Depends on the size of your primate. My vintage Altec's would fall more into the category of large primate coffins.
Thank you - these would be similar to my current speakers, and I am interested in getting some towers. But I appreciate your suggestion!
I have the sierra towers with raal and like them very much. the ribbon tweeters have an airy, almost 3 dimensional high end, coupled with a lovely midrange and bass which is tight and deep but not over-accentuated. the cabinets are handsome (i have the dark cherry) and the design is tastefully understated. They’re not a speaker people talk about a lot, which is a shame. I think they deserve to be
They do look interesting. Do you know if they are offered with the SEAS diamond tweeter? There was some talk of that but I took a look at the website and I don’t see it as an option. Are the ribbon tweeters also from SEAS?
The Ascend Sierra Tower (optional) ribbon tweeter is from RAAL. It is a custom 70-20xr with AM Core Transformer. Sierra Tower Bamboo Loudspeaker
The ribbon tweeter is from RAAL. the bass driver and i think the midrange driver are SEAS. As far as I know, they do not offer the diamond tweeter.
Don't have to even audition the Sierra towers to know they'll outperform the typical mass-market offering in the $3K price class. The driver quality alone makes it probable. Some manufacturers boast of designing and building their own drive units, but in many cases it amounts to nothing more than marketing ploy and cost savings for them. A good Seas, Peerless/Vifa, RAAL, or Scanspeak driver will often outperform these pretty drive units, despite the comparatively pedestrian aesthetic. Note that brands known for some of the very best midrange quality (Harbeth/Spendor/Audio Note/Dynaudio/ATC) end up with drivers of similar looks to those of Seas and Scanspeak. No gold-colored domes, weird mounting schemes, or ceramic-magnesium-aluminum-unobtanium composite cones.
After quite a few email exchanges with David Fabrikant, owner of Ascend Acoustics, I've decided to order the Sierra Towers w/ the RAAL Ribbon Tweeter in Black Matte. Since, I don't have room under my TV for the Sierra Horizon Center, David suggested the LCR Center. For the rears, HTM-200 SE's. The center channel and the rears will be later on next year. So; after 13 years, my Paradigm Monitor 7 V5's will be replaced. They certainly have served me well! Interestingly; the footprint of the Sierra Towers isn't much larger. About 1.5" wider, and a few inches deeper. The Sierra's are about 5" taller, however. I'll probably sell my Paradigm's locally. No way, I'm going to ship them anywhere even though I do have the original boxes. My current center and rear speakers are Mirage Omnisat Omnipolar. Those, I can ship, if need be. My Mirage Omni-S10 (10" - 200watt) Subwoofer will stay in the system, at least for awhile. I think it's a pretty excellent sub. Never boomy.
Congrats! Please follow up and let us know how you like them once they arrive. BTW, Dave F. has also said to be careful about Class D amps, as the switching frequency may produce an audible sound if you have the RAAL upgrade.
Hopefully, my system will remain dead quiet. I provided all of my system information including my Jolida tube amp to Dave during our discussions.
The Sierras were my first experience with a ribbon tweeter after a lifetime of domes. It’s just lovely. Effortless, wide and very natural sounding. The one thing you’ll find is that the vertical dispersion is narrower than a dome, but the horizontal is very good. I do wish they had just a bit more push down low, but you have a sub so you should be good to go
My friend, it's time to pull that wallet out and spend a few bucks! Are you ready? There is lots of money to be saved!
jeez, that goes against everything ive heard about the famed ATC SCM50/100/150 ASL. just recently I was talking to a guy whos had all the harbeth, PMC, focal, Tannoy whatever and he told me that ATC SCM50ASL is like another level to everything he had prior. I guess ill just buy a used pair of ATC SCM50ASL and hear for myself
paper clip boy.... I want to ask you something. Klipsch Reference R-820F or JBL Studio 590 pick one for a 625 sq ft room. Thanks, CCG
I would recommend a pair of Elac speakers. I have the original Uni-Fi floor standers and love them. Also Elac have others that would be a great buy designed by Andrew Jones. The Uni-Fi image like crazy. I recommend them due to having them for music and movies 2.1 set up. They can get some decent bass too without a sub. Curious what you ended up with. It has been a couple years since this thread was active and recently someone posted.
I owned a pair of the Studio 20 v1. Loved those speakers. At the time I compared against NHT, B&W. Fast forward a long time from then and I am using 2 different pairs of Monitor Audio speakers. In both my HT and Music system. My recommendation would be the MA Silver 200 speakers (or gold, but they are way out of budget). In the totem world I'd say find a used pair of Hawk speakers. If you are used to the metal dome tweeter be careful about going to cloth dome. I did this. Went from the Studio 20 to several speakers with cloth dome (Soliloquy 5.0, Mission something, Sonus Faber Venere 1.5, Dali something, Totem Mites) wasn't really happy until I got to my MA Silver RS8 and now my MA Studio Speakers with Ribbon Tweeters. Even when I was looking at Totem I preferred the Hawk and Forest to the Staff. Make sure you can listen to whatever you might buy.