Sierra 2's
It's been a week since three Sierra 2's arrived, which I have set up across the front of my system along with a pair of the CBM-170SE's for surrounds. Today I had a chance to have an extended and leisurely session listening to them in 2.1 stereo.
All of the tracks were flac files burned from the original CD's and played via my Sonos system. The audio path was Sonos -> Schiit Bifrost DAC -> Emotiva XMC-1 -> Emotiva XPA-5. The sub is a PSA XS-15SE. After experimenting with various toe-in angles, having them pointed straight at me sounded the best to my ears; it gave me the best imaging. I also ran the full version of the Dirac room correction software for the XMC-1 and spent some time switching between it on and off. The crossover to the sub was set at 80 hz with a 24db slope.
My overall conclusion is a big thumbs up for the Sierras. I played a lot of tracks, but here are some specific things I noted to illustrate the qualities of these speakers:
On the Mercury "You Are There" recording of "Danse Boheme" from Bizet's Carmen, there is a tambourine. The Sierras really flesh this out so it sounds like a tambourine. Other speakers I have had are a lot more one-dimensional with it sounding like a flat baby's rattle but the Sierras bring out the nuance of the instrument and also present the air or space around it very nicely. There is also a triangle which on other speakers has a blurry character whereas the Sierras present a more distinct and like the tambourine, a more 3D sound.
Hiromi Uehara's "Cape Cod Chips" is an excellent example of solo piano. She's an incredibly gifted pianist and the recording quality is superb. The Sierras sounded stunning, reproducing the tone/timbre of the piano very well, and also the dynamics. Credit goes to the XPA-5 for keeping up with the transients, which sounded great on the Sierras. It was like the piano was in the room, although I didn't play it live-loud.
Joni Mitchell's guitar and vocals on "California" were superb - clean and clear, very natural. The Sierras captured all the subtleties in her performance.
On Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On" I realized oh, those are finger snaps on the left side! Prior to this I never really noticed this so I can't compare how they sound on other speakers except perhaps they sounded more realistic through the Sierras, which is why I noticed it. Just a very natural sound that was no mistaking for anything else.
The whistle that is blown in Steely Dan's "Aja" sounded like a whistle and had excellent depth to it. Again, not a one-dimensional whistle but really fleshed out.
I've listened to the "Greatest Audiophile Vocal Recordings" collection many times through various speakers and honestly, never really thought these were THAT great until I heard them through the Sierras. I only listened to three: Rebecca Pidgeon's "Spanish Harlem," Valerie Joyce's "Fever" and Livingston Taylor's "Isn't She Lovely." Wow, those vocals all sounded so natural - baby-bear right. So did the whistling on Isn't She Lovely.
Now while I just mentioned some very specific things from the above songs, that doesn't mean I was scrutinizing them under a microscope and was looking at the trees forsaking the forest. The recordings as a whole sounded great. From the basic simplicity of "California" to the complex orchestra in Danse Boheme, the Sierras brought out all the detail without any congestion or muddiness. Voices in choral pieces I listened to also had excellent detail and didn't blur together.
Some truly "wow" tracks I played were Diana Krall's "East of the Sun.." from her Live in Paris CD, Gregory Porter's "On My Way to Harlem," and Santana's "Soul Sacrifice." The well-recorded stuff I listened to just sounded great. Very engaging, just made me want to sit there and keep choosing more and more songs to listen to.
You may be wondering why 2.1 instead of 2.0. I have the speakers about 4' out from the front wall and that position works very well except for bass. It is horrible for bass because of room nodes, I suppose. I have the sub in the right rear corner of the room which is the best location based on measurements I have done. There just is not a very good place for bass in the front of the room, at least in any available space. That's why I use a sub. Even when I had Mirage OMD 28's that had dual 8" woofers, I had to use a sub.
I've had a bunch of speakers and people always joke with me about my penchant for getting new ones and my wife thinks I am nuts... so how do the Sierra 2's compare? I can go only by memory but they are the best so far. I'd say the closest would be the OMD-28's, which when released sold for $7,500 a pair although when production moved to China and Vann's started selling them because Klipsch bought Mirage, the price came down to $3,000. They both had that 3D presentation but then the OMD-28's were omnipolar speakers. The Sierras image a lot better. The OMD's had a fuller sound which sometimes didn't match well with the material. For example, it was difficult to listen to Corrinne May's "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" on the OMD's because the vocals got to be too full or a little bit ringy or fuzzy or something but the Sierras do it right. She sounds wonderful on the 2's.
Now how did they sound using Dirac versus without Dirac? My set of speakers before these were the Hsu HB-1 Mk2 bookshelf speakers. Dirac made a night and day difference for the better with these. With the Sierras, I was surprised because there was hardly any difference. I noticed that sibilance was more restrained with Dirac. Also it seemed to me that the middle and upper midrange were slightly more aggressive without Dirac but that could be due to a volume difference. Overall it sounded like the SPL with Dirac was 1 or 2 decibels lower than without Dirac. The other difference was more smooth or consistent bass up and down that octave or so, but then that's mainly the sub and not the Sierras. I think that is a testament to the Sierras that the difference between using versus not using Dirac was barely noticeable.
Yes, the Sierras get a big thumbs up from me. Very detailed, balanced and natural sound that had excellent imaging and a good character of depth. Even though I set the toe-in to face me directly, the soundstage was nice and spacious. As I listened, I kept thinking all three fronts were on. All the vocals and instruments remained distinct; nothing collapsed or sounded congested. Build quality is excellent. I got them in satin black and they look lovely. Dealing with Dave and Dina was a pleasure, too! I'm looking forward to more stereo listening and also to doing some multi-channel concert BD's, DVD's and movies. A nice way to spend the 4th of July weekend!
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Originally Posted by monkuboy
