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View Full Version : A Friend Unboxed My New Sierra's... (must read)



Jonnyozero3
06-20-2007, 04:30 AM
I have a quick story to share with you all.....

I'm currently out of the country, so I shipped my new Sierra-1s to a friend of mine back home. He offered to set them up for me in my house so they'd be there when I got back; it was very nice of him to do, but he, of course, wanted to audition them himself :) This is the email I just recieved from him.

Background Note: He has Klipsch RF-7s in a theatre setup with a Sunfire sub and also a pair of Dunlavy SC-III's in a separate two channel setup. He has heard my CBM-170/340C classic, and now SE setup many many times with (previously) a UFW-10 and (mostly) my VTF-3HO Turbo.

Anyhow, read for yourselves. I didn't even ask him for feedback.


So I de-boxed your speakers, and I didn't put the center channel on top of its stand. It's a little too narrow to fit across the full width of where the rubber pads are on the stand, and I didn't wanna mess up any of that beautiful piano black gloss finish - and it IS beautiful. Good choice on the finish.

Ever since I've been listening to my Dunlavys, I've fallen in love with them and with good old fashioned true 2 channel recordings/setups. For movies, I can see why you'd want a surround setup - often times there's things happening off screen that are to your sides and behind you. For music though (and I have listened to both 2Ch and 5.1Ch setups, yours being one of the latter) I think it becomes a little too "non-live" once you add the surrounding channels because I've never listened to live music where the sound (or at least, non-reverberatory sound) is coming from anywhere but in front of me, on the stage. Of course, this is just my personal opinion on how I like to listen to music, but I honestly do think a 2 channel setup is the closest thing we have to listening to live music in any venue outside of a recording studio.

All that being said, it worked out perfectly that almost everything I listened to on the Sierra's was in a 2 channel format. I did start off with my SACD Best of Dire Straits (same as you have on DVD-A, but mine is an SACD import), which was the only thing I listened to in full surround. After that I moved to my Best of Collective Soul album, which has some great dynamics and bass in it. I was really pleased with what I listened to, and for some odd reason it seemed like your sub was putting out much more and fuller bass than when I listened to some stuff with your old -170's/340 combo. The imaging was great, especially for a stereo setup.

About halfway through the first track on that album, in the spirit of my 2 channeled-ness, I decided to turn off the sub so I could just listen to the bass from the Sierras. I went behind the couch, flipped the power switch on the sub to "OFF," but didn't notice a difference at all. I thought maybe I wasn't hitting the right one 'cause it was kind of dark, so I just unplugged the RCA input from the back but I STILL didn't hear a difference in the bass. It was only after I pulled the power cable out of the subwoofer that I realized that it HAD BEEN OFF THE WHOLE TIME and all that wonderfully deep, rich, tight, tonal bass I was hearing was coming from your "little" Sierras. I can only say that 1) I had to fight the urge not to crank them up to hear what they could really do for fear of top end clipping and damage to your brand new babies, and 2) definitely get LOTS of power to feed these because they will be more spectacular the louder you play them. I decided to put in the SACD of an old RCA recording of Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra so I could judge the percussion instruments on your speakers. The recording definitely shows its age, there's some background hiss in there (either that or it's the sound of the air escaping from the organ like in the Chesky Records demo disc you have), and the percussion is a little disappointing...right up until the last 10 seconds or so, and then it's like an awesome nuclear blast of bass - I'm assuming it's some really low brass notes. I loved it. Needless to say I'm VERY impressed with your new Sierras - across the range (especially in the lows) I had no idea such little boxes could deliver such impressive dynamics and bass. I'd have to say they're pretty damn close to my Dunlavys, especially in the bass area. You got yourself one fantastic deal here.

muzz
06-21-2007, 08:13 PM
LMAO!!

I don't know how I would feel about all that, but I guess he's diggin' those Sierras of YOURS!!

Bahahahahaha

J......
Your gonna love them.

Mike^S
06-21-2007, 11:48 PM
Fantastic story!

curtis
06-21-2007, 11:51 PM
Great story.

Hope your Sierras will be at home waiting for you....if not, I think you know where you can find them. :)

Jonnyozero3
06-23-2007, 05:31 PM
Well fellas, I've been home for a day or so now. I was lucky enough to find MY Sierras still in my basement!

As for thoughts as to how these speakers sound?

I'm pretty much speechless....

tjennings
07-05-2007, 09:31 AM
Congrats Jon on the new Sierra-1's !! "Speechless" is a very good thing when listening to new speakers!

I've read on other posts that they have nice impact and fill a room as well (or nearly as well) as the 340SE's. I have a fairly large basement family room, 24' X 24' so that is what I'm most concerned about... how they will fill that room with sound. I listend to a lot of high-rez multi-channel music as well as movies, and concerts.

Oh, and since your last post was a few weeks old now, have you found any words yet regarding your new Sierra-1's??

Jonnyozero3
07-05-2007, 04:19 PM
Hey!

Momentarily speechless, pleasantly surprised and definitely enthralled - I think that would describe how I feel about the speakers :D

I have been home for about two weeks now with them, and I am utterly happy. They have significantly raised the bar as to what I expect for sound reproduction. They are so good, I don't even enjoy the 170's as much anymore that are in my 2 Ch setup. Yeah, the Sierras are that good (Ssshhhh my 170's, don't listen to a word I'm saying...). I know everyone talks about how hard the bass hits, but the razor sharp imaging and amazingly transparent yet detailed highs really set them apart from the 170s as well. These are definitely in a whole 'nuther league.

To reiterate, I finally listened to my friend's ~6 foot tall, sealed, Dunlavy SC-III's (which I had heard years ago - the first time I heard anything I could reasonable call "audiophile") and man if these little bookshelves don't hit you in the chest a lot like those big towers do. Amazing (within the Sierra's volume capabilities for comparison, of course). Don't get me wrong, the Dunlavy's are obviously *way* more capable in a lot of ways, but I was just impressed that the Sierras gave me a similiar, "Wow" feeling.

My HT is approx 17' x 24' x 8', with some open doors, and a corner of that rectangular space enclosed - I personally have felt more worry about pushing my HK 435 amp too hard than over-driving the Sierras. They hit *nicely* in my room that size.

Now, I've been planning on writing a nice review summing up my thoughts, but it's going to have to wait. I'm leaving the country again sooner than I anticipated (leaving tomorrow), so I won't have the extra week and a half to get the review done as I wanted. I'll do my best to get to it when I get back in a few months :)

Parting comment - these are the Dunlavy's for those not familiar:
http://www.soundstage.com/todd12.htm

Jonnyozero3
07-05-2007, 04:20 PM
PS: If you can ever get your hands on a copy of a Dunlavy speaker manual, it is an amazing read.