Sierra-1 NrT in home demo

[curtis]

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.

Ahh...got it.

[edmondwolfman]

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...

Well, the UPS site says the Sierra-1 Nrts will be here on Friday. I was told the swan d2.1se+ customs would be about a week behind but I saw somewhere that the skiing ninja crossovers were sold out and they were trying to build more to meet demand so hopefully they will arrive when I was told they would.

I understand they are both excellent speakers. As I said in a previous post I thought the Sierras with the NrT upgrade were not available at this time. I thought for some reason that the tweeters, crossovers etc. were being sold to existing owners so they could upgrade. Since I thought they weren't available I ordered the Swans to demo and then about 3 days later I received an email from Dave telling me they were available now.

Had I known that before I ordered the Swans I probably would have just ordered the Sierras and compared them to what I have now but having already ordered the Swans I still wanted to hear the Sierra-1 NrTs and after speaking with Dina I decided to go ahead and order them and have both on hand for comparison purposes. I was told after all that I should get what I am considering in my home with my electronics and that that was what the 30 day in home demo was all about.

Also you can see from the picture I posted previously that I have no room whatsoever to play with placement. Whichever speaker sounds best sitting where the Axioms currently sit is the winner.

[edmondwolfman]

Sierra Nrts arrived today via UPS. I setup the stands and hooked them up immediately. I let them play for just a little while and threw on some music I'm familiar with...sounded good so I added a little volume and thought "oh man I'm going to have to order the port plugs". Then I realized that the Axioms had a 93 dB in room response and the little Sierras are 87 dB so when I turned up the volume which was adjusted to play with the Axioms the HSU-15 subwoofer was WAY too loud.

I haven't worked with adjusting the subwoofer yet. I moved the cables on my preamp from the bass management terminals to the full terminals and turned off the subwoofer for now, just to give them some break in. Currently have some "House" music pumping through and although I've heard people say it, I'm very surprised how low and hard hitting the base is coming from just the Sierras. I don't listen to that kind of music but it should work pretty well to "loosen" those babies up.

After some break in I'm going to run them full and compare side by side with the Axioms M60s running full. May not be completely fair as the Axioms are much larger and are rated lower in the bass freqs but bass isn't where I'm looking to make the difference, I have a sub I can blend in for that.

The Swans probably won't be here for another week or so and I think I like it that way. That will give me time to get the Sierras some play time, get used to them and do side by side evaluation with my Axioms. If I had all three speakers sitting there at the same time I would probably be moving the speaker wires so often I would get confused

If you want to test your bass queue up Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

[TomK]

Edmond,
Having someone switch between the speakers while you remain seated might be helpful. If it were me I would NOT want to know which speakers were playing. Eyes closed and no peeking. A double blind test is even better but much more difficult to set up. Also, the levels have to be very close as the louder one usually sounds better. Anyway you've left us with a cliff hanger. Can't wait for Part II and your final listening test.
Tom

[billy p]

^^^After level matching both speakers at ~80db I could really hear how much more I preferred the Sierra's. The Axioms did play louder at the same volume switching back and forth, only after using my RSM I noticed the 22's were about 3-4dbs louder in my room. Having owned both speakers about equal time it was easy for me to not have formed any bias...as I've stated before I love the my Sierras....I like my Axioms.

Looking forward to Edmonds finding?

Regards, Bill







PS: I had placed the Sierras on stands, placement wasn't ideal only about 6ft apart the Axioms are about 8ft.

[edmondwolfman]

I've been using an SP meter also and trying to run around 80 to 85. Have "stuff" running through the Sierras to help break in (if that really occurs) and will do more listening later tonight. Headed to the vinyl store for a little while

At one point I though the Sierra's were a little "in my face" but after hooking Axioms back up and then changing back again I realized I was just hearing more detail than before. It's hard to start listening to something different when you have been listening to a different setup for a couple of years especially only having the new speakers for a few hours

I'll do more comparison but I think I am leaning toward the Sierra's over the Axioms already. I know I need to let them break in for another few days and listen to them exclusively for a while which I will do. After a few more comparisons to the Axioms I'm going to remove the Axioms from the room and use the Sierras for everything and I should have a good feel for them after a couple of weeks.

Swans wont be here until week after next probably so I should be accustomed to the Sierras by then. I did put on some vinyl last night after the wife went to bed. I was able to put my seat a little farther back and dead center and I was impressed with what I heard and I feel it will just get better as the Sierras and my ears get broken in/acclimated.

[billy p]

Deja vu..... I had the exact same experience going from EnergyRc's(~3yrs)>Axiom, just not sure I liked Axioms more but there was no turning back because they are inwalls. Once I get my dedicated room setup for the Sierra's I'll be spending most of my time in there.....

Keep us posted...

[edmondwolfman]

Stayed up until around 2 A.M. last night listening to 2 channel music. No fatigue at all. Looked up and it was 2 I should have said 2.1 music. I use a USP-1 (Emotiva) for 2 channel music so no tone controls. I use the base management and crossover around 65 to 70 Hz.

Put in Bluray of Roy Orbison Black and White Nights this afternoon and it sounded very good even though I haven't run the Audyssey with my Denon to level everything out, I just made some manual adjustments. Should be much better once Audyssey is run. If I haven't said so before here, that Bluray is awsome.


Put on the latest Rambo earlier and again I haven't run Audyssey yet but I think HT is going to be just fine using the smaller Sierras as the FL and FR.

More to come.

[JustaSheep]

So, EdmondWolfman, how does the story end??? Which speakers are still in your house and why?

[edmondwolfman]

I actually still have the Axioms here as well as the Sierra-1 NrTs and the Swan D2.1se+Customs (which just arrived a week ago). I'll try to find time to update this post this weekend with some observations.