To RAAL or not to RAAL..that is the question.

[Brannigan]

If you like music with squealing, drilling guitars the raal is great at this. Bands like big black, dead kennedys etc and some jimmy hendrix songs off electric ladyland just make you go but they're great for lots of other things too. This is just what I'm noticing right now as I go through my collection to flex my new beauties.

[atcjeep]

There's no problem cranking the speakers, some people to 'break in' the speakers play it non stop at loud volumes for 48 hours or whatnot in a closet... I find that a bit silly and excessive, but in your case you can play the speakers without worrying!



There's no question the subs will dig deeper but if the question is whether the towers can satisfy until sub purchase, no question in my mind they can... The Sierra bookshelve bass is impressive for it's size and it sounds better than many floorstanders of similar price. So the towers should definitely be able to do the job with the twin optimized bass woofers...

If you want to go with numbers, the Sierras go down to around 40hz if I remember correctly, the towers go down to 34 ... So no, you're not losing a whole lot, in the sound frequency spectrum, you've got from 35 to 40000 hz covered. You're just missing 20-35hz, and any sane person will be able to enjoy a movie without 20-30 hz content... (and there will be some <35 content just less loud..)

RAAL vs NRT, tough question... My basis is usually price/performance ratio. It's 2k for towers and around 2.7k for RAAL I think, so about 35% extra for RAAL. The NrT is a very good tweeter and from what I remember Dave saying about it is that it would satisfy the needs (needs.. lol) of the majority of customers... But audio people are strange, and good enough often isn't. Hence the RAAL. If budget is important, the highest bang for the buck is probably going to the NrT. If performance is more important, then RAAL is the better tweeter.

In what camp are you? I'd say I'm halfway in both. Bang for the buck is usually what I go for, but if I can spend a little more to make a purchase more bullet proof (last longer, least risk of buyer remorse), I might fork a little extra for the extra performance... In the case of RAAL, hard to say since I've not heard the towers...

I have compared the NrT tweeter to a Fountek NeoCd3.0 ribbon tweeter and to my ears they didn't sound that different for the high end in terms of performance. Maybe my ears aren't very sensitive to that area nor discerning... Fountek isn't RAAL though, so the differences might be more significant with RAAL. So forking 700$ for a upgrade for the already excellent NrT tweeter may not be the smartest thing to do with the budget oriented. If money is burning a hole in your pockets though...

imho, if 700 is nothing, go for it. If it's a significant chunk of money for you and/or you're not anal about audio, go NrT. Just 80/20 movie/music for me = go NrT ... Or maybe not automatically... Mostly depends on budget, also I think the RAAL is more 'polite' than the NrT, NrT can be a little bit more in your face, so if you prefer 'velvet' top end, maybe RAAL is the way to go.

IMHO, for normal folk any is fine, no 'regular folk' would notice RAAL vs NrT for just regular movie watching... Both great tweeters. RAAL is still RAAL though, so if you want the best...

Awesome post GirgleMirt, thanks for taking the time to write this up. It gives me some good insight and will help in my decision process. Now lets hope I can make a decision before the new year so I can enjoy these beauties for 2013.

[Brannigan]

Be prepared to wince during bad recordings and completely bliss out with perfect ones. The sound is brutally honest. It's a trip closing your eyes and almost seeing all of the individual sounds intertwined yet separate. Wild. Btw I don't know if I'd call the raal "polite" but it's not rude either. More like agile and clear. It's doesn't make everything buttery smooth. It's just...capable I guess. It sounds like it's just playing what's there correctly. Kind of hard to wrap your brain around at first but very impressive with the right tracks.

[Elmo]

Be prepared to wince during bad recordings and completely bliss out with perfect ones. The sound is brutally honest. It's a trip closing your eyes and almost seeing all of the individual sounds intertwined yet separate. Wild. Btw I don't know if I'd call the raal "polite" but it's not rude either. More like agile and clear. It's doesn't make everything buttery smooth. It's just...capable I guess. It sounds like it's just playing what's there correctly. Kind of hard to wrap your brain around at first but very impressive with the right tracks.

run anymore blurays with them?

[Brannigan]

run anymore blurays with them?

I'm going to today. Watching Brave. Don't laugh.

[Brannigan]

The sound was fantastic. Raal might actually be better for movies than music. Movies seem to have higher quality audio and 75% (i guess) of cd's seem to have mediocre sound quality in comparison. One nice thing about the basic sierra bookshelf is it sort of hides some harshness, maybe because of the soft dome tweeter? I suppose everything is a double edged sword in one way or another.

[rsmt2000]

Newbie needs some help here.

I used to listen to different kinds of music in my younger days - more than 15 years back. I am getting back to listening to more music.

I would like to listen to music with a lot of instruments, acoustic guitars, various percussion instruments, string instruments etc and start listening to more classical music like Mozart etc..

I am wondering if I should order sierra towers with RAAL tweeters or not. I have spent "some" time with Dina at Ascend who is very nervous that RAAL Ribbons may not be the right choice for me.


Also anyone familiar with AR Rahman's music - the one who composed music for the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire" can recommend me if RAAL is for that kind of music or not.

Thank you very much

[avsnoob10]

Newbie needs some help here.

I used to listen to different kinds of music in my younger days - more than 15 years back. I am getting back to listening to more music.

I would like to listen to music with a lot of instruments, acoustic guitars, various percussion instruments, string instruments etc and start listening to more classical music like Mozart etc..

I am wondering if I should order sierra towers with RAAL tweeters or not. I have spent "some" time with Dina at Ascend who is very nervous that RAAL Ribbons may not be the right choice for me.


Also anyone familiar with AR Rahman's music - the one who composed music for the movie "Slum Dog Millionaire" can recommend me if RAAL is for that kind of music or not.

Thank you very much

RAAL hands down. I am very familiar with AR Rahman's music, I just heard soundtrack of TAAL (not RAAL) on my RAAL towers and just awesome!!!. Taal was AR Rahman's work in late nineties and to be honest he has composed far better music for Indian Film Industry back in nineties and in 2000s than Slum Dog, in my opinion, of course.

[Veda]

To have a more accurate tweeter will always be a better choice regardless of what type of music you play. Actually a more accurate (and efficient) speaker would be better equipped to play any type of music. Note that I said "accurate" not "revealing" as the latter can be an overall perception not something that can be measured. I think that's also part of the philosophy at Ascend. The only consideration for not getting the RAAL would be if you're in a tight budget or if you intentionally want to get an inferior speaker by veiling or smoothing the sound. Just $700 more to get ahead of the pack and get one of the most accurate speakers in the market at any price? I think that's a damn good deal and will last you longer than a standard Sierra Tower. Just IMO...

[rsmt2000]

Thank you so much for the replies. I placed the order for the two towers with RAAL tweeters. I agree that AR Rahman has composed far better music than that for the slum dog movie which is not that great in my opinion.