seas vs rainbow?

[Etac 10+ year member]

never heard of these two brands till i saw on the forums here..

gonna be building a new system soon and lookin into new front speakers.. i heard good tihngs about Boston pros/z's and focal kp's cept for some tweeter harshness (which im trying to avoid)

would seas/rainbow a better choice?

ignore staging issues and for price consider 850ish maybe more depending.. rather spend the money now than regret not later

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[alphakenny1 10+ year member]

i'm guessing passive setup? the new seas lotus reference sets are way above that so i guess if you want new then you have to pony up. never heard them before but maybe the rainbow cs powerline is in your price range. i see that you are in jersey, i'll be the first to say it: pm 6spdcoupe //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif. he's in jersey.

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

yea the seas might be a little higher after lookin... i saw them in another post with someone in the same price range but anyway

what about the CS 265 Profi ($650ish)

http://www.iqcaraudio.com/rainbow/profi/index.htm

in comparision to other speakers priced about the same or a little more expensive?

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

Rainbow = Awesome price to performance ratio. The Rainbow boner around here is well justified IMO.

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

I always found the comparable Rainbow line to the Seas Lotus line as far as similar sound characteristics/performance ratio to be the Profi line.

The Lotus offer a silk or alum dome option with its metal cone phaseplug driver.

The Profi offers a silk dome with paper coned drivers (standard, phaseplug, kickbass options)

The Profi Vanadium line offers the aluminum tweet with a aluminum coned driver.(standard, phaseplug, kickbass drivers options)

I have not hard the new Lotus, but i'm very familiar with the last offering(the new ones arent supposed to be too different, the tweeter more off axis friendly)

I'm a big fan of the midbass. The Profi phase plug drivers IMO offer a bit more body to the lower midbass. In the Vanadium version of the phase plug it would be very hard to tell the difference between them IMO. Both love the tight snap, the Rainbow phaseplug actually have a higher quality factor for IB use. Only reason I mention this is many people get the Lotus driver to bottom out at loud volumes at a 80hz/12db or lower 'depending' on size of the door.

But yes, the new price on Lotus puts it out of reach for most and I'm not so sure worth it when the last ones sold for half the price. At that price I thought they were excellent value.

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

What it boils down to is personal preference in sound. Both make good quality gear. In design, I give the upper hand to Rainbow. Seas has made some interesting decisions in they way they design their drivers. I've had issues with Lotus mids and now two different types of tweeters from Seas. The are made very well with quality parts, but they could be put together with more thought.

When I first got the Lotus mids (RW165's) I was very impressed with how heavy they were for a 6.5" speaker. They replaced Rainbow Pro Vanadium drivers....which used hard plastic for baskets vs Lotus's steel. Not saying that is better per say, but I was pleasently surprised at the difference in weight and stature between the two.

If you are spending that kind of money I would be very wise for you to listen before you buy. A great set of speakers in a poor install is worse than an ok set of speakers in a great install.

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

DIY is cheaper than both...I'd go that route

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

Thanks guys for pointing out everything, ya always beat me to it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

BTW..to the OP..you do have a local dealer for both. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

DIY is cheaper than both...I'd go that route

But is it better?

For instance my buddy skylar112 on DIY dumped his Lotus 6.5's for Dayton RS180s to run IB- hes not skipping a beat as far as a dedicated midbass in an active 3way.

Its really not that much different- The Lotus being a caraudio line driver still has parameters more friendly for sealed application as the low qts of the Daytons.

Then BodegaBay who has used many DIY drivers, including the highly touted Nextel 7's, ended up going back to the Profi Kickbass 6.5" as he wasnt getting enough midbass. Back to a higher qts driver to use IB.

So It really depends on application, whether you'll extract what the driver is capable of. Most people just drop them IB even though a lower qts driver will thin out on the low end(or muddy depending on cone characteristics).

From what I can tell of using these lower qts midbass drivers is that it lacks the body thats typical of those lower freqs, providing an overall colder presentation. Is even apparent with my Lotus 8's, but i benefit somewhat from the added cone area.

 

[elementskater15 10+ year member]

My girlfriend's name is Roong...Thai for Rainbow...how dare you...

 

[CBFryman2 5,000+ posts]

Does SEAS not manufacture for rainbow?

 

[GSteg 10+ year member]

seas hardly ever makes speakers for other companies.

Rainbow and Seas may look like one another in some aspects, but rainbow doesn't use Seas as the buildhouse

 

[6spdcoupe 5,000+ posts]

Does SEAS not manufacture for rainbow?

Absolutely not.

 

[FoxPro5 5,000+ posts]

Thanks guys for pointing out everything, ya always beat me to it. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif
BTW..to the OP..you do have a local dealer for both. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

We's sooo much fasta than you....you's slow cuz //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/word.gif.64b12e39f936af3b4fff38a1c0bd0244.gif

So how long have you been pushin' the Seas anyhow? I guess I wasn't aware that you had the line. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[sqgator]

You have to read the new lotus Ref (RS165F) pdf file here: http://www.seas.no/Lotus%20web%20PDF/RS165F.L5004.pdf

"The systems sounds unbelievably great even without excessive equalizing." It's such a painful statement for me because the older Ref midbass has issues and definitely require some exessive equalizing.