I mainly listen to rock, some jazz and pop vocal. The Ascends do perform well but I thought shelling out for a pair of speakers in the $10000 range would give me more refinement (more musicality, you are there presence) than the Ascends. At times, the Ascends (recording dependent) can sound shrill in the high end. It's more of a belief that more money will bring more satisfaction. Perhaps I'm mistaken. The size of the Ascends is what I'm looking for because I can't go too large because of the smaller size of my room (13 X 18 ft.).
In April I was in communication with Jim Salk and was ready to order a pair of speakers thru him but didn't want to wait for many months due to Covid-19 production slowdown so I purchased a pair of Harbeth Super SL5 plus speakers. I thought they would bring me what I was searching for. They didn't. While very musical, their sound lacks the sizzle and snap the upper mid and high end sizzle and snap I desire. I'm sure there are those listeners out there that would love what the CJ tube/Harbeth combo brings to the table but I tried to like them and the Ascends did it more for me. At times, I did like the presentation of the Harbeth's thru my CJ. Certainly, my amp did change things.
In April I was in communication with Jim Salk and was ready to order a pair of speakers thru him but didn't want to wait for many months due to Covid-19 production slowdown so I purchased a pair of Harbeth Super SL5 plus speakers. I thought they would bring me what I was searching for. They didn't. While very musical, their sound lacks the sizzle and snap the upper mid and high end sizzle and snap I desire. I'm sure there are those listeners out there that would love what the CJ tube/Harbeth combo brings to the table but I tried to like them and the Ascends did it more for me. At times, I did like the presentation of the Harbeth's thru my CJ. Certainly, my amp did change things.