Introducing the Sierra-2EX!!!
Sierra-2EX !!!
A little over 3-years ago on his annual visit with us, Claus Futtrup (CTO at SEAS Norway) introduced us to a new super high end diamond tweeter, called the White Diamond. I was extremely impressed with this tweeter and requested that SEAS build us up a matching cost-no-object woofer based on specific parameters to meet our performance goals.
About a year later after many samples, we had our new woofer and we started building and selling custom Sierra Diamond speakers. This is all detailed on our forum in this thread: http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sho...iamond-Tweeter
The performance of this speaker was astonishing, but customers as well as those who auditioned our Sierra Diamond noted that as impressed as they were with the diamond tweeter, the woofer was equally impressive. I fully agreed. The midbass punch, bass extension, midrange detail, frequency response linearity, and overall dynamics was the best I had ever come across in a woofer this size, and even compared to many larger woofers.
Our own customers started to inquire about using this woofer in many of our designs, including our most successful speaker to date, our award winning Sierra-2. Problem was, being a true custom build - each of these woofers was being hand made for us by SEAS’s engineering team. These had never been mass produced and then there was the issue of cost. Our EX woofer is part of SEAS’s Excel line, using an optimized version of the venerable W16 motor system – customized to best match a new specially treated Curv woofer cone. Retail pricing on W16 woofers is typically in the range of $280 and up. While we pay less than that for volume purchases, our EX woofer is a purely custom build compared to the stock W16, thus retail pricing is even higher.
We were left with some daunting challenges. Will SEAS be able to reliably mass manufacture these woofers (they were not sure) and how would we be able to use this woofer in our Sierra-2 without a rather dramatic price increase?
As a company, we have always tried to give our customers and fans what they ask for – this is a major advantage of selling direct – we get to communicate directly with all of our customers. Upon witnessing the massive amount of interest in a Sierra-2 with this woofer, I became fully committed to make it happen. SEAS went to work on optimizing manufacturing processes and parts procurement – while we committed to purchasing a large enough supply to make it beneficial for both SEAS and Ascend, and get the per unit pricing down to as low as possible, a true win-win.
As we now enter our 20th year of business and in celebration of this milestone –
This woofer brings a few things to the table...
The Excel motor systems are known for having extremely low inductance; this woofer has less than half the inductance of the standard S2 woofer, which is already low. This combined with a significant reduction in moving mass, 22% lower to be exact, and a more powerful magnet system provides exceptionally deep bass and much improved transients and dynamics.
This woofer hits hard - there is more punch and bass extends lower than much larger woofers. Even with an 80Hz crossover, listeners will sense the greater impact due to the enhanced midbass.
The extremely low inductance combined with a new damping treatment being used on the Curv cone provides improved self-damping (which is already superb with the S2 woofer and why we chose the Curv cone in the first place) and greater high frequency extension and detail.
The huge copper phase plug improves off-axis dispersion, greatly reduces any beaming, works in conjunction with the pure copper upper and lower Faraday rings to reduce distortion, linearize magnetic flux and improve power handling and thermal compression by acting as a massive heat sink...
In simpler terms, mids are cleaner - smoother sounding with more weight to them (they sound warmer, fuller with more detail). Because of the upper end improvements, we can use a steeper high pass filter slope on the tweeter, easing the workload on the ribbon tweeter which in turn increases power handling, lowers distortion and provides for an even better overall blend between the woofer and tweeter.
The Sierra-2EX sounds like our Sierra-2, but is warmer/fuller, cleaner (especially at louder volume levels), more musical and with rather shocking dynamics. And, if run full range - the bass response seems to defy the laws of physics -- it is tower-like. In direct A/B comparisons with speakers using very high quality larger woofers, the EX woofer hit harder and deeper. I have never actually heard a bookshelf speaker with this kind of bass response before...
The Sierra-2EX improves upon every performance aspect of the Sierra-2 and the measurements are outstanding!
We are excited to release the Sierra-2EX, and in celebration of our 20th Anniversary – we are introducing the speaker at an incredible price.
For Sierra-2 owners who wish to upgrade, we also have an upgrade “kit” available.
And for more good news, Sierra-2EX is already in production and shipping!
The Sierra-2EX is a benchmark product and thanks to the feedback and inquiries from all of you – we fully committed ourselves to making it happen and we could not be any more pleased with the results.
Enjoy!
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Originally Posted by cgramer
