What Amplifier do you love for your Sierra 2s?

Hi everyone!

After years of owning the CBM 170's I finally was able to purchase the Sierra 2s. I don't need to say much about how floored I was after plugging them in and firing up the first album.

I'm currently running them off a Peachtree Nova 65se. Was curious what you amps you love? I've always been interested in running a tube amp. Anyone who plays guitar knows, there's no substitute for tubes :) Was looking at a Line Magnetic 516 but it's a SET and only runs 22wpc so I don't think that would be enough for the S2s since they are only 86db sensitivity.

Any of you have any amps you would recommend to me (tube or not) or amps that you love with your Sierra 2s?

I also run a Rega RP1 into my Lounge Audio LCR mkiii phono stage for the wax.

I'm very happy with my setup and the sound is magical. But yeah like I said, tubes would be sweeeet.

Feel free to post your setup. Thanks very much ya'll

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Originally Posted by zRouth

Hi everyone!

After years of owning the CBM 170's I finally was able to purchase the Sierra 2s. I don't need to say much about how floored I was after plugging them in and firing up the first album.

I'm currently running them off a Peachtree Nova 65se. Was curious what you amps you love? I've always been interested in running a tube amp. Anyone who plays guitar knows, there's no substitute for tubes :) Was looking at a Line Magnetic 516 but it's a SET and only runs 22wpc so I don't think that would be enough for the S2s since they are only 86db sensitivity.

Any of you have any amps you would recommend to me (tube or not) or amps that you love with your Sierra 2s?

I also run a Rega RP1 into my Lounge Audio LCR mkiii phono stage for the wax.

I'm very happy with my setup and the sound is magical. But yeah like I said, tubes would be sweeeet.

Feel free to post your setup. Thanks very much ya'll

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Welcome to our forum and I am thrilled to hear that you are enjoying the Sierra-2's.

Quick but important question for you -- how far back are you sitting from the speakers?

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Originally Posted by davef

Welcome to our forum and I am thrilled to hear that you are enjoying the Sierra-2's.

Quick but important question for you -- how far back are you sitting from the speakers?

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4 feet

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Originally Posted by zRouth

4 feet

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At only 4 feet back, you will only need ~ 20 watts to reach 100dB (very loud) so that SET amp you are considering will have plenty of power...

I'm sitting around 15 feet from mine and I use an Emotiva XPA-3. Seems to work well enough and the Sierra 2's sound fantastic.

Side note, I recently taped a laser pointer to the side of each speaker to see exactly where they were pointing and put them around a foot to each side of the sweet spot chair. Man, this made me realize how important the toe in is even though the RAALs have great horizontal dispersion.

I don't see many Sierra-2 powered by a SET amplifier. It would be really interesting to hear your impressions if you made the leap.

I use the Hypex NC400 monoblock pair for my Sierra-2 pair which is overkill but I like that they only consume ~25w when idle and are dead silent. I didn't find much of an appreciable difference between it and a good Class-AB though.

For near-field monitoring I use the Marantz HD-AMP1 which is also my computer's DAC. I love it.

I use my Sierra 2s as nearfield desktop speakers for listening while I use my computer. I've tried a range of various size amps over the years but the best by far is my current ELAC EA101EQ-G because of its auto EQ and auto subwoofer crossover / phase adjustment. If you're going to use a subwoofer to augment the Sierra 2s, you really want to get it dialed in very precisely otherwise your ear will always be drawn to that sub. I was never able to get a blend I was happy with when calibrating my system myself but the ELAC did an amazing job of making the sub disappear so now I just hear an honest reproduction of whatever music I want to listen to from top to bottom. Unlike other auto EQ or auto setup systems like you find in a home theater receiver, the ELAC system ONLY equalizes the bass frequencies and leaves everything above a couple hundred Hz alone and that's the key. It got rid of some of my room mode problems and made the subwoofer act like a natural extension of the main speakers rather than a separate audio source in terms of what you hear at the main listening position.

The Sierras (I originally had 1s and then had them upgraded to 2s) seem to be very easy to drive so they sound superb when connected to literally anything but for me and my use case, the precise automatic subwoofer integration made a world of difference.