We Saved The Best For Last!

[AR2ax man]

Well, all of my NrTs are disassembled, so no further listening tests can be done, but I'll try to flesh out what I wrote above.

In that room (an open concept first floor - a very compromised area) my impression was that I preferred the NrT towers overall to the Sierra-LX, but not by a lot. The mids on the tower seemed noticably better, but they were close on the rest, with a slight nod to the LX on the highs, at least when efficiency does not matter. I did not detect a large difference on the bottom end, but I did not push it.

But my NrT vs others impression should be taken with a grain of salt (which is why I left my impressions short in my previous post) - I was comparing one speaker of each type only, positions were different, SPL was not equalized, and I was mostly focused on comparing the Sierra-LX to the ELX Titan I had just upgraded from NrT, and at that time, mostly listening for "did I screw up the upgrade". And since my decisions were already made (and money spent), I spent, maybe, 30 minutes total doing this.

I will say I wired up a pair of Sierra-LX about 6 weeks ago, set them on top of the NrTs and at moderate volumes, in my large space, they sounded very good, especially for their size. But I did not bother with an equalization run, so the FR was certainly non-optimal (the Dirac filters were for the NrTs).

But this was mostly just a "quick and dirty" exercise. In my new space, the Sierra-LX are destined for surround duty with the upgraded ELX the LCR.

If your quandary is "replace the NrT with Sierra-LX or upgrade the NrT to ELX" I would strongly recommend the ELX upgrade path for music listening. It's the "no compromise" approach and unless you are strongly budget constrained, not that much more cost in the scheme of things for 2 speakers that should last you a long time. I try to think of long term items like these things on a "cost per year" basis and in that light, for me, it's a no brainer.

Thanks for the input!

[davef]

Got my 2012 vintage NrT towers and Horizon center upgraded to ELX Titan. Towers about 2 weeks ago, Horizon just yesterday.

Upgrade process:
1) Very smooth on my towers - the LX woofers fit without issue. My ~20 year old crappy soldering iron slowed me down on the first, but the replacement iron arrived before I did the second one and it went easier and no burns on my hands! Took about 75-90 minutes each.

2) My Horizon upgrade took a lot longer. There was ~0.5-0.7mm of interference between the LX woofers and the cabinet openings. With that much material to remove, I decided to take it off the woofers instead of the cabinet. I masked off each, and then held a random orbital sander w/ 80 grit perpendicular to the speaker face and then rotated the speaker around, sanding he OD of the cast frame as I went. Was slower on the first of course, probably spent 30-40 minutes to get a nice fit. That practice under my belt, the second one took about 20 minutes. Made a huge mess of aluminum so I did this outside. Fortunately we had a beautiful sunny 55 degree November day, not the typical cloudy, windy, 25 degree day with a chance of snow!

Positioning the crossover was also a PITA, I think I took 4 tries to get something I was satisfied with that also cleared that woofer. I probably spent about 3-3.5 hours net on this one speaker (there were several interruptions so it was not a solid block of time).

But it got done.

One tip: I was unable to work some of the woofers and mid speakers loose from the gasket/cabinet by hand. I ended up using a nail set - I have one where the back portion fits nicely in the counterbore for the screws, then I tapped it rotationally with a small hammer, applying a tangential rotation force. Once each speaker "broke loose" I was able to tip it up to get it out.

To test each speaker, I then used REW and did close mic sweeps of each driver, time gating them to about 5 ms to limit the influence of other sources. Each driver made the type of curve I would expect, hopefully indicating I did not botch anything.

I then measured each speaker full range at about 2m to see the total sweep. All 3 looked good.

After doing the first tower I compared:
1) OG NrT tower
2) ELX tower
3) Sierra-LX

My listening impressions confirmed what others have written. The little Sierra LX nearly matches the punchiness of the NrT, really lacking only a bit in midrance and efficiency. The full ELX towers are superb - clearly a step above the NrTs in every way.

I am still playing with positioning, sub blending, Dirac, etc. but I am getting flat bass down to ~30 Hz when running them full range near at least 1 boundary, and the -6db point in room is at ~20 Hz. Remember the graphs below are in room, so the wackiness < 120Hz or so are room modes.

Attachment 2707
Attachment 2708

edit: grammar

Well done!!! In-room measurements follow general trend and look good. Enjoy!!!

[alkilpatrick1]

Well I guess I bit on that true end-game speaker quote. I placed my order yesterday for the natural ELX towers. I will be anxiously waiting on their arrival. This is by far my most expensive single stereo component purchase. I'm sure they will look great and sound even better in my happy hour listening room.

Cheers

[racrawford65]

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll enjoy them. IMO, well worth every penny! Speakers should be a significant portion of your system.

[alkilpatrick1]

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll enjoy them. IMO, well worth every penny! Speakers should be a significant portion of your system.

Thanks, I'm really really looking forward to receiving them. I had been wanting some higher end speakers for a while. I'm sure it will be a good step up from the Sierra 2 EX's.

[davef]

Well I guess I bit on that true end-game speaker quote. I placed my order yesterday for the natural ELX towers. I will be anxiously waiting on their arrival. This is by far my most expensive single stereo component purchase. I'm sure they will look great and sound even better in my happy hour listening room.

Cheers

Thanks so much for getting the order in. You are in for a real treat

[alkilpatrick1]

David,

Would you recommend any isolation feet for these on a marble floor?

[James]

We have hardwood floors, not marble, so that may be a meaningful difference. And the older Sierra Towers with NrT tweeters. But we just recently removed the bases, and installed these directly under the speakers:

1-1/16-Inch Threaded Stem Furniture Glides, 1/4-Inch Stem Diameter, Metal Base with Rubber Cushion, 4-Pack – Shepherd Hardware

It made a surprisingly noticeable improvement in a number of ways. And they were cheap and easy to get at a local Menard's.

Here's an interesting article that may be useful:

Speaker Spikes and Cones – What’s the point? | Audioholics

I tried to find the Keith Howard article with measurements that's mentioned, but can't find it.

[billy p]

David,

Would you recommend any isolation feet for these on a marble floor?

https://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sh...1983#post71983
OR
https://a.co/d/3bto8xj




Obviously, each individual basis varies...lots of owners used varying designs from outriggers to Iso Acoustics...etc...for many its aesthetics and to lesser extent offering damping solutions to room by isolating any bass transfer within the room.

[alkilpatrick1]

Thanks for the replies and ideas. I had a 10 year old SVS sub that the rubber feet were disintegrating and sticking to the floor. I purchased a set of the SVS Soundpath feet and those feet really helped to clean up the bass. So there must be something to the isolation feet and choosing the right one for the application. I couldn’t read in the specifications what kind of feet came with these speakers but I read somewhere else that spike feet were provided. I have looked a lot of different options and I’m leaning towards the Gaia III’s. They are expensive and the best price I’ve found is 140 bucks for 4. So for around 300 they look like they would be a good choice for my application.