Lsi 15 with 130 watts per channel?

izzy003

Hello there, new to this board. I have learned tons the past week or so reading through all these posts.

I have a yamaha rxv 1900 receiver and am thinking about purchasing the Lsi15 speakers. The 1900 is rated at 130 watts @ 8 ohms. Is this receiver powerful enough to run these 4 ohm Lsi15's? I would hate to spend the extra money for the Lsi15's and not be able to appreciate them to their fullest with my receiver. I am just getting into the audio game, so will be adding speakers as time and budget permits. Do you think the rti A5's with a nice hefty powered sub would be a better route than the Lsi15's with my yamaha 1900?

My system would mostly be for music and an occasional movie here and there.

Thanks in advance.

Adam

tonyb

You kinda answered your own question bubba, you have a receiver rated at 8 ohms and you want speakers that are 4 ohms, thats a no-no unless you plan on adding an amp which I gather you aren't. The 5's will be alot easier on your receiver and you'll enjoy a seperate sub better for movies.

B Run

Honestly I can't comment on the LSI's because I don't own them, but I have the Rx v1800 and I wouldn't try to run those off of it. Secondly I just got the Rti8's last week and am now selling my Rx V1800 because I don't like how they pair together due to brightness, and would not recommend them for a music setup. I love my Rti8's for movies but not so much for music, i'd say they're ok at best. I think your best bet would be running the Lsi's with a seperate amp if your budget allows. If not i'd run Monitor 70's with your 1900 for music, they sound nice together and would sound even better with an amp as time permits but it wouldn't be necessary as with the Lsi's. Hope this helped and welcome to the forum, there's lots of knowledgeable people on here and i've learned a lot from them.

Zitro

The LSi15's will present a load too challenging for the receiver you mentioned. However, the Rti series is geared towards home theater and is too bright for music imo, if that's your primary use. Any chance you can upgrade your amplification? The LSi15's are a fine speaker, especially if you're using them for mostly music.

cstmar01

get an external amp rated at 4 ohms for the LSI. Your AVR will thank you.

messiah

It actually will work for a while, and then your receiver will die. It isn't made to handle 4 ohms, but it probably would for several months if not driven to hard. Best bet is just to get an external amp.

Lietuvis91

xcapri79 wrote: »

Welcome to Club Polk.
As you are mostly interested in music, and the LSi15's are wonderful for music, I would suggest replacing the 1900 with a receiver that has pre-amp outputs allowing you add a good external amp that has the capability to drive the LSi's.

The 1900 does have pre-amp outs, so he should be ok there. Sounds like he should start saving for an amp.

mystik610

I read a thread somewhere about someone frying a receiver trying to push the LSi 15's (or was it the 9's) with a Yamaha receiver.

If budget is your concern, you could find yourself in a bigger hole financially if you were to destroy your receiver trying to push the LSi 15's.

That said, when it comes to musicality, the LSi's are very hard to beat...even looking outside of Polk's line-up. The RTi's can be pretty harsh for music, especially without external amplification, and running off a bright receiver like the yamaha.

grimmace19

The 15's are amazing speakers. I love mine. I just got a pair of 9's for back speakers today and upon hooking them up for fronts to test them out they are also a great option. Almost the exact same sound as their floorstanding counterparts with just a bit less bass (no 8 inch woofer of course). So with your receiver having pre-outs for an amp I'd suggest going the LSI route with either 9's or 15's and getting a nice beefy amp to support them.

izzy003

Thanks for all the great replies. I have heard fantastic things about the lsi15's, so would like to try and get them to work. So, if I were to add a hefty 2 channel 4 ohm capable amp to power the lsi15's, would I be able to use my yamaha 1900 to power my center channel speaker (LsiC) and Lsi9 back speakers? I do not own the center or backs yet, but would like to add to this system in the future. Or, would I have to buy a multichannel external amp to power the 15's, center, and the lsi9 backs?

One more question, how much power should my external amp have to make the Lsi15's sound good? Would 2 x 200 watt amp work out? I am guessing that this would be 200 watts at 4 ohms right?

Thanks again, big help.

Adam

grimmace19

To prevent constant upgrades I would recommend getting a 5 channel amp from the start. I have an adcom gfa-7500 that does 5 x 225 at 4ohms. Otherwise because the center and 9's will come later you could do a 2 channel amp now and a 3 channel later and switch it out the way you want it. 200 wpc at 4 ohms should do the trick for you without any issues.

Zitro

grimmace19 wrote: »

To prevent constant upgrades I would recommend getting a 5 channel amp from the start.

+1 if you are gonna do it, do it right. This is, of course, if you stick with the LSi series all the way around. Other speakers would likely be able to run off of the yammie. Of course, with surround sound, voice matching is important, so its generally not a good thing to mix and match speaker lines. To add to the above recommendation, all of NAD's AVR's are rated at 4 ohm and can handle the load of the LSi's with ease. I power my LSi's with a small NAD integrated and it barely gets warm; NAD amps tend to have a lot of current and headroom.

BlueFox

Just as an FYI, I ran 4 LSi15s and an LSiC off a Sony DA-5000ES, 120w/ch, with no issues. As others said, more power is generally better than less power. Later, I upgraded to a more powerful AVR at 175w/ch, and this also worked fine. Today, I use this AVR as a pre/pro, along with a Sunfigre TGA-5400 (800w/ch), and it too works fine.

The point is, no matter what system I used, the LSi15s sounded great, and with each upgrade they sounded better.

izzy003

Thanks for all the tips. I am going to go ahead and purchase the Lsi15's. I found a used adcom 7500 amp (5 channel) that I am going to use. Found one locally for $400. Can't wait, should be a nice setup!

izzy003

So I found a guy that has 2 gently used right Lsi25's. The price for these used would be about $200 cheaper than the polk refurbished Lsi15's.

I read a recent post about a guy having two left Lsi15's and they worked out fine. I am guessing that having 2 right Lsi25's (of course, one placed on the right and the other placed on the left) would sound better than having a right and left Lsi15 set. Am I correct in assuming this? This may actually save me some money, as I could probably do without a seperate sub if I were to go with the 25's (they have 10 inch powered subs).

Thanks again.

izzy003

Thanks for the help, on the amp issue. I reposted this lsi25/lsi15 right left thing as a new thread.