Sierra Horizon (Sierra Tower Center)

[davef]

Hi Guys,

I apologize for all of the delays. Regrettably, we had a delay in receiving an important shipment of capacitors that are required to finish the Horizon crossovers. Thankfully these capacitors arrived today. We are really behind right now so I ask you for your continued patience. Shipping notices will be going out shortly for the Horizons.

Okay – now to summarize some thoughts after many hours of listening comparisons.

Do the Horizons work well vertically? – Yes, absolutely. I find that they perform best with their tweeters to the outside but this will depend on your room. With regard to vertical vs. horizontal orientation, I feel that the speakers are slightly more coherent when placed horizontally, which is to be expected as this was their original design goals. However, their performance when oriented vertically is actually better than I would have anticipated. In fact, this unique speaker’s performance is quite remarkable when considering its size compared to typical tower speakers.

In comparison to the Sierra Towers, it does not perform better but because of its smaller size, it seems more impressive as you expect a certain level of performance with our Tower.

The Sierra Tower has more precise imaging and bass is a bit deeper, which is due to the fact that the port tube and woofers are closer to the floor, which will enhance the bass. Highs and mids are identical, which is to be expected. The Horizon, however, seems to have a bit more “slam” to it.

If someone is seriously considering a set of Horizons vs. Sierra Towers, if dynamic home theater is the highest priority for the system, a set of (3) Horizons is a great solution if they can be properly placed into the room. If music listening is high priority, Sierra Towers as mains is the better choice.

As requested, I have attached a few pics.

I hope this helps!!!

[davef]

i was hoping this would happen any ideas on pricing if these were paired as mains? similar/same pricing?

Pricing will not be discounted for pairs of Horizons. Although it might appear that the Sierra Towers are more expensive to manufacture, it is, in fact, just the opposite.

The Horizon uses the same amount of bamboo yet the cabinet internals are quite a bit more complex. There are essentially 3 chambers inside the cabinet and the slot porting tolerances and routing must be precise. In addition, because the cabinet is so compact considering the design complexities and driver arrangement, there is about twice as much labor involved in actually building the cabinet compared to the Sierra Towers.

That said, it is indeed an extremely impressive design and we are very excited to get these into your homes! I am not sure if there is anything quite like it

[Blutarsky]

Dave, Thank you for the info. Are there any tweaks that could be done on the STC Horizons driver alignment/orientation to optimise a pair for vertical placement. For example, the differences between the 340 mains and center.
Do you think the Horizons would be more dynamic than the Sierra-1 pairs for mains?
There is a window in the market for a larger sized, stand mounted speaker.

"I know, it's only rock n' roll, but I like it"

Blutarsky

[choirbass]

Very impressive Dave . I would think the explanations will help relieve much uncertainty too, as there were no real comparisons to make before.

Do you think the Horizons would be more dynamic than the Sierra-1 pairs for mains?

Just going by the modifications that were made to change a Sierra tower into a smaller and nearly identical center, it's dynamics should still easily surpass that of a Sierra-1. 2 of them should be even moreso, etc. That is, unless I'm confusing sensetivity with dynamics :S lol. The sensetivity is the same.

Unless you were meaning the Sierra towers instead. They should be about the same. He did mention more bass 'slam' for the center, I would imagine that would simply be due to a more compact/complex enclosure, so possibly just denser energy stored essentially.

[Blutarsky]

I guess that I'm not sure of the correct nomenclature for speaker sound descriptions.

I meant louder at the same power, higher SPL, able to fill my large room better, and maintain accuracy.

I don't use towers any more. My wife likes stand mounted speakers. I sold my Genesis 6.1 towers and bought Usher Be-718's, with a Martin Logan Depth i Sub. I have found, that when my wife's happy, I'm happy.

[curtis]

I guess that I'm not sure of the correct nomenclature for speaker sound descriptions.

I meant louder at the same power, higher SPL, able to fill my large room better, and maintain accuracy.

The Tower/Horizons are more efficient than the Sierras...so the with the same amount of power, the Tower/Horizon, will play louder.

[choirbass]

Nah. It shouldn't be much different for a pair of each as long as the intended orientation is still used. I think he was meaning greater dynamics when using 3 of the same across the front. That isn't really an option with the towers unless you were going to have a pillar in the middle lol.

As far as music accuracy, it is using only 2 speakers. And since towers aren't an option it seems, Horizon's would be the way to go Now... if she'd only be ok with them being horizontal too, then there wouldn't be any distinctive flaws in their sound.

[choirbass]

The Tower/Horizons are more efficient than the Sierras...so the with the same amount of power, the Tower/Horizon, will play louder.

Hm.. I had thought they were both 89db. My bad I guess that's why 110db as a big deal did seem a bit confusing.

[Blutarsky]

My Ushers have an efficiency of 83db. My room is impossible to do a home theater in. Maybe 3.1 at the best. I would like a pair of speakers with wider horizontal dispersion. The Ushers sound stage collapses with much toe in, and Blue ray discs lose a lot of the center image. I have an OPPO BDP 830, with dedicated stereo outputs for movies.

I am optimistic about the Horizons potential as stereo mains. I think, that with minor tweaking, Dave will have a great product. "The Horizon II."

[GirgleMirt]

I am optimistic about the Horizons potential as stereo mains. I think, that with minor tweaking, Dave will have a great product. "The Horizon II."

Troll? What tweaking would the Horizons require in your opinion? The Horizon has 'stereo mains', it's the towers... The Horizons are the 'tweak' (arguably new speaker but anyway) of the towers in horizontal W(TM)W config instead of vertical alignment.