Can Sierra play rock/metal music?

[zaned]

I have become quite interested int he Sierra lately thinking of a possible upgrade to my existing system. My current system is a Sony strde197 amp 2x100 watts and I have a pair of excellent Sony Bookshelf speakers (the new version B3000 goes for about $100 pair) .
While I listen to variety of music, I listen a lot to hard rock/metal/industrial. The current setup actually works quite well.
What I am looking for is a powerful speaker that reproduces bass very well and has a bit more detail than my current speaker. Since my sony are 3 way speaker s i was wondering if certain aspects of music are not reproduces as well on the Sierra e.g a guitar riff may sound too high than it should . I noticed this happen on a more expensive pair of Polks. My speakers reproduces guitars quite well.
I dont want the guitar to sound watered down.
I hope I am making sense but essentially I am asking for better performance but I also want realistic tones for certain instruments. I am concerned about this because I have heard more expensive speakers (mostly Polk) that dont really have midrange. There is a start of an Acdc song with a guitar that actually just plays through the tweeter of the polk. In my speaker it sounds correctly.
My concern is that since the Sierra is a 2 way speaker - it can never realistically produce certain sounds better than a 3-way speaker.

Should I be looking at something like NHT Classic 3 instead for this type of music?
My plan was to upgrade my amp to Onkyo A9555 and buy a new pair of speakers.

But perhaps I wont see much improvement and its not worth it - this is my dilemma essentially - is it really worth it do this upgrade


So if anyone has already auditioned the Sierra playing more aggressive music - that would be very helpful.

[get_zwole]

Dave or Curtis and some others will be able to explain and answer alot better then me. But from my viewpoint a solid manufactured and built tweeter and woofer can pretty much do anything a 3 way speaker can if built right. I had 2 way setup of seas lotus tweeter and Dls nobelum woofer in my car. About 1200 bucks worth of speakers and i went to a focal 3 way setup and the two way reproduced all the sounds actually better then the 3 way. So i think it would be fine. I have yet to hear the sierra but as much praise as it gets from people i would think it would perform better then the sony's. Like i said thats just my viewpoint im hoping to pick up some sierra's or 340se's this month so if you pull the trigger do a review for me cause i love the heavy rock too. Good luck man.

[curtis]

zaned,

In addition to all that, whether they are accurate or not, you may also be used to the sound of your current speakers.....and if you like that sound, something that sounds different, correct or not, may not be to your liking.

[Galwin]

The Sierra's provide exquisite coverage of the mid-range. You'll hear deep inside of the recording. They can also play plenty loud - much louder than I care to listen and without distortion. I haven't heard your Sony's but the Sierra's are in another league in every way: componets, engineering, build quality... However, they are small monitors and can't move as much air as a large floorstander. Some folks who like heavy metal really like the experience of a phyiscal rush of sound with a full bass slam - right down to the bones. I don't know if the Sierra's will supply that experince. But they can change the way you listen to music. Lot's of people, me included, have been drawn back to their music collections and now enjoy them at a whole new level. The speakers are that good! They are defintely worth the shipping cost to do a trial listen. Good luck!

[blindcat7]

2-way, 3-way has absolutely zero to do with ability to accurately reproduce sound. The quality of the drivers, crossover, etc is what is important. Don't confuse frequency range with quality. A lot of people fall into the big speaker trap and assume they need a big tower to get the full range of sound, especially without a subwoofer, and that just isn't true. Giant 4 way towers can cover the full frequency range down into the subsonic and still sound like utter crap and a well designed 2 way speaker can cover the full range and blow any lesser designed bigger speakers out of the water.

The HTM-200, pre SE could do better than any speaker sold by a CE company at accuracy and quality of sound. Now, frequency range is a different matter. The 200s definitely need a sub to cover the lower ranges. But since you are looking at the Sierras, that doesn't matter. My Sierra 1 mains go lower, tighter and with more detail than my previous 340 SE mains, and that is really saying something. I don't really need a lot of LF coverage in my mains since I have a Hsu VTF-3 HO Turbo covering the low frequencies, but if I shut off the Hsu to do some stereo music listening, the Sierras would do just fine. The Sierras have caused some people to need to check to be sure the subwooffer really is turned off when testing them that way because the deep, detailed bass is just that good. I listen to everything from classical to heavy metal and thrash. I've even popped in a bit of my brother's death metal to check it out on my system and the Sierras handle it great.

The CE companys do sell some good speakers, but, beyond the entry level models of some brands, speakers made by a company that dedicates all of its research and resources to speaker design are just in a different class. Any of the models here at Ascend are likely to give you more detail and accuracy and, unless your room is massively large, either the 340 SEs or the Sierras should have no problem handling music on your current stereo setup without the aid of a subwoofer and if you ever decide to experiment with surround music or home theater, you could build on these speakers to expand your system at any time.

Chris

I have become quite interested int he Sierra lately thinking of a possible upgrade to my existing system. My current system is a Sony strde197 amp 2x100 watts and I have a pair of excellent Sony Bookshelf speakers (the new version B3000 goes for about $100 pair) .
While I listen to variety of music, I listen a lot to hard rock/metal/industrial. The current setup actually works quite well.
What I am looking for is a powerful speaker that reproduces bass very well and has a bit more detail than my current speaker. Since my sony are 3 way speaker s i was wondering if certain aspects of music are not reproduces as well on the Sierra e.g a guitar riff may sound too high than it should . I noticed this happen on a more expensive pair of Polks. My speakers reproduces guitars quite well.
I dont want the guitar to sound watered down.
I hope I am making sense but essentially I am asking for better performance but I also want realistic tones for certain instruments. I am concerned about this because I have heard more expensive speakers (mostly Polk) that dont really have midrange. There is a start of an Acdc song with a guitar that actually just plays through the tweeter of the polk. In my speaker it sounds correctly.
My concern is that since the Sierra is a 2 way speaker - it can never realistically produce certain sounds better than a 3-way speaker.

Should I be looking at something like NHT Classic 3 instead for this type of music?
My plan was to upgrade my amp to Onkyo A9555 and buy a new pair of speakers.

But perhaps I wont see much improvement and its not worth it - this is my dilemma essentially - is it really worth it do this upgrade


So if anyone has already auditioned the Sierra playing more aggressive music - that would be very helpful.

[VanJerry]

Check this out dude:

"I listen to everything these days, from the occasional head banging heavy metal session to the chill and mellow of slow jazz, from the carefree simplicity of country to deeply emotional blues… From the zaniness of kid’s songs (although I do *try* to avoid these) to the thought provoking complexity of bands/artists such as Pink Floyd/Roger Waters and the like, from local artists known only around the LA music scene to artists known by everyone…"

- That's from DaveF, the guy who spent four years designing the Sierra
(from this Sticky: Ascend Acoustics Official Music Recommendation Thread)

DaveF makes a point of buying and listening to what all these people here are listening to. These aren't just speakers for hearing Nora Jones. It's clear making a design that delivers on these kinds of sound is a key part of his mission. I'm sure there'll be some people coming along here that will be able to describe their listening experiences that particularly relate to you.

[Tushar]

I don't think you should wonder so much about 2-way vs. 3-way. I think it's a waste of your time. I wasted my time thinking about it when researching my speaker purchase last few years. My shopping experience was that in general the 2-way speakers in my budget sounded better across frequency range vs. 3-way speakers, though speakers ranged from good to bad to awful at a given price point irrespective of 2-way vs. 3-way. I used to own 2-way speakers that sounded muddled in the midrange so I can understand why you have concern but I wouldn't worry with the Ascends. If you look at reviews and posted measurements of Ascend speakers you'll see they don't have an issue.

I own Sierra-1s and listen mainly to rock music in 2-channel audio (Zepellin, Pink Floyd, U2, Violent Femmes, REM, Primus, Belly, Noir Desir, Bob Marley, Manu Chao, Ramones, Smithereens, Smiths, Velvet Underground, Clash, Shins, Death Cab, stuff like that). I'm still quite stunned (6 months into ownership) with how much you can hear with these speakers. From what I've read my receiver's not very good and I listen to just regular CDs, but even still, with the Sierra-1s I can hear tremendous amounts of detail in the music I could never have imagined was there.

When I crank the volume up on something with alot of kick drum and bass guitar though, I typically turn the subwoofer on. If you get past the 3-way vs. 2-way stuff, I'd suggest you think whether you should be looking at getting a good subwoofer as well.