Re: Ascend Sierra Tower (Raal) vs Revel F208
Originally Posted by
Asliang
As far as response above 20K, theres not much point having a speaker go well over 20k...and adult humans dont typically hear well above 16k anyway. Theres also the issue of their cone material, which is aluminum and typically starts breaking up at 23KHz on a 1" dome. Im sure they intentionally rolled off the tweeter at Revel to avoid that spike.
As far as I understand, All domes (Soft, Aluminum, Titanium, Beryllium, Diamond) share one common problem...breakup frequencies. In order to obtain full extend and accurate "Audible" listening comfort that isn't affected by these breakup frequencies (manifested in brightness, edginess, harshness, colorations, fatigue, etc), control of these in-audible frequencies is best achieved by designing their points at or above 30K, or at best an octave above the 3db down-point of the HF transducers flat radiating curve. The best designed systems easily play flat well beyond what you or I can hear (35K to 50K+), insuring that the BF resonates into the system response that is unnoticeable by any human hearing.
At 62, my hearing still extends out beyond 18K, with 1K-12K sensitives at or below 0 DB. In the early 70's I owned horns and quickly migrated to the smoother, more extended listen-ability of soft domes. However, even Aluminum and Beryllium domes create long term listening fatigue for me, even at moderate levels. On Monday the 6th, I'll be receiving the Sierra 2's with RAAL's that have no BF, thus no affected audible issues in the extreme top end! Comments and observations from owners, like openness, airiness and ease of listen-ability, with extreme focused sound-staging and imaging, are what has attracted me to the Ascend RAAL S2's. All of this plus the excellent products that Dave and AA has historically offered to those willing to take the plunge!
I'll soon have the Sierra 2's in a 2.1 90sf intimate music room, and you the towers. If the RAALs offer that open, natural, effortless and smooth top end that I've read about, I'm going to have to Re-listen to all the excellent recordings I've collected and recently invested in All Over Again!!!
Ted
Sierra RAAL V2 Towers, Axiom EP 500 Sub, Morrow SP7 Grand Reference Speaker Cables, Phillips CD880 XLR Balanced Variable Line Output to Orchard Audio Strakrimson 375w/per ch Stereo Ultra GaNFET Amp..... (Dedicated 2.1 Acoustical Music Listening Room)!