my Sierra-1 et al story
I'd like to share a little background info leading up to my trifecta of woofage. Last week I just finished putting up my acoustic treatments in their final position. Glenn Kuras and Bryan Pape of GIK Acoustics were called upon to custom tailor my room with Guilford of Maine adorned acoustic goodness. They transformed my space and made me believe I had an entirely different system - formerly 7.1 comprised of Sierra's and the lone Conquest. After re-running Audyssey with the panels, I immediately commenced basic SPL measurement with the usual run of bass titles. I started with WOTW. It was devastating. Literally. I pushed my system to its limit and suffered an overload which took out my front right main Sierra-1. I didn't notice something was wrong until I saw a red light on the front panel of my amp after hitting 120db during the pods emerge scene. I was really confused and disappointed to see that because increasing the volume was just so clean, effortless and confident. I didn't notice any audible distortion whatsoever.
I shut everything down and began to recap my experience with Dave@Ascend. I knew it was my fault and scheduled to bring my L/C/R in for bench testing. I dropped them off on a Monday and I received a call at the end of the week from Dina saying they were ready for pickup last Friday. When I arrived, Dave was the only one there working after hours and graciously opened up shop. He told me that I burnt both the tweeter and woofer voice coils to a crisp, looking like charcoal. I recalled, in an email, he explained that I was perhaps underpowered for the db's I was seeing at my listening position. Dave replaced the obliterated components at no charge and bid me a good weekend with a friendly warning to keep the db's down a little.
Although happy to get my front stage back, I was also slightly dismayed at now having to exercise cautious restraint. I love the sound quality of my system, I just wanted more without blowing stuff up! But.... how could I get the impact I craved - safely. I was about ready to spring for a beefier amp when I came across a few recent threads on MBM-12's. Unsure as to how well they would integrate with my Epik Conquest, I tried calling Chad first. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get through all week to ask him for his feedback and recommendation as I prefer to stay within the family as much as possible. Feeling desperate for a solution, after leaving Ascend, I impulsively picked up the phone and dialed up HSU Research. It rang and rang. I resolved that no one would answer. About to hang up, I heard a courteous "hello..." - not the Doc, but low and behold it was Pete to the rescue!
I pulled over at the nearest gas station so we could converse without distraction. Thanking Pete profusely, I inquired to the possibility of purchasing a pair of MBM-12's. He said, sure - no problem. I chuckled and said, how about in 30 minutes? He wasn't so sure this time around and asked me to hold on a second. Upon his return, Pete said that it was my lucky day and that maybe it was just meant to be - they had two left in stock at their office, both black. I wouldn't have to wait until next week for a warehouse shipment and that it was alright to make my way down to Anaheim if I could arrive by 7:30pm. I gave him my CC info and the rest is (very recent) history.
I didn't get much time to integrate over the weekend, spent some quality time with the family, visiting relatives and catching the Pacquaio/Marquez WBC Title bout on PPV. That was Saturday. However on Sunday, I had the house to myself and configured my newly enhanced 7.3 setup. I am a total novice to this hobby, but AVS has proven to be the central hub and repository for all the information one needs to get the job done right out the gates. Thanks for providing the bandwidth and storage for this wonderful community. With that said, I would like to thank the following in no particular order:
AVS Staff
Ascend Acoustics
Blue Jeans Cable
craigsub
cschang
Epik Subwoofers
funkmonkey
gandarf
GIK Acoustics
Home Theater Shack/Room EQ Wizard
HSU Research
nuance
rnrgagne
Kal Rubinson
I am pretty much just a lurker around these parts, so if some of you are perplexed as to why you're on my list, it's because you may have answered one or two pm's awhile back and I'm greatly appreciative. I try not to forget all those who've helped me build my first home theater (hopefully I don't suffer a brain fart all of a sudden under pressure!). And while there are a few on this list that may not have communicated directly with me, the reason why you're acknowledged is due to your high visibility as regulars and proliferate posts from which I have thoroughly enjoyed learning all I can.
Whew... are you still reading.. Okay, here's what I've got to show and tell...
I really wanted to know how well everything melded together so today, I downloaded REW 4.11 for the first time ever and spent about 4 hours tweaking until I was able to produce the result you see above. I'm not sure if I did everything properly, but there it is. Comments, feedback and constructive criticism always welcome!
-Ron
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