The Ascendants will get you Avalons' legendary trademark sound unless you're willing to move up to the Indras, especially with jazz and classical...
Avalon Idea vs Ascendant II
My target speaker is either Avalon Idea or Ascendant II, I’ve a small listening area and I think these speakers are suitable for me. My question is how you compare the sound quality of Idea and Ascendant II?
Or both speakers sound very same? Unfortunately my local dealer don’t have both speakers together at this moment, but I have test Idea, very impressive and I love very much. And the dealer told me although both speakers are using same type of drive, almost same design, but Idea’s Crossover are new deign by Avalon, it has better sound than Ascendant II (more transparency). And Ascendant II is almost 15 news old, Idea should be a better choice.
BTW, Idea is about USD2060 cheaper than Ascendant II in my region.
Current system
CDP: Esoteric X-03-SE
Pre-amp: Electrocompaniet EC-4.8 Pre-amp
Power-amp: AW-180 Mono-block
Speaker: Italian Diapason Karis bookshelf speaker
CSE Isolation Transformer TX-1200 (Max. 1300W)
Or both speakers sound very same? Unfortunately my local dealer don’t have both speakers together at this moment, but I have test Idea, very impressive and I love very much. And the dealer told me although both speakers are using same type of drive, almost same design, but Idea’s Crossover are new deign by Avalon, it has better sound than Ascendant II (more transparency). And Ascendant II is almost 15 news old, Idea should be a better choice.
BTW, Idea is about USD2060 cheaper than Ascendant II in my region.
Current system
CDP: Esoteric X-03-SE
Pre-amp: Electrocompaniet EC-4.8 Pre-amp
Power-amp: AW-180 Mono-block
Speaker: Italian Diapason Karis bookshelf speaker
CSE Isolation Transformer TX-1200 (Max. 1300W)