Ascendo speakers
 

We came back here three times to listen (two more than Neli wanted) over the course of the show and the sound was more or less consistent during all three listening sessions.

The sound can be best described as the sound of a inexpensive CD player circa, say, 1993. Somewhere between, say, the Meridian 506 and 508, and certainly not as good as the 1995 Levinson 39. This is not to say that the CD player in this room was necessarily the culprit - it certainly has a relatively impressive pedigree (see picture below). It is just that if you are familiar with the sound of these players, you will have a good handle on what we heard in this room. It could be the amps. Hey, it could be the speakers - wouldn't be the first time that rave reviews were heaped up inappropriately.

This sound, at times tonally inaccurate, bass really compressed, muffled midrange, poor microdynamics, unbalanced frequency response... and so on may have been easy to overlook because the sound was so big in such a large room. This type of sound is typically found in systems much smaller and so it was somewhat of a shock, and really a disappointment, to hear this system sound like this with these speakers.

Oh well. There is always the next CES where Ascendo seems to show at on a regular basis.

Ascendo speakers

Ascendo speakers

Ascendo speakers

Modded Cary CD Player

Luminance Amplifier