***The Official Ascend Acoustics Sierra Thread*** - Page 78

Yeah...that's one.

More here, but mostly about the visit:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post19119328

and a little bit more can be found in this thread after Aug. 29, 2010:
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/sho...5082#post35082

I created a new thread but figured I would post it in here as well.

Hey folks,
The WI audio boys are at it again. We plan to hold another little GTG auditioning my new Ascend Tower speakers among maybe some other speakers at my place in East Troy, WI.

We are shooting for Saturday April 2nd around 12:00.

Please let me know if you might be interested. I prefer to keep it geared towards speakers only so we do not have to worry about switching around cables, wires, amps, preamps, etc.

I will be running the speakers off my Parasound 2100 preamp and proceed Amp 3 using a squeezebox Touch as the source.

Please PM if you are interested in attending.

So far I know Nuance and TJHUB plan on attending again as well.
I will update this thread on what speakers will be here as the date gets closer. (Im trying to talk either nuance or TJHUB to bring their Salks along)...Hint....hint

Thanks,
Brandon

I've been looking into some new bookshelf cabinets, primarily the Dynaudio Focus 140. In my sifting of numerous reviews, posts, and comparisons, I've come to understand that the Sierra-1's are pretty much on par. The Nrts, even better yet, and still just over half the price! I would really love to hear a pair of these guys.

If anyone in the Philly area would like to consider auditioning me a pair, I would appreciate it greatly!

Send me a PM, and we'll build some rapport, and maybe we'll like each other. Hell! Maybe we'll become best friends! Or maybe you'll just want to show a fellow audio junkie your kick-ass pair of bookshelf monitors. I'll bring the six pack...

Andy

P.S. If you've had experience with the Dynaudio Focus 140 and / or the Sierra-1 (NrT included), please visit my thread here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1326390 and post if you like! Thank you!

If you have any reference, how could you compare the 340 to a lower end B&W speaker? Seems the 340 is a in the same general ballpark as the B&W 685 for price. I own 685s and the 684 tower ( I think that's the model.)

At high volumes on movies, my system seems harsh. I am wondering if the B&W speakers don't handle high power very well.

The 340 has a very high power rating for a bookshelf speaker. And I wonder if that makes it better for near reference level playback in movies, then my B&W setup. I was impressed with the speaker's specs and response curve ( I was pleased they were not doing any smoothing, and felt it was a pretty honest graph.)

In fact, I wish I had known about the 340, because it seems to be what I was looking for in the past - an efficient, accurate, high power bookshelf that goes an octave below 80hz(for seamless mating with a sub.)

You might want to try over in the Ascend SE Owner's Thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=629769

Anyone? Philly? Where's the brotherly love?!

Andy

Been mighty quiet in this thread, understandably so.
Be that as it may, I'm as excited as a kid at Christmas about my new Ascends!
Can't wait for them to get here.

I will return with my impressions after i have had them for a bit.

jenkzy

What kind of power is required with the Sierra-1s? I'm strongly considering buying these, but it will likely be AFTER I pick up a new receiver. I've been looking at the 110w Onkyo 709 or possibly stepping up to the Denon 3311 or 3312 with 125w per channel if the extra juice is really needed. My room is 3000cuft and while I don't crank it on a regular basis, I like high volumes occasionally for movies and music.

Any Sierra owners out there care to comment?

I have 3 Sierra-1's (L/C/R) plus 5 HTM-200's (L/R Heights, L/R surrounds, 1 rear surround) and a Seaton SubMersive sub. I use a Onk 3008 with very good results (though my room is smaller than yours, ~2200 cu ft), though it's probably overkill. If you're thinking of an Onk709--and like Onkyos--I would encourage that you consider a higher level Onk; will give you quite a bit more punch per $ than a Denon.

Nice setup. The 3008 would be awesome I'm sure, but it's significantly more cash than the 709 which has been down below $700 already. You say it's overkill so I'm trying to figure out what would NOT be overkill so I can save some money! Anyone using anything less powerful than the 3008?

i just have a pair of sierra-1s for now, the center will come soon, but i've been powering them w/ an onkyo tx nr-808 w/ no issues. the 709 should be fine...

The 709 I see is Select2Plus (the 3008 is Ultra2), so would probably be fine. The 3008 has been available for 1050 at times, though I'm not sure what it's going for at present; might be worth some research.

I'm currently running my Sierra 1s LCR with a Denon 1909 (90WPC). This is in approx. 3000 ft^3 room sitting around 10 feet away from the Center channel and around 12 feet from the Left & Right channels. I haven't found it lacking. I don't listen at ear splitting levels, usually at between -37db and -33db for music (2-channel) and around -28db for movies (5.1).

I run my sierras with an onkyo rc-180, which is in between the 707 and 807, although I think it has the same amp section as the 807.

UPS says they will be here tomorrow !!!

Hi Dre325,

I am actually running a set of L/C/R Sierra-1 off of an Onkyo 606 in my family room and have been very happy with the results. Our family room is a bit over 3200 cubic feet and completely open to the kitchen which adds another 2000 cubic feet.

Congratulations-I'm anxious to hear your thoughts. I was pretty excited when I got mine as well.

Thanks very much for the info (and to the others that jumped in as well). It doesn't sound like I'll have an issue with the receivers I've been looking at so that's great to hear.

My sierra LCR and two CBM-170ses arrived !!!
My oh my the piano black finish looks fantastic! well done Ascend!

Just ran the pioneer setup thingy and jumped right in.
Now these baby's are brand new I realize they will mellow with time, but i am
digging how they sound now!

I had Polk monitor 60s a cs2 center and 2 monitor 30s as surrounds along with a pioneer elite SC-37 and an outlaw LFM-1 plus.
Not a bad setup for a newcomer to this hobby, enter the Sierra's
WOW !!!
My pio sounds like it was meant to, the outlaw seems happy for SQ company
and my Lady thinks they look cool too!

to think, all this started with me buying a new tv for x-mas.
If I knew then what I know now, I would still be watching HULU on my laptop!
This stuff is very addictive, I find myself thinking about how long it will take me to save for a Seaton Submersive, YIKES!!!!

Seriously though, I will post more relevant impressions after i have had more time with the new system.
I will say this, when I was researching this company I kept worrying about
how the Sierra's would sound for HT, most of the very high (deservedly so) praise was focused on their performance with regards to music.
If anyone considering these speakers has that same concern, put it out of your mind!
These speakers handle blu ray, televison, dvd, music sacd with equal and tom me anyway effortless aplomb (did i actually say "aplomb")

Anyway, they Rock.

thank you Dave, Dina all the owners of ascend products for helping me make what i believe is one of the wiser choices i have made in my audio journey.


jenkzy

So true! I've thoroughly enjoyed my LCR Sierra's (now with the upgraded tweeter) plus 5 HTM-200's as surounds, Heights, and rear surround (1). And a yr ago or so I made the mistake of visiting a fellow Forum member's home here in the area and hearing his SubMersive (actually 4 of them, if you can imagine!). I just had to have one (just 1), and it is a great supplement to the Ascends.

It is our pleasure. Enjoy!!!!

Has anyone made the upgrade from the 340's to Sierras? What were some of the biggest differences besides more high end detail and ability to play lower?

I'm considering upgrading now that the sierras are on sale but I want to make sure the upgrade would be worthwhile. I need someone to give me a sales pitch on the Sierras.

My listening habits are 75% music and 25% games/movies. Also, I will be using a sub at all times so the ability to play lower really isn't much of an advantage to me.

Thanks in advance.

I don't own the 340SE, but I seriously considered them. I imagine the improvement would be overall clarity across the board, not in just the high region. I'm auditioning the Sierra-1s now, too, because of the sale, and I'm surprised at how it's picking up all the small, low-level details of recordings and the imaging is superb, and I already had great monitors.

From talking to other Ascend owners and reading posts, it seems if HT is your main thing, then the 340SE are recommended, but since it sounds like you do a lot of music listening as well, like me, then I would you definitely like the advantages of the Sierra-1, which of course can do HT well. The added clarity, detail and bass extension makes music listening so pleasurable. This is my 4th pair of audiophile speakers in the past 13+ years, plus listening to a lot of my friends various high-end speakers, and the Sierra-1s, by far, are my most favorite. It's surprising at how revealing they are without being fatiguing.

Plus if you have the Sierra-1s, you now have the option to further enhance them later with the NrT Tweeter Kit (once Ascend has them in stock again). I just have the stock Sierra-1s tweeters and I really think they are great as is, and this is coming from someone who usually likes the sound of metal tweeters instead of soft dome ones.

Here are a couple links to reviews of the Sierra-1 by former 340SE owners. In both cases, they elected to keep the Sierra-1s.

Ah...it looks like I'm not allowed to post links yet. Look in the forums at forum.ascendacoustics.com and in the review section, find the posts titled "Another new Sierra owner" and "CMT-340se + Sierra-1 + 30 Days"

Or copy and paste these urls.
forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=4073

forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=3576

Hope that helps.

Finally got my review of the NrT upgrade up on my blog, give it a read if you're a Sierra-1 owner considering the upgrade:

http://byrneweb.com/sunburn/blog/201...-1-nrt-review/

Very nice...

Thanks. I've been meaning to post that for months now...

Wasn't even aware of the NrT option. When are they going to start putting them in by default?

There are two different Sierra-1's....Sierra-1 and Sierra-1 NrT. The NrT version is not a replacement.

When are the NrTs going to be available? Don't see any info on the website.

Edit: Ah, found info in the news section.

What's the consensus on best crossover point for the sierra 1? I have mine set up with a rhythmik F15 coming from an hk3490 receiver. I don't have any bass management on the receiver so I'm using the 80hz high pass built in to the F15 looping back in to the receiver. Because of this I have no way to test anything but 80hz without spending more money on external high pass filters and hoping it sounds good.