHub repository would allow us to see horizontal DI.

I guess this speaker will explore what happens when a directivity mismatch is balanced so well that the PIR, DI, LW and sound power is very close to perfect. A big step forward for sure! Think I'm gonna like these speakers...
 
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6th0

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If tests in the wild are close to what has been published by Ascend, these are likely my next purchase and probably end-game for my desktop nearfield system.
 
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kenshone

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If tests in the wild are close to what has been published by Ascend, these are likely my next purchase and probably end-game for my desktop nearfield system.

I'm all for objective measurements, but I don't know how anyone could make such a claim without having heard them in person.

The preference score is not a guarantee of happiness. It is the output of a multiple linear regression model that takes into account variables which may have no relevance to your personal situation. For example, look at Amir's review of the SVS Ultra Bookshelf. Even though it is one of the higher measuring speakers in preference score, he did not recommend it.
 

jhaider

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For example, look at Amir's review of the SVS Ultra Bookshelf. Even though it is one of the higher measuring speakers in preference score, he did not recommend it.

That’s an interesting comparison. Basically that SVS speaker gets critical stuff wrong, such as avoiding a dispersion disruption at the crossover, but in way that averages out in the PIR (a totally overrated metric, IMO) such that it games the Olive score.
 
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kenshone

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Well IDK if they were gaming the Olive score, but regardless, point is that the preference score is definitely not a perfect predictor.
 

Chromatischism

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If you live and die by Olive scores, maybe. They're still a fairly large midwoofer crossed to a tweeter on a flat waveguide, and the measurements prove geometry is close to destiny. Look at the dispersion disruption above the crossover. I'm sure many will love them. I also know based on the excess midrange energy thrown into the room I probably wouldn't, except in a room that's too big for them in the first place.

Kudos to Ascend for taking the steps needed to get better visibility into their designs, though. Hopefully other companies are following, and others will follow, their example. I almost want this thing to be a smash hit, even though I know it's not my kind of loudspeaker design, just to nudge other companies to take the same step.
I would have to agree. While there are some great-sounding flat-baffle speakers, I do think the direction we are going is directivity control, be it a separate part (Buchardt, Arendal, JBL, Revel) or a shaped cabinet (D&D, Genelec, Neumann, Danley, also JBL).
 
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6th0

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I'm all for objective measurements, but I don't know how anyone could make such a claim without having heard them in person.

The preference score is not a guarantee of happiness. It is the output of a multiple linear regression model that takes into account variables which may have no relevance to your personal situation. For example, look at Amir's review of the SVS Ultra Bookshelf. Even though it is one of the higher measuring speakers in preference score, he did not recommend it.

Agreed, hence "probably"--I could get them and not be impressed. I sure have a lot of both audio and non-audio purchases that really didn't justify the expectation or cost and were sent back.

Objective measurements are a good start, though. I'm also not golden eared, so there is a huge amount of diminishing returns for me past that dollar amount that others won't have. Due to ears and budget, my endgame is going to be far different than others :) I wish neither of them were the limiter!
 

tw 2022

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I really want to see how these compare to the m106 and m126be. The wave guide on the revels definitely helps with the dispersion mismatch but I wonder at the audibility of the mismatch in room.

The PIR, LW and overall directivity on the LXs are excellent and better than the revels, I wish that the GitHub repository would allow us to see horizontal DI.

I guess this speaker will explore what happens when a directivity mismatch is balanced so well that the PIR, DI, LW and sound power is very close to perfect. A big step forward for sure! Think I'm gonna like these speakers...
I get the feeling the new lx is going to be very "revel like"...
 
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