Sierra Raal Towers soundstage vs LS50 Wireless

[nquery]

Hi,

(First time poster).

So I own a pair of Sierra Raal Towers that I love. They are running with a Hegel amp and cycling though various R2R Dac's of late, in a lively midsize living room (old craftsman with wood panels, hardwood floors, etc). The sit towards the corners of a rectangular room with openings on each wall to other rooms. Brick fireplace sits between them - but they stand a bit further out than the brick.

For whatever reason, I recently became intrigued with the LS50 Wireless with built in active amplification and Dac. While they are completely different beasts in many ways, I have been doing some side-by-side comparisons between the two ....

While the Raal tweeter is clearly more refined, smooth, and crystal clear, the LS50W's are creating a huge holographic soundstage that the Sierra's simply can't match. There is a sense of depth, air, layering that is amazing. The LS50W's have built-in DSP phase correction and obviously excel at this particular aspect of sound reproduction. Bass is another area where the LS50W's are surprisingly excellent - the active amps and DSP are really juicing these things with presence and energy.

I now realize how *flat* my Sierra's sound. I feel like there is something wrong and not optimized with my setup/chain. I would prefer to keep the Ascends given their better accuracy, clear highs, looks, and future control/upgradeability of the Dac/Amp. My open question is what can I do to improve the soundstage/image of the Sierra Towers? Any thoughts/suggestions? Maybe they just don't work in my lively room.

I have used DRC in the past - but off for this comparison and I know any improvement it makes on imaging won't match the LS50W's. I doubt spending more $$ on a different Dac is going to help that much. I am going to try a sub to see if that gives the Sierra's more presence and implied space/air/depth. Not sure what else would really impact things at the end of the day. Room treatment is not a possibility as this is our living room.

I guess it's always a matter of trade-offs, but I am really irritated that my rational side is leaning towards dumping the Sierra Towers and keeping the LS50W's

(Edit: yes, I have previously owned/tried the LS50 passives and Sierra 2 Raal's and know their strengths and weaknesses - the LS50W is a completely different beast from the LS50 passives - much warmer, less fatiguing, and more transparent ... but still can't match the Raal tweeter in some ways).