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View Full Version : Tube friendly Sierra 1's



Hawkbilly
03-31-2008, 05:46 PM
I received my Sierra 1's almost a week ago, and I've managed to get almost 50 hours on them. They sounded very good out of the box and only have gotten better. To be honest, I was a tad concerned about running a speaker with a rated 86.5db sensitivity with a 15 watt tube amp. But Dave F. was very helpful in answering my questions via email, and he felt it was worth a shot.

Although the Sierra 1's have a low'ish sensitivity, they are very well designed. The impedence is very stable across the frequency range, and the two electrical phase dips coincide nicely with the only notable rises in impedence. The result is a speaker that my little Vista Audio I84 EL84 tube amp drives with relative ease. And the sound is amazing.

The refinement and musicality of the combination is more than I hoped. Refined, transparent, musical. They do scale better than any tube amp/book shelf speaker combo has any right to. Dynamics are unconstrained, subtleties retained. Leading edges are crisp, decays linger beautifully. Spacially the presentation is excellent, with good depth and excellent presence of instruments and voices.

I'm very exited about the result. Thanks to Dave for all of the pre sales support, and for making such a great speaker at a great price. All I can say is that many of the great reviews the Sierra 1's have received are well deserved. In some respects, they are understated. Hook the Sierra 1's up to your favorite tube amp and see the magic they are capable of.

davef
04-03-2008, 05:50 PM
Hi Hawk,

Thanks for the review!

I am so glad that the Sierra-1 worked out well for you. We had a long correspondence but I feel we covered the right ground in order for me to make the final recommendation that the Sierra-1 would indeed work quite well on your 15w tube amp.

Enjoy!!!