My initial experiences with the Seismic SAX-12M-PW 12" powered coaxial monitor

Sorry guys, I was away skiing and have been sick as a dog the last 5 days.
the 15" is definitely a better match for the CLR than the 12" was. They actually sound very good together.
As sixstring mentioned , the 15" has something going on in the lower mids that makes it feel a bit more "guitar cab-ish"
kind of like the Xitone that I had here a while back. It's not completely flat like the CLR is.
I had to put a few hours on it to loosen it up a bit, but now I'm really liking it mixed in with the CLR.
I have actually been using it more than the CLR lately because of that "mid thing" it's got going on.
It's a bit darker sounding than the CLR (it's not a treble thing either , kind of hard to explain)
and because it's a 15" and it's got on board bass control I've been able to get a great tone with my fender 5 string bass.
For $325.00 if you can get it delivered in one piece , I'd say it's a great low cost option for either just playing in the house (as I am)
or an inexpensive 2nd unit to match with a CLR or an RCF, so you can go stereo.
I've got to say these Ultra res IRs sound great through it. set the mic to null and dial in the Proximity to around 3.25 and it kicks
some serious ass, particularly that V30 that came with the upgrade mixed in with roadKing 2x12 C90 cab that was shared recently.
that's a great "in the room" mix for jamming out or just practicing with.
Also for the record , I'm not one of these guys that measures graphs etc. I just want it to sound an feel good.
I don't get caught up in a lot of the "geek speak" that people seem to love to toss about when talking about
frequencies etc. If you're looking for something perfectly flat that does not have a bit of it's own "personality" to it
then look elsewhere.
 
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I wanted to resurrect this thread to comment on the Seismic offering. I ordered a SAX 12M PW a few weeks back to try it out, FYI a bit of a long read so if you don't want to know about the whole story just read the last 3 paragraphs, they pretty much sum it up.

So... mine showed up dent free no visible damage in the shipping process! I unboxed it and gave it a quick look over again with no visible damage very cool!

Next was to plug it in and play through it. Plugged in, turned on, hooked up to the then Line 6 Helix. Called up a clean preset and strummed a chord right away I heard a weird metallic buzz lying underneath the notes, now I'm bummed. I messed with volume changed guitars and still no change.

Called up support which I will say I got to very quickly! After talking with JC one of their Tec's He said that it sounded like the high freq amp had not been calibrated correctly and said that he could send out another one. I asked him if it was a simple procedure and if it could be performed by myself. He replied that yes it was very simple and that if I felt comfortable doing it by all means go right ahead. I agreed to it and he send me a pic of the trim pot that needed adjusting.

After adjusting the pot it cleaned right up and sounded pretty good! Then I went to turn off the power switch on the amp and it was really hot almost to hot to touch. Broke out my thermal gun and read 155* at the heat sink. After letting it cool down I went over the amp with a magnifying glass and found a wire that had not been connected to anything. Another phone call the JC again very fast at getting through and told him of what I had found. Right away he said I can sent you another or refund you the money.

I really wanted to make this work so I asked him if he could just send a replacement amp? which he said of course. I asked if he would bench it before sending it just to make sure it was in working order to which he agreed with completely. He calls back 30 minutes later and tells me that all of the amps that he has in stock for doing repairs have the same problem that one I have does, so again he asks if I want a refund... I paused for a second then replied I know you offer this in a 15" do you have any spare amps for that version and will they fit the 12" box? which by the way add's an extra 50 watts!

He said that he would go and check and call back asap. 10 minutes later I'm on the phone and he has one and they will fit I asked if he would bench it and if it was all good to go ahead and send it out. 4 days later I received it loaded it in and powered it up hit a chord and I hear the same metallic buzz I had heard before... DAMMIT. Ok, I went in and performed the adjustment to the high end amp and boom clear as a bell!... Woohoo!

Now, I have a buddy that has CLR and I wanted to hear for myself the actual difference between the two so I load up and head over for a head to head. I hook up to his Helix right side to the CLR and the left to the SAX call up a preset and hit a chord. Aside from being swallowed in a glorious stereo sound field the two sounded similar. With some closer listening reveals some slight clarity differences. The CLR was starting to show why it costs 3 times more. The next thing I noticed was the coverage differences. The CLR has a much wider dispersion than the SAX. For in close back line use the CLR would be the better choice for tight monitoring I would say the SAX would play better with mic's.

Now, aside from the obvious differences between the two, size, inputs and wattage the sonic differences are there but they are slight and one would be kind of hard pressed to hear the differences if you didn't have a the two together to compare against one another.

To Seismic Audio's credit JC called me back unsolicited to see if everything was still ok! I told him what had happened, He apologised and again offered a refund which I declined. I also mentioned that if he had any influence in the company at all that someone really needs to step it up in the QC department. Once it works it sounds pretty good! they have a small, compact but still heavy, decent and affordable product that not to many other companies are offering in this price range. I even went as far to say that if they could improve on the amplifier side of the product and had to charge an extra hundred or so it would still sell really good.

Is it worth it? Well after reading about what I went through to get the SAX to work if you back out the 4 days I had to wait for the replacement amp, in all probably took about an hour for the troubleshoot and fix, I would have to say maybe... it just depends on your budget and your application. I know that most here are going to have the funds to pop for a CLR caliber monitoring solution but for those that don't and are clawing their way to a pro type of monitoring system I would have to say it's worth it, especially if you get one that works right out of the box and hopefully Seismic Audio will improve their quality control or the product as a whole.

For what it's worth to those that are looking and wondering... there is my take on it, somewhat echoing what BBN, kmanick, jimfist and pima1234 have found.
 
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Thanks for the updated info Sixstring. While the $325 price tag is fairly low, I am surprised by how many people think its a steal.

The Alto T212 is $299 and has 1100 watts
The Alto T210 is $249 and has 1100 watts
The ZLX12P sells for $300-330 for open box\refurbed units all the time on ebay., and also has 1000 watts

I would be a bit concerned about having a 250 solid state amp on a loud stage. Having extra headroom on a solid state amp is always a good isea.
 
Thanks for the updated info Sixstring. While the $325 price tag is fairly low, I am surprised by how many people think its a steal.

The Alto T212 is $299 and has 1100 watts
The Alto T210 is $249 and has 1100 watts
The ZLX12P sells for $300-330 for open box\refurbed units all the time on ebay., and also has 1000 watts

I would be a bit concerned about having a 250 solid state amp on a loud stage. Having extra headroom on a solid state amp is always a good isea.

Well the Alto's are different PA speakers. The SAX's are meant to be more flat like the CLR because they are coaxial's.
 
Thanks for the updated info Sixstring. While the $325 price tag is fairly low, I am surprised by how many people think its a steal.

The Alto T212 is $299 and has 1100 watts
The Alto T210 is $249 and has 1100 watts
The ZLX12P sells for $300-330 for open box\refurbed units all the time on ebay., and also has 1000 watts

I would be a bit concerned about having a 250 solid state amp on a loud stage. Having extra headroom on a solid state amp is always a good isea.

Ok, the thing you have to remember here is with prosumer stuff like this they tend to hype the power ratings and combine the wattage numbers of both amps, hi and low freq power amps using peak wattage for advertising It's very misleading. You don't get to add the power of the two amps together as if you are playing through 1KW power amp.

The CLR only has "500 watts of Bi-Amped power" and it's considered to be the top of the pile for obvious reasons. Between both amps not sure of exactly how much each one has total but if I had to guess I would have to say 350 watts to the lows and 150 watts to the highs. As to peak wattage it's probably right up there with all the others in that 1kw range.

In a nutshell peak wattage is right at the verge of Amp/Speaker destruction and is based on what the amp can do theoretically for a fraction of time. So sure the amp can deliver 6 or 700 watts to the lowes for say a few seconds and then poof! The voice coil can not thermally handle that kind of heat and melts or the amp gives out, not very good is it? but it sounds so cool! my monitor has a thousand watts of power.

The Seismic can get LOUD trust me, it hung with the CLR not sweat with no problems at volume levels that quite frankly made my ears ring after a few minutes of playing like a rock star. All that wattage is for headroom at the volume with full musical content, Drums Bass guitar vocals etc. When you're just pushing guitar through it it's actually a little easier on the amp as it doesn't have to contend with kick drum or bass guitar frequencies.

I have played through the Alto TS112 extensively and they don't sound as good as the Seismic Audio SAX even with the problems I had with the SAX I would rather use it then a traditionally designed 2 way speaker.
 
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I don't really use mine anymore (gave up on the FRFR thing) so if anyone local to me wants to pick one of these up for cheap in really brand new condition PM me. (I will not ship it, don't have the box anymore and ....honestly wouldn't feel secure shipping one of these without bombproof packing.)
 
I bought the Seismic SMA-15 powered, but traded it for the "passive" version. Digital fizz at very low levels.
With high gain presets, you would most likely never hear it.
Well worth the money, and the company has great customer service!
I checked the response with Smaart, and found a pretty large peak around bandpass, so I just use a PEQ block on all my presets to even it out.
My presets are Fenders, Vox, and a JCM jump. No metal stuff (I'm too dang slow anyway)
I had a pair of RCF powered 10's..which were awesome, but for playing out, can't beat Seismic for the price and build quality.
 
I bought the Seismic SMA-15 powered, but traded it for the "passive" version. Digital fizz at very low levels.
With high gain presets, you would most likely never hear it.
Well worth the money, and the company has great customer service!
I checked the response with Smaart, and found a pretty large peak around bandpass, so I just use a PEQ block on all my presets to even it out.
My presets are Fenders, Vox, and a JCM jump. No metal stuff (I'm too dang slow anyway)
I had a pair of RCF powered 10's..which were awesome, but for playing out, can't beat Seismic for the price and build quality.

Did you mean the SAX - 12M? What kind of amp did you get?
 
Has anyone tried the Samson rxm12a powered coaxials? I saw them online cheap for $349 but wondered if they might be junk? I'm happy with my Friedman's but want a second pair of something small and light.
 
Has anyone tried the Samson rxm12a powered coaxials? I saw them online cheap for $349 but wondered if they might be junk? I'm happy with my Friedman's but want a second pair of something small and light.
I've been interested in those too but can't find any reviews.
 
I bought the Seismic SMA-15 powered, but traded it for the "passive" version. Digital fizz at very low levels.
With high gain presets, you would most likely never hear it.
Well worth the money, and the company has great customer service!
I checked the response with Smaart, and found a pretty large peak around bandpass, so I just use a PEQ block on all my presets to even it out.
My presets are Fenders, Vox, and a JCM jump. No metal stuff (I'm too dang slow anyway)
I had a pair of RCF powered 10's..which were awesome, but for playing out, can't beat Seismic for the price and build quality.

This is just the information I was looking for (this thread, and the passive nod here). I am looking at the 12 or 15 passive to use as a personal monitor powered by my GT1600fx. One channel powering my Matrix FR212 and the other to a Seismic floor monitor. It sounds like this could be a sensible, quality solution instead of buying another high-end FRFR box for the floor. Since I have a free 800-watts just hanging out it makes sense to put it to use. However, if I add a 2nd FR212 or similar down the line, maybe the powered one is something I should consider. Of course, overkill is always being considered...not sure I need yet another 500-watt box behind me, anyway. But, I do need the floor monitor to make sure I can clearly hear myself amongst our band. It sounds like a Seismic 12 or 15 is ideal.
 
This is just the information I was looking for (this thread, and the passive nod here). I am looking at the 12 or 15 passive to use as a personal monitor powered by my GT1600fx. One channel powering my Matrix FR212 and the other to a Seismic floor monitor. It sounds like this could be a sensible, quality solution instead of buying another high-end FRFR box for the floor. Since I have a free 800-watts just hanging out it makes sense to put it to use. However, if I add a 2nd FR212 or similar down the line, maybe the powered one is something I should consider. Of course, overkill is always being considered...not sure I need yet another 500-watt box behind me, anyway. But, I do need the floor monitor to make sure I can clearly hear myself amongst our band. It sounds like a Seismic 12 or 15 is ideal.
I like to use a PEQ block to smooth out the freq. response. I used a spectrum analyzer to see where the average peaks were that caused feedback issues. I play an HSS strat, and the feedback gets nasty on the Seismic when I go SINGLE coil in the Humbucker.
My presets are based on the VOX AC30 and the FENDER'S. There are many ways posted in the forum to accomplish the same results.
 
I have a perfectly working Seismic sax 12" and a 15", both powered. I like the sound of both, but prefer using the 15" if only using one.

It's gotta be a high end, high paying gig to be worth me taking the CLR out...
 
I like small footprint items. I am wondering if the powered 10" Seismic might work for me. I am currently using a passive 10" a friend gave me. I am not sure whats in it as the small cab is built like a tank and I have not opened it ever. I used it for a in home PA speaker to practice singing. But I plugged my AX8 in oneway and WOW it sounded great. So I think I might try the Seismic 10.
 
I like small footprint items. I am wondering if the powered 10" Seismic might work for me. I am currently using a passive 10" a friend gave me. I am not sure whats in it as the small cab is built like a tank and I have not opened it ever. I used it for a in home PA speaker to practice singing. But I plugged my AX8 in oneway and WOW it sounded great. So I think I might try the Seismic 10.

I have been toying with this idea as well, not really gigging so no need for a larger solution and for a hair under $500 a pair of 10's would fit the bill for me at the moment.
 
Old thread, I know... I've been using a Seismic Luke 212 guitar cab for several years now and it looks/sounds great. It's loaded with WGS speakers.

I also have two Seismic, powered 15" coax floor monitors that I got for a band project a few years ago. Am looking forward to running my AX8 through them when it comes in next week. Will report back on results if people are still interested.
 
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