Time to try out the OePhi Ascendance 2 loudspeakers at home before going on a road trip to visit dealers over the next few weeks.
Finished in Satin White, on black stands, the OePhi Ascendance 2’s look clean and modern. If Satin White does not work in your room, the excellent wood veneer options will soften the look to taste.
I am very partial to a decent 2 way stand mount loudspeakers. Over the decades, I have had affairs with many stand mount loudspeakers, products like B&W 805 Signature, Celestion Kingston, Ruark Equinox, Wilson Puppies, Serhan & Swift MU2, Dynaudio Contour 1.3, to name a few. All incredibly fussy, but rewarding if you get everything right, and invariably had enough amplification to make it happen!
Having spent a lot of time with the floor standing Ascendance 2.5’s and gotten to grips with getting them just so in my music room. The Ascendance 2’s are going in my living room for a bit, which means using a small compact system to observe domestic harmony.
Waversa WSlim LITE 2.0
My award winning Goldnote IS-10 is currently out with a partner, so I reached for our MacBook Pro sized Waversa Slim 2.0, an ultra compact one box system. It is a gorgeous, Mac Book Pro size, Aluminium slab of cleverness. A Network Streamer, Roon Ready, Bluetooth apt-X, FM Radio, DAC and amplifier. Setup is via a web client (just type in the IP address into a browser). This allows on the fly adjustment of the WAP/X Engine – basically a feature to make the output mimic the richness, harmonics and tonality of B300 valves. Dynamic range can also be set here, and if that is not enough, a full 8 band parametric equaliser is available for the more adventurous, useful when the speakers cannot be positioned perfectly – I love it!
An overview of the OePhi Ascendance 2 loudspeakers
It is possible to plug OePhi Ascendance 2 loudspeakers into a Waversa WSlim LITE 2.0, or Goldnote IS-10 and get exceptional results with immediate effect. They will let you hear exactly what you are doing with setting and positioning. It is then a case of how far you want or need to go to get the results you desire. I can easily imagine these speakers in a study or bedroom as a second system, or even in (as I am) in my living room as a highly accomplished, yet compact main system where space is at a premium.
The OePhi Ascendance 2’s are not in the same price category as the aforementioned group of industry classic loudspeakers, but in so many ways they are so much better…
They do not require massive power to be effective.
They will respond in kind if you do have big amplification.
They effortlessly partner with sensible levels of electronics and allow you to get exceptionally entertaining levels of musicality.
They are easy to position and get to sound good even if positioning is compromised.
They are tonally correct and exceptionally capable.
They have a sense of timing which is uncanny.
They allow music to be free in 3 dimensions.
They allow you to hear the shape of notes as the artist bends a string or changes the angle of the bow to affect the thickness of the sound.
They are the best sub £5000.00 loudspeaker I have heard to date and will take some beating.
They just keep getting better and better as I listen.
The music
In Roger Walter’s The Lockdown Sessions, you begin to hear layers and layers within the music. Backing vocals have astonishing clarity, you can hear and see each performer in distinct isolation but never singing alone. Ironic as they all recorded in different locations and were only mixed as one later! The Acoustic guitar strings on ‘Mother’ are joyous. Moving to the 2023 The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, it is all too easy to get drawn into the web of performance, they make you want to find out what is going to happen next. True theatre – I could keep going on, but I keep getting drawn back into the music by these time thief loudspeakers.
On Classical music, there is a sense of openness and expansive sound. Listening to Terra Matter, the vocals were holographic, and really gave a sense of scale to the space the recordings were performed. Real instruments were accurately rendered, sounding organic.
When synthesised music has weight and authority, so do the OePhi Ascendance 2’s. Playing a 2001 mix from Jam and Spoon – Follow Me!, there was a really good amount of ‘bounce’ from the bass, even at relatively low levels.
Additional details
It is good to report that there is little or no obvious colouration from the loudspeaker ports or cabinets themselves. The crossover components are hard wired to the soft copper binding posts and do not have a PCB, which helps to reduce microphonic interaction between individual components, thus lowering the noise floor. Hand built and individually tested, each pair of OePhi loudspeakers is guaranteed to reward to an exceptionally high standard, punching well above their price point in the market.
Looking forward to demonstrating these to our partners as they really do offer a superior experience to the established brands currently on sale.
