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Originally Posted by
Martycool007 
Does anyone know how a pair of Sierra-1 Nrt's would compare in sound quality and general overall sound to the Sierra Towers? I would expect the top end (being that they both share the same Nrt tweeter) to be equal on both. I would also assume that both of these speakers would be equally revealing, as well as having an equal sound stage and imaging characteristics, and also, I would expect that they would both provide equal detailing. I would also assume that the main differences in sound quality between the two, is in the bass responce and possibly in the mid range. Are my assumptions correct?
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In theory, our goals for this loudspeaker were quite simple, create a compact floorstanding loudspeaker with performance that rivals and even surpasses some of the most highly regarded loudspeakers at any price. Our Sierra-1 bookshelf has proven to be a huge success and has far exceeded our expectations with regard to happy customers and positive reviews. Thousands of pairs later, there can be no doubt that our design formula works so our direction was clear – turn the Sierra-1 into a full range floorstanding loudspeaker while also improving upon every performance aspect.
A full 2 ½ years later, we are proud to formally introduce our flagship product ...
Featuring our exclusive fully custom neodymium ring magnet tweeter built for us by SEAS, the NrT provides high frequency extension to 28kHz with exceptional transient response. It provides crisp and airy highs with effortless dynamics and many layers of detail.
Our midrange driver is housed in its own dedicated critically damped sealed enclosure within the cabinet and is designed to reproduce the critical midrange response. By isolating the midrange from the rest of the drivers, intermodulation distortion is greatly reduced and detail and separation between individual instruments is greatly improved.
Our dual 5 ¼” long throw woofers handle the low end but don’t let the small size fool you, these woofers provide exceptionally tight and accurate bass reproduction well into the mid 30Hz range. Bass and mid-bass response are well balanced with surprising punch. The woofers hit hard and dig deep when required, but due to low stored energy and very low inductance levels, they can also be detailed and subtle when need be, without glossing over the subtle notes that large diameter higher mass woofers can often miss.
The above quote is a cut and paste from the Ascend website. Marketing hype can often times be misleading at best, or downright BS depending on the company. Ascend is not one of those types of companies, everything in the above quote is true, and accurate. Dave is not one given to exaggeration, he is as open, honest, and fully transparent a soul as exists in the speaker industry.
Being a three way design, with a great amount of attention bestowed upon the midrange in particular compared to the Sierras, this would be the area that most separates the two speaker lines. Also worth mentioning, with about three times the total volume, and driver area compared to the Sierras, dynamic capabilities of the Towers also exceeds the Sierras by a fair margin IMHO. Coupled with a good sub (or multiples depending on room size) providing the lowest frequencies, they do an awesome job with movie soundtracks.
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