**The Official Seaton Sound Speaker Thread** - Page 14

A prominent theater designer has recommended Triad in ceiling Bronze LCRs to mate with my front three cat 12s. You might want to check those out.

Hi hifiaudio2

One of the member ( Art ) who has Cats LCR and TRiad set up told me that the triad is the weak link in his system.

Well that doesnt sound good. I will ask Art about it. Thanks.

Art has the little bronze surrounds from probably 8+ years ago. The Bronze surrounds are very different than the LCRs. The InCeiling speakers are much more capable, but a pair of sealed 5.25" woofers shouldn't be expected to keep up with a Catalyst 12C. Fortunately when surrounds are much closer to the listener they don't need to be quite as powerful. If they are 1/2 distance of the main speakers you can save 3-6dB in required output for the same level at the listening area. The InCeiling Bronze LCRs are a plenty reasonable application choice when appropriate. The Triad Gold surrounds are significantly more capable.

As some mentioned, the Klipsch THX Ultra2 series have some fairly capable surrounds, even if the specs are a bit ambitious on the efficiency. The larger

Personally I prefer direct radiating/very wide dispersion surrounds over dipole surrounds unless you are right on top of the surrounds or back against the wall, but that certainly doesn't mean they can't result in good sound.

JTR has the S8-HT/LP & Slant-8 which are also good choices for passive surrounds which are available and much more capable than more traditional hi-fi options.

As I have confirmed a few times on my own forum, we will be expanding the Catalyst family to include 2 surface mounted speakers this year, but don't expect to see too much info on those until they are a few weeks from delivery.

Really looking forward to the new seaton products coming out... Hopefully soon!

Hi Mark...

Would you say the same for Klipsch RS-62 II surround as compare to Klipsch THX Ultra2 being a capable surround for catalysts?

Mark-
It appears from the reviews up so far your catalysts 12's impressed quite a number of people not only for HT but music also congrats! I had no doubt they'd perform up there in music with the salks and others. Can't wait to here them for myself along with your new addition the 8ST..... these are what i'll be saving for

Okay, I'm about to drop a 9 grand deposit on 3 Catalyst 12Cs for left, center and right channels, and 2 Submersive HPs. I have never spent this much on audio equipment before and didn't think I would spend this much on audio equipment (although I've always dreamed about it lmao). I am both extremely excited and a bit nervous at the same time. Everyone, MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!!!! LOL Get rid of the little nervousness I have. I think what it is, I've never heard anything in the league of the Cat 12Cs. Hell, the most expensive home audio speakers I've heard was the Martin Logan Theos 8" in Magnolia home theater at best buy and they blew me away. A Chris Botti Concert was playing on them and the sound of the trumpet was so crystal clear and dynamic. The difference between pianissimo and fortissimo made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. The sound I thought was awesome. I'm sure the Cats would probably even embarrass those. I'm quite giddy at the moment lol

I'm completely envious of you right now no regrets man... Your gonna love them. Just think of it like this, your probably saving money in the long run cause I think you found the system that cures the want/need to upgrade. That it except for a quad pack of sparks and a couple more HP's congrats and enjoy

Lmao thanks, thats what I want to hear!!! Keep em' comin' lol.

Yeah, that's in the works lol. I want to eventually add 4 sparks as side and rear surrounds. Hopefully something like a slanted spark comes out, or something similar in design to the slanted 8 by JTR. That design is really good for my room with side surrounds.

Hopefully 2 HPs is enough, but I know as you get used to it, you want more and more lol

I love watching movies already on my Marantz receiver/Paradigm set-up. I can't imagine what this will be like lol.

The room the Seaton set-up will be going in is a dedicated theater room, so there will be acoustic treatments done to the room. I'm certainly gonna have to recover some money before I do that, but the room will certainly have treatments done. Only problem is, I don't know what the hell I'm doing when treating a room lol. I've already e-mailed Bryan at GIK acoustics and he's made some good suggestions. Sometimes I just wish I can have somebody come and check out the room in person.

I built my own speakers generally designed around the 12C's, meaning 2 high quality 12's with a high quality Coax in the middle. They sound fantastic and have nowhere near the refinement or attention to detail that the Cat's do. They use high quality drivers but not quite the level of the Cat's. They also use high quality amps but not quite the level of the Cat's.

The point is if mine sound great, yours will sound much better. IMO, this is a purchase that won't have to be made again so stop worrying .

However, you are right that you may not think 2 subs is enough. I started out with 1 sub (not Seaton), and now have 5 (DIY). My bank acccount says that's enough.

Disclaimer: I am NOT saying my speakers are as good as the Cat's. I am actually saying that they are not. But I cannot afford the Seatons so I did the next best thing for me. I thank Mark Seaton and Jeff Permanian for introducing me to this style of speaker.

Hope this helps,
Moto

Nice, that makes me feel even better. When I heard the Martin Logans, one thing that stood out to me was the dynamics, and huge perceived sound and sense of space. I'm sure the Cats will be able to do that and more, especially in the dynamics. These are speakers that I plan to keep for a very long time, and everyone saying that they will likely be the last upgrade I could ever want aside from more subs in quite comforting I can't wait to watch some blu ray concerts with these!

I assume you are using the Marantz room correction, whatever it is they use. I do my EQ with MiniDSP's and REW.

I am sure Mark has posted before but I wonder what his thoughts are on no room correction used vs. room correction vs. manual room correction (as I do it). Would be interesting to get his thoughts on it unless someone has a link where he has posted before.

I am selling Martin Logan CLXs to move to Catalysts... so they had BETTER be worth it!

I am gonna be using the Marantz room calibration for the time being, but will eventually be getting an Integra DHC-80.3 with Audyssey XT32. I'm not very familiar with the Martin Logan speakers. What's the higher end speaker, the Theos or the CLX?

The only thing holding me back from a catalyst/spark/submersive 7.1 system is the total price on my semi-meager budget.

Coming from a "budget sub" eD a2-300, seeing the price of a Submersive made me do a double/triple take at first. Before this year and looking very carefully at the GTG results, I just couldn't see in my mind how spending almost 8x the cost of something I thought had performed well could be worth it. I bit the bullet and wished I had done it sooner now. It was absolutely worth it.

I've been budgeting for a Catalyst system ever since. Since you have the means to get them, get them. Based on my SubM experience they are absolutely going to be worth it, and then some.

My other thought is to get a JTR T12/T8 system instead, and then possibly sell it off later on for Cats. It would be much easier for me to budget for this a lot quicker, and I've always wanted to try them in my setup. If JTR speakers retain their value on the used market well, I think this may be my best option for 1-3 years. Thoughts?

@BD77

I'm in NY too in Westchester, which is not too far from LI. After you do get the Cats, I absolutely want to hear them for a demo one day. I can demo the SubM for you as well if you want a sneak peak at what you are getting.

Absolutely! The room they are going in is currently under construction, but should be completed sometime this summer (I'm hoping).

The CLX is their flagship speaker.

Oh wow, that says a lot about the Cats then. I'm curious to hear how you would compare the CLXs with the Cats when you get the Cats.

If you buy them used they retain their value pretty well in my experience. But if you buy them new you will most likely take the normal 30% hit. One of the factors is that every year Jeff does upgrades to the speakers which knocks down the price of the previous years model.

There are usually used ones for sale on a regular basis if you keep your eyes open.

Moto

You arent the first to ask me that



I wish I could have them at the same time to do some real comparisons though. My room is being built with a baffle wall for the Cats.... a complete overhaul and brand new professionally designed theater. New acoustic treatments as well... moving from GIK treatments to Quest products.

So they new room will be considerably different... and certainly hopefully much better!!!!! I did try to do as good of a job treating it as a DIYer with the help of the fine folks at GIK though already.

Ah MAN! Why the change to quest products? Do they have professionals come in and acoustically treat/test the room? I wouldn't mind having someone come into my room to take measurements and do it the right way. I just have no idea how to find somebody that does this in my area.

He didnt measure the room, but he did design it. I had to work within existing room size constraints, but the design is proven and I was given plans showing exactly where to put each treatment, etc. Plus I have large bass traps designed into an existing bay window wall cavity that I had, and into the riser.

Sounds promising. I'm so clueless with sound treatments, its not even funny. All I know is to put acoustic panels at the first reflect point (not sure how to tell exactly where that is) and treat the entire front wall if its a multi-channel system. I'd love to have a specialist over to do that part of the room and learn from him. As long as it doesn't cost a fortune, of course. The room in Magnolia home theater was treated and everything sounded great in there, including my own voice lol.

Dont want to derail this thread, but there are quite a few places you can get free info.. GIK will help you through the process, and so will other "retailers" of acoustic products.

Full designs arent a badly priced as I assumed.. although what you need to buy to implement that design may be!

Send me a PM and we can chat more.

Awesome speakers - can't say enough good things about them. Mark hit one out of the park with these!

Didn't you recently hear these at the GTG? I can't remember now, but someone was slightly skeptical about these speakers as far as sonic clarity goes. Was that you? I'm curious as to the impressions of you guys at the GTG