Sierra-1 NrT in home demo

[edmondwolfman]

I use non NrT Sierras LCR in a small room. They are only separated about 7.5 feet due to room limitations and my listening distance varies from as close as 5 ft. to about 8 ft. (once again due to room limitations) and they sound great. After you get done with your A/B comparison you may want to move them to where you would think the optimum position is and tweak a little here and there and just keep listening. After getting mine, I listened to more music in the first few days than I had in a long time, and I usually listen almost everyday anyways..........Enjoy.

Since your listening area is a similar size to mine I was wondering if you have them straight out or pointed inward toward you seat?

[bdfin]

I have them slightly toed in, but you will obviously want to experiment a little there. My setup is anything but ideal. They are too close to side walls, there's only about 6 to 8 " of free air behind them, they are in about a 20" deep bedroom closet actually, (with no doors on front obviously ). I think having them the right height helps compensate for the other problems. Because of room size and source differences I do sometimes have to adjust sub volume a little bit as it is way too much for this room, but I can always find a blend point w/o too much issue, as the sub sits relatively close to my listening spot ( room limitations again ). Not having heard your current setup I can't say whether you'll find them ( NrT's ) better or not, but if I had to put in a blind wager, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[NegativeEntropy]

Any recommendations on music that will put each of the speakers through their paces?

Music: I suggest pieces you know very well and ones that cover the full range of your listening habits and preferably frequency response (i.e. include some organ or other low freq stuff if it's in your library).

I listen to a baseline with a good set of headphones (Senn HD580 in my case) because that's the most detailed reproduction instrument I have then compare the details to other speakers. I will often find I hear things (details) with the Senns on that I had not/could not noticed on regular speakers.

Other: make sure to level match the speakers. I do not recall the exact details, but our brains perceive louder as better, so at the same volume setting, the more efficient speaker will have an unfair advantage (assuming max volume is not an issue for the less efficient speakers).

I'm not sure if you'll need to "break in " the speakers at all (e.g. leave them playing for X hours at moderate volume) so the sound you hear will be representative of the long term result.

Last: have fun!

[soundseeker]

I'm not sure if you'll need to "break in " the speakers at all (e.g. leave them playing for X hours at moderate volume) so the sound you hear will be representative of the long term result.

I know there are opinions both ways regarding break-in. My Sierras (non NrT) seemed to improve after around 10-15 hours of use.

[scape]

my cbm's and cmt relaxed and opened up around 10 hours. midbass especially

[edmondwolfman]

Do any of you guys know if the 30 day in home demo starts when I sign for the speakers from UPS or the day they ship?

[markenki]

Do any of you guys know if the 30 day in home demo starts when I sign for the speakers from UPS or the day they ship?

From http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages...0dayguar.html:

A return authorization number must be obtained from an authorized representative of Ascend Acoustics within 30 days of receiving your product.

Regards,

Mark

[curtis]

Already thinking of returning them?

[edmondwolfman]

Absolutely not but I do have 2 different brands coming to go head to head and 1 of them will definately go back, both if they don't work in my setup and I just don't want to run over my 30 day window and I want to use as much of my 30 days as possible to evaluate and compare.

With that being said I think either will outperform the Axioms I currently have....but we will see.

[billy p]

Absolutely not but I do have 2 different brands coming to go head to head and 1 of them will definately go back, both if they don't work in my setup and I just don't want to run over my 30 day window and I want to use as much of my 30 days as possible to evaluate and compare.

With that being said I think either will outperform the Axioms I currently have....but we will see.

When do you expect the new speakers to arrive? I don't know how the Sierra's should perfrom against the Swans...I'll await your impressions but I am pretty sure you'll prefer the Sierra's over the M60.

I use the 22's with my sub at 90hz because of their limitations and I've A/B them running my Sierra's fullrange... even without the sub they put a BIG smile on my face....

Good luck in making your final decision...Bill...