Sierra-1 V2 review
I don't know that there's a lot that hasn't already been said about this speaker. Subjective reviews have certain limitations and this has already gotten the objective treatment from both Erin and Amir, so we all know this is a great-measuring speaker for under $1000. Basically the only thing Erin didn't love about them was the bass, which I think is reasonable—more on that in a bit. But, you know, news flash: linear in-room response sounds good. (Honestly as much as I appreciate those kind of numbers, I still think there's something about detail retrieval/transient response that isn't quite captured by this, but if the in-room response is bad, I don't think it matters. Fortunately while the Titan tweeter isn't a RAAL, it's still great on that score. But I digress.)
I think what I can add here is how I think they sound relative to the other bookshelf Sierras and how they fit into the lineup from a customer perspective. Why am I qualified to do that? Because I've owned literally every iteration of the Sierra bookshelf line at one time or another. I own four sets of Sierra cabinets and none of them currently house the internals that were initially shipped to me. I have LXs, 2EXs, original Sierra-1s, and now S1V2s (which were put into cabinets that used to house Sierra-1 NrTs).I know and love these bookshelf bamboo beauties. I will note that it took me about 30 minutes total to upgrade the pair of these without once consulting the instructions. (Funny story: Dina called me to tell me that they were delaying shipping the upgrade kits to me because Dave insisted that instructions be included. I reminded Dina that I've probably done this more than anyone who doesn't actually work at Ascend and could maybe do it blindfolded. She laughed, but sent instructions anyway. I never looked at them.)
Just for a point of comparison, here's the old NrT crossover on the left and the S1V2 crossover on the right:
crossovers_1v2.jpg
The V2 crossover is HEAVY. Apparently what the Klippel told Dave is "crossovers must have more mass." For some reason I wasn't expecting woofers in the upgrade kits because the V2 woofers look from the outside just like the V1 woofers but yes, the woofers are upgrades as well. There's no obvious visible differences between the woofers, but my guess is that the motors inside the housings are different (better). They certainly deliver more bass, which is consistent with that guess.
Having read all the reviews and looked at the measurements, I had a pretty good idea what to expect when I turned these on, and they matched my expectations pretty much spot-on. Confirmation bias? Could be, but I've had Ascends that didn't quite live up to my expectations (Duo V1s) and others that have exceeded them (in particular the LXs), so that's not always the case. (I'll note that the V2 upgrade of the Duos gave me what I was hoping for so now I'm a happy camper there.)
Anyway, what the 1V2s sound like to me is, not surprisingly, little brothers of the LXs. That's actually high praise from me because I absolutely love the LXs. I could go on at length about that but I already did that in my LX vs. EX comparison. To my ears the 1V2s match the LXs in detail and soundstage/imaging, but lack the bass extension and mid-bass slam of their big brothers. With a good subwoofer in the mix these are awfully close to the LXs. I'd still give the edge to the LX because of a little more clarity and oomph in the midrange but the difference is decidedly small. Crossed over at 80Hz these are 90–95% of the LX for 65% of the price. Without a sub the bass performance of the LX makes them just unquestionably better than the little brother.
A little more on the bass performance of the 1V2 is warranted. I used to not care quite as much but since I started playing bass about five years ago I've gotten a lot more discerning about bass performance. The 1V2 is a decided improvement over the original Sierra-1, no question about that, but it is most certainly not the LX. I gave a lot of kudos to the original S2EX when those first came out for having markedly better bass than the original Sierra-1, better even than the original Sierra-2, but they still don't measure up to the LX. The 1V2s don't measure up to the LX either, but honestly I think they're about on par with the 2EX. They maybe play a little lower than the 2EX but aren't quite as well-defined (again, I'd say the difference is pretty small), so it's a bit of a wash. Ten years ago this would have been stunning bass for a bookshelf speaker, but by current standards they are merely very good—just not LX good. (Honestly someone should send a pair of LXs to Erin just so he can hear the speaker that addresses his one quibble with the 1V2.)
So, if you're running a 2.0 system, I'd say spend the extra for the LXs. This is especially true if you're upgrading from another Sierra bookshelf, since a pair of LX upgrades is $900 and a pair of V2 upgrades is $620. Less than $300 for the bass performance of the LXs is worth every penny in a 2.0 system. I also highly recommend the 15-band EQ adjustment from spinorama.org for the LXs (the 7-band one is a bit heavy-handed). I haven't tried that for the S1V2 yet.
If you're buying new for, say, a 5.1 HT system while I still think the LXs are better, I'd actually probably go with the V2s. Two pairs of LXs plus center is $3884, while two pairs of V2s plus center is $2484. That $1400 difference is almost exactly the price of a Rythmik E15 sub. Coincidence? I think not. You'll lose a tiny bit in the mids this way but the loss is quite small. When Dave releases the Titan-based version of the Duos, this pair of 1V2s will, in fact, be headed to surround duty in my primary HT system. These just seem like a no-brainer great deal for HT speakers. (Let me just say that I think a 5.1 system with 1V2s and an E15 would beat just about anything out there in a bang-per-buck comparison. Were I starting from scratch and had the room for it, I would buy that system in a heartbeat.)
What about the 1V2 vs the 2EXV2? As I've said here many times, I still like the LX better than the EX for most things. The EX really shines with acoustic material and if that's your main thing, then get the EX. If I listened to pure classical, I'd take the EX. But for more general listening and for HT, I'd take the LX over the EX. But of course this is about the 1V2, not the LX. While I think overall the 2EXV2 is a better speaker, for a lot of applications it's not much better. It's 170% of the price of the 2EX and I don't think it commands that much of a markup for a lot of people. For HT I would take the 1V2 over the 2EX even if there was no price difference. For rock/funk/pop/hip-hop/EDM/more electric jazz, I would not spend the extra for the 2EX. If the majority of my listening were classical/acoustic/less electric jazz then I'd be tempted to spend the extra money—there is still something special about the RAAL tweeter for that kind of music.
But really, the Sierra-1 V2 is an absolutely killer speaker for the price. Kudos to Dave for another home run!
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