Polk LSiM at the Venetian - First look, only here!

EndersShadow

I want them bad, but will have to settle for the old model LSi's once their price drops.....I can barely get the wife to let me get those, so imagine her surprise if I said I needed about 1600 or more for 3 speakers :eek:.

If anyone in IN gets a set to demo, or own, or knows somewhere you will be able to demo them, let me know. I want to get my ears on a pair.....

steveinaz

Great to see Polk Audio back in the BIG leagues again! I thought we had lost them forever to the silver plastic bezel crowd...

woofiepaws

I think my LSi25s are not going to be with me much longer. Those towers are beautiful.

Jstas

I wonder how the bookshelf ones would sound with a like a DSW Pro600 instead of teh towers with the subs?

I also wonder if the LCi in-walls will be replaced with any tech from the new LSi series? Or is the LCi-RTS series still king of the heap?



Oh and relegating those towers to HT duty would be a shame. They absolutely sing!HT is kind of beneath them.

Jstas

Hey, RuSs, what kinda wimpy amp is that powering them? I can see that it's an Audio Research unit but that's all I can see. A model number or anything? I really just want to know what the power level is. I really wanted to take Antny's Silver 9's he brought with him to PF and hook them up to the prototypes that Al brought but everyone was apparently afraid of cramming that much power through them. Although, that loser Nestor brought his "BBQ" with him and that had gobs of crazy power as well. Not as much as a pair of Carver monoblocks but, enough.

gdb

Those are beautiful. I bet they're generating a lot of interest among people who do not already own/sell Polk speakers.

TECHNOKID

Thanks for the pics Russ, nice to see Polk is improving their quality standard. I agree with you on the binding post cup :frown: and I agree it is nice to see real jumpers for once, the speakers now looks like real rather than plastic toys :cool:

dbaldus

punk-roc wrote: »

I'm stoked, the release is hitting my upgrade cycle near-perfect I need some new speakers and the LSiM bookshelves may fit the bill perfectly...

Jason

If by "upgrade cycle", you mean "tax return time", then I'm right there with ya

Glowrdr

Daddy Likey - Never really understood the "unround" speaker design, but I have to admit - it looks sexy in this arrangement.

Jstas

Glowrdr wrote: »

Daddy Likey - Never really understood the "unround" speaker design, but I have to admit - it looks sexy in this arrangement.

It adds surface area. Adding surface area makes a driver physically larger. It can then move more air. The more air you can move the louder your driver can play. If you can't make a case wider then, say, 6.5 inches, the using a 6x9" driver will get you the effective displacement of a 7.25" driver instead of just the 6" driver. It's got nothing to do with looking pretty. It's all function.

Only thing is that an oblong driver tends to have distortion and break up problems. That's typically why you see aftermarket 6x9's and 4x10's for cars having 3-way setups with a midrange in the mix too. This keeps the oblong cone from being asked to do more than it can, effectively. Low frequency sounds don't radiate the same that higher frequency stuff does. If you ask an oblong driver to cover too much of the frequency range, those longer cone sections on the oblong sides tend to break up unevenly due to how the low and high frequency sounds propagate across the cone surface. So usually you try to keep them from trying to reproduce frequencies that require more precise control so that a high frequency tone doesn't break up the cone surface while it is reproducing a low frequency sound.

I'm not sure I'm esplainin' this well enough. Think of a sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper. It's oblong even though it's rectangular. Hold it rigid with a slight crease, like you're handing the cashier a fiver for your cigarettes. If you hold it with a slight crease, straight out, you can move the whole sheet as one fairly effectively. That's a large movement requiring a large amount of force to move the whole paper. Now, while still moving the paper up and down, flick some where along the bottom of that gentle crease with you finger. Doesn't have to be hard. What happens? The whole paper goes floppy and starts waving around as you move up and down, right? There's also a tight crease near you fingers where's you're holding it. Well, your hand holding the paper is low frequency and your finger flicking it is high frequency. Everything in hunky dory while just one type of frequency is acting on the paper. As soon as you try to get two types of frequency, the high frequency breaks up the surface tension of the paper that is helping keep it rigid. Since that tension is no longer there and that high frequency propagates in waves, it sends shock waves through the paper which causes it to break up in low frequency as well because the rigidity is gone. That's cone break-up and that's what causes that "farting speaker" type of distortion.

That high frequency can come in many forms. Another way is harmonics from signal path components or even material resonances. Hence the reason we employ crossovers and enclosure dampening and such. Even vibrations from surrounding items can cause feed back on the speaker and cause break up. Also, the backwave reflecting off the inside of the cabinet from the back of the driver can cause cone breakup. If your enclosure is not properly sized or dampened, even uneven air pressure behind the driver can do it too.

In the LSIM, they used flat drivers, otherwise known as pistons. This way they can make a flat "cone" that is super rigid and not prone to break up. Since they are using it as a sub driver, it excels at that and ends up giving them the performance of a driver that is 20% bigger but still fits inside that nice, high WAF, form factor.

Glowrdr

Wow - that was a lot more detailed than I've ever heard. I knew the part about the increase in surface area and such. They've been doing that for a long time, most recently with square subs.

I'm sure there are a lot of designs, testing, and physics that are involved when making these decisions - but a little something inside of me still wants to believe that a round speaker design will be most efficiant. I'm sure that's more just me "being stuck in my old ways" and resisting a change that really has no impact to me what-so-ever? I mean really, why should I care what they do as long as it sounds good.... but I do. Just life I guess.

Face

Larger drivers can generally play lower with less distortion.

MADGSF

Going to be at that DFW meet. Would lover to demo those at home too Russ, hint, hint.

Roamingrasta

Went to CES on Thru. and met a couple of the Polk reps. . . no Russman. I was hoping to hear an A7, but obviously this venue was to show the new LSiM. All I have to say is DAMN that’s one impressive speaker system, and at a price point that’s small in comparison to anything I heard with that level of . . . tonal richness! I went to several other rooms in the Venetian (none of them were in the LV Convention Center) and heard TAD’s, B&W and custom shop names I’ve never seen before. Speakers selling for in excess of $30K, and I was hard pressed to hear anything that the LSiMt could not compete with, especially when you consider the price.
I was listing to a classical composition (my tastes are Miles Davis to Bob Marley) and was so amased at the richness of the tones, especially the lower registry that I blurted out “ . . . where is the subwoofer.” Dumb question maybe, but it literally begged to be asked. These are speakers that the audiophile would readily pare with a $10,000 amps. Which brings another question to mind . . . how much power do you need to run these puppies?
Impressive!!
Polk’s other room was presenting their home theater market answer to small speaker sound with the Blackstone series. Equally impressive along my wife’s view that speakers should not dominate a room. Blackstone is on the mark for that market that wants premium sound without speaker clutter.
Give me BIG boxes that project sound through me!

pjdami

Thanks for posting Russ. Those look sweet. Audio Research may be my dream amp too.

ssjLancer

Am I right in assuming that these will cost significantly more than current prices for the LSi?

tonyb

ssjLancer wrote: »

Am I right in assuming that these will cost significantly more than current prices for the LSi?

You assume correctly. You really didn't think they would be the same price did ya ?

disneyjoe7

3 crossovers WOW!

ssjLancer

tonyb wrote: »

You assume correctly. You really didn't think they would be the same price did ya ?

For a second I thought they would, kinda of like how the TSi series have the same msrp as the Monitors. But reading it more these dont seem to be complete replacements, but rather a new higher end class.

Libertyc

They blew me away. I really think this new line has brought Polk Audio up to the next level in the high end audio world. I so want a pair but my electronics would not do them justice. The flagships go for $4,000.pair. They were powered by a huge vacuum tube amp. Oh and the bass was so deep, tight and controlled.

PrazVT

wow..simply beautiful..

ben62670

What kind of caps are they using? I see some iron core inductors which is not that bad in the right place. It is easy to see they have spent their time designing the speakers. Great job so far, but I would hate to see them compromising quality with cheap caps and resistors. Not much needs to be spent to bring them up a notch. So far Polk has been a leader in my book for bang for the buck designs
Ben

danger boy

how did they sound Russ?

Monster Jam

Impressive. Most Impressive.

RuSsMaN

Good news for some, bad news for others.

Spent more time, demoing selections I'm familar with, some polished, some not. The good news is that if you have high resolution sources, with well recorded material - you're going to mess your flat hat.

The bad news, if you have a cd collection full of compressed, greatest hits, mainstream, poorly recorded material - these speakers are not for you.

This is the first loudspeaker from Polk that I would call unforgiving. Even the last generation LSi had a profound presentation of detail, but was also forgiving in that even common, or not so well recorded or compressed material was still pleasing to listen to. The new generation is not forgiving as such. In my experience with SDA, the ability to resolve difficult passages and detail is there, but they also make everyday selections fun to listen to also.

If you don't have polished recordings, or run hi res digital tracks, SACD, or have a really tight vinyl setup, be prepared to fix that issue. If you DO, my oh my oh my, are you in for a treat.

The same goes for the gear, don't expect to hook these to your Adcom or what not - not knocking any gear, but it's a fact, you MUST have a level of fidelity in your back end before you even attempt to get these speakers to do what they are capable of doing. The LSiM are a commitment across the board, not the just the MSRP of the speakers, if you haven't spent the money on your gear, you've got a road ahead of you. It's going to be a long road for some, and I know a lot of you that could plug and play today - either way, don't get discouraged, it's TOTALLY worth it.

Cheers,
Russ

Libertyc

I find that my 1.2tls can also be somewhat unforgiving on certain material, mainly heavy metal.

I knew that the electronics would not support the new LsiMs. I need to start from scratch.

polkatese

Russ, do you see a synergy between Audio Research gears and LSiM? Or it's just a matter of what they have? A Krell, Cinenova, or MF would do the same level of synergy?

Thanks for the review, btw. Can't wait to audition a set of 707, hopefully a local Magnolia would carry them soon.

RuSsMaN

I don't have Cinenova experience, but newer Krell and MF and right at the 'level' of fidelity I'm talking about, and should gel up great with the LSiM.

There certainly was synergy in the Polk room. We ran a Wadia source, and AR Reference series pre and amp, PS Audio power conditioner, and Audioquest Colorado cables.

polkatese

Thanks Russ. ETA to the local/National chains info?

RuSsMaN

No solid date disclosed to me, based on what I know, I would say look for April/May.

I have zero info on who will carry them.