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That's a great album, David! I have Fresh Aire I - VII on CD. Fresh Aired VII (7) won the 1991 Grammy Award for "Best New Age Album". A few months following that, we saw Mannheim Steamroller in concert at the Star Amphitheater in Merrillville, IN. We have also seen two of their Christmas shows (1993 & 1994) in Memphis at the Orpheum Theater.
I never followed up the Fresh Aire series with Fresh Aired VIII. Maybe, one day. The first Fresh Aire album (originally not titled 1 (I) is the only one that I have on vinyl. We have most of their other Christmas CD's, and a couple of other of (Mannheim Steamroller) Chip Davis' offerings including, Mason Williams & Mannheim Steamroller "Classical Gas".
Any of us old enough to remember, Mason Williams had a pretty good hit with that song in 1968! This collaboration is really good, and features, 'Greensleeves'.
Through the years, going back to around 1972, another artist who released some awesome records that might be found in the better audio shops of the day is Lincoln Mayorga. His Sheffield Labs Direct To Disc LP's, 'Lincoln Mayorga and Distinguished Colleagues', The Missing Linc series, were just wonderful when listened to on better audio equipment.
I remember this all to well since my first wife's father owned an audio shop, 'Audio Recorder Center' in Lewiston, ID.
He was a dealer for Altec Lansing, Kenwood, Teac, Thorens, Dual, Burwen Labs, Revox, Hitachi, and a few others.
Moving forward into the late 80's early 90's, I discovered a jazz group, 'Flim & The BB's' while visiting an audio shop in Memphis. Remember those??!!! A brick and mortar audio shop!!! But; I digress...
Flim & The BB's, if I'm not mistaken, were the first 'jazz' group to record fully digital. I have 7 of their CD's. The first 5 are on on the DMP (Digital Music Products) label. Absolutely wonderful albums! I am sure some of the folks here are familiar with these guys!
Yes indeed!
Wow - you are bringing back some great memories for me, both with Lincoln Mayorga and Flim and the BB's. I spent most of my teens (both as a hobby and employment) in high end audio shops. Sheffield Labs and the original TownHall Records were daily listens for me. It is really hard to believe that, in general, recording quality has degraded as much as it has.
I have boxes full of old CD's from those days that I have stored away (many Sheffield Labs, including Lincoln Mayorga - who founded Sheffield Labs).
Off the top of my head, I remember SLabs James Newton Howard and friends (my personal favorite from SL), Harry James, I've Got The Music in Me (Thelma Houston), Acoustic Storm, and Amanda McBroom (what a voice!)
I was recently introduced to the Sheffield Track/Drum Record, and this just might be the highest quality recording I have ever heard. I still use it regularly for customer demos and it still often shocks me...
Just put on SLabs, James Newton Howard and friends as I have it on my server.... I highly recommend this to everyone.
I've been enjoying The Sierra 2EX in my living room for the past year, but I decided I wanted to fill the room a bit more so I just put in the order for the towers. It feels like an "old" product at this point, but I think we're well into the point of diminishing sonic returns in the world of loudspeakers. If it performs, it performs. I've never owned a 3-way. Looking forward to it.
I'm on the verge of purchasing the Sierra Towers with RAAL and I wanted to survey this forum for amplifier recommendations. I self admittedly don't know much when it comes to amplifiers. I currently have a DENON AVR-X3400H, nothing special. I planned on upgrading my amplifier with the speakers, but I'm not sure what price point I should be looking at.
The Towers with RAAL are close to the $3000 price point. Do I need to also be looking at amplifiers in that price point? Can I drive the towers beautifully with something less expensive?
I’m driving my Sierra Towers w/RAAL with an Emotiva XPA-3 Gen 1 and they sound great. I have a Denon X6700H receiver that I use as a pre amp but the X6700H is totally capable of driving the Sierra Towers as well as your Denon X4400H.
I’m not sure about specs needed for the towers.
My experience was that when I had an AVR, a Marantz SR6013, I couldn’t get them to sound right. Even with Audyssey and the MultEQ app. Movies sounded great but the music didn’t sound right. I couldn’t hear the crisp highs I thought I might should be getting with these RAALs. So I traded it in for a Yamaha A-S2200 integrated amp. It now sounds exactly like what I was looking for. It cost as much as the speakers but it was worth it to me. So that’s just my experience.
markgoebel -
are you mostly music or movies or mix? Solid state amp or tubes? budget?
For solid state,
Emotiva make good amps, as Enrico suggested, although I'd look for a used XPA gen 1 or gen 2 (new gen 3 use a switching power supply). Alternately, check out Monoprice Monolith amps (made by ATI). Outlaw is another option although not sure who makes their amps now (used to be ATI, who may still be making some - not the ####x series, though, which are probably made in China).
For tubes,
Rogue Audio (Atlas Magnum II - pure amp or Cronus Magnum III) as entry level). Made in USA and awesome customer service. I'm currently using the Atlas to drive my towers and am moving up the Rogue line to the ST100. Primaluna also make nice amps (although believe these are made in China).
PS Audio also make really great equipment. Dave F suggested Schiit in this forum somewhere.
You could also consider class D, although some people are sensitive to these amps with RAAL tweeters. If you want to try class D, look at D-Sonic. An alternate, less expensive class D option is VTV amplifier. I'm using a 4 channel VTV Pascal amp to run my ATMOS height channels (HTM200's) and sounds really good.