Trying to decide between Quad S2 and Ascend Sierra 2 EX

Have not heard either one so sonically don't know.

What I do know, and written on the website, the Sierra comes with a 30 day return policy and will offer upgrades when available.

Just on that, i would lean towards the Ascend Sierra

If you are going to stay with your Rotel integrated, you could get by with the Quad, and its on sale at half the price of the Ascend right now at Music Direct.

Both are 8ohms and sensitivity 87/88 db, so if you’re thinking of stepping up on amplifiers down the road, or maybe even a tube amp down the road, a friend here on the forum has had good results with his larger Ascends and upgrades so far. They have been a great value for many as I’ve read over the years.

The Ascend has the nice RAAL tweeter vs Quad’s new True Ribbon tweeter, may be worth a study. The RAAL is a proven unit it seems.If you upgrade your amp later, maybe the Ascend is worth a closer look imo.

I believe ProMusica is a Quad dealer so you may be able to hear the S2s there. They also apparently carry Totem and ProAc and I’d highly recommend giving those a listen while you’re there as both are excellent. If it was me and I was planning on upgrading the Rotel at some point I’d consider saving up a little more for something like the Fritz Carbon 7SE, Revival Atalante 3, or the Reference 3a MM DeCapo BE that I’d feel more confident would scale up with and not be outclassed by better amplifiers. Just some thoughts FWIW, and best of luck.

channeling @hilde45 he has the larger Ascend and Fritz both, fwiw.

two very different animals. I would be curious to know how you narrowed down your search to these.

Decooney, had the fritz, also had discussion with Hilde once aboult it, an excellent speaker, something in the high end bothered me just enough for me to rotate it out. Nothing glaring at all, just a subtle softness or lack of 'pop' that I noticed the more I listened to it. 

Grislybutter, I originally saw two somewhat similar designs, both the EX 2 and S2 have ribbon tweeters and similar sized woofers in small-ish cabinets. Thus my ask. Upon further reflection, I should probably be asking more like the Quad S2 vs perhaps a Revel m16, as I think I need to cap my budget under $1000, and I have access to both speakers in the high hundreds. That would be a better comparison due to budget constraints.

I can suggest a little collection of data in that case

https://speakerchoices.com/

I think there is a wide rage in value for the same $ based on who/what/where/marketing/hype/etc.