Is there anyone using Sierra towers w/RAAL in a Home Theater set up

I know the towers are extremely well suited for music but wondering If there is any one using these exclusively or mostly for movies in a dedicated theatre set up. If so may I know the size of the room these can fill with ear bleeding movie/concert levels?

If it works well, I will round up my theatre with Lunas all around and go lunatic:-)


If Sierra towers won't cut it, I will need to probably look at Salk soundscape 8s or HE designs like JTR, Seaton or PSA speakers.

Thanks for any helpful input.

I'm sure many people use the towers for watching movies, although I have not heard of anyone using the them in a dedicated theater setup.

How loud exactly are you talking about? Reference level is 105dB max from the mains, and 115dB for LFE. Is that a volume level you would typically listen at? It's very loud.

Based on my own measurements of the Sierra-2, and looking at the specs of the towers, I do believe the Sierra towers could hit reference levels but it's going to depend on your amplification and your seating distance from the speakers.

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Originally Posted by rsmt2000

I know the towers are extremely well suited for music but wondering If there is any one using these exclusively or mostly for movies in a dedicated theatre set up. If so may I know the size of the room these can fill with ear bleeding movie/concert levels?

If it works well, I will round up my theatre with Lunas all around and go lunatic:-)


If Sierra towers won't cut it, I will need to probably look at Salk soundscape 8s or HE designs like JTR, Seaton or PSA speakers.

Thanks for any helpful input.

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We have loads of customers using our ribbon towers in dedicated theater rooms, in fact - I'd say about 30-40% of our tower customers.

Achievable max volume levels can not be determined by room size, but on how far back you will be sitting from the speakers. What will be your listening distance from the front speakers?

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Originally Posted by davef

We have loads of customers using our ribbon towers in dedicated theater rooms, in fact - I'd say about 30-40% of our tower customers.

Achievable max volume levels can not be determined by room size, but on how far back you will be sitting from the speakers. What will be your listening distance from the front speakers?

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About 20 to 25 feet from front speakers

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Originally Posted by rsmt2000

About 20 to 25 feet from front speakers

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This is a very considerable listening distance and if you truly wish to reach 105dB peaks from each speaker at this distance, even with our 91 dB efficiency rating - our towers and horizon will require ~1200 watts of power each, which is way beyond the power handling capabilities of these speakers (and most speakers).

To reach this volume level at this listening distance with 100 watts of power, you are going to need speakers with an efficiency rating of ~ 100dB at 2.83v/1 meter. Salk Soundscape 8's at 87dB efficiency will require 2400 watts, and obviously these won't cut it either... JTR is likely your only option.

My honest recommendation is to move your listening distance much closer to around 10 feet, which will then open up many more options for speakers - including our Towers. 20 - 25 feet is just too far if you want movie theater reference levels....

Yeah, 20-25 feet is really far (relatively speaking) and will require really high efficiency speakers or something from pro/commercial audio. Hardly any (if any at all) of the usual brands of home speakers can meet those requirements.

I am considering 3 Sierra Towers for L/C/R duty in a 13'w x 22'l x 8'h dedicated room to sit behind an AT screen. I can provide them with whatever power they require. I would most likely run crossovers at the standard 80Hz unless there was a reason to go higher or lower paired with capable subs (currently 4 Seaton SubMersives corner loaded). I have a few questions:

1. Are the RAAL tweeters suited for behind screen duty, or am I losing their advantage by placing them behind an AT Screen?

2. How much power will they take before thermal compression kicks in?

3. Are the Sierra Towers capable of sustained reference levels to an MLP of 10-12 feet?

I was considering HE speakers with compression drivers for my dedicated movie room, but I am growing very fond of my Sierra 2's in my living room and was wondering if the Towers would be a good fit for my dedicated room.

Thanks in advance.

Hey Jack, I don't see why you couldn't put the Sierra Towers behind an acoustically transparent screen. You might lose a little bit of sound quality, but that would happen with any speaker. For reaching reference volume (105dB peak from the mains), check out this calculator:

https://geoffthegreygeek.com/calcula...p-speaker-spl/

Plugging in the numbers, 10 feet, 105dB, and 92dB sensitivity, I get 370 watts required. The Sierra Towers are rated for 500watts peak, so you should be fine, although you'll need a pretty beefy amplifier.

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Originally Posted by jjackkrash

Are the RAAL tweeters suited for behind screen duty, or am I losing their advantage by placing them behind an AT Screen?

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Accucal measured several AT screens, as you can see in the report on page 18:

https://www.accucalav.com/wp-content...een_report.pdf

Seymour screens seem to be their top recommendtion with a maximum attenuation of the sound by around 2 dB. This lines up with Seymour’s own measurements of the Center Stage XD towards the bottom of this link:

http://www.seymourav.com/screens.asp

They show that the sound attenuation is pretty negligible except from 7,000 Hz and above where it starts to rise to around 2 dB by the time you get to around 20,000 Hz. This might not even be all that audible. There are a few of ways of fixing it, if you are concerned though:

1). If you reciever has tone controls you could try to nudge up the treble. I’m not sure what range is considered treble in most recievers though.
2). If you have the newer version of Audyssey, with the app, you could account for this in the target curve. Dirac and Anthem’s room EQ allow for you to do this as well.
3). If you want to perfectly fix this issue, you could ask Seymour to send you the 1/24 octave curve that they have and import it into room eq wizard. Here, you should have the ability to undo this attenuation, that you get from putting the speakers behind the screen. In this scenario, I think you need something like a Mini DSP to actually implement the EQ.

I think that the Sierra’s with the Raal ribbon tweeter are actually better suited to go behind an AT screen than other speakers, because they have a high end frequency response that extends flat out to and past 20,000 Hz. Many speakers with a dome tweeter will begin to start to roll off about 15,000 Hz, so the extra attenuation from the screen will make the highs even more reduced. Though again, for any speaker you can fix the detrimental effects of the screen fairly easily with some form of EQ, as just mentioned.

I’m interested to hear what you do to “fix” the attenuation in sound, as I am planning to go with an AT screen for my Sierras with the Raal ribbon tweeter down the road.

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Originally Posted by jjackkrash

I am considering 3 Sierra Towers for L/C/R duty in a 13'w x 22'l x 8'h dedicated room to sit behind an AT screen. I can provide them with whatever power they require. I would most likely run crossovers at the standard 80Hz unless there was a reason to go higher or lower paired with capable subs (currently 4 Seaton SubMersives corner loaded). I have a few questions:

1. Are the RAAL tweeters suited for behind screen duty, or am I losing their advantage by placing them behind an AT Screen?

2. How much power will they take before thermal compression kicks in?

3. Are the Sierra Towers capable of sustained reference levels to an MLP of 10-12 feet?

I was considering HE speakers with compression drivers for my dedicated movie room, but I am growing very fond of my Sierra 2's in my living room and was wondering if the Towers would be a good fit for my dedicated room.

Thanks in advance.

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At 10 foot listening distance, reference level is not a problem with our towers provided you have the proper amplification. Sustained reference level would be 85dB from each speaker (only requires about 5 watts into each speaker). If you wish to reach those 105dB peaks from each speaker though (ridiculously loud), at your listening distance I would recommend 250 watts per tower channel of quality amplification.

There is no difference between a dome tweeter or ribbon tweeter behind an AT screen. There will be a slight amount of HF rolloff at the extreme end - but typically out of range of your own hearing. My recommendation would be to not use the speaker grilles when using any speaker behind an AT screen.

No - you certainly do not lose the benefits of a ribbon tweeter :)