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View Full Version : Just Hooked Up My New Sierra 1s



hman
02-19-2013, 06:16 PM
I decided to replace my 20 year old B&W DM 310s and after quite a bit of research, I decided on the Sierra 1s. I listened to many speakers that I liked, but was always able to find folks who thought the Sierra 1s destroyed those particular speakers.

I took a chance without auditioning and I'm very happy so far.

These speakers image well and present a proper soundstage in my den. They are 8' apart, 18" from the back wall, each is about 4' from the side walls and I sit about 11' from them. I am driving them with an Marantz SR7000 (135 watts x2).

They play tight and fast. Percussion is snappy and energetic. The highs are laid back (thank goodness! I've been living with metallic tweeters for 20 years). The mids are absolutely wonderful. They have nice mid bass and I've had no desire to listen with my sub. I've been listening direct for over three hours, now.

They are very accurate and revealing. Did you know that there is an ever present guitar playing licks in the right channel on Fleetwood Mac's "Secondhand News"? I did not until today.

The percussion and heavily driven guitar on Marc Ribot's "Los Postizos Cubanos" are so well defined and staged so beautifully, that I listened to the track, "Postizo" twice in a row!

While unboxing the Sierras, I listened to Joni Mitchell's "Little Green" on the B&Ws. It sounded incredible. I hooked up the Sierras and listened again. The speakers disappeared and my room was filled with voice and guitar.

Ted Hawkins had one of the greatest voices ever recorded; perfect pitch. "Biloxi" gave me the chills.

I tried to go heavy and played Led Zeppelin's "Cutard Pie" off of the remastered set and it sounded like shit. I will try some other of their stuff. Maybe the remasters aren't that good, from a sonic perspective, after all.

The Sierras revealed a fragility in Nick Drake's guitar on "Northern Sky" that I had never heard before. The guitar matched his fragile sounding voice beautifully.

The lead guitars in the beginning of Tim Buckley's "Buzzin Fly" got my attention; that is, until he started singing. His voice, which can be a bit much on some speakers, was clear, smooth and surprisingly warm.

The bass and Jazzmaster on Luna's "Tiger Lilly", from the live album, sounded incredible and those two instruments are at the opposite ends of the sound spectrum. On my old speakers, the bass was warm, but a bit overwhelming and the jazzmaster sounded tinny.

I'm currently listening to the soundtrack to "Lightnin in a Bottle", which is a terrific live recording, and the Sierras are killing it!

I'm glad I went with the Sierras over the Paradigm Studio 10s or 20s. I know my ears would have fatigued with those after only a few hours. I'm entering my 4th hour with the Sierras and I only want to keep listening.

H

davef
02-20-2013, 05:45 PM
I decided to replace my 20 year old B&W DM 310s and after quite a bit of research, I decided on the Sierra 1s. I listened to many speakers that I liked, but was always able to find folks who thought the Sierra 1s destroyed those particular speakers.

I took a chance without auditioning and I'm very happy so far.

These speakers image well and present a proper soundstage in my den. They are 8' apart, 18" from the back wall, each is about 4' from the side walls and I sit about 11' from them. I am driving them with an Marantz SR7000 (135 watts x2).

They play tight and fast. Percussion is snappy and energetic. The highs are laid back (thank goodness! I've been living with metallic tweeters for 20 years). The mids are absolutely wonderful. They have nice mid bass and I've had no desire to listen with my sub. I've been listening direct for over three hours, now.

They are very accurate and revealing. Did you know that there is an ever present guitar playing licks in the right channel on Fleetwood Mac's "Secondhand News"? I did not until today.

The percussion and heavily driven guitar on Marc Ribot's "Los Postizos Cubanos" are so well defined and staged so beautifully, that I listened to the track, "Postizo" twice in a row!

While unboxing the Sierras, I listened to Joni Mitchell's "Little Green" on the B&Ws. It sounded incredible. I hooked up the Sierras and listened again. The speakers disappeared and my room was filled with voice and guitar.

Ted Hawkins had one of the greatest voices ever recorded; perfect pitch. "Biloxi" gave me the chills.

I tried to go heavy and played Led Zeppelin's "Cutard Pie" off of the remastered set and it sounded like shit. I will try some other of their stuff. Maybe the remasters aren't that good, from a sonic perspective, after all.

The Sierras revealed a fragility in Nick Drake's guitar on "Northern Sky" that I had never heard before. The guitar matched his fragile sounding voice beautifully.

The lead guitars in the beginning of Tim Buckley's "Buzzin Fly" got my attention; that is, until he started singing. His voice, which can be a bit much on some speakers, was clear, smooth and surprisingly warm.

The bass and Jazzmaster on Luna's "Tiger Lilly", from the live album, sounded incredible and those two instruments are at the opposite ends of the sound spectrum. On my old speakers, the bass was warm, but a bit overwhelming and the jazzmaster sounded tinny.

I'm currently listening to the soundtrack to "Lightnin in a Bottle", which is a terrific live recording, and the Sierras are killing it!

I'm glad I went with the Sierras over the Paradigm Studio 10s or 20s. I know my ears would have fatigued with those after only a few hours. I'm entering my 4th hour with the Sierras and I only want to keep listening.

H

Thanks so much for sharing your impressions of the Sierra-1 -- I am very pleased to know that you are enjoying them!

Thank you for putting your confidence in our products :)

hman
02-22-2013, 09:21 PM
I'm listening to a 50 year old recording and I'm sitting all the way to the left, directly across from the left speaker because one of my Mastiffs is hogging the sofa.

Anyway, the imaging and staging are perfect. I don't hear dominance in the left speaker. All I hear is a beautiful recording the way it was meant to be heard.

H