Anyone compared the EX to Dynaudio Special 40 or Heritage Special?

[theophile]

How about comparing the 2EX against a $10K+/pair full range floor stander? I was over a friend's place on Saturday and he played a few songs through his Aerial Acoustics 7T's powered by Musical Fidelity mono block amps with a BAT tube preamp. Sounded very nice!

When I got home I had to fire up my Sierra-2EX's. Bottom line: Dave is spot on. DO NOT judge a speaker by its price! "I'm sure in a side by side a/b shootout those Aerials would take 1st place", but I was not wanting to replace the EX's.

Ed,

In a full range playback/total output A/B scenario...possibly, yes! However, at their current MSRP ($12.8K=4X $$$ of the RAAL Towers), believe the Towers head-to-head would be at least their equal or better! I've heard those AA ring-dome design tweeters and wasn't impressed (IMO, too beamy, questionable timbres and little air)!

Not surprised you're locked in to the Sierra-2EX presentation! If like me, your 2.1 setup gets you to or beyond sub-audible responses in your room (my rooms -3db down at 18Hz), you'll have a wider full range response than most "full range" speaker systems (at a Small fraction of their cost)!! We already know and appreciate the S-2EX magic, so as Dave states, don't equate Retail pricing with Ascend Acoustic Performance (IMHO, it's just not fair to the competition)!!!

Ted

[racrawford65]

Yep...if someone is set on that $3K investment, then the RAAL Towers would be a wise end-all purchase!!

Ted

Yep - I agree.. and if one had really deep pockets, special order the Diamond Tweeter version. Unfortunately, my pockets aren't deep enough at the moment to do this to my Towers :-)

[RRT-NPS]

LOL, you guys crack me up. Just wanted to know if anyone had heard the S2EX vs those other Dynaudio monitors. I see that the answer is no.

FYI, I have owned the Sierra 1 and the RAAL Towers in the past. Remembering how great the Sierra1 was is what made me circle back to them. The Sierra 1 (at the time) and Salk Silk are some of the best monitors I have ever heard. I expect the Sierra 2EX to be as good as the Silk and better dollar for dollar.

Only reason I even considered the Special 40 is because I can get it from Amazon. 2 day delivery has made anything more seem like an eternity for me.

[RRT-NPS]

if the item is in stock / not on backorder, we typically ship within 1-3 business days of order placement. For Sierra-2EX, we have all components needed for assembly in stock

Just got off the phone with Dina. Black Bamboo S2EX ordered. My McIntosh MAC7200 arrives tomorrow. I can NOT wait.

[racrawford65]

congrats, RRT-NPS!

[davef]

Only reason I even considered the Special 40 is because I can get it from Amazon. 2 day delivery has made anything more seem like an eternity for me.

Admittedly, I have also become too used to prime shipping from Amazon. However, I have had many conversations with our daily UPS driver as well as some UPS managerial employees - supposedly UPS loses money on basically every 2-day Amazon shipment. To compensate, they must continually raise the rates for everyone else. Considering how much ground shipping costs have risen in the past 5-6 years, I'd rather go back to 5-7 day Amazon delivery times

Thanks so much for getting your order in!

[davef]

I've heard those AA ring-dome design tweeters and wasn't impressed (IMO, too beamy, questionable timbres and little air)!

Ted, you really have remarkable hearing. Yes, one of the major drawbacks of ring radiator tweeters is that they are very directional.

[RRT-NPS]

Admittedly, I have also become too used to prime shipping from Amazon. However, I have had many conversations with our daily UPS driver as well as some UPS managerial employees - supposedly UPS loses money on basically every 2-day Amazon shipment. To compensate, they must continually raise the rates for everyone else. Considering how much ground shipping costs have risen in the past 5-6 years, I'd rather go back to 5-7 day Amazon delivery times

Thanks so much for getting your order in!

😳 I’ve never thought about how UPS recoups their loses due to whatever deal they made with Amazon and now I feel somewhat terrible. I moved to New Orleans 2 years ago and seeing business still trying to recover from Katrina yet to be hit again by COVID made me try harder to support small and independent businesses. But, COVID forced me back to Amazon as a way to be exposed as little as possible. I need to try harder but damn I love that 2 day shipping.

And you’re welcome for the order. You make an amazing product.

[theophile]

Just got off the phone with Dina. Black Bamboo S2EX ordered. My McIntosh MAC7200 arrives tomorrow. I can NOT wait.

RRT-NPS,

Congratulations on your Sierra 2EX!!

IMHO, just get 50-100 hrs of music break-in before passing judgement...believe you won't be disappointed.!

If you have questions, I have a detailed review on my 2EX HERE that might help! If not, just ask away...looking forward to Your feedback and findings! Watch your back on the Mac, it's a 4B (big, bulky, beautiful Beast)!

Hope you and yours fared well on 8-29-21. We were west of Ida's eyewall, but 150mph+ winds certainly can tear up roofs and bring down a lot of trees and powerlines! Finally got back our internet yesterday (yea)!

Ted (from Houma)

[racrawford65]

Dave - Interesting comments, re UPS losing money, on Amazon shipments.

So, I did a bit of research. Apologies in advance if you read on as the rest of this post is off the topic of the EX's but I found it interesting (as an AMZN shareholder for many years)

I think part of the issue for UPS is that they are losing volume on Amazon shipments (Amazon delivered nearly 2/3 of it's own packages last year, up from a bit more than 1/2 the year before. The rest is split between UPS, USPS, and previously FedEx (seems FedEx said goodbye to Amazon, at least air shipments).

Further, it seems Amazon is handling more of the "high density" deliveries (eg. big cities) and sending the more "rural/less dense" out to the other carriers. The latter is higher cost than the former (more deliveries/driver/time with the "high density" delivery routes). Plus, Amazon seems to be "cheapening" their packaging -- e.g. "mailer bags" instead of boxes, not adequately packaging LPs, etc. I guess they figure the savings outweighs the return costs.

Considering Amazon's entry into other businesses in the past, they've likely studied UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc. and optimized based on their learnings. One article even stated they are taking on UPS & FedEx directly in the UK. Wouldn't surprise me if Amazon started delivering for other on-line retailers sometime in the future when they've built out their network/maximized efficiency further.

It's unfortunate for UPS (and likely the USPS, albeit not entirely due to Amazon shipments but their own inefficiencies). Wonder what Walmart's logistics strategy is as they take on Amazon for the on-line space but wouldn't be surprised if not similar to Amazon's strategy considering their distribution network.

Now back to Ascend Speakers...need to give Dina a call sometime this week for an update on my Horizon :-)