The Tower Discussion Thread!

[pierreterrier]

Brian, the way I experience my raal towers is optimum sitting ear high wth raals. Two feet up or down and i lose the clarity. Hence not the best for a party, but best for an audiophile like me, sitting in the sweet spot to drool. All my listening is music only. Raal is great horizontal but has vertical limitations for sure.

[RicardoJoa]

Thank you, Jacob. I got the xpa 200 and hooked it up to my ribbon towers. The towers sound beautiful and I hear the instruments and vocals between the speakers. Its a new experience for me. But the amp shuts down with the left channel led blinking whenever I crank it up to the 1/4 mark on my usp1 preamp for about 45 minutes of continuous play. I intend swapping it for an xpa2 in the hope that it will shut-down no more.

Make sure is not faulty amp. There have been cases when emo gears shuts down on their, and it came out to be afailty standby switch.

[steelbolz]

thanks for the tip.

Make sure is not faulty amp. There have been cases when emo gears shuts down on their, and it came out to be afailty standby switch.

[dazler]

Also can the end user change the tweeter for the ribbon or it have to be done at the factory?

[FirstReflect]

is there a minimum distance from the wall that they should be placed? the back of the speaker to the wall.

Also is the ribbon tweeter specific for 2.0 music, or is just as good for a 5.1 HT setup?

Also can the end user change the tweeter for the ribbon or it have to be done at the factory?

Hi there, dazler! Welcome to the forum

I'm not sure on the ideal distance from the back of the speaker to the wall. The Sierra Tower IS rear ported, so some amount of free air behind the speaker is necessary. Folks typically aim for 2-3 feet of distance from any wall, with 1 foot as sort of a bare minimum. But, it might be fine at a closer distance. I'll leave that for DaveF to say You will get some boundary reinforcement of the bass the closer you move the speaker to the wall, though.

The RAAL ribbon can most definitely be used for both movies and music! There's absolutely nothing about it that makes it "music specific". Unlike a lot of other planar drivers, the RAAL ribbon has no problems with dynamics, loud playback, and loads of power handling. Obviously, it's a substantial price increase, but, if you can afford it, there's no reason to avoid the RAAL ribbon tweeters for movie purposes! It's still the fastest, cleanest treble driver out there. And, personally, I have never agreed with the whole, "some speakers are fine for movies, but not for music" line that I've seen bandied about on some forums and in some reviews. That's just an obscure way to say, "these speakers aren't very good!" It's a bit ridiculous, IMO. I mentioned on the AVRant podcast, that's like saying, "these speakers are good for sound, but not for sound". Speakers are either accurate and clean, or they're not. Quite frankly, these days, with so many music recordings having zero dynamic range (due to everything being dynamically compressed to the maximum recording level, leaving no difference between quiet and loud sounds), movies are actually the more challenging content in a lot of cases, IMO. And there's plenty of very high quality music in lots of movies. So, I think the RAAL ribbons are a wonderful choice for movies! There's just nothing cleaner and more realistic-sounding.

The RAAL ribbons are not an easy end user upgrade, though. They require a different cut out in the cabinet than the standard NrT tweeter. Most folks will want to send the Towers or Horizon back to Ascend to have them recut the cabinet and install the RAAL ribbon tweeter.

But, the actual front face of the RAAL ribbon has the exact same dimensions as the NrT tweeter. So, it is possible for a skilled end user to cut the cabinet and install the RAAL ribbon. You would have to install a new crossover, as well, though.

Bottom line, I personally think it's safest and easiest to just return the speakers to Ascend to have them do the RAAL upgrade if you decide to buy the standard NrT version first, and then want to upgrade to the RAAL later. It is not a simple "drop in" upgrade.

Hope that helps!

- Rob H.

[dazler]

Wow thanks for the super detailed information, that why I asked some people make it sound as if the ribbon are only good for music.

Yes that sound way out of my capabilities to swap out the tweeter. When I order I just get the upgrade from the beginning.

[dazler]

Thanks, the more feedback the better.
I asked cause I read some rear ported speaker need a absolute minimum space from the wall.
My search for speakers have ended :-)

[dhybiak]

Anybody with Sierra Towers (NRT) and a PS3? I'm a bit concerned. When I choose something and get that chime, I hear a bit of fuzz coming from the middle driver of my towers. I'm concerned I damaged something or something isn't setup right.

The speakers are connected to a Denon 4311CI, and I use Direct Mode. I only have the towers, no sub or anything else (running a 2.0 system).

Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. PM me if you like as well. Thank you!

[JustaSheep]

You could try using a tone generator from a different source to isolate the driver and remove the PS3 from the equation for the time being.

[curtis]

If it is both speakers, I am betting it PS3 is the source. Quite the coincidence is your mess up the mid on both speakers.