I'm facing the same choice and am also struggling. Lots of negative reviews of SP on here and lots of positives for Marvin, but not many comparing SP's Aspen line. Have you gotten a quote yet, and determined the price difference?

At the end of the day the choice is yours but in my opinon and many people I know Marvin Ultimates are hands down one of the best wood clad windows available shy of 100% custom. And SP well, it is just a wood window, mediocre at best................

Right, that is the consensus on here with SP's lower end lines, but the Aspen 2.0 appears to be designed to compete with the Marvin Ultimate and there aren't many reviews of it one way or the other, so it would be useful if anyone who had the Aspen and decided between that and the Ultimate to chime in

I never heard of Sierra Pacific but I love my Marvin Ultimate windows. I live in Minnesota and they are located in Warroad, Minnesota if I recall!

what did you end up going with? I live in MN. And we are building in Eagle, Colorado. We are just now having to decide on windows and SP Aspen 2.0 are the architect and builders top choice. Interestingly, we have Marvins in our Minnesota home that was built 25 years ago and we've had to replace them all (wood double hung and casements). They were the highest end marvin available when we built. The sashes rotted. We did an addition 12 years ago, used the "new improved" clad exteriors in the casements and.... yep... still have rot issues after only 12 years. Suffice it to say, I'm starting to think nothing lasts more than 20 years, so why pay extra? Any others with this experience? (We, too, love the SP fit and finish and I think we'll be going with them -- though we also bid the Anderson 500 series and they came in slightly less than the SP's)

what Is the price difference with painting the Sierra’s? What are the differences in U-value, solar heat gain, air infiltration and PG ratings?

Seems perhaps most are not familiar with the Sierra Apen series, I for one am not.

We went with Marvin Ultimates---happy so far with how they look and function, but we haven't even moved into the house yet! They ultimately cost us about 8k more than the SP Aspen line across the entire house.

Toddinmn: i think you are right about people not being familiar with the SPs. I've done a lot of searching online trying to vet the SP Aspen 2.0 windows and it's hard to find actual homeowner/user info. I know that a LOT of the high end homes in the vail valley are using them. And our builder has used them in his 2 of his own homes going back about 8 years -- and he is a VERY particular, discerning and "high-end" guy. We trust him. I just wish my research could back it up better.

Marvin has great service and will stand by their product. Having said that- we have had serious issues with the flip locking doors on our sliders and the pull lock mechanism on front and back doors. Replaced three times! I would have gone with something different had I known. Looking at the Sierra to replace 35 year old Marvins in our New Mexico home. I think I am fine with staining myself. I will ask about pre-prime though in case we decide to paint them.

If you are looking for quality customer service out of S/P, be warned that that has never been their strong suite.

We installed a ton of Sierra Pacific in our 2020 new build. Great service from the arizona office. We had a couple of issues and they were quick and friendly. Also ours were custom stained by them. They completely disassembled them in the local warehouse, stained and varnished (the interiors) and reassembled before delivery. Perfect work. Wonder is service issues depend on the location?