The 340s are based on Ascend's well reviewed, award winning CBM-170 technology and delivered to the customer at an exceptional price. Extremely efficient and extremely impressive. No coloration or roll offs. Horizontal and vertical dispersion is beyond expectations. Proven and well engineered M-T-M design. The 340s reproduce a clean, detailed soundfield that delivers a wonderful separation of instruments and vocals. Reproduces a matching soundstage that so many other speakers are not capable of fulfilling, or come up short. (found many panning issues with other speakers) Matching stands from ascendacoustics are perfect. Also, the stands and speakers match HSU subwoofers. Classic, proven, black finish adds to the transparency and matches everything. The crossovers in these speakers are more impressive than those in speakers priced 2-4x. The level of expertise and service from Ascend is top-notch.

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Ascend's 340 speakers across the front deliver a fluid soundstage reminiscent of well renowned M&K speakers. Coupled with a 340 center, this Ascend HT soundstage is CRITICAL for the director's intended playback on DVDs. Panning is extremely fluid with the 340 center. The website advertises true, expected in-room frequency response, pictures, and other technical information. The product delivers a royal flush on every draw of power from the amp. All bets are in. Ascend wins the hand.

Similar Products Used:

Axiom, JBL, Mirage, NHT, Paradigm, Rocket

They do exactly what Ascend claims! terrific accuracy, good imaging.

They hide nothing which is not a weakness but the quality of your amp and the recording is paramount to really make these babies sing.

A lot of research went into my decision to purchase these. I have Been looking for main speakers for a over a year. It first began once I purchased a Cambridge Soundworks mc500 center channel and found a substantial amount of midrange detail that was missing in my monster Cerwin Vega at-15 mains. My search was on. I spent quite a bit of time studying DIY speaker projects and learned quite a bit about crossovers,cabinet volume, ported Vs unported, etc... This is one reason I looked at Ascend. But that puny little cbm-170 did not meet the testosterone quota for me. No substitute for cubic inches. I want audiophile sound with a speaker display that makes me salivate. You wont find that much with the 340 cause its a black box. But it does sound wonderful. I purchased the 340 pair with stands special they have running for $598. and what a steal! I took special attention while unpacking and said to myself "this is basically done as best it can be while maintaning this price point." I had them dropshipped to work so I could break them in and also since I am saving up for dual SVS subs I want to add to to this combo. No point in bringing them home yet so I hooked them up at work with an ancient Sony stereo reciever an Onkyo cd player and crappy speaker wire. That didnt matter, they are still magical. I cannot wait to hook them up to a quality amp and processor. At first they sounded bright but only needed a touch of treble ajdustment and some adjustment in my brain to the new level of detail. I have had a few experiences visiting snooty audiophile stores that once the tubes were warmed up I heard bliss. You know when sound floats invisibly in front of you. These speakers came much closer to that than anything else I own. Another observation was when I barely touched the mid bass drivers they would move very easily. Very responsive. Now that I have listened to these for over 10 hours I find I cant wait to pop in the next cd. I am discovering things I have never heard before in my collection. At work I am using an Infinity Hts-20 sub (POS) that really has no business with music however the 340’s have such a perfect rolloff that I could turn the sub down to where it just creates that sound pressure thump to fill in. The 340’s handle all of the midbass that music requires the rest is just pumping air. At first I listened to “masters of acoustic guitar” and these provide plenty of thumb WHAP without a sub. I have a pair of comparably priced Polk Audio RTI-38’s that I sampled as mains before turning them into surround speakers for my home theater and there is no comparison with the 340’s in just about every aspect. When I am finished I plan to blend these with a pair of SVS 20-39pc+ and I’ll be done for a little while. Bottom line is you CANNOT beat this deal in sound quality VS cost. You guys at Ascend need to keep this little jewel available and start on something that can compete with Rocket and Swan cabinet finishes even if it cost’s more I don’t think it will matter. UPDATE: Its been well over a month now listening at work 40+ hours a week and I have noticed differences in their performance. They seem to have become more neutral and flat. The highs are not as pronounced. One way I can descibe it is the sweet spot has increased to even around the corner in another room. They still sound great but now my crappy sub keeps up even less. Christmas cant get here too fast so I have an excuse to buy a better sub. My wife just doesnt get it.

Similar Products Used:

Polk rti38, rt10, rt25. Cerwin Vega Klipsch Cambridge soundworks Infinity

smooth, accurate detail with no litening fatigue

Some will say the finish is plain or that it is not full range. It does what it was designed/advertised to do in spades for a low price so you on that criteria there are no weaknesses.

I have wanted to upgrade my audio equipment for a while and recently I did. I picked up a pair of used Polk RT8 towers based on glowing reviews as well as a lower end Sony receiver. They were boomy and the high end was weak. Since I didn't like the Polks I listened to a ton of speakers up to the $2k range including B&W, Paradigm, Cambridge Soundworks, Dynaudio, NHT, Sonus Faber, Monitor Audio, and ProAc. I found towers in that price range seemed boomy or in some way not accurate. I had read a lot of good things about the Axiom and Ascend internet direct companies. Both offer 30 day trials so I ordered the M60 tower from Axiom and the Ascend 340 L/R which is a large bookshelf type. The M60 was better in the low end obviously but that was it. The end was brittle and the Ascends destroyed it in mid-range clarity. To my ears the Ascends sounded the most natural of any speaker I tried. The only real competition for me was the ProAc Tablett. It has crazy imaging and was amazing but it didn't sound good for all music. The Ascends just sounded great no matter what I played and I heard nuances in the recordings that were never apparent before. I listen to a lot of jazz and rock and the 340's have brought new life to my favorite recordings. The 340's go down to 55Hz or something like that. This is fine for jazz but a sub can rock fill out the low end for rock recordings when you don't need to be an audio purist. Movie too. One final note...I had to ditch the aforementioned Sony receiver due to weird issues with the sub channel. I tried a H/K because it has flexible crossover freqs for the sub. THe sub now works great but I also noticed that the 340s sound better on the H/K than they did with the Sony. OK, that's the end of my way long review.

Detail Warmth SOund extends and floats in the air in front of the speakers

None at this, or any price range even close!

Upgraded from Klipsch Synergy SF-1's, SB1.1's and KSC-1 for center. I was extremely happy with the Klipsch. I thought they reproduced music well and played movies exceptionally well... and they could play loudly. The Ascends: I purchased 340's for the fronts and 170's for the rear. They are powered with a Pioneer Elite 45-Tx and play off of a Denon 1600 DVD player. Cables are acoustic research and regular wiring for the speakers. Performance will be divided into music and movies, as each classification often has its own subscribers. Music: I listen to just about everything and my wife was a vocal performer (jazz)... since her ears are better able to pick up the subtleties of music and recordings, I will use her take on the subject. She was initially resistant to new speakers, as the Klipsch were working fine. However, when we got these set up, she was more than happy with the change. We listened to the Norah Jones DVD and she was immediately taken aback. Norah Jones has an unbelievable voice, which she has always admired as being nearly pefect and unwavering. Of course, not much changed with these speakers... except that my wife could actually hear when the saliva was collecting in Norah Jones' throat while she sang for prolonged periods... I know this isn't the average observation of a music listener, but it certainly speaks to the accuracy of these speakers. If the sound is there, you will most definitely hear it! DVD-Audio: we listened to Dizzy Gillespie. The wife simply closed her eyes and enjoyed the experience. The sound floats out in the air--it isn't as if the sound is produced by the speakers, it is as if the sound is produced by the performers. It is difficult to explain the experience, but her reaction was that it was as if she were in a small jazz club, listening to the performance live. My take: Pearl Jam sounds great, Nine Inch Nails sounds great, Norah Jones sounds amazing, all of my music was given new life. My entire CD catalogue will be re-experienced, as new sounds have become audible. It's incredible! Movies: this is my part, though my wife can certainly hear the difference. Highs: Klipsch are thought of as "bright." They emphasize the upper-range and reproduce details reasonably well. I cannot call the Ascends bright, because the sound doesn't grate on you or fatigue you, the high-end is there, it is nice and detailed, but I can't call it bright. The clinking of glass, the clanking of bullet casings, and the upper-extremes of voices are extremely clear, but not over-powering. The speakers produce a stunning blend of sounds. The Mids: This is where these speakers shine. Normal voices and dialogue are reproduced stunningly well. You can hear the actors/ performers breath, the links of armor run together, the grains of sand compress when people walk through dunes, you can hear leather when it wrinkles. The mids are incredible! I have watched all of my DVD's again and have heard, bar-none, on each and every movie, something new... The Lord of the Rings, for instance, is completely unbelievable! Lows: get a sub. They're there, but they're lacking, just like they should be. This is why they make subwoofers folks. HSU VTF-2 or 3 will work nicely!

Similar Products Used:

Axiom, etc.