Sierra-2 Development Thread

[ematthews]

Yes, by request - we have built this for a few different customers over the past few years. As can be imagined, performance is excellent. However, there is no cost savings associated with this speaker - retail pricing would be the exact same as non-sale retail pricing for the standard Sierra-2.

Please feel free to send us an email if you are considering this design.

What is the difference in tweeters? And what is the effect of adding the tower tweeters to the Sierra 2?

[SunByrne]

Wait, I don't understand. What would be the point of getting a Sierra-2 with the NrT tweeter? Wouldn't that just be the same as the upgraded Sierra-1, but with the "wrong" woofer? I feel like I'm missing something here.

[curtis]

What is the difference in tweeters? And what is the effect of adding the tower tweeters to the Sierra 2?

Wait, I don't understand. What would be the point of getting a Sierra-2 with the NrT tweeter? Wouldn't that just be the same as the upgraded Sierra-1, but with the "wrong" woofer? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Better midrange and transition response than the Sierra-1 NrT, but doesn't play as deep.

[davef]

Wait, I don't understand. What would be the point of getting a Sierra-2 with the NrT tweeter? Wouldn't that just be the same as the upgraded Sierra-1, but with the "wrong" woofer? I feel like I'm missing something here.

We have made this speaker for a few customers of ours as some prefer the sound of a high quality dome tweeter over a ribbon, but they also wanted more detailed mids and a faster transient response than what the Sierra-1 NrT woofer is capable of.

[mikesiskav]

We have made this speaker for a few customers of ours as some prefer the sound of a high quality dome tweeter over a ribbon, but they also wanted more detailed mids and a faster transient response than what the Sierra-1 NrT woofer is capable of.

Dave, just out of curiosity, have you ever built a Sierra tower or Horizon with the Curv woofers from the Sierra-2? Just wondering how something like that might turn out.

[davef]

Dave, just out of curiosity, have you ever built a Sierra tower or Horizon with the Curv woofers from the Sierra-2? Just wondering how something like that might turn out.

There is really no point as the dedicated mid in the tower is a better overall midrange driver and the bass woofers in the tower extend quite a bit deeper. The Sierra-2 woofer is about as good as it gets for a driver that needs to reproduce both mids and lows.

That said, I have been working with SEAS on a dedicated 6" Curv midrange, but, so far, the performance is only marginally better than the current midrange driver we use in the tower. The cost, however, is over 4x higher, which would force us to raise the price of the towers by quite a bit and the price increase isn't justified IMO.

[Roen]

There is really no point as the dedicated mid in the tower is a better overall midrange driver and the bass woofers in the tower extend quite a bit deeper. The Sierra-2 woofer is about as good as it gets for a driver that needs to reproduce both mids and lows.

That said, I have been working with SEAS on a dedicated 6" Curv midrange, but, so far, the performance is only marginally better than the current midrange driver we use in the tower. The cost, however, is over 4x higher, which would force us to raise the price of the towers by quite a bit and the price increase isn't justified IMO.

Would this option be available for one-off orders?

[davef]

Would this option be available for one-off orders?

Not at this time, perhaps sometime in the future. As mentioned, we are not at the point where I feel the performance of this woofer justifies the price point. SEAS custom builds everything for us, and in order to do so - we must typically order 500 or more units at a time. I don't feel it would be a wise financial move to spend a huge sum of $$ on a component for a few custom builds

We are constantly in a process of evaluating ways to improve product performance, in many cases - since all of our speakers are heavily engineered to begin with, it is far more complex than one might imagine and replacing a component means a complete redesign of the crossover as well.

[mikesiskav]

There is really no point as the dedicated mid in the tower is a better overall midrange driver and the bass woofers in the tower extend quite a bit deeper. The Sierra-2 woofer is about as good as it gets for a driver that needs to reproduce both mids and lows.

That said, I have been working with SEAS on a dedicated 6" Curv midrange, but, so far, the performance is only marginally better than the current midrange driver we use in the tower. The cost, however, is over 4x higher, which would force us to raise the price of the towers by quite a bit and the price increase isn't justified IMO.

Ah, that makes sense. I totally agree on the Curv woofer on the Sierra-2. People always talk about how great the Raal tweeter is, but the curv woofer is just as amazing IMO.

[cgramer]

Hi, I'm new here and joined to ask this question about the Sierra-2, which looks amazing and currently tops my list of potential new bookshelf speakers for the two-channel (plus subs) system I'm planning. I have one feature request for the next run, if there is one, and it's just an aesthetic one: Any chance you could switch to magnetic grilles? I love listening without grilles on, and not having the four holes on the baffle would look so much better, especially on the finish I'm looking at, the satin dark cherry.

Thanks for considering it!

—Chris