Review on the Sierra Tower with Raal

[Fetguy]

I purchased these around the beginning of February. I have waited till now for all possible break in to occur on the drivers. All I noticed, in moving the speakers in and out of the system to compare to my previous references (Maggies, and the JBL 9800SE) was the top got smoother and silkier over time.
There was some basic DSP done for room EQ,summing to the sub, and over two weeks, very fine tuning for the flavour. Setting the room eq was quite a bit easier than the two acoustically large speakers. I have set up all sorts of speakers , up to $200k beasties, and...I got to say I enjoy these more than anything I have ever worked with. These, of course, are not the largest sounding speaker, but plenty large enough, giving up little to the Maggie. In volume they are not the loudest, but are capable of going louder than the Maggie, which is what I needed in a "delicate" sounding speaker. No, they do not compete with the horn in total dynanic range, of course not. But in my opinion they better the horns in microdynamics and tonality.
But what they do...ahh lovely voices with greater natural detail than either of the other speakers. Precision imaging with really good soundstaging. I love violins and guitars and, well, pretty much all instruments, on these babies. Jazz drums have lovely snap and ring
harps are insanely good. You guys know what I am going on about, I am just late to the party!

[billy p]

It's never to late to join. Having people share their experiences... with both past or present speakers alike...it assists others in drawing a conclusion on what could be a potential introduction to the Ascend family.

[Pogre]

We Sierra tower owners love reading good stuff about our speakers! I've heard Maggies but haven't spent a lot of time with them. I was very impressed tho. I know owners sure love them too. It's pretty cool reading about the Sierra RAAL Towers performing on par with, or even exceeding Maggies in a head on comparison.

Thanks for the review! I'm super happy with mine too!

[theophile]

FG,

Congrats on the Towers and thanks for your well written review!

I gather from your comments that you appreciate the Ascend Tower's Musicality!! Believe you describe well their "Live Presentation" attributes, with realistic, precise and accurate tonality!!

Great to hear your positive assessments, confirming other reviewer reactions and satisfaction...well done!

Ted

[Fetguy]

FG,

I gather from your comments that you appreciate the Ascend Tower's Musicality!!

Ted

Defininately! That is what I like the most, the way all the drivers work together to make the entire speaker works together in a musically coherent way. All that is to say I love what it does with all sorts of music. Santana, Celtic harp, piano, Nightwish symphonic metal, Chris Stapleton vocals, The Hu's throat singing, you name it. Everything is clearer, better, more emotional. Not by a tremendous amount, the other speakers are not slouches, but they're enough better that I am listening to everything I have anew!
Thanksk for the welcome folks!

[davef]

I purchased these around the beginning of February. I have waited till now for all possible break in to occur on the drivers. All I noticed, in moving the speakers in and out of the system to compare to my previous references (Maggies, and the JBL 9800SE) was the top got smoother and silkier over time.
There was some basic DSP done for room EQ,summing to the sub, and over two weeks, very fine tuning for the flavour. Setting the room eq was quite a bit easier than the two acoustically large speakers. I have set up all sorts of speakers , up to $200k beasties, and...I got to say I enjoy these more than anything I have ever worked with. These, of course, are not the largest sounding speaker, but plenty large enough, giving up little to the Maggie. In volume they are not the loudest, but are capable of going louder than the Maggie, which is what I needed in a "delicate" sounding speaker. No, they do not compete with the horn in total dynanic range, of course not. But in my opinion they better the horns in microdynamics and tonality.
But what they do...ahh lovely voices with greater natural detail than either of the other speakers. Precision imaging with really good soundstaging. I love violins and guitars and, well, pretty much all instruments, on these babies. Jazz drums have lovely snap and ring
harps are insanely good. You guys know what I am going on about, I am just late to the party!

Thank you for posting your thoughts! I am very happy to know that you are enjoying the ribbon towers!!