I upgraded my Sierra-1 pair to a Sierra-2 last week. My first impression was mixed.

I mean, of course it was.

Don't know about you, but this happens to me every time I change my primary means of listening. Over the years I've gone through all kinds of stuff before I worked up to something as awesome as a Sierra-2. Computer speakers with a "subwoofer", lots of headphones, various bookshelves. Every time it was the same. Some aspects were clearly better, others felt different. I searched through a lot of tracks before finding ones that seemed to play to the strengths I was perceiving.

My initial Sierra-2 impressions (after XT32 calibration) were Huh, the midbass and warmth feels wrong, and HOLY JEEZ imaging lasered into my ears. But I knew had to narrow down some variables.

Did I mention my home theatre room (a.k.a. multi-use finished basement, 20x10x7.5) is an acoustic mess? I've never gotten around to doing any targeted treatment. First step, I shut off my XT32 and dynamic EQ, and my LV12R.

OK, getting a clearer picture now. The caliber of the speakers was pretty clear...even with the frequency response and imaging thrown off by the room, I was getting goose bumps more readily than from the Sierra-1. Midbass has been a problem for every single speaker I've put in this room. The Sierra-2 seemed more affected by it than the Sierra-1 for some reason. Other thing was despite the merits of the high end, it seemed a little grating. Didn't sound bright...it just felt that way.

Next step, brought the speakers to a better listening area. BAM, midbass was fantastic. High end was even more impressive. The grating feeling was still there though. I started getting pretty excited at this point.

Back in the basement, I shuffled some stuff around. Then I did two things that made all the difference for me. First, I tweaked my Audyssey settings. Making plain how much help my room needs, the calibration thought the Sierra-2s should be crossed-over at 120Hz. Uh, no. I put this to 80Hz (though I've read that without calibration deriving that for itself, it may not be making full use of that bandwidth). The other important Audyssey setting for me was changing Dynamic EQ to a reference level of 10dB. Lower than that was too bass-heavy, and higher wasn't enough.

The second thing I did was put the grills on. The harsh high end feeling disappeared.

Weird, right? If you want to call me nuts, I won't blame you. For me, in my room, it was effective.

And let me tell you...the end result is stunning. I think this is the first time for me that EVERYTHING sounds good. Some songs have more of a wow factor, but the Sierra-2 really just beautifully presents what was recorded. Simple songs are reproduced faithfully. Heavily produced stuff like Adele just throws out a glorious wall of sound like nothing I've heard in my home before. XT32 really locked in the imaging, and the RAAL tweeters do not disappoint. It's not quite right to just say it sounds better. It feels more real. Live recordings bring you there, as do studio bits in pleasing acoustic spaces. I found myself seeking out songs where you could hear the room.

On the movie side, I watched Spectre and it was everything I hoped. Stunning imaging. My center and surrounds are HTM-200SEs, and they all sounded great together. Not sure how much of it is XT32, but it was seamless. I'm going to upgrade to a Sierra-2 center soon to improve dialog legibility, but I'm thrilled as-is to be honest.

It's only been a week, but I'm quite satisfied. Well worth the upgrade!