[bschnell9]

Depends, the faceplate changes depending on lighting. Very often its just a dark faceplate with grey stripes, then with light it gets colourful.
Angle decides what colours. All the photos are from the right side earpiece.

My cable of choice have been a Pure Silver with Palladium coating, not the biggest believer in cables.
But I have some moments I do belive, had it this time when changing from a copper to this cable.
More open and transparent sound, is it in my head? who knows? Does it really matter? Not really as long your happy.
My first concern with a cable is comfort, then second priority does it look nice.

Very nice. Link to the cable?

 

[zikarus]

Very nice. Link to the cable?

Guess it is this Gladiator - a nice one, got it too...
https://gladiatorcables.com/caesar-line/p/palladio-silver-litz

 

[Leonarfd]

Guess it is this Gladiator - a nice one, got it too...
https://gladiatorcables.com/caesar-line/p/palladio-silver-litz

Yeah, correct. Only difference is that mine has been made with black hardware and splitter, excellent cable that get score in design, comfort and sound for me.

 

[zikarus]

My Ascension has arrived - again lightning fast shipping, thank you AüR...

Second day in and I am already in love with them. Abel nailed it once more imo.

Out of the three models I was able to listen to this might become my favourite one. It has a great naturalness to it. A nice decaying DD bass, wonderful, smooth mids and treble with still a lot of detail without getting sibilant or harsh. The Ascension seems to maintain the very good imaging and positioning of instruments we know from the NP without having its tendency to sometimes push limits and getting almost a tad to overwhelming energywise. The Ascension has a very smooth timbre in a good sense. The Jazz album in the attached pic with Massimo Faraò eg sounds absolutely sublime, a few other genres I have tried already did not fall behind these first impressions.

As the Penon Quattro the Ascension profits from additional amping with the Sinfonia.

But sure - honeymoon phase etc. pp so take all this this with a grain of salt... Anyways - the level of sound quality reached in the 500-800 € price bracket nowadays is really astounding...

 

[hungryewok]

I'm also very curious about monarch mk2/3 comparison. Those models are kind of 'reference tribrids' and most people had a listen to either or both of them

 

[SweetCans928]

I'm guessing some more people got their Ascensions by now, so hopefully some more impressions will start rolling in(edit - Zikarus posted their impressions while I was typing this!) It's still early on, but I'm thinking Ascension is a step up from Alita and Aurora. Better technicalities than both, with an equally competent(but different) tuning. New Toy Syndrome and all, but it makes a strong case for itself. Lots of texture, a nice balance between being smooth and bright, lightly emphasized yet gentle treble, mids that have a nice mix of warmth, air, and weight(without coming across dry), bass that is fun and rumbly, but not the star of the show. To my ears, it is quite spacious as well, in all directions. Soundstage is a strength with Ascension, whereas Alita and Aurora seem more average for their price ranges in that department. Highly resolving with just a dash of analog tonality(although that last bit could be the FC6 talking). Seems like it will be a great all-rounder too.

It's sounded great out of both my Qudelix T71 and Hiby FC6 as well. Using Ascension with Baroque tips and the cable for Monarch MK2, at least until I get a better adaptor later today.

I realize I'm being very complimentary, so I'll stop for now.

 

[doubletrobbel]

Meanwhile, mine has gotten delayed and stuck in customs till over the weekend
Not often I say I look forward to Monday!

 

[peppy]

I'm also very curious about monarch mk2/3 comparison. Those models are kind of 'reference tribrids' and most people had a listen to either or both of them

I currently own both the ascension and the monarch mk2 and I don't think I'll end up keeping both. I haven't done an in depth comparison but to my ears they sound very similar. I love the vocals on the monarch but the bass on the ascension has a little more presence and detail. I think they are both very detailed and airy sets especially at their price point. I think they are both excellent sets.

 

[hungryewok]

I currently own both the ascension and the monarch mk2 and I don't think I'll end up keeping both. I haven't done an in depth comparison but to my ears they sound very similar. I love the vocals on the monarch but the bass on the ascension has a little more presence and detail. I think they are both very detailed and airy sets especially at their price point. I think they are both excellent sets.

Thank you for the comparison. you can't imagine how sad it makes me. I couldn't bear with anemic bass of mk2

 

[Leonarfd]

Thank you for the comparison. you can't imagine how sad it makes me. I couldn't bear with anemic bass of mk2

Why sad? The bass on Ascension is nothing like the MMK2, MMK2 had anaemic bass that didn't sound like it qualified to the price point.
Ascension is nothing like that, rich and textured instead. But still not basshead amount, more like on the warm side of neutral with good sub bass extension.

 

[peppy]

Thank you for the comparison. you can't imagine how sad it makes me. I couldn't bear with anemic bass of mk2

I feel like it depends what you're looking for in bass. I think the rumble on the ascension is very good but for me the mid bass slam is a little lacking similar to the monarch. However I do feel the bass on the ascension scales a lot better. On my paw 6000 the impact is lacking on both and on my N7 the bass impact doesn't change much for the monarch but it sounds quite a bit better for the ascension. Hopefully that helps you some.

 

[SweetCans928]

Why sad? The bass on Ascesnion is nothing like the MMK2, MMK2 had anaemic bass that didn't sound like it qualified to the price point.
Ascension is nothing like that, rich and textured instead. But still not basshead amount, more like on the warm side of neutral with good sub bass extension.

Ascension also has thicker mids than Monarch MK2(not that there anything wrong with thin-ish mids! But most people seem to prefer a little more weight) In a vacuum, MMK2 mids are pretty hard to compete with, but Ascension does it, while also being more musical in general imo. It's a bit of the classic case of one being good for listening analytically to your music, and the other being good for sweeping you up in the music. I do like MMK2 quite a bit though(especially with the Coreir Brass tips), and will try to do a more accurate comparison in the coming days.

 

[peppy]

Why sad? The bass on Ascension is nothing like the MMK2, MMK2 had anaemic bass that didn't sound like it qualified to the price point.
Ascension is nothing like that, rich and textured instead. But still not basshead amount, more like on the warm side of neutral with good sub bass extension.

This is a great explanation on the differences! Also nice to know the way I preceive sounds is the same as someone else since I have very similar feelings on the differences in bass between these two iems. Sometimes I feel I hear things completely opposite of others.

 

[Leonarfd]

Ascension also has thicker mids than Monarch MK2(not that there anything wrong with thin-ish mids! But most people seem to prefer a little more weight) In a vacuum, MMK2 mids are pretty hard to compete with, but Ascension does it, while also being more musical in general imo. It's a bit of the classic case of one being good for listening analytically to your music, and the other being good for sweeping you up in the music. I do like MMK2 quite a bit though, and will try to do a more accurate comparison in the coming days.

Agree with you on the mids, I clearly am biased toward richer midrange. Will be nice to see a comparison from you

There is plenty good sets out there, a reason why MMk2 sold so much. And that doesn't mean its for everyone, for what we know some might preffer some random IEM under 100usd over MMK2 or Ascesnion. I have lots of different styled IEMs, apparently mood changes from time to time. Good to change it up.
Very interested in trying MMK3 or Hype 4 as a cheap alternative. But highest on my list might be Spartacus right now.

 

[zikarus]

Meanwhile, mine has gotten delayed and stuck in customs till over the weekend
Not often I say I look forward to Monday!

At least you have something to look forward to....