Vantage vs. Ascent I

[mikaelhansen62]

Hi everyone
Hope that you don't mind that i am taking contact to the forum again .
The reasson is that i hope, that you can convince me that Vantage become a better speaker than the Ascent I after break in. I have got the Vantage for about 6 weeks now, and they have played for, i guess, 30 - 40 hours, and i think that, so for far, it has been a kind of " downgrade", i believe that there where details/instrument's on my records that i had on the Ascent's, there not is shown on the Vantage. I am begining to get a bit anxios, if they ever begin to get "the magic". You have told me on the forum, that they need a long breakin period,- but i need to hear: is the Vantage a better speaker in your opinion, than the Ascent's?,- so far i am disapointed. Hope to hear from you
Best Regards
Mikael / Denmark

 

[roberto]

Hi everyone
Hope that you don't mind that i am taking contact to the forum again .
The reasson is that i hope, that you can convince me that Vantage become a better speaker than the Ascent I after break in. I have got the Vantage for about 6 weeks now, and they have played for, i guess, 30 - 40 hours, and i think that, so for far, it has been a kind of " downgrade", i believe that there where details/instrument's on my records that i had on the Ascent's, there not is shown on the Vantage. I am begining to get a bit anxios, if they ever begin to get "the magic". You have told me on the forum, that they need a long breakin period,- but i need to hear: is the Vantage a better speaker in your opinion, than the Ascent's?,- so far i am disapointed. Hope to hear from you
Best Regards
Mikael / Denmark

Hola Mikael. I think it is to my liking, but my liking could be different than yours. All I can say is you have better panels, better bass integration, better resolution in micro-dynamics, the panel is exposed 100%, at the Ascent you have about 80%. With the Vantages, you can tune the bass with their knob control at the back of the speaker. Sometimes if you have too much volume at this knob, you can spoil their magic. Listen to them with the knob at -4 to -6 dBs. They have better dispersion too. In my room they sing very, very nice. Vocals have no resonances that I had previous with my Ascents i. And they are not too heavy at bass notes as my Ascent did too. They are easy to drive, I am using only 100 Watts/channel and the power is enough. My Ascents needed twice this power to start to sing. Don't get me wrong here too...the Ascents i are terrific speakers. Just give them a little more time. You have to get used to your new sound. The size of the instruments in a smaller size of speaker like your new Vantages, have bigger sound stage due to the Xtat panel and vacuum bonding , an extra process that ML had done for your new Vantages. But this is my liking as I said, and perhaps not yours. Try to listen solo instruments, or small combos to get used to their sonic presentation. I wish you a very happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[rhom]

Hi Mikael,

Perhaps you could share the electronics you are driving your Vantages with and the type of music that you like to listen to. Also, what are the dimensions of your listening room and where are the Vantages located within this space?

Thanks,

Rick

 

[ralflar]

They'll come around in another 40 hours

Mikael,

I believe that the crossover frequency between woofer and panel is lower on the Ascent. IMO 400Hz (Vantage) is too high. In this frequency range human hearing can easily localize sources of sound.

This might explain some of what you are hearing but the real problem is lack of break-in. The Xstat panels need a long time.

My Vantages behaved similar to yours'. They weren't all that great at 30 hours, and after 30 to 40 hours they became worse. I did not enjoy being in the same room when the music played. At that time I seriously wanted my Aeon-i back. Somewhere between 60 and 80 hours the Vantages started to improve though. It was between 80 and 120 hours, sorry I can't be more precise, when I realized that the old magic was back, plus I had more details and dynamics.