SDAT CAT LEB-404 Speakers. Are these good or a scam?? (4 Viewers)

[Derek B]

Mikey,
Can you take some pictures of the speakers and comment on their finish? Maybe you can pull out one of the speakers and take a picture of their structure?
Thanks for the help.

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Ok, opened 1 up yesterday. Tok out the front firing 6.5". VERY light in weight. Did have what I believe to be a rbber surround, but the magnet was def. on the smaller side. I will try to get some pics this weekend.
1 thing I did notice is that it has a "port" on the pack. The problem is that the port is not open, the plastic tube for the port is totally capped off on the inside which I found to be very odd. Why include a plastic port if it is not open?

 

[Nathan W.]

A dead ended port for cosmetic reasons? That's lamo! Maybe if it was actually ported it would sound horrible? Does touting "bass reflex" sell more speakers than "sealed" or "acoustic suspension?"

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Funny thing is the port is on the back of the speaker, so you couldn't even see it head on.

For what I am using them for, they are fine for $50. Not as nice as the ones that u got, but they were 14/4 the price and I just wasn't spending any more then $50 on them this time around.

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Well, I decided to buy real speakers.
Now have a JBL EC35 center and tomorrow, I will have my 2 JBL E80's.

I will pit the SDAT against one of the JBL's before I get both set uop. Intersting to see how uch of a differnce there will be (HUGE I a imagine).

The JBL's have dual 6.5s, 1-4" mid and 1 3/4 tweet.

ANyone want to buy a pair of SDAT's in the northern NJ area cheap?

 

[Mark Seaton]

Mikey-

Did you happen to see any form of a crossover internal? The classic white van variants tended to only have dinky bi-polar capacitors on the smaller drivers to keep them from blowing up.

FYI, the 80dB sensitivity is the ONLY way you could hope to get extension to 20Hz with cheap parts. I would not expect much of a motor on those drivers, and often the magnets used in the ultra cheap drivers are very weak, even if more average in size.

Obviously there are some products which recieve careful design attention in achieving good performance from carefully designed, inexpensive components. When you see products pulling a "me too" look or pitch, your BS detectors should be set to full sensitivity. Most any respectable designer will want to offer something they can call "their own." Rip offs are rarely improvements on the original, and when you see a speaker put a dressing on a dome tweeter to make it look a little like a ribbon, I would throw up a red flag.

Of course that's just my take.

Cheers,

 

[MikeyWeitz]

Yeah, mark, they do have crossovers inside odf them, altho I am not qualified to say whether they are god or not. My Guess is they are crap.
The driver magnets were pretty small and the 6.5 driver was very light in weight.
I knew they were junk going in, but figured they had to be better then my HK 3" cubes I was using for my L/R mains. and for $60 shipped, they were.
I decided I had enough of the cheapo crap and decided to jump up to the JBL E80's with the E35 center (to replace my dual 3" HK). Just swaping out the center alone made a HUGE change.
My E80's should be here tomorrow.
Still running the HK 3" cubes for my rears as I haven't figured my strategy for my rears yet. They will have to be stand ,mounted (live in Apt), and have to be high enough to extend well above my sectional. E20's propbably fit the bil, but many say they are the worst in the Eseries line.
The 30's would be perfect, but they are HUGE and do not think my stands will support the.

 

[44ct357]

Good Day all from a load shedding SA!

We cant even enjoy our sound, which is my life.

I restore all the oldies for selective clientelle who have unlimited budgets.

The Cat Leb 404 is manafactured by one of my friends in china who exports to europe and the USA.

Jacky from alpha united prides his work and does not sell price point krap.

I have evaluated many of his systems and they put most other suppliers to shame, even top branded products!

I have a pair of the cats from 2004 and they are still doing a fantastic job.

I have their big brothers the KM500 on my 30 year "young" pioneer VSX D702S Which i threw the 6 chanel bunt out pa in the scrap and installed two 350wrms modules into to blow the roof off.

That system was given to me by one of the hi-fi club boys in sa after i reworked his 30k arcam for R450.

I am 54 and have been into electronics since 14.

Cheers and beers from a dimly lit SA!

 

[44ct357]

Ok, opened 1 up yesterday. Tok out the front firing 6.5". VERY light in weight. Did have what I believe to be a rbber surround, but the magnet was def. on the smaller side. I will try to get some pics this weekend. 1 thing I did notice is that it has a "port" on the pack. The problem is that the port is not open, the plastic tube for the port is totally capped off on the inside which I found to be very odd. Why include a plastic port if it is not open?

you can tighten up the bass with closed ports, dont want them wobbeling around at low power.

 

[44ct357]

The good quality rubber will last for years compared to my first jvc's in 78 which fell to pieces over the years.

The technics suv2 is still alive and kicking with its sanyo pa.

My best buy was the pioneer S910's, those were amazing with the gain control for tops and mids, metal tops, poly 10's.

Colin

 

[44ct357]

A dead ended port for cosmetic reasons? That's lamo! Maybe if it was actually ported it would sound horrible? Does touting "bass reflex" sell more speakers than "sealed" or "acoustic suspension?"

Yes i agree with you, the option was for lower power drivers which would have hit wobble mode. The closed port is for lower power amplifiers or a change in design after the production run, probably find Jacky did not like the loose bass and sealed them with the closed port to tighten them up.

 

[Sam Posten]

Welcome to HTF Colin, you should be aware you are replying to 11 year old posts tho!