Sierra-2s - Almost 4 Years Later

[dislocatedday]

Hi Mag_Neato. We seem to be very similar in that we both have a dedicated room in which our wives let us do whatever we want, and I concur with the thoughts on the speakers, speaker placement, and the room having the biggest effects on what we hear. The Halo P5 is a great pre-amp, which I almost bought a few years ago. I ended up with the Emotiva XSP-1 in my setup. Both it and the Halo P5 have the HT bypass feature and bass management, which was a requirement for my setup.

My family and I moved into a new home 3 years ago and it has a fairly big, nicely finished basement. I got free reign to make it my "Man Cave", and my wife got the big finished walk-in closet in our bedroom all to herself. This worked out well for both of us!

I have my main front L and R speakers about 4 feet out from the wall behind them, and they are about 9 feet apart from each other. I then sit approximately 8 feet from them, with the speakers toed in so they point about a foot out from each side of my head. This seems to produce the best imaging and soundstage in my room. Getting them further out away from the back wall really brought everything into tighter focus, and produced more depth in the soundstage. I also have acoustic panels on the side walls at the points of first reflection.

I really believe that people who want to get the most out of an audio setup (regardless of whether it is for HT or music) should focus their money and attention on the speakers (including subs) and the setup of them in their room first and foremost. A person should find speakers they like, and then work to optimize their setup and placement in their room. After that, then a person should worry about the electronics with the first consideration being ensuring that they have sufficient power to reach the levels they need in their room. I realize it is more fun to discuss and play around with different AVRs or processors, DACs, automated room correction, etc., but I just think these should be the last things to worry about after speakers, subs, and room placement.

[Mag_Neato]

Agreed, fix the room/placement before thinking of new electronics.

I had full reign of the basement at my last house, though never really messed around with placement as much as I should have. The only negative there was that my wife could hear everything I was listening to!

When we built the new house, we got a concrete slab foundation in lieu of a basement. My man-attic is the finished room above the garage. I had the builder add insulation to the wall between the finished attic room and the open loft. There's a solid core door between them. I also added acoustic door weather stripping to the door stops which dramatically reduced the transmission of sound through it. There are times I am listening at very high volumes and worry that my wife will say something. When I come downstairs she asks "where have you been?". That's when I know the soundproofing works!

The Halo P5 was an unexpected purchase over the last few months. Since it has been replaced with the P6 I found a dealer demo for roughly 40% off MSRP. And it is in the silver finish to boot, which I prefer to the black. It replaced my tried and true Marantz SR6003 AVR that was serving pre duty with an Adcom GFA-5500 amp. It has made a very nice increase in performance. Since it does not have any digital processing other than its onboard DAC, I placed the sub the same distance from my ears as the main speakers. This has made the quickness, tightness & impact spot on. I'm still trying to find the optimal placement for everything, but this is a great start. I did pull the speakers out a ways from the wall, maybe about 3ft, but am limited in how far apart I can go as the room is only 10' - 10' 6" wide or somewhere about that. I have them around 7' apart for now. The 5' listening distance was recommended by a sound engineer and has been pretty nice so far.

[Remonster]

It's funny you mention upgrading for the sake of trying something new. I posted my Sierra 2s for sale (on another forum) this week and was offered $1,100 for them and then it hit me, I wouldn't let them go even for that much. There are other speakers I'm curious to try but I know I'll regret letting these go. I think they'll be with me for a very long time.

[Mag_Neato]

I thought I'd post my latest feelings of the Sierra-2's.
Lately, I've been doing mental hopscotch (Missing Persons reference!) regarding my amp, an ADCOM GFA-5500, which I bought used about 4 years ago. It has been a solid performer and have never had an issue. I tried running the Sierra-2's full range for kicks to try taxing the massive power reserves of the amp, but could never really induce any strain. The speakers seemed as if they'd give up first.

After replacing a Marantz SR6003 AVR I was using as a pre with a Parasound Halo P5 pre, the sound improved quite a bit. I then began wondering if a new, modern state-of-the-art amp would make a difference too. After researching a few options it was obvious I would have to spend way too much for something to replace the ADCOM. I then found a guy who modifies ADCOM amps with upgraded parts & circuit mods. After reading user comments and digesting the modification strategies outlined on his site, I finally took the plunge and had him perform his mid-level mod on my amp.

I got the amp back yesterday. I hooked it up, turned off my Rythmik 12" sub and set the Sierra-2's to run full range. He recommends running the amp to burn it in and even suggested leaving it powered on for several days. Now, I have run the Sierra's full range before but felt the Rythmik was a necessity, so I was prepared to keep the volume under control during heavy bass as to avoid unwanted noises from the woofers. What I was not prepared for was the massive improvement the amp has in bass extension and grip. I had to put my hand on the Rythmik's woofer to confirm it was off. Jaw-on-floor moment. With the mods to the amp and its new command of the bass, the Sierra-2's have incredible extension, slam & dynamics. Track after track of material with good bass.....drums, bass guitar, etc.........had me slack-jawed. I felt no urge to engage the sub. The entire bandwidth seemed improved. The mids had more weight, the highs were extended and smooth, soundstage seemed more natural and expanded. Hard to explain. I have lots of listening to do!

To sum it up, this has given me an even greater appreciation for the amazing Sierra-2's.

Now, Dave, all we need now is the option to upgrade to the new woofer used in the Sierra-2 Diamond version!!

[rifmon]

Thanks for sharing. I am a soon-to-be-owner of a set of Sierra 2's. I currently own a set of Piano Black Sierra 1's and have been enjoying them for approx 6 years now. The bass in my room is very good with the 1's. I'm expecting the bass quality to be different when I receive the 2's in ways described here on this forum many times.

Mag_Neato, you mentioned you paid for upgrades for your ADCOM and you're very happy with the results. I am running my Sierra 1's with a Harmon Kardon 3490 stereo receiver. There's a guy on-line who works on HK receivers in a similar manner. His site and services grabbed my attention but I never sent my HK in to him because I was skeptical the results would've been noticeable. But your positive experience has me reconsidering!

[Beave]

Warning: This is going to be a bit rude. I don't know how else to say it, so I apologize in advance for sounding confrontational.

Do you really think your auditory memory lasts that long and is that good?

You're comparing what you hear now with what you remember from weeks ago. Auditory memory is very fleeting - on the order of seconds, not minutes, not hours, not days, not weeks.

[Beave]

The 3490 is still relatively new, and, if I remember right, fairly powerful. There's no need to send it in for mods.

Old amps can have the power supply caps dry out, which can affect performance (*if* they have dried out). An amp that's just a few years old is very unlikely to have that problem.

Some of these 'modification' people rely on faulty long-term audio memory and expectation bias in their customers.

If it ain't broke, there's nothing to fix.

(I sold an amp a few years ago to a guy who immediately sent it off for mods. It was a great amp working fine - and from what I saw of the mods, they were a joke.)

[rifmon]

The 3490 is still relatively new, and, if I remember right, fairly powerful. There's no need to send it in for mods.

Old amps can have the power supply caps dry out, which can affect performance (*if* they have dried out). An amp that's just a few years old is very unlikely to have that problem.

Some of these 'modification' people rely on faulty long-term audio memory and expectation bias in their customers.

If it ain't broke, there's nothing to fix.

(I sold an amp a few years ago to a guy who immediately sent it off for mods. It was a great amp working fine - and from what I saw of the mods, they were a joke.)

Advice taken. Yeah I actually called the guy months ago and he not only told me about the mod’s, he went on to try to sell me some speakers. Well the guy needs to make a living but I ended the call. I will take your advise and leave my 3490 well enough alone.

I bought the HK used and it still looks and functions as a new. I remember Dave sold these in the early days. When I saw it I bought it. I trust it’ll Kahr well with my up coming 2’s