I already told my wife what next years state tax refund is going to!! She was so overwhelmed with excitement, she replied...."Whatever". I'm taking that as a definite "OK".
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I already told my wife what next years state tax refund is going to!! She was so overwhelmed with excitement, she replied...."Whatever". I'm taking that as a definite "OK".
That is correct... High gloss black is not "piano" black -- the difference being that piano black is a mirror finish, such that it will reflect back nearly every detail just like a mirror. High gloss black does not have the same degree of reflectivity, reflected detail is somewhat blurry.
A "Made in the USA" true piano black finish is nearly impossible to come by. It is extremely labor intensive and uses chemicals that require very specific environmental licensing, especially here in California. For example, I believe Salk charges $1400 for the option. The $700 additional fee we are charging has no added profit in it for us -- it simply covers the cost of the process and the additional handling required.
It was also our desire to manufacture the speaker cabinets here in the USA.
That being said, since piano black is a very popular finish and the $700 increase in price is hard to swallow, we are considering having our Sierra-1 cabinet maker produce piano black cabinets for us which will reduce the cost of this option dramatically. This will take several months though...
Well I have them up and running and only had a little bit of time to listen. I wont get into details until I have some serious time with them. So far, very impressive. What jumped out at me from the first track was the imaging, detail and timbre accuracy, then male vocals.
Dave....
They arrived safely and the finish is superb!
Stay tuned. I have all day tomorrow to do more tweaking and evaluations.
So far I'm:):D:p
Thanks for the update, now I can breathe a bit easier :)
Let me know how the packaging stood up to UPS and if the foam wrap fully protected the finish.
Also, be sure to run them full range when you get the chance and let me know your thoughts on the bass response.
I agree, the imaging and detail is fantastic and many others have commented on how well they reproduce vocals. Don't be afraid to turn them up :D
No problem. Let me do a real thorough inspection of the finish tomorrow to make sure for you. Right now with my Parasound 2100 preamp they are running crossed over at 80Hz, my only option is this or full range. I will experiment with both, but will ultimately go with 80hz having the Rythmik doing the lows:)
More feedback to come tomorrow!
If you are going to use the towers with the D15, I strongly recommend a lower crossover setting. The mid-bass and punch of the towers is excellent and I had better results integrating the towers with a Rythmik sub at 50Hz. For most music, I preferred the towers without a sub.
Unlike the Sierra-1, because of the dedicated mid-woofer and it being in its own sealed enclosure within the cabinet, removing deep bass from the tower will not result in any noticeable improvement to the midrange.
I say full range, but try both.
I think these towers are crying out for full range for music. I generally preferred my sierras full range (though do not have a Rythmik....yet) so I can only imagine how much better the towers will be.