Another lsi vs rtia thread?

Esreuter

Yes, yes it is.
But much simpler, I have heard many of you says lsi works for movies but rti jams for movies.

What I would like to know is how much of a step up is the tweeter in the Lsi line from the rtia line.

And what about the side firing sub of the lsi any + or any -?

Please and thank you for your advice
Esr.

polkfarmboy

The lsi will destroy the rti in all departments for sure

PSOVLSK

I've never owned Rti's, but I would imagine that placement is a little easier with them. My experience tells me that you have to have some distance from the side walls with the LSi's.

Again, I can't compare it to the Rti's, but the tweeter on the LSi's is nice...very nice.

dorokusai

The stock bass response in the LSi15 is marginal but better with a DB woofer. The difference between the tweeters is night and day. The Rti is specifically designed for HT and the LSi for music so they are drastically different in original design goals. Do they handle both, sure, any loudspeaker can do whatever application you need it for.

The LSi is nicely laid back and warm, very British to me with a nice extended high end that rolls smoothly between xover points.....punchy, solid midrange and tight low end to the reality limits but loose on the very low end. The RTi is brighter on the high end, perhaps a bit sharp, classic Polk midrange that tight and the low end rolls into the ultra low end very good but with a steep drop-off when you get real low. They're both very nice choices but to me are easily chosen based on overall application and usage.

Good luck.

nguyendot

polkfarmboy wrote: »

The lsi will destroy the rti in all departments for sure

What gives you that idea? The RTiA9's will do fantastic with movies compared to the LSi.

Erik Tracy

As I've posted in other threads comparing the LSi vs RTi series speakers - I'm probably 1 of maybe 3 people in the known universe that preferred the RTiA3 over the LSi7...for music.... as I owned both at the same time and did my own in-house comparison.

Both more than adequately driven with the usual requisite 200+ Watts/channel, with good interconnects and with good source components.

In my rig, for my musical preferences and listening volumes, I preferred the RTiA3 just a tad more - a bit more 'sparkle' in the high end for clarity.

cnh

Have to agree with you there Erik; you are in the minority. I have both speakers and the A3s are not in the same league as the LSI-7s for music.

Recently I picked up a set of Boston A100s that have replaced the A3s in the basement HT as L/Rs. Again, musically, the A100s' imaging and sound-stage blow out the A3s (of course the Bostons are huge in comparison--a two way 10" system designed to compete with the old large Advents and improve upon them).

I find that the A3s just don't have the imaging, smoothness, musicality, of the 7s. But if they work for you, they work!

cnh

Erik Tracy

cnh wrote: »

Have to agree with you there Erik; you are in the minority. I have both speakers and the A3s are not in the same league as the LSI-7s for music.

Recently I picked up a set of Boston A100s that have replaced the A3s in the basement HT as L/Rs. Again, musically, the A100s' imaging and sound-stage blow out the A3s (of course the Bostons are huge in comparison--a two way 10" system designed to compete with the old large Advents and improve upon them).

I find that the A3s just don't have the imaging, smoothness, musicality, of the 7s. But if they work for you, they work!

cnh

No worries - everyone has different rigs, different tastes.

Besides, I've moved on and up from the RTiA3s....got some very nice B&W bookies...ah but...well....I know how you feel about B&Ws:cheesygrin:

cnh

Yeah, you're right. When I was in China I got tired of seeing and hearing all the B&W bookshelves in various stores in Beijing, etc. They're big in East Asia as well! There was one store, though that sold mostly Polk and GamuT (an unusual combo?). I had to roll in for a Demo! Pretty good stuff....but I digress.

It makes perfect sense to me that if you like Rti-As then B&W would be the step up! I found, though, that I had to get my 'warmest' sounding amp on the Rti-As to make them sound musical enough for me. With the vintage BAs and the LSis that's not as much of an issue.

What can I say, some like it 'hot' (on the top end that is). Dan calls that neutral/uncolored sound but you know what they say about perfectly 'flat' sound...it's not the way the real world sounds, and most of us do not live in a studio! lol

Enjoy!

cnh

Toolfan66

nguyendot wrote: »

What gives you that idea? The RTiA9's will do fantastic with movies compared to the LSi.

Agreed!!! I wouldn't trade my A9's for the LSi's but thats just me..

nooshinjohn

TOOLFORLIFEFAN wrote: »

Agreed!!! I wouldn't trade my A9's for the LSi's but thats just me..

This coming from the man that gutted a perfectly good turntable to make a LP washer:rolleyes:...


:loneranger::cheesygrin:


TFL has it about right for me as well. The LSi's made for great surrounds, but I would not use them for audio either. The a9's sounded much better to me too.

gwg_97

I recently did an A/B comparison of the RTiA3s and the LSi7s at Fry's (just for kicks) and I have to say, in a crappy room with a relatively crappy Yamaha receiver, the RtiA3s sounded a bit better to me. I really wanted to take the blanket off the LSi7s, if you know what I mean. I guessing the LSi7s would have sounded much better with better gear in a proper room.

I'm still trying to decide between the two for my office rig (using my old Kenwood Basic M2/C2 gear).

Toolfan66

Well keep in mind I use my A9's for TV/Movies 99% of the time only if I'm messing around in the basement I might put on some music but it's rare. I got the opertunity to spend two weeks with the LSi's and I found them to be ok, IMO and I could be wrong as we will never know, but if the A9's had a better tweeter to handle both music and movies they would walk all over the LSi line..

I love my HT rig just the way it is, Right now I have no desire to change it. Now if I only had the room for one rig?? Well then my whole system would have change a long time ago!!

Toolfan66

Haha John!!! That TT still works and it's still a perfectly good Table!! The cool thing is I could have it spinning vinyl in about 2 hours.. LOL!!

jbooker82

To bad they dont have dual tweeters with a switch like the FXI's to switch between the two.

falconcry72

Another consideration is that the RTiA's are much easier to drive, so if you don't want to spring for an external amp, you may be better off with the RTiA's and saving a few bucks.

Esreuter

I was under the impression the Rtia are the the power hungry beasts of polks line up.

Esr

cnh

Ok, to clarify. There is a 'difference' between powering RTi A1s, 3s, 5s and the larger Rti-As, 'especially' the A9s. The A9s DO need a lot of power to shine. But so do LSIs.

If you try to run 'any' LSI, even the 7s, with just a receiver. Be prepared to think that there 'is' a blanket over them. As soon as you get some quality amplification on them, they open up (but will never be as bright and forward as Rti-As are.

I agree with Larry above (mostly about) the A9s. The A9s are a wonderful tower for movies and pretty good with music--better than it's smaller brothers, but it is also TOTL.

On paper Rti-As are 8 ohms and LSIs are 4 ohms (so in general, LSIs require amps that can deal with that load).

If you're going to go HT, mostly, Rti-A9s are a great choice!

And the cascade array of drivers and the D'appolito array, IMO, tames a bit of the forwardness of the standard Rti-A tweeter in the A9s. Which is a good thing if you're going to do double duty (movies and music)!

cnh

SRTer

I only wish I could have got a chance to hear both the RTi A and LSi line when I made my purchase. Now, it doesn’t matter now because I'm up to my eyeballs in RTi A. I really felt that the RTi A's towers were very dependent on a proper EQ for your musical taste and the right combination of separate amplification.

With that being said, I really didn't like the RTi A9's over my old RTi8’s after using the auto calibration of the Pioneer Elite SC's MCACC. Once I changed the EQ, keep all MCACC room correction values, I was impressed. Then talking to you all here made me abandon my plan for just using the ICE amps in the AVR for power.

The separate AMP really brought home the goods on the RTi A9's. There is more control and body to the mid and bass regions of the RTi A9's. They really shine on music with plenty of time spent on the EQ and calibration with a proper amp in the mix.

I really wished I could have had some LSi's to demo on my setup for a couple hours to see if I would like them more.