# My post reflection from "The Show" Newport...



## hearingspecialist (Mar 15, 2010)

With all the crazy $50K speakers and off the wall 1K cables i thought I'd share my thoughts of all the speakers I listened to at this huge event. First, after listening to a set of Sierra 1's at my new close friend Curtis home I had a auditory visual and the standard was presented. I want to also thank Curtis for opening his home and allowing me to audition his awesome setup, mucho thanks sir! Ok, now with perfectly measured hearing I know what I hear is either what I have been trained and educated to hear or what i've not been trained to hear so on to my listening thoughts...

Most natural and realistic: TAD by far was the most real sounding musical speaker at the show. Of course for the cost of a Bakersfield average home you too can own all the gear needed to make those mercedes priced speakers shine.

Clearest: $50K YG Acoustics were the clearest and threw the biggest and widest soundstage and I auditioned off and on axis, crazy sounding with extremely detailed bass, did not expect that! But, with the TAD being the most real and the YG's being the clearest, for sound quality which one is better??? Being just super clear and bright doesn't always present the true picture of the sound but, for HT I would choose the YG's for sure over the TAD's. Music goes to the average home priced TAD's.

Shocked category: The Legacy products produced some of the nicest midrange of most of what we heard, very clear high end, but it ends about there on those. The isobarik open baffle design was sure crazy looking in person and the bass was really non existent.

Dissapointed: HSU bookshelfs sounded good with music but distorted in HT mode, was a huge let down. The salesman there said "yeah were listening to $179 speakers with $5K cables..." Subs were outstanding and extremely powerful, A+ there for them!

Really most were thumpy sounding, very localized sound even with the guys touting the hours taken to set most things up for auditions. Lot's had such un-natural sounding low freqs and too damped highs that most were very colored in their music presented. I would have presented the Sierra 1's up against most and would have blown them out of the water with the free sounding single point source driven sound and rich midrange energy that Curtis setup provided. I should have been walking around with one at this event proudly displaying it! I could have sold a set of $50K Statements to a guy sitting next to me only because i explained why they weighed 1K lbs for the pair. Point is this, Ascend Acoustics has amazing products that cannot be matched for performance vs. dollar. The Sierra 1 was the winner for me yesterday!


My ears are tired!

Brian in Bakersfield...


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
I am a huge fan of TAD. Their Beryllium Tweeter is simply sick. Chief Designer Andrew Jones who has also worked for KEF Designed a line for Pioneer that is super reasonable in price. The Floorstanders are 199 and the Center Channel is 79 Dollars. Nonetheless, they sound shockingly good for the price.
Cheers,
JJ


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