I've been following the new Sierra tower thread and it is exciting to see how much development is happening with that speaker. The problem for me, is that I am in a fairly large room, but only sit about 7 to 8 feet away from my main speakers, where I'm not sure if tower speakers are the right fit at such a close seating distance.
The new ELX tower with the ribbon tweeter brings the "text-book perfect directivity with our EX woofer and RAAL ribbon tweeter" from the Sierra-2EX V2 speaker and combines it with the "dynamics, bass extension and sheer power" from the woofers in the Sierra-LX.
When trying to decide between the two speakers for mains, Dave suggests making the decision based on listening habits: "The S2EX V2 is the more detailed speaker and is best for acoustic music, jazz, most classical. The LX has way more 'slam' and much deeper bass and with enough power, can play much louder without strain. The LX is better for rock, dynamic home theater and is the better choice for those who 'listen to everything'."
Choosing the Sierra ELX tower speakers with the ribbon tweeter, no choice in listening preferences seems to be necessary, since the speaker seems to bring the best of the 2EX V2 and LX into one speaker that also has more output and less distortion.
This gets me wondering if it is possible to find a woofer for the Sierra bookshelf speaker that has the best aspects of the 2EX V2 and LX woofers in just one woofer, or are some of those characteristics competing with one another? If it is possible, it seems like that would make it an "Endgame" bookshelf speaker in the Sierra line. Imagine having all those great qualities of the ELX towers, but in a bookshelf speaker. Obviously the towers would have more output and less distortion and all of the advantages of a three way design, but the bookshelf speakers would have much of the same greatness of the ELX towers in a compact form factor. If such a woofer is possible, and the ribbon tweeter in the bookshelf speakers seems to be limiting the output capabilities, then perhaps moving to the 70-20xram RAAL ribbon would be the right fit. If it is possible for the speaker to come in at around the base price of the Sierra tower speaker, then there would be a market for such a speaker.