Smooth vocals, respectable bass response, and a high quality construction.

I honestly haven't found one yet!

I received my pair of CBM-170s right on schedule, doubled-boxed in perfect condition. I was immediately impressed with the fit and finish of these speakers. Although you wouldn't confuse them with a pair of B&Ws, I think the Ascends have a classic, understated appearance. They definitely are well built, heavy for their size. I agree with the vast majority of the reviews posted on the CBM-170s. These speakers are a phenomenal value for both home theater and "regular stereo" use.The vocals reproduced by the Ascends are superb, with a spacious soundstage that makes the music come alive

Similar Products Used:

none.

Musical tweeter Imaging, soundstage, tansparency at budget price.

None at this price.

Purchased a 5.1 HT ensemble from David at Ascend that included three of the 170's, two of the 200's for surround, and one Hsu sub for $1,230. Wow, what a deal! I would wager its the best sound out there for music and HT at this price point. Having shopped around for a 5.1 speaker system with a relatively small footprint, I ran into two problems. First, most if not all of the sat/sub systems I heard under $1,500 did movies good, but just didn't have the musical quality I was looking for. They sounded like small speakers, bad metallic tweeter sounds, not fun to listen to over extended periods of time. Second issues was that if I did find a speaker system with good musical qualities, then you were usually in the $2,000 to $2,500 range and higher, quickly getting out of my budget. I decided to check out online speakers. There were a few packages that caught my attention, but in the end the comments and reviews made about the Ascends convinced me to give them a try. The price was right, free shipping (except for the sub), trial period with paid return shipping if not happy, just not much to lose. I have to say, this speaker package is everything I hoped for in terms of sound. The speakers are very musical as everyone claims. For this price point, they are excellent - terrific imaging, good soundstage, and match up perfectly with Hsu sub. Without the sub they are very capable, but really shine when integrated with the sub. With respect to the HT experience, they match up very well with my Outlaw. They handle both action and music proficiently. The action scenes are explosive, without being too edgy and hard on the ears. Again, the Ascends mate very well with the Hsu sub and fill my 16X17 living room with plenty of sound and rumble. They play loud with little stress. Voices are done very well, very natural sounding. In the end, this speaker package is a keeper. I highly recommend it to anyone along with an Outlaw 1050 for great musical quality and HT sound in a package under $2,000. Near high end sound at budget prices - You just can't beat it.

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Auditioned Energy, Def Tech, Athena, PSB, JMLabs, Paradigm, etc.....

Great price, but buyer beware if you live in say Alaska. The shipping is not free like the ad says. Well made and very sturdy.

Not all that musical, have an edge to them.

Okay, I don''t want to be a party pooper, but...I''ve had these speakers for about 3 months now, broke them in by playing them constantly for several days, and I''m sorry they just don''t do it for me. They work well with voices and sound effects, but musically they are too bright. The highs cause listener fatigue for me if I try and listen to music for any extended period. Also, the midrange is colored and lacking detail compared to some of my other small speakers I have compared them to. Now don''t misunderstand, these speakers work and are an incredible value, hence the 5 for value, but performance wise I would rather spend some more money and get some speakers that work better musically. What have I compared them to with like components? ACI Emeralds for one. These are much more musical and detailed, but only cost about 200 dollars more. Dynaudio Contour 1.1''s for another. No comparison at all, but then I would expect 1600 dollars speakers to be considerably better than 350 dollar speakers and they are. All in all at their price point these are a good value, but don''t expect them to perform like some of the better bookshelf speakers out there at about twice the price or more. My son gets these to take to college. He''ll play them loud with a subwoofer and enjoy the heck out of them. I tried various components and setups, even bought a new surround receiver and DVD player to see if it made a difference. It did to some degree, but not entirely.

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B&W, ACI, Dynaudio, Definitive Technology, Paradigm.

-Musical -Great sense of air -Very dimensional -Sweet highs and midrange -High quality construction with high quality components -HSU sub is the best I''ve heard (only the Carver sub is better at 4X the price) -Great customer service

-Not the prettiest speakers out there

I''ve spent 6 months with the Ascend HT speakers. Thought I''d do a follow-up. First, I have the CBM 170s for the left/right and the HTM 200s for the center and left/right surround. After I''ve lived with these for 6 months, I am more delighted than when I first hooked these up. After the first month of ownership and break-in, these "bloomed" into even better sounding speakers. The highs and mids can only be described as "sweet". While they don''t go down to the lower octaves in the bass region, down to about 80 Hz, the bass is clean and musical. That''s about where the HSU VTF2 takes over. I''ve never heard a sub this good at anything approaching this price point. It is powerful down to about 22 Hz. No thumping, rattling or "chuffing"...just real clean and chest caving bass. The CBM 170s are superlative for music. I could set these up in an all music system (without the HSU) and be very happy. They have a 3-dimensional character. There have been several times that I have checked the surrounds to make sure they weren''t getting a signal when playing regular two channel stereo. The sound these produce give no indication that they are emanating from a box speaker. Just glorious music that''s true, clean and dimensional. Every voice and instrument is put in it''s proper place with a sense of space around them. The surrounds (HTM 200s) have the same characteristics as the CBM 170s (same tweeter). They don''t go as low, but they''re not supposed to. These are great compliments to the CBM 170s. I''ve been driving these with a "mid priced" receiver that''s about 3 years old (Sony ES). I happened to have the opportunity to listen to "step up" equipment at a local stereo store that had an open house. They were using a Marantz 9200 Receiver to drive a B&W (605 series?) 7.1 system. While I spent time watching/listening to "Gladiator" and some two channel CDs (as well as some multichannel DTS music disks), my system gave up little (if anything) to it. Yes, the B&W speakers were just a wee sweeter with a bit (just a tiny bit) more detail, but they also cost 3-4 times more than the Ascend system. Unfortunately for my wallet, I really liked the powerful, musical Marantz Receiver (walked out with the 8200). Put a call into David at Ascend to upgrade my center channel to a CBM 170 (HTM 200 center now becomes my rear channel).

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B&W, Magnapan, Definitive Technology, Klipsch, PSB

Workmanship, and MADE IN THE U.S.A.!

None

I SWORE I would never buy any speaker/speaker system without first auditioning them, but I read so many great reviews about Ascend Acoustics products I gave it a lot of thought. About 7 months worth. I bought the CBM-170 Multi-Channel System with the Hsu VTF-2 subwoofer. My order took 6 days to get to Florida from California. After unpacking and wiring my new speakers the first thing I did was put in my Pearl Harbor DVD. Absolutely awesome! It sounded so good that during the air raid scenes my sleeping cat jumped up and starting looking around as the jap planes were attacking.

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None near as good

Customer service

Ok, it has been almost 6 months since I have visited this site and checks on my Ascends. Here is how I feel. I have ruined two CBM''s by not having the receiver on the correct settings. I am not an audiophile, so I was unaware. I was sending ALL the low freqs to the CBM''s and they are not desinged for that. Ok, I am ingnorant. Here is the best part. I email Ascends and David sent me the new woofer with no questions asked. Now 6 months later I ruin another one and emailed Daivd at Ascends. I asked if I was doing anything wrong. His answer was that between the two of us HE would figure it out. After figuring out that I had my Denon 3801 set incorrectly, Ascends would send me yet ANOTHER replacement at no cost. Due to my ignorance, I screwed up two speakers and Ascends had NO problem replacing them AND figuring out what I was doing wrong. I recently had the opertunity to listen to some Linns and Vandersteens and I wasnt impressed. My Ascends sounds more musical and costed a whole hell of alot less then these $2000 to $10000 dollar speakers.

great sound, great price

lacking on the low end

I concur with the majority of the reviews here. This is an excellent speaker. It''s hard to ween me away from my Sennheiser 600''s, but these speakers come close. Normally I wouldn''t chime in with my 2 cents'' worth, but I have to help offset the low ratings from people with e-mail problems and people who compare these $360 speakers to $2,000-$10,000 Martin Logans. You really need to have a good sub to complement these speakers, but besides that, it''s just difficult to find fault with these speakers.

Sound (vocals, piano, harp), bass (for it's size), very musical, juicy details, build quality

had some confusion ordering due to their office moves, but T.V. from Ascend straightened it out personally, thanks Tom.

I live in the twilight world between being a music lover and satisfying a family with home theater interests from a single setup. Within my budget I didn't find the quality of speakers that would satisfy my wants for good sound reproduction from a 5.1 speaker system and didn't have a space big enough to dedicate to it. (IMO a successful HT requires everyone to sit in the middle sweet spot of a rather large room.)

I did quite a bit of web surfing, expecially starting at this site, in the search for new speakers. I'd heard very good speakers render ordinary recordings unlistenable, even through my equipment - a Rotel stereo A/V receiver (a twilight world product if ever there was one) and Sony CDP-x20es (model number ??) CD player. As I didn't want to limit the range of material that I listen to, I've stayed away from high-end, not necessarily super expensive, products.

It's been 7 years since I shopped for new gear and in that time it seems that the industry has gone for a more detailed sound and tighter, if less extended bass. I appreciate the improved bass, but some of the "life" of music has been lost in the chase for increased detail. Instead many speakers left me with a cold, clinical, what we used to call "hi-fi", sound. After 25+ years of listening it still seems that most folks strive for a sound with an electronic cast because they don't know what real music sounds like.

On the other hand many audiophile recordings have gone to a "in your face" miking style that make you feel like your head is inside the piano or guitar. Of course it's a hoot to hear more through your system than you would in a live performance, but sitting on the performer's lap goes too far!

The M&K S-85's are a classical example of being dry, analytical monitors. They would be fine for studio work or HT. Paradigms and B&W sounded like hi-fi. I also considered JMR Twins, but they wouldn't stand up to HT demands for dynamics and high sound pressure levels (and they cost, with stands, more than what I spent and would still lack deep bass). Most others just seem to cost too much.

I bought the CBM-170's with the HSU VTF-2 sub, and like most folks started with the sub crossover and volume both set too high (which is OK for the first 200+ hours to allow for break-in). Now I've set the crossover to about 65 hz and the volume to around 10:00. The sub provides a foundation for music and especially HT, but makes itself known (by frequency response, not location) only when called on.

I believe that stand mounted speakers with a powered sub is the way to go. The stand mounts can be located to provide the best imaging and the sub can be adjusted to the room demands. With the package deal from Ascend this setup stomps anything else for the price. For small rooms the Ascends wouldn't need or want for a sub.

Frankly I wasn't impressed with the Ascends/HSU out of the box, even though I knew that break-in would be required. But eventually detail improved, bass cleared/extended/tightened, and the trill of hearing music (fret board sounds, lips coming together, subtle breathing, singing from the chest/not the throat) all came out. See reviews below for more. Now they sounded better, in IMO, than $2K+ B&W's, and other hi-fi style (versus musical) sounding equipment.

The build quality at this price level is amazing. They're not pretty, but very solid. They even supplied the bolts to use with the threaded inserts provided in the back for mounting. This I feel is a feature most manufacturers and users have missed (why spike stands to the floor while the speaker bouces around on top of the stand?). I still question why you'd isolate the CD player and buy a rigid speaker cabinet while the speakers themselves are left to vibrate.

I can't imagine the value of the CBM-170's in terms of sound and build quality being beat.

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M & K S-85, paradigm active and passive reference series

Soundstage, incredible detail of instruments and voices, smmooothh!

Well, just to keep it fair...not the most attractive grilles or logo, but hey, who listens to their grilles, much less leaves them on??

I've been vascillating as to whether I wanted to go through the "mail order/internet mambo" just to try something that I haven't had a chance to put my hands (or ears) on. I succumbed....and damn glad!
These little boxes will make you sit up and do a double take. They have a very 'live' and palpable sound quality that begs you to try out some of those dusty CDs that have been sitting around collecting dust for the last 10 years. You will hear nuances (please, no reference to the speaker company of the same name) that may have slipped by in the past. While I've only had these for a short while (one week), I have grown to appreciate them even more than the first listening. They are silky, non-fatiguing and very three dimensional. Yeah, I know, you've heard it all before, but at $359 a pair (plus tax if you live in Cal.) the old standbys like NHT and Paradigm just can't keep up. I actually find myself leaving my subwoofer off as these guys can fill a room convincingly and authoritatively, as long as we're not talking BIG rooms. Obviously, it's still nice to kick in that sub for the home theatre stuff...love that bass (please, please stop spelling bass as BASE!! It's a whole different word)...but I digress.
David at Ascend Acoustics was easy to work with and I received these within 3 days of my order. If you need a stand mounted speaker that can recreate music 'musically' and accurately I highly recommend these. By the way, they're still getting their home theatre break-in duties. So far, they've made me put my NHTs in the closet....probably for good.
Hey, for $359 these speakers get your foot in the door of entry audiophile listening!

Associated goodies...

Rotel RA-985Bx
Marantz CD-67SE
Velodyne CT-100
Nice speaker wire and cables....do you really want to know??

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Triangle Titus, NHT Super Ones, Paradigm mini-monitor, Edge Audio 502s, Aegis AE-1...you get the idea...

Detail, sound quality, accuracy, bass, mids, highs

none

I purchased the CBM-170's after reading the reviews on this website and after talking to a salesperson at Ascend
for about five minutes on the phone. I had never heard them or heard of them but I trusted the reviews above and I am really glad I did. I began shopping for speakers about amonth before getting these and I went to several local dealers looking for a pair of two way high quality bookshelf speakers with a 6.5" driver, I spent several hours listening to Paradigm Mini Monitors and Monitor 3's which sounded just good, they didn't really excite me. Then I heard Monitor Audio Bronze 2's, quite disapointing, then I heard Monitor Audio Silver 4I's, very clear detailed highs somewhat sloppy bass, better than Paradigm but retailing for $849, then I heard the Monitor Audio Gold Reference 10's, very nice, excellent highs and mids detailed bass nice looking cabinet but retailing for $1249 for a pair, way out of my budget. Then I kept researching and read all the great reviews for this product. I called them and learned that they were assembled in the L.A. area which I liked since I am from L.A. so I decided to buy a pair since they offer free shipping and a thirty day trial period in which to test them, so I figured what have I got to lose. Well I have had these speakers for about two weeks
now and they are being powered by a Harman Kardon HK3470 stereo reciever, my primary use of these is for 2 channel stereo music. These speakers blew my mind, the highs are so detailed the mids are accurate revealing much more of the original recording any of the aforementioned speakers could.
The bass is quite fast and detailed, much more bass than I had expected from a speaker of this size. When I heard the Paradigms and the monitor audio speakers at the dealer the were hooked up to easily $2000 to $3000 dollars of high end stereo equipment, my HK3470 retails for $449 and I am quite certain that the stereo imaging and overall quality surpasses that of any of the speakers including the $1300 Monitor Audio's by quite a bit, these speakers sound like professional studio monitors costing a couple thousand dollars. If you are looking to buy 2-way speakers in the five hundred to a thousand dollar price range give these a try I guarantee you won't be disapointed.

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