JTR Captivator S (Sealed) - Page 8

Thats the exact reason why I went with the LMS. I got tired of swapping subs. lol

Depends on you room's acoustics. Room size. Is room open or closed? What's your budget?

any updates from new Cap S2 owners? Has anyone else received theirs recently or are the drivers still the hold up?

3 identical speakers are ideal.

I use 2 SM60F's for my LR and an SH100 for center duty. The SH100 works great and is half or less the cost of an SM60F. Saying that, I would get another SM60F if you can budget for it. I bet the sealed Caps would be fantastic with the Danley tops!




Forin

200mph vs 300mph. That's what the S1 vs S2 topic makes me think of. It seems like when you've never gone fast, there is the belief that no matter what you get it still won't quite seem like enough. I went from coaxing meager output from subwoofers that didn't produce all the low bass content in my recordings, to looking for recordings that have more low bass content because now everything that seemed like it used to be hard for a subwoofer to produce plays so easily it makes the pre-S1 days seem silly.

Aside from a situation where you are:
In a large venue or outdoors
Can't have multiple subs and 1 sub isn't quite enough power (unlikely in reality)
Need the output of 2 S1s but don't have a place to put them both
Think the S2 just looks really cool and want it for that reason alone (me, me!)

The S1 will knock your socks off. Be sure to budget money to line your listening room with acoustic foam or you'll hear the room rattle when the air starts to shake.

I'm still a very happy owner of a pair of S1s!!!

Another consideration is your desired coverage pattern.

Our first row is 12' back from an 11' wide scope screen. I determined I wanted a 90 degree pattern in the horizontal. Center channel performance is perfect from wall-to-wall...

I subscribe to the same!

Anyone receive and S2 yet?

Yes

We observers need more feedback.

I'm dying myself!!! Looking at a S1 or an S2...but no feedback yet??

last night I was fotunate enough to be able to sit in on a testing/listening session with a single Capitvator S2 and Veoldyne DD18+. Most of the time we spent doing placement experiments with the S2. When we settled on a good spot I got the chance to lean into the S2 with a some of my music. Even with the limited time we spent with placement, I could tell the S2 is capable of what seems to be limitless output. Kick drums had more impact than I had ever heard outside of a live show. I will say that when we switched back and forth between the JTR and Velodyne, the Velodyne seemed more integrated. Obviously that is because of the extra time the DD has been in the equipment rotation and has been optimized with its onboard EQ. I know I dont have graphs and charts and techno data, and I most likely never will, but from a purely listening experience the Cap S2 is truly a piece of home audio gear that has more potential than I could imagine anyone would ever use. I am really looking forward to coming back to the system in a couple weeks after more optimization has been done. To anyone on the fence regarding this sub (or an S1), you are doing yourself a disservice delaying your purchase in my opinion. After hearing the S2 I am left to question...what more could you want? Honestly it has giant output, goes deeper than you can hear (well, deeper than I can hear anyhow), takes up very little floorspace, and appears to have SQ potential that is comparable with some of the best in the world (DD18+ in this case).......man to say I am impressed is an understatement.

I finally received my S2 this week and finally was able to give it a good work out. I already had a Captivator w/4000W amp so I was very interested how the sealed S2 would compare. Before I give a comparision, I must state that my listening room is only 13x17, but opens up to three other rooms and that the single Cap was more than enough. In fact, I liked it better than the pair of HP Submersives I had in the past. In my opinion, I prefer the extra output the Cap offered. I will admit that the HP's blended better during music playback.

I wanted to try something new so I ordered the S2 up from Jeff to see how it would compare. In my opinion, it is the best of both worlds, it has both the rediculous output of the ported Cap and the extension of the sealed HP's. I will also state that I will never test the limits of the S2. I had a hard time calibrating it. I had to turn the gain down to one click above the last setting and still had to turn my processor down to -8.0 to be able to reach 75 db's.

When I ran it hot to +10, my poor house's walls were flexing and the doors rattling. I had to turn it down, it felt like my head was going to pop. I will now decide which one I am going to keep and which one to sell. When I started this comparision it was always my intention to sell one of he subs, now I just need to decide which one to keep, as it is not a need, but just a pure guilty pleasure.

Nice! Sounds like your decision has been made for you since the S2 has all the qualities of both the powered Cap for crazy movie output and the great sound for music that you had in your Submersives.

When you get time can you post pictures and give more impressions?

I don't think you'll have any problems selling the powered Cap. I didn't with the passive versions, they were gone in a few days.

Is there a 240V version of the S2?

Let's hear some more impressions on these things! How many S2's are out in the wild now? Jeff have you shipped any more?

I was talking to another forum member tonight, dlbeck, who was considering JTR equipment and the S2 at your introductory price of $2999 with the 4000 watt amp, was (or still is?) a stellar deal!!!!

Which did you keep?

Archaea,
Do be honest, I have not even re-hooked up my Captivator. The S2 is more thank I could ever need, so I am in no hurry to do anything with it.

I forgot to mention that I may have an issue trying to integrate the Cap with the S2. I have the gain on the S2 at the lowest setting, along with my processor down to -7.5. If I were to get an increase of +6db, which I am sure I would, I would be running the subwoofers way too hot. I may end up selling the Cap, I really have no need to keep both. I like overkill but Keeping both is just way too much. Even just one powered Cap was more than enough. Such a good problem to have!

It makes no sense trying to integrate the S2 with a ported Cap if either one alone had more than enough output. It's not worth the hassle of addressing the phase issues at port tune. Congrats on having such a pleasant dilemma
I have to ask; did you consider dual Cap S'? If an S2 is more than enough output then singles in separate locations may be even better.
Tim

Tim,
I did consider it, but that would have been $1,000 more. If Jeff had any kind of marketing I really think he could dominate the subwoofer market. JL's would be running scared. It has to be one of the best secrets in audio. Thanks

Jason

I doubt the JL crowd thinks about maximum performance as their main criteria. If that is what they were after, there would be several other fine alternatives to the JL's. JL is more about shiny, wife-friendly, decor-friendly premium boxes with decent, though not exceptional performance.

I agree but I do think the Cap Sealed would be very wife friendly too. It's so small, until you see one in person you can't appreciate how tiny it is. I would describe it as.... "cute". I can't believe I just used that word to describe a crazy powerful subwoofer but that is the word that comes to mind.

Still using a pair of captivator S, still thrilled. No regrets at all! The only thing that would be tempting would be an additional pair, to even room response even more. The S2 seems amazing for commercial use, but honestly I wouldn't use one unless I had a truly enormous place or wanted an outdoor theater.

It looks like there isnt much owners of these babies. Can someone describe the SQ of the sub? I have a rather small room, so even if i get a pair of S1, it is more for getting flatter responses rather than SPL.
How does the captivator sounds like (tonality)? Any similar sounding sub you will compare with? Does a CapS 18" sounds as tight as a eg. Rythmik 12"?

I seems to have a feeling submersive hp seems more value for money and better built quality based on pictures. Note i stay in asia, hence i really have no real sub to compare.

I replaced a pair of HP's with a single powered Cap and never looked back. The HP's blended better with music but Cap had much more output. I have since added an S2 and it has the output, and then some, of the Cap and also blends much better with music. More output than you could ever need.i never even turned the Cap back on.

Jason, did you ever try co-locating the Submersives? From hearing dual sealed caps and dual HP's at the blind GTG (neither setup was co-located BTW) their output was very similar, as was their sound quality. I would think that co-located HP's would be very similar to the Cap 2 sealed. Lately the thought has crossed my mind to sell my HP's and get dual sealed Cap 2's... madness.