Joining the fold

[SteveInNC]

I've been posting here off and on for awhile now. I've also auditioned Ascents several times over the past two years... and I "finally gone and done it", and wrote the check last Friday. Hopefully, they should arrive this week.

I tend to keep audio gear. The Ascents are replacing a pair of ESS AMT-1Cs bought new from circa 1981. It took that long for me to find something that I considered a good enough step up for the money that it would require. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the Ascents will cost about what the AMTs did in 1981 dollars. The current speaker technology is obviously better than that of 1981.

I guess it's a geek thing, but I've always seemed to be drawn by unconventional speaker designs. Over the years I've come close to buying KEF monitors, Acoustat 2+2s, Magneplanar, and Vandersteens. The MLs seem to pull everything together as a whole.

While the ESS have better bass than the Ascents and higher-frequency highs (some would say "harsh") due to the Heil AMT, the Ascents kill on the mid-range and vocals where it so happens most of my musical taste now lies, and perform admirably in the lows and (human hearing) highs. Shaking the walls gets old when you get old .

I auditioned the Ascents without and with a Depth sub. The sub definitely "fixes" the perceived bass issue, but the extra $1700 was a bit out of reach when combined with my current tuition payments (working on an MBA). Once I get used to the Ascents and have broken them in sufficiently, I'll revisit the need for bass augmentation.

We'll see where new electronics figure into abusing my bank account too.

 

[garmtz]

Welcome to the club!

 

[TomDac]

Hi Steve

Welcome aboard. What will you be driving your new Logans with?

Tom.

 

[DTB300]

While the ESS have better bass than the Ascents and higher-frequency highs (some would say "harsh") due to the Heil AMT, the Ascents kill on the mid-range and vocals where it so happens most of my musical taste now lies, and perform admirably in the lows and (human hearing) highs. Shaking the walls gets old when you get old .

Boy, I remember the ESS with the Heil - Cool and completely different looking speaker, which had great sound in its day.

Congrats on the new purchase. Now you are the kid before Christmas waiting to open the new presents. It cannot come soon enough....

BTW...keep an eye out on Audiogon as there have been some good deals on the Depth now and again...

Dan

 

[SteveInNC]

Hi Steve

Welcome aboard. What will you be driving your new Logans with?

Tom.

Nothing special at this time: a Sony ES HT receiver driving an older, but well-thought of Hafler DH500 for the mains. The Hafler can supply about 360 WRMS continuous per channel into an Ascent load. Headroom should not be a problem.

New electronics should certainly help things, but I'll get by for now. I seem to recall that the demo setup was driven via Musical Fidelity A5 gear. The demo Summits (in another room) were driven by Classe. That's where that "abuse my bank account" comment came from.

 

[garmtz]

Steve, be prepared to upgrade ALL your equipment in due time... The Ascents show up any deficiencies in the rest of your system...

 

[Robin]

Steve,

Welcome to the club! I trust you will thoughly enjoy your new Ascent i's. I find the Ascent i's, are just as you discribe, "they kill on mid-range and vocals".
You seem to be very savy, regarding, gradually acquiring better electronic's down the road, when you can afford it. Anyway, let us know how the Ascent i's sound after you make them apart of your system. Congradulations!

-Robin

 

[Peter_Klim]

Steve,

Welcome to the club! I trust you will thoughly enjoy your new Ascent i's. I find the Ascent i's, are just as you discribe, "they kill on mid-range and vocals".
You seem to be very savy, regarding, gradually acquiring better electronic's down the road, when you can afford it. Anyway, let us know how the Ascent i's sound after you make them apart of your system. Congradulations!

-Robin

Yes, it's quite rewarding to be able to wait to slowly upgrade. I wish I could, and I can, buy everything at once, but I put myself on a budget and wait months, sometimes years before upgrading. It's very gratifying, and nice to be able to enjoy a new product for a while and then a while down when the initial excitement dies out, something new to get excited about comes along! Plus, it gives you time to research and listen to what is out there before making an educated purchase.

So for now, welcome to the club and enjoy what you have!

 

[SteveInNC]

They're heeerree! I'm pulling them out of the box as I type, er, you get the idea. I'm also taking photos as I open the boxes. It may help other purchasers. I already screwed up slightly while opening a box (hint: just cut the tape and the box top will slide off. It's a double-carton, one slid inside the other from the wide face of the box when it's standing upright.

I'm running on seven hours sleep in the past three days due to school work, so I doubt I'll actually get them hooked up tonight - yes I will be able to sleep

 

[Reverb2009]

I'm running on seven hours sleep in the past three days due to school work, so I doubt I'll actually get them hooked up tonight - yes I will be able to sleep

Better you then me, my friend. I would not be able to sleep until I got to play with my new toys, it would not have mattered, if I had not slept for a month.

Have fun Steve, In Joy.

 

[jolen1aub]

Welcome

I've been posting here off and on for awhile now. I've also auditioned Ascents several times over the past two years... and I "finally gone and done it", and wrote the check last Friday.

Welcome aboard to this helpful and very informative ML website!

Just like you I auditioned and drooled over the MLs for years before I took the plunge 2 years ago with the Ascents. No regrets here!

They're like big headphones only better. Ascents could only be bettered by their bigger siblings!

Enjoy and "trust your ears" as everyone would tell you.

Cheers

 

[MarkNewbie]

Opening the boxes...



Steve,

If you get the chance, email me on how to properly open the boxes. Mine are not here yet and I don't want to make any mistakes. I know your busy with the MBA program so if you don't get a chance, I certainly will understand. Congrats on getting them. I am drooling in anticipation of mine arriving!

 

[SteveInNC]

Steve,

If you get the chance, email me on how to properly open the boxes. Mine are not here yet and I don't want to make any mistakes. I know your busy with the MBA program so if you don't get a chance, I certainly will understand. Congrats on getting them. I am drooling in anticipation of mine arriving!

I actually got them hooked up last night for the first time (FINALLY!). I'm very happy with them, even not broken-in and with minimal positioning work.

The boxes are Huge! You will need a second person to carry them into your house. They're not that heavy, just awkward. As described previously, there is an outer box slid down over an inner box. There is a pictogram on the box showing simple unpacking steps, but it wasn't that obvious to me how to open the box. You don't need to cut any cardboard or pull any staples.

You will find that when the boxes are upright, there is paper packing tape around all the edges of one face of the box. This is where the two halves are slid together. Lay the box wide face down, with the tape side up. Using a knife, cut the tape all the way around the edges. You should be able to slide the knife between the two box halves. Once you've done that, rotate the box so that the taped side is down (wide side). The top box should now lift off with some wiggling. There is your speaker, packed in a couple of pieces of foam supports. Stand the box upright. As per the diagram on the box, the foam insert at the top will have a small cut piece you bend down. The power cord/manual is behind that cut in a flat box at the very top of the carton. Pull out the *box* and put it somewhere. On the back wall of the carton is another box containing the woofer grill. It's tacked onto the carton in about five glue dots. Pull that loose and put it somewhere too.

At the bottom of the speaker, the foam block is actually in two parts, with the split running back-to-front of the speaker itself. *WHILE HOLDING THE SPEAKER TOP* pull the bottom foam block out. The speaker will tend to want to lean out of the box. Let it do so slightly, enough to remove the top foam block which is slid top-down onto the panel. Now ease the whole speaker out of the box. Note that it's still sitting up slightly on the back half of the bottom block, so you need to lift it slightly as you pull it out of the box. There is one remaining block roughly around the middle of the speaker like a collar. It is split on one side and can be removed by bending it open slightly. Your speaker should now be standing there in a plastic bag. The bag is not taped; it's simply wrapped under the base so you should be able to rock the speaker slightly and lift the bag off. Repeat for box two.

 

[Jean-Marie]

These pictures remind me the day when I just had mine.
Keep in mind that the Ascent need time to break-in.
I remember this first day. The sound were somewhat awfull, very harsh.
There was close no bass coming out of these puppies.
I would just throw them throught the windows.

So I tried to be patient ( I'm use to be ) and let them sing during a month.
After that time for break-in, they opened themselves, they were sounding in a far different way and are now, amazing.
There are 4 yaers old and I appreciate them day after day ......and for a long time I believe.

So enjoy your ML for a long time.

Jean-Marie

 

[Reverb2009]

The boxes are Huge! You will need a second person to carry them into your house. They're not that heavy, just awkward. As described previously, there is an outer box slid down over an inner box. There is a pictogram on the box showing simple unpacking steps, but it wasn't that obvious to me how to open the box. You don't need to cut any cardboard or pull any staples.

They are like big coffins, after you get your Ascents out you can bury your dead in them.

When I got my Ascents I put a CD in the player, set it to repeat and let it play 24/7 for a week. Works wonders.

 

[SteveInNC]

They are like big coffins, after you get your Ascents out you can bury your dead in them.

When I got my Ascents I put a CD in the player, set it to repeat and let it play 24/7 for a week. Works wonders.

Mine are running while I'm at work, tuned to the Jazz music channel on DirecTV. Not the best audio source, but the content varies throughout the day.

 

[tascam]

Ascent i discontinued

According to Martin Logan, the Ascent I is officially being discontinued. The list price is being dropped as of today from $4495 to $3895 per pair. I bought mine 6/29/05 and have about 60 hours on them. I am using a Sony scd-777es SACD player, VPI extended Aires with JMW 12.5 arm, EAR 834P phone Stage, Mcintosh C2200 tube pre-amp, and McIntosh MC-402 power amp. At 400 watts per channel, it's a great match. The system is smooth as silk, even without the speakers being broken in. My local dealer will not carry the Summit and I think it's crazy to buy something that expensive without a home audition. Anyone spending that much deserves to be able to hear it in their own system and return it if they don't like it. In the 2004 printed catalog, ML states that the MicroPerf technology only works well on the small panels and that's why they didn't put it on their bigger models. Now they have chosen to do so. I also think the Summit is ugly. It just looks like a panel attached to a powered subwoofer. IMO, they probably rushed it too market and I'll bet the next design looks more streamlined like their other products have.

 

[Reverb2009]

If it’s in fact true, the Ascent has been discontinued then we should hear about a replacement model based off the Summit soon. I can’t see Martin Logan killing there mid priced ESL.

As for microperf, when the clarity came out, the question was asked why not have microperf on the Ascent and larger panels? At that time Martin Logan felt the small holes in microperf only helped the smaller ESL panels, the larger panels didn’t benefit from it. As we now know, Yes it does.

 

[tascam]

The new model to replace the Ascent I will come out in the fall, probably in October. It will be powered sub, like the Summit and will have 1 or 2 woofers (not quite sure). It will be a smaller version of the Summit. This info came direct from ML. No other details were available. They are selling out their stock of Ascents now. This seems like a good time to get a deal.

 

[Reverb2009]

It will be a smaller version of the Summit. This info came direct from ML.

Gee I didn’t see that one coming.

will have 1 or 2 woofers (not quite sure).

My guess would be one woofer, ML has to give us some reason to buy the summit.



Thanks for the info Tascom.

P.S. Have you heard anything about the new stage center channel?