I have been struggling with replacing my beloved Dunlavys with another speaker for a number of reasons: Age (mine and the speakers!!), availability of drivers, and audio upgraditis. After listening to Maggies and Selah Line arrays and a few others, I have made the decision to purchase Mark Seaton Calalysts tri-amped powered speakers.
This decision flies in the face of every normal (and reasonable) speaker decision process I have ever undertaken.
* I am buying sight unseen (actually that would be sound unheard) where I traditionally have spent hours and hours and hours auditioning speakers
* I have never purchased a speaker for my primary stereo system that was not considered full range and these cut off at about 40hz (ish)
* I have never purchased a speaker that needed a stand (given that these are 38 inches tall and weigh about 130 pounds, they are a bit larger and heavier than most stand mounted speakers)
* I have never purchased a speaker that had a built in amp as part of the design
* The vast majority of Catalyst owners purchased them for home theater. My primary use is 2 channel listening
* And finally, the system (which is tri-amped) uses an active digital crossover as part of the speaker and amp(s) section, which means my analog data will be converted (once again) to digital and then back to analog to drive the amps. (As opposed to being driven through a myriad of capacitors, chokes, coils, and resistors called a passive crossover). This also means, of course, that I don’t get to choose amplifiers or speaker wire any longer ?
I had very high hopes for the Maggies (20.1’s) but the dealer did not have them setup well and they did not provide ANY of the magic that I know that speaker is capable of. I listened to some line arrays and the soundstage width was only between the speakers. The other speakers (Vandersteen 5A’s) have a great reputation but also had no magic in the dealer showroom (and I have heard them sound better).
I decided to take the risk on these speakers because (a) I own his subs and am blown away by the performance not just at this price point but at ANY price point; (b) I spent a fair amount of time talking with Mark (and a number of his current customers) about his speakers to get somewhat comfortable that they would meet or exceed some of my listening priorities (Mark tends to play down the quality of his products) (c) some of his Catalyst owners are in the music reproduction business and spoke highly of the product and (d) I figured the downside was pretty small considering the demand for the speakers. Worst case is I could dump them and buy something more traditional.
The evening I received notice that my new Catalysts were to ship, I went home and did some listening to my Dunlavys and developed a really bad case of “sellers remorse”, asking myself, “What have I done?”
I knew, in theory, that the direction I was going had some great upside potential. I could place the main speakers in the optimal position for soundstage and imaging and linear response and place the subs for the smoothest response, and then tie it all together with a Tact 2.2XP which would provide bass/main integration and provide great flexibility in allowing me to have a frequency response that I determined to be correct.
I have ordered some Sound Anchor custom stands but they have not been built yet so put together some 2 x 4’s that would make a furniture maker grimace. I just stuck them in the room, not precisely aimed, didn’t use subs, didn’t use the TacT and turned them on.
First impressions: Huge image with precise image placement, particularly in the center. With the exception of some horn speakers, probably some of the best dynamics of any speaker I can remember. Bass (down to about 40 Hz given I did not have the subs running) was very tight, clean and articulate. The front of the soundstage was more forward than I am used to with the Dunlavys and I have asked Mark to see if there are some things I can do to cause it to move further toward the front of the room. The other thing that struck me was the ability to hear more clearly individual voices in music like the Turtle Creek Choral CD of Psalms.
I then ran a quick TacT measurement on them (again without the subs), created a filter based upon a randomly selected target curve (corrected down to about 30Hz) and listened to a few more cuts. This is a FUN speaker with the ability to provide (I believe) great musical enjoyment. I have LOTS of work to do to now find the best listening position, main speaker position, sub position, crossover frequency, crossover slope and target curve. The cool thing about the latest Tact system is the ability to change the target curve on the fly and instantly hear the affect as you listen.
I hope I’m not kicked out of the “club” since I now own powered speakers!!
Stay tuned.
This decision flies in the face of every normal (and reasonable) speaker decision process I have ever undertaken.
* I am buying sight unseen (actually that would be sound unheard) where I traditionally have spent hours and hours and hours auditioning speakers
* I have never purchased a speaker for my primary stereo system that was not considered full range and these cut off at about 40hz (ish)
* I have never purchased a speaker that needed a stand (given that these are 38 inches tall and weigh about 130 pounds, they are a bit larger and heavier than most stand mounted speakers)
* I have never purchased a speaker that had a built in amp as part of the design
* The vast majority of Catalyst owners purchased them for home theater. My primary use is 2 channel listening
* And finally, the system (which is tri-amped) uses an active digital crossover as part of the speaker and amp(s) section, which means my analog data will be converted (once again) to digital and then back to analog to drive the amps. (As opposed to being driven through a myriad of capacitors, chokes, coils, and resistors called a passive crossover). This also means, of course, that I don’t get to choose amplifiers or speaker wire any longer ?
I had very high hopes for the Maggies (20.1’s) but the dealer did not have them setup well and they did not provide ANY of the magic that I know that speaker is capable of. I listened to some line arrays and the soundstage width was only between the speakers. The other speakers (Vandersteen 5A’s) have a great reputation but also had no magic in the dealer showroom (and I have heard them sound better).
I decided to take the risk on these speakers because (a) I own his subs and am blown away by the performance not just at this price point but at ANY price point; (b) I spent a fair amount of time talking with Mark (and a number of his current customers) about his speakers to get somewhat comfortable that they would meet or exceed some of my listening priorities (Mark tends to play down the quality of his products) (c) some of his Catalyst owners are in the music reproduction business and spoke highly of the product and (d) I figured the downside was pretty small considering the demand for the speakers. Worst case is I could dump them and buy something more traditional.
The evening I received notice that my new Catalysts were to ship, I went home and did some listening to my Dunlavys and developed a really bad case of “sellers remorse”, asking myself, “What have I done?”
I knew, in theory, that the direction I was going had some great upside potential. I could place the main speakers in the optimal position for soundstage and imaging and linear response and place the subs for the smoothest response, and then tie it all together with a Tact 2.2XP which would provide bass/main integration and provide great flexibility in allowing me to have a frequency response that I determined to be correct.
I have ordered some Sound Anchor custom stands but they have not been built yet so put together some 2 x 4’s that would make a furniture maker grimace. I just stuck them in the room, not precisely aimed, didn’t use subs, didn’t use the TacT and turned them on.
First impressions: Huge image with precise image placement, particularly in the center. With the exception of some horn speakers, probably some of the best dynamics of any speaker I can remember. Bass (down to about 40 Hz given I did not have the subs running) was very tight, clean and articulate. The front of the soundstage was more forward than I am used to with the Dunlavys and I have asked Mark to see if there are some things I can do to cause it to move further toward the front of the room. The other thing that struck me was the ability to hear more clearly individual voices in music like the Turtle Creek Choral CD of Psalms.
I then ran a quick TacT measurement on them (again without the subs), created a filter based upon a randomly selected target curve (corrected down to about 30Hz) and listened to a few more cuts. This is a FUN speaker with the ability to provide (I believe) great musical enjoyment. I have LOTS of work to do to now find the best listening position, main speaker position, sub position, crossover frequency, crossover slope and target curve. The cool thing about the latest Tact system is the ability to change the target curve on the fly and instantly hear the affect as you listen.
I hope I’m not kicked out of the “club” since I now own powered speakers!!
Stay tuned.
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