Local GTG

I was fortunate enough to attend a gtg which included some Seaton Catalyst 8 and DIY Fusion 15" (Sentinels). Both speakers are super efficient I believe the 15" are rated 99 dbs @ 1w.


We listened to several music as well some highly rated 5* LFE movies clips. Speakers were measured at reference using Umik + REW with spl meter. Audyssey was used only for time domain and setting distance...all listen sessions were in direct mode no Audyssey. Both sets of speakers can play crazy loud with little to no strain...the Fusions seem to handle both music and movies exceedingly well, whereas the Cat 8s due to thier size...lacked some that mid to upper bass. One glaring example came in the shoot-out sequence in Open Range...with the Fusions you could feel the gut punch or visceral effect, with the cat 8s it was not as profound. Another notable for me came in a clip from the Jet Li movie " Hero"....it was called "Shelves" on our demo disc. You see a bunch of stacked bamboo shelves that are tightly bound...He(Li) enters the room flips a cup of tea into the air and proceeds to sliced free the ties that bind the wood...they quickly spring to life with a dynamic pop & whipping action...it felt like I was being flogged...lol. You must understand listening levels are in the area of >105dbs...everything was clear and precise...very impressive but I never really had that "WOW" moment.

I know Ascend clearly caters to a different types of customer. Yes, the speakers I demoed played loud & sounded crystal clear at extremely high listening levels but they never wooed me. I recall one of the members talking about the Dire Straits track "Money for Nothing" he could never clearly define why Bob Geldof was saying in his lyrics. The sounded mumbled and his defining moment came with the Sentinels 15s that night...well the next morning I re-played my CD version of that song and his lyrics where clearly defined to me with the RAAL.

I came away from this with a new found respect for the DIY crowd they certain get a lot of bang for their buck...money well spent and the Seaton Cat 8 were very very nice speakers but unless you require reference level playback these speakers have very little advantage over more traditional speakers at low to moderate listening levels. I told our host I like to listen to cymbals + stings when observing new speakers...dare I say...I'd be able to discern the RAAL over most other speaker types and my Ascends will be my speakers for years to come!

Thanks....Dave.

Ps: My apologies for talking about speakers other than Ascend...:o


Re,

Bill