Vintage LS vs RTI and LSI

Lego1

I currently have LS90's for fronts, CS350 for center, and LS FX for surrounds. I am extremely happy with the speakers, but always wonder how these compare to the polk RTI line and the polk LSI line. How do the tweeters from the other lines compare? Wife likes the sound from the LS90 speakers but likes the more modern look of the RTI and LSI series better. Thoughts?

Is it worth upgrading to the LSI line from the LS line? Would going to the RTI line be an upgrade, lateral move, or a downgrade from my current setup?

I use my setup for HT 95% and music 5%.

EndersShadow

Lego1 wrote: »

I currently have LS90's for fronts, CS350 for center, and LS FX for surrounds. I am extremely happy with the speakers, but always wonder how these compare to the polk RTI line and the polk LSI line. How do the tweeters from the other lines compare? Wife likes the sound from the LS90 speakers but likes the more modern look of the RTI and LSI series better. Thoughts?

Is it worth upgrading to the LSI line from the LS line? Would going to the RTI line be an upgrade, lateral move, or a downgrade from my current setup?

I use my setup for HT 95% and music 5%.

Your vintage Polks are up to spec and are just as good as the LSi's. I would keep what you have and upgrade something else (speaker cables, amplifier, interconnects) before looking at your speakers.

deronb1

Having not heard the LS line, I cannot comment on sound. Many here love the LS sound for music. I do however, have RTi12s and fxi3s (match for RTi line)They are great for HT. They do need some power though (especially the 12s).

I'm about 70 - 30 music, so I am thinking of going the opposite route of you lol.

tonyb

EndersShadow wrote: »

and are just as good as the LSi's.

Have to disagree with that. While each series the OP mentions are very good, each has their own specific sound. As far as LSI's compared to the older LS series, the LSI's will be more detailed, you'll hear more in the upper regions. The RTI series is more upfront than the other 2 series, some would say more bright. Best to get an ear on some other series and decide for yourself. Plenty of other brands too that can offer up a significant increase in SQ over the LS series.

bluecomet

I agree with tonyb but going into LSI territory means external amplification. LSI series speakers are not cheap when you factor external amplification and going out and buying a center, mains and surround speakers. I was fortunate to get a great deal on a HT setup. I was running an RT line HT setup and was very content with them but I couldn't pass up the deal for the Lsi speakers. I would keep your LS speaker HT setup unless you really want to make a financial commitment to the Lsi speakers. At the end of the road I believe you would hear a differance.

EndersShadow

TonyB I do not disagree with your statement, however from a cost perspective he isnt losing much by keeping what he has. He would have to purchase fronts and center to replace the ones he has, and get a dedicated amp if he doesnt already have one.

My thought was if he took invested in cables, wires, or a DAC he might get a better sound and even be able to save a buck or two.

Personally the LS90's are on my list of 2 channel speakers to work through my system once setup as I have heard great things about them.

cfrizz

I would say to add a 5 channel amp to your current system (providing your receiver has preouts) to hear what your speakers are truly capable of. Then if you do decide to upgrade your speakers go for LSI's since you will already have the amplification in place to power them.

What amping your speakers will give you is greater clarity across the board as well as better bass and seperation of instruments & vocals. To date, it is still the best improvement I have made to my system in the seven years I've been on this forum.

My 21 year old Polk RTA-8T's have never sounded better. I was considering upgrading to LSI's but that went by the wayside once I amped my speakers.

For new amps check out Emotiva XPA-5, or Outlaw Audio's 7500.

For used check out Audiogon for the above two as well as Rotel, Sunfire, Parasound, B & K, Nad, Adcom.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1329073548&/Rotel-RMB-1095-5.1-amp
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1329300151&/Sunfire-Cinema-Grand-
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1327075063&/Sunfire--Cinema-Grand-.--225x5


Welcome to Club Polk.

Lego1

Thanks for the replys! I am currently using an adcom 535 to power these while my pioneer 1018 powers the rest. Maybe ill look into finding an adcom 7000 or a 555 for the mains and 2535 for the center to see if 200wpc will be better for me. The speakers do sound very clear and get very loud. With the going rate for lsi, i wuld have to find some good deals for them used in order to upgrade. Ill try to find some to listen to first.

MrGlobe

I read a user review of the new LSI M series tower in which the user commented about a comparison between the new LSI M series and his LS-90s. He also had pictures comparing the two. The LSI M won out I believe. I'll see if I can find the thread

EDIT: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?120825-Another-LSiM-707-Review

Lego1

Yeah I saw that. They're also $4k a pair. It'd be nice if someone compared the LS90 against say the LSi15s or even Lsi9. I can't find these local to me to do a comparison. Don't have the funds to buy some to compare yet. I keep hearing that the new silk tweeter is more revealing in the LSI series compared to the vintage polks. Is it the tweeter itself? I wonder if anyone's tried mating one of those newer LSI tweeters in a polk vintage speaker to see how it sounds?

EndersShadow

Lego1 wrote: »

They're also $4k a pair. It'd be nice if someone compared the LS90 against say the LSi15s or even Lsi9. I can't find these local to me to do a comparison.

PM DSkip and Ron Temple. I believe both of them have had the 9's and LS90's. DSkip also has heard the LSiM's if I remember correctly.

Lego where are you located at?

wallstreet

I had the 703's setup for awhile as well although I didn't officially submit a review. They were excellent speakers that could stand on their own (with a subwoofer). When mated with a sub, they will give an excellent movie experience. I've heard the old LSi line as well. Do they sound better than my 90's. Probably. You have to remember the LS line is 20 years old. Lots of speakers may sound marginally or even incrementally betterthan the LS line, but I always end up at the cost to get better sound. $4K for just the fronts combined with center, sides and rear speakers, for a new line of LSi is a huge payout for incrementally better sound. Add to that all of the positive responses from the Polk gatherings on the LS 90's quickly cures a case of upgraditis.

Phasewolf

Are you on stock cross overs or are they upgraded ones? Rebuilding a crossover can bring you a lot of new joy for a lot less coin then a set of new mains. Just a thought.

Lego1

I'm located in Marysville, WA. Just north of Seattle, WA. I just did the crossover mod on my LS90 and CS350LS yesterday with the Dayton capacitor as described by ben. It was a piece of cake. Haven't listened to them yet though since I did it. Pulled my adcom 535 apart to replace the fuses with ceramic ones. I bought an adcom 2535 from a member here and hopefully will get it in the mail soon. I'm going to bridge it to give my CS350LS 200wpc, will use the other two 60wpc for my FXi30 in the back. I'm thinking I'll upgrade to an adcom 555 to see what it does for these since everyone is saying the magic number for these is 200wpc. I don't want to spend a large chunk of cash, that is why I'm looking at a comparison between the LS90 with the LSI series since the LSiM is still kind of out of reach.

EndersShadow

Lego1 wrote: »

I'm located in Marysville, WA. Just north of Seattle, WA.

Gotcha, if you were closer I was going to say you could come listen to my 15's lol....

Lego1

I appreciate the offer

Lego1

Those of you with LS90s, are you setting them for small or large? I know setting them to small takes some of the load off of the amps. They have more of a low end if I set them to large and the sub to plus in my pioneer 1018. Will the Adcom 535 be able to handle them well in the large setting? Thanks.

Tour2ma

Never have thought of the 90's like this before, but they're kinda forerunners of both the RTi and LSi towers... like maybe their common audio ancestor that yielded both, more modern lines... the RTi/ LSi "missing link". However, as I have said before, LS-90's are the hammer of the audio gods, and they would hammer both of their more modern descendants into the ground and piss on their graves. :twisted:

wallstreet dropped his LS-90's off at Russman's house back at one of the original TXPF's leaving them in the tender loving hands of the already fairly well-lubricated quartet of Russ, doro, hoosier21 and I with nothing save doro's BBQ (IIRC it surprisingly made the trip) or a Sunfire SigCin Grand to power 'em. We thought we were pushing them hard when wallstreet returned a couple hours later and turned them up... :eek: ... and he was stone, cold sober. I still recall how loud I had to talk to be heard over White Zombie's More Human Than Human.. and I was outside at the time. But turn them down to where you could relax in the same room they were in and it was very surprising how musical they actually were.

The LS-90's top one of the few Polk lines where I actually think that the TOTL model is the best in that line. In the RTi's I much preferred the 10's over the 12's; in the LSi's the 7's were probably my fav's, but the 9's were quite good as well. The couple times I've heard the 15's and 25's, I did not like either of them (sloppy bass, smeared imaging), but that could have been due to set up issues... as I'm sure many here will gladly point out to me. :cheesygrin:

LS-90's vs RTi's...
The LS-90's bass is much tighter than the RTi-12's and easily deeper than the RTi-10's. With a sub the 10's might have a fighting chance for my ears, but that was not an option at the time. Otherwise I thought that they were similar sounding, slightly forward speakers. The RTi-10's imaging might have been slightly better, but nothing startling.

LS-90's vs LSi's...
Hardly a universal view around here, but LSi's bore me... they're so laid back in the upper frequencies... nothing "sparkles". If you are engaged by the LS series' tri-lam's, I seriously doubt that the LSi's will hold your attention. Both the LSi-7's and 9's imaged noticeably better than the LS-90's, but that's not something surprising for relatively limited range bookies vs. full-range towers.

Stay put... power 'em up as coinage allows... enjoy... and increase your music percentage... :cool:

Lego1

Thanks for the reply

quadzilla

I've own LS50s, have heard the 90s and LSi series, as well as the LSiMs. Nothing Polk has ever done compares to the LSiMs.

55LS70

I have a pair of LS70's. I upgraded the caps to Sonicaps and recently replaced all the drivers and tweeters. They set on 3 3/4" thick myrtlewood blocks with Mapleshade carpet piercing spikes. When coupled with my Prima Luna Prologue 4 amp, they sound pretty good. The key to getting them to where I like them the most was the cap upgrade and the myrtlewood blocks and spikes. Another recent improvement that I did the other day was to replace the Prima Luna's Telefunken ECC83's with Brimar CV4035's (both 12AX7 variations) and that helped to bring out a little more of the mid range detail.

The 35 wpc Prima Luna drives them fairly well. Sometime in the future I'll probably upgrade to better speakers but I don't think they will be Polks because I think the newer ones will require a little more power than the Prima Luna can provide. That is of course if I don't upgrade from the Prima Luna to a pair of hefty tube mono blocks. Sometimes this can be a horrible hobby. One never seems to be content with what they have.