Sierra 2?

[mightymouse]

I have been reading about the 170 and the Sierra 1. The Sierra 1 looks very tempting. But I have been wondering, does Ascend have any plans for putting a 6.5" woofer into a Sierra class cabinet, sort of like a 170 on steroids?

The larger woofer would definitely add more punch on the low end.

[curtis]

I have been reading about the 170 and the Sierra 1. The Sierra 1 looks very tempting. But I have been wondering, does Ascend have any plans for putting a 6.5" woofer into a Sierra class cabinet, sort of like a 170 on steroids?

The larger woofer would definitely add more punch on the low end.

Have you heard the Sierra? IMO...it doesn't lack in the low end, in fact, it has more punch than some other respectable bookshelf speakers with 6.5" woofers.

[mightymouse]

No, I have not heard the Sierra-1. I am just curious if having a slightly larger woofer would make the Sierra sound even better.

[curtis]

No, I have not heard the Sierra-1. I am just curious if having a slightly larger woofer would make the Sierra sound even better.

It probably wouldn't just be a bigger woofer....it would have to be a bigger speaker overall....and bigger doesn't always mean better.

[davef]

Curtis is right. To get the same bass extension of the Sierra-1 with a 6.5", the cabinet would have to be considerably larger. It would be a different speaker altogether. The only aspect that would be guaranteed to be "better" would be efficiency, and even with that we could only expect perhaps 1 - 2dB higher efficiency. Efficiency has no relation to sound quality.

Hope this helps!

[mightymouse]

Thanks guys for all the helpful replies.

Learn something new everyday.

[GirgleMirt]

We need a FAQ. (for the why no MTM Sierra, etc)

Have you heard the Sierra? IMO...it doesn't lack in the low end, in fact, it has more punch than some other respectable bookshelf speakers with 6.5" woofers.

For the life of me I can't understand why it has better punch than even some floorstanders. Few weeks ago we had an audio trade show in Montreal, I was more than a bit disappointed by a few of the systems... Even some floorstanders rated 30hz with double 7 inch bass woofers, costing significantly more than the Sierra, seemed to have less punch. (no level match not even A/B though, just my recollection of wow, this speaker has no punch..).

Hoping I'm not opening a can of worms, but how can that be? Dynaudios seem to have that punch, or another bookshelf also surprised me, the ProAc D2 http://proac-loudspeakers.com/dtwo.php, also was able to deliver the punch similarly to the Sierra (though it costs what... 3000$?), but it's surprising how many speakers lack that punch...

Anyhow, always interesting to hear a lot of different speakers, always somewhat highlights imho the fact that most speakers are simply tradeoffs. Good at something, bad at others... Best performance ends up being average of all the traits... Sierra does this very well. 'Super' speakers sometimes don't even seem to do that...

Larger, more costly, also really doesn't equate better sound. The $150000 Kef Muon was there. It was one of the most crowded room. http://www.kef.com/products/muon/ It sounded ok. Really nothing special. In a room right beside, was a Wilson system, either Sophias or Puppy8, with subs, and it was mostly empty, it did not look as impressive, but if all of the participants were blind, I'm sure there would have been a lot more people listening to the Wilsons than the Muon... Or Dynaudio had their 30 year anniversary Saphires, for a tenth of the price of the Muon, they sounded fabulous.

Pierre Gabriel was also a 'giant' speaker with big price which really, makes you wonder about big vs small speakers. http://www.stereotimes.com/images/JadisKey.jpg I'm 100% sure you could make a 2 way speaker costing 10 times less with the exact same drivers, put it in the same room, and would have ended with a better sound... Ok maybe not play as loud, but basically all two ways can handle normal listening levels, and even above. Huge speakers for huge rooms, normal speakers for normal rooms is my advice. When you stick big speakers in normal/small rooms, always seems like a waste to me, and for some reason most often than not simply does not sound that great...

Verity Audio was once again, truly excellent. http://www.verityaudio.com Great speakers, I don't know how Kef can try to sell the Muon for 150000$ when such excellent speakers as Verity Audio costs less (I'm guessing!)...

The end sound you can get with 'small' bookshelfs, Sierra, ProAcs, Harbeth, etc. often really rivals some of the much more expensive floorstanders.

Ok enough rambling... Btw, Ascend should really participate to some of these shows, it would be a hit I'm sure.

[mightymouse]

Nice to read all the input in this thread!

In terms of materials, someone mentioned Wilson audio. I read somewhere that Wilson audio uses some special kind of polymer for their cabinets, making their cabinets very non-resonant. Can Ascend try something along that line?

And in terms of bookshelves that dig deep, the one that immediately comes to my mind is the Totem Manni 2. The Manni 2 uses 6.5" dynaudio woofers stacked back to back, this is what gives Manni 2 that amazing bass response. But this configuration also means that a very powerful amp is needed to make the Manni 2 sing.

And oh, I like the soft dome tweeters used in Ascends. I can't stand metal dome tweeters.

Anyways, just throwing out some ideas.

[Mike^S]

I'm pretty sure that the material Wilson uses is VERY expensive.

[DougMac]

Nice to read all the input in this thread!

And in terms of bookshelves that dig deep, the one that immediately comes to my mind is the Totem Manni 2. The Manni 2 uses 6.5" dynaudio woofers stacked back to back, this is what gives Manni 2 that amazing bass response. But this configuration also means that a very powerful amp is needed to make the Manni 2 sing.

And oh, I like the soft dome tweeters used in Ascends. I can't stand metal dome tweeters.

In addition to having to pony up for the muscle to drive them, I did some research and found the Mani-2 is more than 4x expensive as the Sierras.

It's interesting that we're discussing much more esoteric and expensive manufacturers when comparing Sierras. I went to the Wilson web site. I got some perspective when I saw they quoted Absolute Sound reviews.

Doug