Hi all,

Im reaching out (after browsing these forums for awhile) because Im unhappy with my current setup and considering a speaker from the ascend sierra lineup as a replacement.

I have Elac UF5's: the Elac Uni-fi towers, and a denon x1300w reciever powering them.

They do some things very well- they sound really musical and full- but there is something definitely missing. They sound too smoothed out, like a lot of the natural brittleness and texture of acoustic guitar plucking have been filtered out. When watching movies, they never fully excite at those climactic moments where the music swells and things are dialed up to 11.

I am going through a process of demoing speakers right now and I really, really want to try the Sierra 2EX or Sierra towers... but its expensive to demo them over here on the east coast if I decide I need to return them, so I'd like to ask you guys for your take before I take that plunge.

I currently have a pair of Martin Logan 35 XTI bookshelves on demo. They are a night and day improvement in the "exciting" category, and they reintroduce that texture I was looking for. However they sound thin- a bit tinny- and far less musical than the UF5. I could imagine this is a function of being bookshelves vs towers but they are paired with a SVS PB1000 sub.

Im looking to blend the best of both of those- and also improve on the clarity of the top end. I'd like a speaker that sizzles on the top end with a very musical body.

I hear a lot of people refer to the sierra lineup with RAAL as having "sparkle" and "air" on the top end. Its hard to know what that means over the internet. Is this that excitement, texture, and bite Im looking for? If so, do they retain a musical sound?

For reference, these are the speakers Ive tried in the past:

Klipsch R15 (I think...): these werent musical, had mediocre presence, and were shrill to listen to.

ELAC UF5: Very musical, good bass/body/full sound, but lack grit and excitement at the top

Martin Logan 35XTI: Finally scratches the excitement/texture itch! But theres also some lost detail and the mids/lows seemed thin. Sort of tinny sounding in comparison to the ELACs.

Will the ascend Sierras or towers give me the best of both worlds? The MLs use a ribbon tweeter, so Im hoping the RAAL also scratches the itch but can be better everywhere else.

Speakers that are about to arrive:

Klipsch RP8000F towers
B&W 706s2
Focal Aria 906 and 926

Thanks all!