Originally Posted by
SunByrne
This isn't exactly a review, but rather it's testimonials—from someone other than me.
I got a promotion a few years ago but not the upgraded office because we didn't have any vacant corner offices. Someone finally moved out, and I got my corner office. To celebrate, I bought myself a new pair of Sierra-1s.
Turns out, showing them off is really fun.
I got the dark cherry and have them on an actual bookshelf, grilles off. One of my colleagues went speaker shopping with me when I got my first Sierras back in 2009 or so, and he was all excited once I had the Sierras set up in the new space. He'd heard them before but it had been years. He commented on how great they looked, and then I told him they were B-stock—he was flabbergasted. "They're flawless! How are these B-stock?" Ascend, I said, is pretty serious about QA.
His tastes are very 1970s so I fired up Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" and he was pretty effusive:
"Wow, I had forgotten how amazing these are. Each instrument is not only super-clear, but very distinctly placed in space. Not just left-right, but separated in depth as well."
The Eagles' "Hotel California" and Pink Floyd's "Money" pretty much brought down the house, so to speak. "There is no way you paid less than $700 for those" he was muttering when he headed back to his office.
A week or so later when another colleague wanted to see what I did with my new space he heard us talking about it and he yelled from his office "Show her the speakers!" Yep, already part of the plan.
First she looked at them carefully. "Those are beautiful" was her conclusion. So there you have it—if you're worried about WAF, get Sierra-1s in dark cherry. Then she looked at me. "I bet you measured, didn't you, and put the speakers in exactly the right spots?" Well, not quite, I said, as the room didn't let me put them exactly right, but they're as close as I could get. She nodded.
Anyway, I asked what she wanted to hear. "Oh, I don't know. I really mostly listen to classical." Then I remembered that she played the violin, so I fired up my favorite violinist, Janine Jansen, "Concerto No.2 "L'estate", RV 315; III. Presto" from the Four Seasons.
She sat and listened. I know her husband Alex is a high-end headphone junkie and audiophile so I wondered what she'd think. We listened for a minute and she turned to me "You know I play the violin, right?" I nodded. She went on:
"So, when you're playing, you can actually hear not just the violin, but the bow itself on the strings. Much more subtle. Except when actually at a live concert, I have never heard that before, not on any speakers or headphones. But I can hear it on this. That's amazing."
I nodded. We let the piece finish.
"Well," she said, "that's incredible. It's like listening to it live. I've never had that feeling that before. You know what the real problem is?" I shook my head, wondering what fault she had found. "You're never going to get any work done in here. How could you work when you could just sit back and listen to that?"
Well, I can manage, but yes, there will be some breaks from time to time that involve just listening. Then she asked the really telling question:
"What brand are these? I have to go tell my husband."
I told her, and just to make sure, the next day I emailed her a link to the Sierra-1 page. Here’s what I got back:
“They are not as expensive as I thought they would be. I might try to convince Alex to eventually get a pair for our home (they are amaaaazing!). �� I never thought I would encourage him to buy speakers!”
And that’s not even the real kicker. The speakers currently in her house? Zu Soul Superflys. You know, $4K per pair plus they’re 16 ohm monsters—not exactly the easiest to drive. But, apparently, not as resolving as the Sierras.
New Sierra-1s at work
Re: New Sierra-1s at work
