Best Low Volume performance: CMT-340 SE or Sierra-1?

[dallas]

Personally, and I'm not an expert but not a amateur either, I feel the sierra's sound great at low level, but you have to get to a moderate volume until the bass "builds up" enough to carry through the room. At low levels, it seems not neccessarily absent, but very muted.

I'm guessing it part of the rear-ported design that after a certain amount of airflow/power, it really starts to kick in and catch-up to the other frequency's. As a motorcycle rider, I woud analogize it to power-band on a 2-stroke. MMMMmmm, power-band.

[VanJerry]

I feel the sierra's sound great at low level, but you have to get to a moderate volume until the bass "builds up" enough to carry through the room. At low levels, it seems not neccessarily absent, but very muted.

I appreciate that information dallas. But you make me realize I neglected to define what's "quiet", "low level" or moderate. I'd struggle to say from somewhere above a whisper through conversational up to 60 or even approaching 70 dB which I know is still quite a range.

[Editing note: earlier I interpreted the comments as being 2 1/2 to 2 1/2. On reexamining the comments to this point I realize I was being too severe in my tally in that any hint of a hedge and I didn't give the Sierra's their full "point." If instead I honor the spirit of each poster's intent I see those that find the Sierra's are talented at low levels vs those that say it's nice but not quite working for them till it gets louder is about 3 3/4 to 1. (1/4 subtracted due to one opinion bass needs a little more volume to fully kick in. Though for me, aside from HT, that's what a sub is for: subtle fill-in at low volumes so I can forgive any speaker that could use some low volume bass boost.) But then I invited comments instead of setting up a poll so I shouldn't even be messing with numbers at all, really. And one more thing... I realized that I should also have asked everybody to include what they were using to power the speakers - so I'm afraid anybody using this information will have to keep that in mind. Forums are a new medium for me: I'll try to think things through better in the future.]

The only other thing I'd wonder about is whether some have the advantage of a quieter environment (the way things sound louder when the 40 dB of urban daytime background noise subsides.) Or which of you are more used to high SPL's... What is it - something like a day for ears to return to normal? For some the daily dosing may be always just short of achieving full recovery. ... ... I SAID FOR SOME THE DAILY DOSING MAY OUTPACE RECOVERY. ... Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply any of you were slamming your hearing: - That was just me losing my memory...

[VanJerry]

Here's DaveF's take on the matter.

I asked him about it briefly while ferreting out some other information: very hush hush - all I can tell you is that it involves bamboo mats, the sea sponge option, and the correct placement of the lower tomato.

"Without question, the Sierra-1... Quality low-level listening requires exceptional coherency and the Sierra-1 provides this in spades..."

I was curious if the 3 MDF inch equivalent bamboo enclosure would play a role in this:

"The bamboo enclosure certainly helps. Any leakage of energy through the cabinet walls and cabinet resonance will detract from low-level (and high-level) listening. One important requirement for quality low-level listening is a characteristic that can be defined as signal to noise ratio and a clean cumulative spectral decay. For example, if the output of the speaker is 70dB, how much of that is noise and various distortions. With the Sierra-1, the bamboo cabinet almost completely eliminates the cabinet effects of resonance and energy leakage resulting in a larger percentage of that 70dB output being the source material, rather than noise and various distortions. Another requirement, as mentioned, is clean spectral decay -- in basic terms, the ability for the speaker to release and recover from energy release (rather than storing energy). MDF cabinets flex greatly compared with the laminated bamboo enclosure, when walls flex they must return to the original position and that "return" releases an opposing force that is contradictory to the next transient the speaker is attempting to reproduce -- that would be an example of stored energy."

Who said physics wasn't cool. Turns out Newton makes for great music. You know Newton, don't you? He's the guy that first noticed that iPods break when they hit the ground...

[VanJerry]

Looks like the Sierra is the best fit for me.

But in the interest of being fair and balanced and to avoid appearing ridiculously evangelical I have to put out that perhaps some of the "whisper quiet" performance in Sean Fowler's review might be due to the Red Wind Audio Signature 30 he used. I mean, Sean was good enough to also use the HK 3470, but reading the 6moons review indicates the 30 has certain advantages for helping low level performance, not the least of which would be a phenomenally low noise floor. Add that to the exceptional coherency of the Sierra-1 and, wow, what a dream team. And half of it is affordable!

Well, it reminds that though the Sierra's are very accessible price-wise, that doesn't mean they're not ready and deserving of being treated in the style of their multi-thousand dollar equivalents. Which is nice to know really... someday my Sierra's are going to be mingling among the rich and famous

Fowler's Affordable Audio review equipment:
Source: Arcam Diva 62 ; E-MU 1212M
Integrated Amp: Red Wine Audio Signature 30 , Harman Kardon 3470
Cables: Totem Acoustic Sinew interconnect ; Totem Acoustic “Tres” speaker cable;
Zu Cable “birth” power cable
Room Treatments: Eighth Nerve “Adapt” Triangles ; GIK Acoustics 242 Panels