Anyone Upgraded from Sierra-1 NrT to Sierra Towers NrT? For movies. Any difference?

[Pianist718]

I currently run Sierra-1 NrT with a Rythmik f12 sub. Sound is great, BUT, could it be better?

I never turn up the volume to levels where speakers are really getting a workout but if there is a real difference someone heard after upgrading from Sierra-1 to Towers, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

I have a dedicated home theater with light acoustical treatment. Room is 22 x 14 approximately.

Thanks.

[davef]

I currently run Sierra-1 NrT with a Rythmik f12 sub. Sound is great, BUT, could it be better?

I never turn up the volume to levels where speakers are really getting a workout but if there is a real difference someone heard after upgrading from Sierra-1 to Towers, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

I have a dedicated home theater with light acoustical treatment. Room is 22 x 14 approximately.

Thanks.

There is a very large performance difference between our Towers and your Sierra-1 NrT, not just in volume capabilities and bass, but also in detail and dynamics. The dedicated midrange on the tower makes a significance difference and if you should decide to upgrade to the ribbon tweeters, also significant improvements in high frequency detail and imaging...

Send us an email or give us a call -- we would be happy to discuss in more detail. We have many hundreds of customers who have upgraded from Sierra-1 (various versions) to towers...

[N Boros]

There is a very large performance difference between our Towers and your Sierra-1 NrT, not just in volume capabilities and bass, but also in detail and dynamics. The dedicated midrange on the tower makes a significance difference and if you should decide to upgrade to the ribbon tweeters, also significant improvements in high frequency detail and imaging...

What is the difference between volume capabilities (how loud they can play) and dynamics?

[davef]

What is the difference between volume capabilities (how loud they can play) and dynamics?

The towers can handle more power and are also rated at 3.5dB higher sensitivity. This means that the towers will require a bit less than half of the power that the Sierra-1 NrT will require to reach the same power level.

There is no way to quantify "dynamics" using numbers - but the towers are quite a bit more dynamic.

[N Boros]

There is no way to quantify "dynamics" using numbers - but the towers are quite a bit more dynamic.

I have a good understanding what volume capabilities are, based off of maximum power handing and sensitivity. I thought that maybe "dynamics" were referring to dynamic range, which is slightly different. Dynamic range does factor in the volume capabilities, but the other end of things is how well the speaker can resolve details when it is quiet, in order to get a large dynamic range. This would be something that is sort of quantifiable. But, it sounds like "dynamics" are something different than this altogether.

[davef]

I have a good understanding what volume capabilities are, based off of maximum power handing and sensitivity. I thought that maybe "dynamics" were referring to dynamic range, which is slightly different. Dynamic range does factor in the volume capabilities, but the other end of things is how well the speaker can resolve details when it is quiet, in order to get a large dynamic range. This would be something that is sort of quantifiable. But, it sounds like "dynamics" are something different than this altogether.

In audio, dynamic range is typically used for amplifiers. It is a measurement from the amplifier's noise floor to the highest amount of output possible without clipping. This is rather easy to measure but for a speaker it is quite challenging as there are just far too many variables involved. Passive speakers don't have a noise floor, if they are not receiving a signal - they don't produce anything. As far as determining max output capabilities, since we are dealing with soundwaves rather than voltage - measuring max output is directly related to the acoustical environment the speaker is in so this spec is rather meaningless as it can vary wildly from one room to another. Max output will also vary per frequency further complicating things...

When we refer to dynamics of a speaker, it generally means the ability of the speaker to accurately reproduce soft to loud passages which will vary per frequency (unlike an amplifier). From a technical standpoint, I feel the more proper definition is transient accuracy, for which one can get a good idea of this performance by evaluating the impulse response of the speaker.

Measured anechoically, standards could be set for this type of measurement, comparing impulse response measurements at increasing volume levels until compression sets in at a given frequency, at which point, that would be the upper limit of that frequency and volume levels would not increase at that frequency. Doing this would be extremely complex and time consuming - but it could be done but still impossible to quantify with a specific number as it would vary per frequency. It would need to be evaluated using a 3D waterfall graph - something similar to our CSD graph we post, but quite a bit more complex showing each amplitude level measurement and the associated decay times vs frequency.

Of course, only reference quality electronics and microphones would need to be used for this type of comparison otherwise comparing one measurement to another would be rather useless as this type of measurement is quite sensitive to the capabilities of the microphone itself and testing gear... to make matter worse, unless testing in an actual anechoic chamber, the measurements would be limited to about 250Hz and higher.

So, while I think you do have a pretty good understanding of the term dynamics - hopefully you can see that is not something that is quantifiable.