Напольная акустика — YG Acoustics ASCENT

The Ascent is a three-way passive floorstanding loudspeaker made by YG Acoustics of Arvada, Colorado, and the Peaks family places it among the floorstanders together with the Talus and the larger Summit. Peaks is a five-speaker lineup that runs from the Cairn monitor at USD 8,500 to the Summit floorstander at USD 25,000, plus a Descent subwoofer at USD 7,800. The Ascent is priced at USD 19,800 per pair and carries a warranty of five years on parts and labour. In France the price is EUR 27,990.

Key specs that matter

A ForgeCore tweeter is joined by an 18.5 cm (7.25 inch) midrange and a 22 cm (8.75 inch) bass unit, both with CNC-machined aluminium cones. The midrange cone is the same one used in the Reference series, and the bass unit sits more than 10 cm above the floor. The tweeter is built around a CNC-cut steel forging. Frequency response is rated from 26 Hz to 40 kHz, and sensitivity is 90 dB. Average impedance is 4 ohms, with a minimum of 2.5 ohms. Each cabinet measures 101.5 cm high, 27 cm wide and 45 cm deep, and weighs 54 kg. Finishes are Flamed Rosewood, Datuk Ebony and Balanced Oak.

Engineering and use context

Signal is split between bass and midrange at about 125 Hz and from midrange to tweeter at about 1.9 kHz, with effective slopes of around 22 dB per octave at both points. The network is built by hand in Colorado and housed inside a hollowed aluminium plinth, which takes it out of the pressure inside the cabinet and adds mass at the base. The drivers mount on an aluminium front panel about 32 mm thick, machined from solid stock. Side panels are gently curved, the outer walls are thick high-density fibreboard, and computer-modelled internal bracing works with acoustic absorbers against standing waves. The tweeter uses a silk dome with a computer-optimised 3D magnet geometry exclusive to the Peaks line, and it sits in a geometrically modelled waveguide. The cabinet is sealed, four polished spikes couple it to the floor, and no grilles are supplied.

Pairing

The low minimum impedance makes the Ascent a demanding load, so a transistor amplifier with ample current reserves into low impedance is the sensible choice, even though the good sensitivity means modest power reaches normal levels. Only two binding posts sit on each cabinet, so the speaker is fed by one amplifier channel per side without bi-wiring.

Alternatives

The YG Acoustics Summit is the larger three-way floorstander at the top of the Peaks range.