Sierra-1 speakers - ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!
Hello Everyone,
I just received my new Sierra-1 speakers this week in the high-gloss black bamboo, and the fit and finish are outstanding!
I want to start my review by saying that I love music and have been singing all my life along with playing drums. I also have a home recording studio and collect speakers from many different manufacturers. It's a hobby of sorts, but more of a passion than anything else.
When my hearing was tested in a professional sound chamber, the doctor said my hearing was nothing short of extraordinary. I'm saying this only because placement of energy or sound in space really only comes from the perceiver. While my unusual hearing abilities do not make me any more qualified to review speakers than anyone else, I may be able to provide some unique insights that you might find helpful.
First we'll talk about the packaging. The speakers were double-packed cradled in special foam to ensure no damage. The packaging was first rate in every way. For those people wondering whether these speakers are going to get to them in one piece, rest assured these speakers should arrive in perfect condition.
Second, I don't think money necessarily makes better sound. In other words expensive speakers do not equal incredible sound. I have heard many very expensive speakers that to my ears or perception were nothing to write home about. While I can afford pretty much any speakers that I want, I have found that just spending more money doesn't necessarily give you better sound.
There are basic principles in sound reproduction that help to create undistorted frequencies. The Sierra-1 speakers are an extraordinary value because of their undistorted sound reproduction, which easily surpasses more expensive speakers in many categories.
16-bit recordings for the past 15 years or so have been terrible for music in general, and there have been many technologies trying to compensate for technology that has been inadequate at best. From my understanding, the most important aspect of sound reproduction is the recording itself. How the music was recorded, the technology used while recording it, the room it was recorded in, the way the mix-down was done, and the technologies involved in bringing the live feeling back to the music, are all key factors.
So for me to get the most incredible sound it is extremely important to start with an incredible recording. Great speakers that reproduce sound accurately will only amplify what's there, and nothing more. I feel the speakers should be almost invisible from the technology aspect of sound reproduction, and the after-effects should be reproduced by other equipment, but not by the speakers. This is something that the Sierra-1s do outstandingly.
These speakers become invisible to the music by getting out of the way and allowing the details to come through, because of the uncanny smoothness of the overall signature of the driver placement. The tweeters are truly outstanding. They are not hot or cold, they just reproduce a neutral musical reproduction, nothing more and nothing less. The Sierra-1s have probably one of the best tweeters I've heard to date, not because they do something but because of what they don't do. With every song that I've played, I've heard reproduced frequencies that I never heard on any other speakers.
I used one of the many bookshelf speakers that I own, the new NHT Model 3s, to do extensive A/B comparisons at the exact same sound level with the same songs. Every time the Sierra-1 speakers reproduced the music with greater detail and less distortion. Some very important aspects to me, the mid-base and base, are extraordinary in these speakers. When the tom toms become muddied in a speaker in any way, then you know the sound is not accurate. But the Sierra-1s reproduce mid-bass and bass more accurately than any bookshelf speaker I've heard to date.
3 aspects of the Sierra-1s that stand out in my perception; Smoothness, Clarity, and Detail... everything that I'm looking for in a fantastic bookshelf speaker! The dynamics, recovery, and placement are all outstanding.
I just got through listening to the new Paradigm Reference Signature S1 bookshelf speakers with the all metal enclosures, which I'll be buying when they're available for sale in a few weeks. They'll be selling for $1599 a pair, and I plan to A/B test them against the Sierra-1s once I have them home. When I get a chance to go up to my other home, I'll do more extensive A/B testing against my other reference bookshelf speakers.
For now let me just say that the Sierra-1s are world-class in my book and truly invisible before the music! Here's to the silence between the measure, for this is where the real magic begins...
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