Please give us a critique of the Harbeths compared to the Ascends when you have a chance.
Looking to upgrade floorstander speakers.
Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade my current speakers which are the Ascend Acoustic Towers with Raal tweeter upgrade ($2800.). Previous speakers were Dynaudio Focus 260. I use one sub and feel it's needed for both speakers. I thought perhaps a pair of speakers in the $7500 to $10000 would suffice.The Ascends are nice but I want to get to the next level. I want the sound to be somewhere in between live, detailed sounding and dark, warm sounding. Also, I must guard against too much boom with a larger woofer. My pre/power is the Conrad-Johnson ET5/LP70S combo. The power amp is an all tube design at 70w into 8 ohms. My room is relatively small at 13' deep x 18.5' wide. I am only able to have the speakers away from back walls no more than 2 feet. Side wall distance is fine. Speakers are 9 ft. apart with sitting distance around 9 ft. as well. I have some Roomtunes spead thruout the room located between ceiling and back/side walls. There are some pictures on walls for extra damping. The walls in general are fairly bare and I know there are some reflections affecting the sound. I do not have room to install panels, bass traps, etc. I'm pretty much stuck with what I have because of the space. I'm not picky about dynamic or electrostats, open baffle, etc. However, I've been using dynamic for quite some time. I don't get to audition other speakers at home so unfortunately I will have to buy the speaker before hearing it. I have auditioned some speakers at a local hifi store but their acoustics are much different than mine.
I have considered Spendor D7/D9, Harbeth Super HL5, Martin Logan, Magnepan and others. Now lets have a discussion! Thanks.
I'm looking to upgrade my current speakers which are the Ascend Acoustic Towers with Raal tweeter upgrade ($2800.). Previous speakers were Dynaudio Focus 260. I use one sub and feel it's needed for both speakers. I thought perhaps a pair of speakers in the $7500 to $10000 would suffice.The Ascends are nice but I want to get to the next level. I want the sound to be somewhere in between live, detailed sounding and dark, warm sounding. Also, I must guard against too much boom with a larger woofer. My pre/power is the Conrad-Johnson ET5/LP70S combo. The power amp is an all tube design at 70w into 8 ohms. My room is relatively small at 13' deep x 18.5' wide. I am only able to have the speakers away from back walls no more than 2 feet. Side wall distance is fine. Speakers are 9 ft. apart with sitting distance around 9 ft. as well. I have some Roomtunes spead thruout the room located between ceiling and back/side walls. There are some pictures on walls for extra damping. The walls in general are fairly bare and I know there are some reflections affecting the sound. I do not have room to install panels, bass traps, etc. I'm pretty much stuck with what I have because of the space. I'm not picky about dynamic or electrostats, open baffle, etc. However, I've been using dynamic for quite some time. I don't get to audition other speakers at home so unfortunately I will have to buy the speaker before hearing it. I have auditioned some speakers at a local hifi store but their acoustics are much different than mine.
I have considered Spendor D7/D9, Harbeth Super HL5, Martin Logan, Magnepan and others. Now lets have a discussion! Thanks.
26 responses Add your response
I went ahead and ordered a brand new pair of Harbeth Super HL5 Plus. speakers. They are now enroute to me. I am looking forward to hearing the difference between the wider baffle Harbeth's vs.the taller, slimmer Ascend Acoustics & Dynaudio's. falconquest, I called Salk Sound and talked to Jim. He was very helpful directing me to the right speaker. I started the ordering process when I realized I could be waiting for some time (Coronavirus, etc.) and I wanted the speakers NOW so I decided to go in another direction. I do like his business approach (Like Ascend Acoustics) of cutting out the middle men and buying direct. Thanks! |
georgehifi, I can only place the speakers 2 ft. max away from the back wall (Room dimensions: 13 x 18.5 ft. ). Just looking at their dimensions I would think the 11a & 13a would be too large and the bass would be too boomy although I realize both models have bass gain dials. Maybe the 9 would work Your thoughts? |
routeman21 OP
Since you've heard and lived with that Raal tweeter, there's no much that can come close to them in dynamic tweeters. Suggest you look for similar box speakers with good quality ribbon tweeters like the Raal, or go for an Electrostatic hy-brid like the Martin Logan ESL-5a, 13a, 11a or 9 Cheers George |
thecarpathian, While the Ascends are fine speakers I have had them for several years and am used to their sound and am ready to change to another speaker, preferably in a higher price range. I am a believer that a more costly speaker will bring you more refinement, musicality, truer timbre, etc. I'm not really in the dollar area yet where diminishing returns are a big factor so I think a $10000 can bring me more enjoyment. Also, I'm experiencing some vocal sibilance with certain recordings. Perhaps a too reflective room might be the culprit as well but I believe there may be better tweeters out there even though the Raal gets some respect in the audio world. bache, Unfortunately, I am no position to travel to New York (Coronavirus or not) and pick up the speakers. I am just too busy with my life here in Pa. Thank you for the offer but if I chose to buy the Tribeca's, like anything else, I will be hearing them for the first time. |
If you have the ability to play with speaker placement, in that room I’d try placing them so they straddle the corner and fire across the room diagonally. This enables you to utilize more of the room space and expand space behind the speakers an to the listening position. This is done frequently at shows when the room is on the smaller side. I first saw this done by Jeff Joseph to great effect, and I’d also highly recommend his Joseph Audio Pulsar and Perspective speakers that would definitely be a big step up from your very good Ascend Towers. Hope this helps, and best of luck in your search. |
I started with a similar position that I had used with the Tempos, which was 3’ from the front wall, 2’ from the side walls and toed in. Where I have them now, which sounds better to me, is 2’ from the front wall, 30 inches from the side walls, and they fire straight into the room. Placement was a bit tricky in the sense that they sound really good in different positions. I think this is why Bache gets positive remarks about his rooms at shows. OTOH, the Tempos only sound good in one position. Get it wrong, and they don’t sound right. If you read any show reports about the new Audio Physic Midex speaker, they were going around with a cut out static display. I guess they didn’t want to take any chances. |
My suggestion would be to demo Bache Audio’s Tribeca-002 with the Elton Symphony II woofers. I have had many speakers in the past and still have Quad ESL 57s rebuilt by Quadsunlimited and Audio Physic Tempo Plus speakers. I have demoed Harbeth M30.2’s and SHL-5’s, Triangle, and considered moving up the Audio Physic line. That said, the Bache speakers are built around a modified wide band driver and augmented by a super tweeter and two 8” woofers. The sound is very coherent, open and holographic. Whereas the Tempos has superb pinpoint imaging, it’s also a little flat sounding. The Quads have a beautiful midrange but that’s about it. The Tribeca’s have a beautiful midrange, but also an extended top end and tight articulate bass. They are wonderful with all types of music whether it’s female vocals, hard rock, a Mahler symphony or ambient music. |
