The 2EX has decent measurements, amazing for them to publish the Spinorama. Would love to see a Spin of the ~$2900 towers w/RAAL.
EDIT: Noticed the 2EX Spin uses a 60dB window, whereas the standard calls for 50dB, so it looks a bit more linear.
Sadly, the measurements posted by them do not seem to match well to the actual measurements. Given the Luna's were supposedly developed over a year and the bass driver was supposedly custom from SEAS they had to be aware of these issues. Here are some of Dave's posts over nearly a year of the "development":
"Spent much of the weekend developing the preliminary crossover which then allows me to truly listen to the Sierra Sat. I was hoping for a less complex crossover than the Sierra-2, but at this point, that doesn't seem like it will be possible.
As it stands right now, the speaker measures well with fantastic transient accuracy and really unbelievable horizontal off-axis dispersion, thanks in part to the very narrow cabinet and smaller woofer. To get the needed warmth, efficiency will come in at an honest 84-84.5dB anechoic. Phase integration between the drivers is terrific and the speaker can easily be used as close to a listener's ear as they like -- even 6 inches away. Nominal impedance is a very easy 8ohm load with benign phase angles. No doubt the speaker will like some power, and power handling is excellent. I ran a single sat full range with deep bass tracks and hit 93dB at 12 feet back in a very well damped room. Our own HTM-200SE could not keep up with this. Crossed at 80Hz in a typical room, max spl is going to be crazy for a speaker this size.
Listening....
I expected to listen for an hour or two last night, and that session ended up being over 4 hours long and set me behind in half a dozen other tasks. Not a problem though as I left the office with a HUGE smile on my face
Since the start, I have been concerned if this would end up being a product we can actually sell. No doubt, it is going to be an expensive speaker - basically the same component costs as the Sierra-2. We have already invested a lot of time and expense into the Sat and last night was the time for me to make the call to either push forward or hang it up. Well, the good news is that was a very easy decision to make - the SAT was literally addicting to listen to. It is basically a Sierra-2 without that same level of dynamics and deep bass.
When we were investigating other high performance speakers similar to this size, I used our HTM-200SE as the benchmark and after every comparison, I came away much preferring our 200. In fact, I would say our 200's flat out crushed the competition in every performance category. In comparing the SSR (sierra sat ribbon) to the 200, the SSR crushed the 200 in every performance category, even in bass, which is something I had hoped for but didn't actually expect. Run full range, bass response comes in at somewhere between the 170 and 200. It is a bit shocking to hear some deep bass from a speaker this size but this amazing woofer combined with the complex porting worked perfectly.
Compared directly to its big brother, it is a perfect timbre match. The SSR won't measure quite as flat as the Sierra-2, but that is not the goal for this speaker. I am actually really excited to have a listen once again as the detail, musicality, unbelievable transparency (the speaker completely disappears) and the overall amount of sound coming from this little box is shocking...
All that said, we are not there just yet... From here I have to optimize the crossover and then figure out some way to fit the components onto a PCB that can actually fit into the cabinet. That is going to be a challenge as there is very little room in there.
Here is a pic from late last night... Maybe I will do a boom boom pow video again, lol."
Another post:
"The woofer we will be using in the Sat is exceptional and I am not sure if a better one even exists for this purpose. The moving mass of this 4.5" will actually be less than that of the dedicated mid in the tower - while still providing surprising bass extension. This little woofer basically uses the same magnet size as the woofer in the Sierra-2, and by going with a custom Curv woofer cone, we further lower the moving mass (by nearly 2 grams!) yet improve internal damping, and there is almost no cone breakup modes. The motor force is ridiculous for this size woofer, thus transients are exceptional.
As an example, like with the 6" in the Sierra-2, this 4.5" has lower moving mass than any of the 4.5" EXCEL woofers and even the 4" Scan woofers.
This woofer, being significantly smaller than the Sierra-2, is actually going to cost us the same $$ amount per unit as the S2 woofer. This woofer is really the key to make this speaker happen and in no way does this woofer choice have anything to do with trying to reach a specific price point. I have actually been evaluating several lower cost woofers in an attempt to lower manufacturing costs, but each one presents a compromise. Either we lose bass extension, such that would require a 100 or 120Hz crossover, or we lose midrange performance, or we lose significant efficiency.
While I fully understand the continuous hunt for something better, I myself am plagued with this disease, we can likely only slightly improve one parameter of this woofer, while actually hurting other equally significant performance parameters. I simply and honestly can't find anything better for this application, which is precisely why we are going custom made.
I think you will find the mids on this speaker to be shockingly good...."
Another:
"I am hoping to receive the final prototype woofer next week, as well as the final crossover sample by June 10th. If both of these items have my approval, we will start production. Once in production, I would estimate 8-10 weeks before we can start shipping. Please understand I really hate giving estimated time frames as I think this somewhat, subconsciously, pushes me to release a product sooner than I am comfortable with - something we have never done and never will"
And another:
"Been a rough day at the office today...
Having said that, I received some good news today from SEAS's chief engineer Håvard. Another set of sample woofers are now ready and with these, as mentioned previously - we went with a newly formulated higher loss natural rubber surround combined with a cone that uses a combination of a low compliant weave with a higher compliant weave for the dust cap. The initial test results that have been sent to me are perfect - even better than both I and Håvard had expected.
This performance report shows even better performance compared to the initial samples sent to me, for which I designed the Luna around, and which we were just trying to match since SEAS had changed surround vendors since the original samples were made.
Of course, I still need to test them and I am generally more critical than SEAS is - but according to the tests they took - the issue I was having with the samples, even testing many various iterations of surrounds from this new vendor, has been completely resolved, not only resolved - but even better now. I have literally lost count of how many samples we have gone though...
These will be on their way to me by air tomorrow and I should have them sometime next week. If all goes well, and I now fully suspect it will - purchase orders will be placed for all Luna components within 2 weeks. I honestly don't have an estimated release date - assuming this version of the woofer is perfect, based on experience, I would guess 2 1/2 - 3 months, possibly slightly sooner or it could be longer.
This has been challenging, frustrating and exhausting and I was getting close to shutting this project down and refocusing our resources. However, we will soon have another speaker in our Sierra line that is going to be unmatched and a true engineering feat, possibly even my proudest, in the sense of achieving this level of performance in a speaker this small and what we had to go through to get there.
Like all of our products, there is not a single component in the Luna that is not fully custom to us. In fact, for this woofer - both the cone, surround, former and voice coil have been custom designed for us by both Håvard and little old me (and I stress old)
Fingers are crossed but I am fully confident we are finally there!!
Also hope to have the final prototype pair completed by the end of next week - so if anyone local to us wants to come have a listen, just let me know..."
And the final design:
"I typed up my scribble notes for my listening session last night. Can’t get much work done today as I just want to enjoy these little speakers.
Sierra Luna listening session notes: 10/27
Started at 10pm, expected to finish by midnight but I found myself having so much fun with these little guys that I ended up listening to them for 6 hours straight.
Fun – what an absolute fun pair of speakers. Run full range, no sub – very surprising bass and dynamics. Throws a HUGE soundstage with pinpoint imaging – easily equal to the imaging of Sierra-2. Vocals are just a touch more forward, which is good because these cabinets are so tiny.
Very real feeling of awe, this much dynamic room filling sound from something so small. Completely fills the demo room with extreme ease. LOUD – hit 99dB with boom boom pow at 11 feet distance with no audible compression to my ears, suspect can push 3dB-6dB louder but don’t want to risk damage to this set.
Direct A/B with HTM-200, Luna bests the 200 in every category. Deeper and even more defined bass which I was aiming for but didn’t actually expect to get there, considering the 200’s sealed enclosure and significantly larger cabinet volume. 200’s sound small with more of a flat wall of sound, Luna’s sound large and a completely enveloping sound. Easier to listen to than the 200's yet with so much more detail - recording venue ambiance comes though easily with Luna, inaudible with 200's. Male vocals are guttural and engaging, 200's sound a bit flat in this regard. Not really fair comparison due to cost differences, but the 200's easily bested every other similar sized speaker I tried and I just don't have anything to compare to, Luna's simply demolish the 200's.
So much fun listening to these—
Direct A/B with Sierra-2 crossed at 80Hz with F12 sub, with eyes shut, having a difficult time determining which speaker is playing. Luna’s about 2 – 2.5dB less efficient (likely meet 84dB sensitivity spec) Sierra-2 perhaps just a tad bit smoother vocals at very loud levels, Luna’s are slightly more forward. Timbre matching is dead on. Luna woofer is very impressive.. Sheffield Labs drum track demo sounds fantastic –clean, fast and completely transparent – speakers disappear. Audioslave sounds great -- everything is easy to listen to.
Perfect balance between efficiency, bass response, transient accuracy is achieved. I feel to make any possible improvement to one specific performance area would result in too much compromise to another aspect. Have never heard anything with this level of performance in such a small cabinet."
The tuning and design of the port are "intentional":
"The Luna's woofer and cabinet is specifically designed for the exact port tune we are using (~60Hz) Changing the port tune (higher or lower) is not recommended and would only compromise performance."
It is sad, it seems the more of these companies we see, the more that it is apparent, they are really very sophisticated as selling their story and hooking the customer, but not so good on the execution.