Opinions on upgrading Rt55is

fx20

Hi there, I picked up a pair of Rt55i a couple months ago for a about $110. I was driving the pair with Sony STR-DE845 and HK 247 interchangeably but I was never so impressed about the sound stage it has. It is kind of laid back like I am siting afar from the stage.

I am currently looking for Lsi7 or LSi9 as I read a lot of positive comments about them, especially for music listening. I'm wondering how much "improvement" do I got with those LSi. I mainly listen to 2ch classical. Less than 10% into HT.

kcoc321

I can't compare the RT55i's to the LSi's, so I'll leave that to someone else. LSi's are the top-of-the-foodchain for Polk speakers (NIC SDA's) I would suggest first trying the RT55i's with a separate, more powerful amplifier. I suggest that because if you are going the "LSi" route, you will definely need much more.

I have listened to mine on a Carver M-500 (250wpc@8) and a B&K ST-1400SII (125wpc@8) and I think they sound pretty good, I definitely would not call them "Laid back". Course I also like them on my B&K AVR-307 (150wpc@8). All of the ones I have tried are high current.

Your Sony specs say they have 100wpc@8, but I am not sure how realistic that is.
Your Sony does have Audio outputs, as far as I can tell, so you could get by using it as a preamp, to get you by...

Connector Type:
3 x SPDIF input ( TOSLINK ) - rear | 1 x SPDIF input ( RCA phono ) - rear | 6 x audio input - rear | 1 x SPDIF output ( TOSLINK ) - rear | 3 x audio input - rear | 1 x audio output - rear | 3 x S-Video input ( 4 pin mini-DIN ) - rear | 1 x S-Video output ( 4 pin mini-DIN ) - rear | 4 x audio line-in ( RCA phono x 2 ) - rear | 2 x audio line-out ( RCA phono x 2 ) - rear | 4 x composite video input ( RCA phono ) - rear | 2 x composite video output ( RCA phono ) - rear | 1 x headphones - front | 1 x S-link / Control-A1 - rear