First Sierra Tower Pro Review!

[davef]

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0312/sierra_tower_speaker.htm


Enjoy :D

[Leo95se]

Congrats! What a great review :)

[edmondwolfman]

That was a great review and truthfully, what I expected from the speakers. Now I need to read a review on the tower with the ribbon tweeter. Since the NrT tweet was a little forward for my very less than ideal listening area I'm very interested in the Ribbon Towers:D

[Jonnyozero3]

Congrats Dave & Co, that was a stellar review.

[steelbolz]

Hi Dave, shall we expect prices to go up now that the towers have been reviewed professionally?

[logicology]

I believe the current prices are still the pre-order prices. I thought a while back Dave said that the prices would go up after the first production run. I also thought I remember him projecting the wholesale price of the RAAL ribbons to go up soon. Glad I got my order in already. :)

[steelbolz]

lucky you!

[davef]

Hi Dave, shall we expect prices to go up now that the towers have been reviewed professionally?


I believe the current prices are still the pre-order prices. I thought a while back Dave said that the prices would go up after the first production run. I also thought I remember him projecting the wholesale price of the RAAL ribbons to go up soon. Glad I got my order in already. :)

I am happy to report that we have no plans to raise any pricing just yet. With the RAAL Ribbons, due to the high demand -- we ordered 2x the quantity so we were able to take advantage of slightly better volume pricing, which compensates for RAAL's price increase. In addition (and this is the major factor), at the time we placed our order -- the Dollar was quite a bit stronger against the Euro. I am concerned about fuel prices though, shipping from Serbia is a small fortune :(

We are also investigating another source of bamboo that promises to be slightly less expensive than what we currently source while offering the same or even better quality. The problem we face with bamboo is that the 4' x 8' panels are so expensive that, unlike MDF, we can't afford to throw away any panels so the quality of the batch must be perfect.

I estimate that we are good on current pricing for at least the next 3 months. :D

[davef]

That was a great review and truthfully, what I expected from the speakers. Now I need to read a review on the tower with the ribbon tweeter. Since the NrT tweet was a little forward for my very less than ideal listening area I'm very interested in the Ribbon Towers:D

It is somewhat hard to imagine without hearing it, but the RAAL ribbon is more relaxed and noticeably smoother, yet quite a bit more detailed. I can't imagine anyone ever describing it as forward -- it is practically invisible but the highs are all there :)

[RicardoJoa]

I am happy to report that we have no plans to raise any pricing just yet. With the RAAL Ribbons, due to the high demand -- we ordered 2x the quantity so we were able to take advantage of slightly better volume pricing, which compensates for RAAL's price increase. In addition (and this is the major factor), at the time we placed our order -- the Dollar was quite a bit stronger against the Euro. I am concerned about fuel prices though, shipping from Serbia is a small fortune :(

We are also investigating another source of bamboo that promises to be slightly less expensive than what we currently source while offering the same or even better quality. The problem we face with bamboo is that the 4' x 8' panels are so expensive that, unlike MDF, we can't afford to throw away any panels so the quality of the batch must be perfect.

I estimate that we are good on current pricing for at least the next 3 months. :D

Dave, got a question for you.
have you built the ascend sierra tower with MDF and compared to bamboo? Was using bamboo a significant improvement in sound quality over the MDF?

[logicology]

The bamboo offers extraordinarily low cabinet resonance. As Dave said back when the Sierra-1 was new, it basically makes the cabinet itself acoustically transparent.

[RicardoJoa]

I know bamboo is a much harder material then MDF and offers better control in resonance. My question is, is it significant over MDF with the same spec (thickness) on size . MDF though not as hard, still is pretty dense and hard material, other wise other speakers manufacture would not be using it.

[Mag_Neato]

Bamboo is costlier to purchase and, most likely, to work with.

Look at the upcharge from MDF to Bamboo on some of the Salk speakers. Significant. Can you imagine how much a CBM-170 would cost with a bamboo cabinet?

Premium materials command premium prices.

[logicology]

Read through this post (http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showpost.php?p=22500&postcount=1) regarding the bamboo cabinets.

[curtis]

Dave, got a question for you.
have you built the ascend sierra tower with MDF and compared to bamboo? Was using bamboo a significant improvement in sound quality over the MDF?
The first prototypes I heard were made from MDF in-house. I have not done a side by side listening, but Dave indicated he believed the bamboo construction would make a difference.

[curtis]

I know bamboo is a much harder material then MDF and offers better control in resonance. My question is, is it significant over MDF with the same spec (thickness) on size . MDF though not as hard, still is pretty dense and hard material, other wise other speakers manufacture would not be using it.
With bamboo, you can use less thickness and still do better than thicker MDF.

MDF is definitely a good material for speaker cabinets...there is nothing wrong with it. It is cheap, and works well. Bamboo is better, and more expensive.....and a renewable resource.

[RicardoJoa]

You know what i was thinking,
If Dave didnt think there was advantage he wouldn't be using it, and i do believe there were certain design goals he wanted to achieve in order to choose the drivers and materials and certain spec goals.
Please disregard my post, i was mainly curious if the money would be better spend on better drivers over bamboo cabinet.

[logicology]

The post I linked above explains in detail the reasoning behind the bamboo.