Sierra - The Crossover

[Mag_Neato]

Sign me up, Dave!

Could there be a bamboo(m) sub in the works?

[curtis]

I swear Dave doesn't sleep.

[Mag_Neato]

Hey, if you can't make Jr. sleep......take advantage of the extra awake-time!

[Sam1000]

I prefer using these speakers without a subwoofer, but they will benefit from being crossed over at about 60Hz and matched with a subwoofer built for sound quality.

I think the bass response will surpise you and if you have a sub, I think you will be turning it off

I said earlier that you can book a pair+center, now after reading this, you can charge mt credit card too...

[GirgleMirt]

The actual quasi-anechoic frequency response of the speaker is +/- 3dB from 44Hz to 22kHz. Expect -3dB in a typical room to be about 39Hz. Technically, the speaker is +/- 1.5 dB from about 55Hz to 22kHz.

Bass response from the Sierra is OUTSTANDING. The combination of the custom designed long-throw woofer + custom port tube + rigidity and less energy loss of the bamboo cabinet gives the speaker a remarkable bass response (very punchy, dynamic and deep) with no bumps or inaccuracies.

Ha! That somewhat makes more sens... It's funny how having information 'trickling' somewhat constantly alters your perception of the speaker... You see the response graph, think "well its a 5.5 inch after all, just not designed for low bass, designed to use for a sub", so you see it differently than you saw it before, but then turns out the graphs aren't valid, and they go down to like 40hz and has outstanding bass response...

Each announcement brings a new view of the speaker, guess we really should stop trying to 'figure it out' before the final announcements!

[curtis]

Thank goodness for the flexible bass management in my pre/pro!

[Mag_Neato]

Thank goodness for the flexible bass management in my pre/pro!

Curtis, if you have a S-1 @ each location you can set them globally to 60Hz!

[curtis]

Curtis, if you have a S-1 @ each location you can set them globally to 60Hz!

I know Dave said it was OK, but right now I just can't put a screw into the cabinets....I just can't.

[Dread Pirate Robert]

Well, I can say that this is the first time I've been amazed by a vertical dispersion measurement. For comparison, the CBM-170SE's performance in this regard is very impressive--good enough to be turned on its side and used as a center--and because of my particular arrangement, I can attest to the benefits of this characteristic with all of my speakers, but the Sierra-1's measurements are plainly flat-out better (I can't even tell where the crossover point is, either). When all is said and done, the defining characteristic of this speaker may be that it improves significantly in so many areas with so little compromise.

Yeah, from the graph it looks like it's +/- 3dB from ~75hz to 20khz. Which sounds great for sub integration.

Obviously, this depends on the frequency at which you wish to integrate (I'm thinking 80 Hz?). Based on my own experience, it is best to have as much "breathing room" as possible regarding the speaker's low-end response and the crossover frequency, otherwise you'd probably lose some upper/mid bass dynamics that the subwoofer would be able to handle better (i.e. without compressing at high volumes). Additionally, the high-pass filters used in most if not all of the common A/V receivers and preprocessors have a relatively shallow -12 dB/octave slope that was designed for speakers that have a similar slope, which is the typical case for sealed speakers but not for ported ones. And even then, with a typical sealed bookshelf-type speaker, I've found that you can lose dynamics if you cross over at 80 Hz or lower and too close to the -3 dB point of the speaker.

Ascend speakers are rather good at handling marginal integrations, and I'm sure that the Sierra-1 will be at least as good as the previous models in this regard, but you'll have to experiment rather than just going by measurements. Obviously, it also depends on what you listen to--for example, if you only listen to soft jazz, maybe you won't have to worry about the dynamic impact of gunshot sound effects so much.

Each announcement brings a new view of the speaker, guess we really should stop trying to 'figure it out' before the final announcements!

The excitement certainly is ratcheting up plateau by plateau--Dave is better at this marketing stuff than he gives himself credit for, and I think in this case, he's hardly trying (doesn't need to).

Curtis, if you have a S-1 @ each location you can set them globally to 60Hz!

And some say that the 170SE is overkill for surrounds....

[Dread Pirate Robert]

As with most frequency response graphs, the graphs are only valid to about 200Hz. Notice the "green" bars on the top and bottom that extend from 18Hz to slightly over 200Hz. They indicate the invalid portion of the response curve, this is caused by this distance from the 1st reflection point to the mic.

I'd like to point out that this also applies to the dispersion graphs of each of the other speaker models on this website.

Bass response from the Sierra is OUTSTANDING. The combination of the custom designed long-throw woofer + custom port tube + rigidity and less energy loss of the bamboo cabinet gives the speaker a remarkable bass response (very punchy, dynamic and deep) with no bumps or inaccuracies.

Sounds like it's going to be quite efficient, as well (don't forget to give us that spec!).

I know Dave said it was OK, but right now I just can't put a screw into the cabinets....I just can't.

I couldn't either, although I can understand how I might feel differently if I had built the things, as all Ascend speakers have mounting holes of some sort drilled into them at the factory.

If you feel that you need to mount your surrounds at an angle, you might want to look into small TV mounts that would support the speakers at the bottom (the BT-77 is nice but only angles down about 7 degrees). You'd have to find a non-destructive way to secure the speakers (e.g. a wire bolted to the existing attachment point plus Blu-Tack or generic equivalent), as well as a way to hang the mount from the rafter (e.g. a thick strip of metal into which you can drill appropriately placed holes).