Ascension Audio (Adelaide Speakers) Owners & Discussion Thread

[SilverWolf]

Hi Wayne,

For the summoners I got the 10" driver upgraded, I got the midrange upgrade to the kevlar 6" and I got the ribbon tweeter. For the Centre, I ended up getting the 262 with the upgraded 6"kevlar and ribbon tweeter. The subwoofer I got was the 1220tl with the upgraded peerless 12" woofer. the firesprites for rears were standard.

Great stuff, those kevlars have a very nice sound indeed and are quite sensitive. I've used them in all my speakers for the mids on my mains and the mids/woofers on my rears. Which ribbon did you go for ? I will be interested to hear your thoughts on them after you have done some more lsitening to them.

Hey lamtran. Congrats on the purchase. I've been following this thread and strongly considering placing an order as well. Can I ask what the cost of delivery was to Victoria, as I am in Melbourne and this would need to be factored in. Thanks, David

Welcome to the forums David,

I can't tell you the cost but many folks have said the shipping is very reasonable. I think cost would also depend on the size and amount of speakers you want, hopefully someone will chime in with a rough idea on costs. Or just give Edward a call, he's very easy to talk to.

Whatever way you go or do, I hope you enjoy the forums. Their all top blokes here and they share a wealth of great advicve and information.

[lamtran]

I broke out into a sweat today unpacking the subwoofer and I was getting very very frustrated with the layers!!!

Anyway. didn't get to test out the sub fully today to know if its any better than my parents velodyne. So I will leave that to another day.

Did about an hours listening this evening, I am very happy with the sound played a range of music, ranging from Diana Krall, Norah Jones to the Black Eyed Peas and Craig David. Voices sound very very smooth, not too sharp sounding if that makes sense. I felt like I could sit there and listen to CD after CD, whereas with my parents Boston VR40's my ears started to get tired after about 30mins of listening at loudish volumes.

Plonked a movie on and the Centre running in conjunction with the VR40's was very loud, very dominating and very clear.

Anyway, just a quick post, and more importantly as promised

Enjoy.

Goodnight Guys

Lam

[Dazz]

Hi all

My first reply here. I have heard of this company. My brother owns the 10" sub-woofer which i have heard on his system. Sound was good but quite subtle and not in your face. Unfortunately he is using a very old marantz surround sound (psuedo surround sound!) amplifier. My brother was impressed with the guy from adelaide speakers. While his sub was good i really could not use it at my place as the sub is very long (depth) and my lounge room is not that big. I do agree with many comments here on how good we have it here in SA for speaker manufacturers. I just upgraded my old Krix Lyric's (brought back in 94) to the new harmonix. I just love the sound of the krix speakers and have visited the factory on a few occassions as i live close by. The guys there are great and i even got a guided tour around the factory. Just thought I would throw my 2 cents in worth.

Dazz

My system

Marantz SR6003

Mains-Krix Harmonix

Centre-B&W LCR3

Surrounds-Castle Satellites

Sub-David 300 (D-Box) 300watt 12"

Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray

Marantz DV8400 DVD/CD/SACD player

Denon DCM-500AE 5 disc CD player

Hitachi 50" Plasma HD TV

[Guest]

Lamtran great photo's did you take them?

[lamtran]

Lamtran great photo's did you take them?

Hiya Andythiing, yes I took them, Not the best photos as I left my flash at home so I had to bump up the iso to 1000 and all images were taken handheld and at 1/20sec i think, hence images not so sharp

BTW I do photography as a buisness/hobby www.flickr.com/photos/lamt has a few of my photos if you want to see more of my work.

[Prana69]

Thanks for the welcome Wayne. I'm one of those "frequent lurker; first time poster" types.

I came to S-Net looking for advice on a decent $1500-2000 HT setup, and came across this Adelaide Speakers thread. I'm trying to narrow my "auditions" down to something that won't take me many months to do. I settled on listening to some entry level Missions and Paradigms, Aaron ST-3s and St-4s. But I just keep coming back to this thread because of the great reviews and feedback for Edward's work. Then when I saw lamtran's pics I just said "wow". They're beautiful pieces.

I was considering a "cheap" Mission MV8, MV4, MVC, MS8 pack for $1150, but I keep coming back to Adelaide Speakers and seeing that I could pick up a great package for ~$2000 delivered to Melbourne. My budget will stretch that far and I can't help but feel that the extra $$ spent will be worth it in terms of build quality, sound quality and longevity.

I'm no audiophile so ordering a set sound/unheard would not be much of a risk - my current system consists of 8 year old Wellings (forgive me for I knew not what I was doing) driven by a Yamaha 563 - so just about anything would sound better.

Anyways, that's why I'm here. I've enjoyed my stay so far and I'm looking forward to hassling all you regulars for advice.

I'll give Edward a call shortly and probably end up on the 8 week wait list of back orders.

Thanks

David

[Prana69]

Hey lamtran. you still up? I was wondering what you paid for delivery of your system to Vic? I'm going to call Edward shortly to discuss system options, but thought you may be able to give me an idea of delivery cost in advance.

BTW - beautiful system and great pix.

David

[lamtran]

Hi Prana, too much coffee for me tonight, I will be up for a while. As for delivery, everything was factored into the price so I can't say exactly how much it was, Edward gave me a small discount on the whole package as I orderred 10 speakers from him. Sorry I can't help you with shipping. He is very reasonable with shipping prices though, so don't worry too much about it.

[Prana69]

no worries. thanks mate.

David

[SilverWolf]

They look fantastic Lamtran and you have alot of great captures, I quite enjoyed having a look I must say.

I'm a photog too but I photograph a completely different kind of bird lol. Great work and those speakers look beautiful.

[GorgeousGeorge]

they look very nice, congrats

love the look of the kevlar driver, goes well with the black

enjoy

Cheers GG

[avalon27]

nice stuff lamtran.you gonna keep the grills off? they look superb in the black finish and im sure you will get alot of pleasure from these speakers.

[Rural Rat]

Just caught up with your speaker pics iamtran. Very nice indeed.

Enjoy!

[Richard Cranium]

Geez Lam, they are one horny looking speaker. If they sound half as good as they look, you have brained it.

Damn, why didn't I get the Kevlars and the ribbons, double bugger!!

[rocky500]

Hi lamtran your speakers look impressive. What colour did you go for?

I have seen his previous black and it was a bit brownish/greyish, but yours seem very black.

My mate got some bookshelves from Adelaide speakers with the ribbon tweeters.

Does anyone else find them a little harsh when the volume is cranked up a bit with music?

Hard to listen too after 30mins or so.

Could it be the small enclosures?

Edited September 19, 2009 by rocky500

[tb123]

My mate got some bookshelves from Adelaide speakers with the ribbon tweeters.

Does anyone else find them a little harsh when the volume is cranked up a bit with music?

Hard to listen too after 30mins or so.

Could it be the small enclosures?

Was it just you that found them harsh or your mate as well?

The reason I ask is that when I upgraded mine to ribbons I found them a bit too bright for my liking (not sure if we are using the terms "bright" and "harsh" in the same context though), they actually hurt my ears but no one else seemed to complain. I can also hear our Plasma buzzing which others cant, so maybe my ears are just more sensitive at certain frequencies. The ribbons do seem to be louder and produce more detail at higher freqs though.

After talking to Edward about it, I made a couple of simple adjustments in the crossover to tame the tweeter and much prefer it now.

I think some of it may come down to your gear as well, Edward uses a older Marantz amp and to my ears produces a beautiful warm sound, where as my gear at home (Pioneer AVR and Rotel amp) seems to be brighter as well which may accentuate any brightness/ harshness.

[rocky500]

Thanks tb123. I also have a pioneer SC-lx71 AVR that I tried them on.

Did the microphone setup as well with these speakers. In pure direct mode they are harshish as well as other modes.

My friend has a Onkyo amp (not sure of the model)

He is thinking of sending them back and may even get Edward to upgrade/downgrade to good normal tweeters. Hopefully handle a bit more power would be a bonus.

Might even ask him if larger cabinets might help.

The cabinets now were a little spoilt in Edward making them.

Black spot of the top and also the packaging he used pulled off some of the top coat. A crack in the Venner running about a inch.

Also tried them at someone elses place quickly on a Marantz Pre and a Nad M25 Amp. (still harsh)

Edited September 19, 2009 by rocky500

[Boots-n-All]

Hi lamtran your speakers look impressive. What colour did you go for?

I have seen his previous black and it was a bit brownish/greyish, but yours seem very black.

My mate got some bookshelves from Adelaide speakers with the ribbon tweeters.

Does anyone else find them a little harsh when the volume is cranked up a bit with music?

Hard to listen too after 30mins or so.

Could it be the small enclosures?

Hi there Rocky,

Seems that maybe I made the right choice with the domes in my Woodfoxes - mine very definitely get listened to for 30+ minutes at a go and no fatigue here.

Although there is one small problem - when we are listening to music we tend to crank the volume right up and funnily enough it seems to be louder outside the listening area than in it - also when listening at what we think are modest levels we discover that we can't talk to each other without shouting and end up turning the music right down.

I'll be interested to hear how your mate gets on if & when he sends his speakers back for adjustment.

Boots.

[rocky500]

His speakers are Woodfox 612PR 110W nom 8OHMs.

I would say these play harsh a lot sooner than higher levels like you describe Boots-n-All.

Just as background music were we can talk easily they seem to become fatiguing after a while.

[SilverWolf]

I'm surprised to hear about the problems with the finish of the speaker, but have a word with Edward and I'm sure he will sort you out.

low mass drivers have a very different sound and this is even more apparent in a pleated ribbon as there is very little suspenion.

They have a higher resolution than that of a typical dome tweeter. And are also much, much faster so they can tend to be more "forward" sounding which when coupled with a bright amp/processor can be even more pronouced.

Is it distortion or just more detail ? Good ribbons don't colour sound as much as your average dome and often people will find they prefer them to be tamed a little if your used to a dome. Is it by chance the recordings your listening too also, I found some recordings I used to like now to be so much clearer your not only hear the extra detail/resolution but also every little nuance and bad artifacts.

which means some things I can't listen to for as long while others I sit and listen to for much longer periods as I discover them totally in a new way. Also Pioneer gear is known to be a little on the bright side which is often good for HT use but not for music. The older you get I think the less we can handle the higher pitches too, least this is the case with myself.

Ribbons also have a much wider dispersion on a horizontal axis and a much lessor spread on a vertical axis than a dome which lends to a much wider range of imaging. If the impeadence needs to be higher I would think adding a resistor in series would help maybe, but I'm not totally sure as I don't make speakers lol. But I'm positive they can be tamed to a individuals owns tastes. If not, maybe the sound of a ribbon just isn't for you, who knows...we're all different.

Ribbons have next to no mechanical dampening, alot of people that seem to dislike ribbons and other low mass drivers try to blame harmonic distortion. I would think that the average person wouldn't even be aware of an increase within the 3rd order of upto 4-5% and 2nd order up to 10-12%.

I think it's more a matter of resolution and detail with the clarity that lends itself. A ribbon driver isn't very forgiving and doesn't hide anything and a poor quality ribbon can sound painful.

I've had my speaker with ribbons since xmas last year and I have found that some recordings I now tire of very quickly and others I can sit and revel in for many hours. I wonder if it's like IMAX movies, so much more information taken in within a given time that you get tired so much quicker hence shorter movie length. Maybe the same thing applies to sound, I don't know.

Boots, you will prolly find if you use a SPL meter that you actually have the volume higher than you would have before. The cleaner the sound the more comfy it is at greater volume, I think we all do this without noticing.

[rocky500]

Sounding better with EQ ing (still a little harsh)

+6db(125Hz) +4(250) +1.5(500) -1(1k) -2.0(2k) -1.5(4k) -2(8k) -2.5(16k)

Will try some more after the football.

[rocky500]

Not sure what everyone thinks of this as the spot on top of the speaker. Also the little bits at the front were the top coat came off. Very minor?

I know it is small, so worth asking edward to look at it when looking at adjusting changing tweeters.

Is my mate been a bit picky?

Pic here

http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/rocky501/P1010666.jpg

[Richard Cranium]

Ah, maybe not so disappointed now after all. I wondered if the ribbons would be to bright, that's why I didn't get them in the first place (trying to convince myself :-( ), should have got the kevlars though, now only single bugger!?

I now have a Rotel 1550 pre and a 1070 power and can listen for hours at significant volumes without any fatigue at all, I find the Summoners to be very warm and engaging.

I remember auditioning a pair of Ginormous Klipsch speakers before I bought my Ascensions, and after about 5 mins of being assaulted by those horn speakers I thought my ears were going to bleed!

Edited September 21, 2009 by NGM

[tb123]

Not sure what everyone thinks of this as the spot on top of the speaker. Also the little bits at the front were the top coat came off. Very minor?

I know it is small, so worth asking edward to look at it when looking at adjusting changing tweeters.

Is my mate been a bit picky?

Pic here

http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq166/rocky501/P1010666.jpg

Whilst you have the absolute right to expect that they arrive in perfect condition, sending them back (at whose espense?) may be more trouble than it's worth for those couple of marks.

Was the packaging actually stuck down incorrectly or was it damaged in transit? If you are sendng them back anyway, no harm in asking Edward to have a go at fixing them. It will probably need to be sanded back and done again.

If you are at all handy with a soldering iron, I reckon it's worth chatting to Edward about turning down the tweeter output a bit yourself. A couple of dollars for resistors at Jaycar and you can fiddle to your hearts content. If you still have no joy, put them back the way they were and send em back- no harm done.

TB

[rocky500]

Mate is going to pay for the freight as he has spent $1200 already and dosn't mind spending more if the speakers become more to his liking.

Mainly looking for other people's view of the sound from the ribbon tweeters.

So far it looks like both of us are not used to ribbon tweeters sound.

I will get him to ring Edward to discuss some options.