Lsi15 better then Rti12??

naturallight

Now i have the 12's in my 2 channel stereo room. I am now going to put my 50 " plasma in a different room 14x12 and was looking at the surround bar 6000.
BUT i saw the LSI15's are pretty much on sale on the ebay site.

Now i started thinking...maybe i should just put the 12's in the video room..and get the Lsi15 for the music room.

Now i play the 12's pretty darn loud..basic classic rock, blues, even classical. Now they put out plenty of bass.
I run an Onkyo M-504 power amp..which will power the Lsi15 no problem.

I'm not sure the 15's will handle the volume the 12's do..or give me the same bass. Plus the 12's in a 12ft wide room...may just blow your brains out and be massive overkill.
I sit almost 20 feet back from the 12's in the music room....and i get plenty of bass. This all may be massive overkill....

Any thoughts about the 15's VS the 12's... for basic 2 channel music????

naturallight

Let me put it this way. The 12's now sit in a basement music room that is about 17x35.....i sit about 15-20 feet back from the speakers. The 12's if i play the 1812....at say between the 11 and 12 oclock position on the Adcom pre......you can feel your chest being pounded..for sure. These speakers will get way loud. And i play this stuff way loud in the music room.

Now if the 15's can't play this loud or give you the same bass feeling...then the "upgrade" is not worth it....and i should just go with the soundbar for the TV. The 12's are probably way over kill in a 12ft wide room any way

BlueFox

My HT is in an 11x12 room. I have a 57" RPTV, 4 LSi15s, a PSB center, and a PSW1000. There is no such thing as overkill in either HT or music. There is only better.

naturallight

Now see...i think your setup is way over kill. (at least for ht in that size room) Now I guess my real question would be...if i pull the 12's from the music room...will the 15's be a better speaker..can they handle the volume and produce the same bass , or better then the 12's. Thats probably the real question......

devani

if you think better = more volume + more bass, not sure how helpful we can be..

naturallight

Let me put it this way. I have never heard the 15's so i can't comment on them one way or another.
The 12's work well in the room I have them in. There is no toe in, they fire strait ahaead, as i can sit well back in the room. The 12's provide a very good open sound stage. Now the 15's are said to be more accurate in the high end. So if you play alot of sting Quartet music or Female vocal tunes. The difference may be well appeant.

BUT if you play something like the Counting Crows, The advantage of the 15's, may disapear, and infact may be lacking in the mid to low range, as compared to the 12's. You can pretty much "feel" every drum hit on the 12's, where i'm not so sure you can on the 15's. I don't see how 1 x8" in the 15's can come close to the 3x 7" in the 12's

So what i'm saying is you may gain in one area with the 15's, but loose in another. So if you play mostly classic rock(as opposed to what they now call metal) and go from that to heavy handed symphony type music such as Bolero or 1812. Then you may not preceive the 15's as a better speaker.

So the easy answer would be yes, there is "more" bass on the 12's.....the more correct answer would be...You get a more "accurate" production of the mid's to low end. If that makes more sence.....

Drenis

naturallight wrote: »

I don't see how 1 x8" in the 15's can come close to the 3x 7" in the 12's

Cabinet/Box design. Combine a proper spec'd driver in a properly crafted box and you'd be amazed what some small drivers will accomplish over larger variants when used in less then optimal enclosures.

naturallight

I agree 100% with that. In fact the 12's are a great example. I did not think this type speaker, with smaller drivers could come close to a regular "box" type speaker with 2x12's. But the 12's proved that wrong. They dive down increadably deep, and produce astounding bottom end. I had tried the Axiom 80's before the 12's.....they don't hold a candle to the 12's. It's night and day...LOL

Now some people say the 12's are brite...I don't find them that way(may be do to my power amp). Other people say the 15's are a more "accurate speaker" at least on the high end. Now i don't find the 12's ..for lack of a better word "un accurate". But i have never heard the 15's.

Soo my original question (which i thought may have been easy) is the 15 a better speaker then the 12's. My not be easy at all, and my come down to more personal preference. If i like the 12's...I may not think the 15's are an upgrade. Again I may gain in one area, and loose in another. At least to my ears.

tonyb

There is no correct answer to your question if that's what you seek. It's a subjective one that only you can answer by hearing both. Given both speakers are made and targeted at different audiences, the difference is in the presentation. If that makes one better than another, thats up to the end user to decide.

naturallight

Yes, i think your right. I went back and looked at other threads about the 12's VS 15's. The general rule seems to be the 15's are more laid back, more "accurate" in the high end..maybe some mid. Some people hate the tweeters in the 12's. Altho i don't find them too bad, i will say on some source material.....they can get kind of nasty. But thats on only a few cd's...and the producers fault more then the speaker. I don't know of any upgrade for the tweeter on the 12's..and i certanly can't stick the tweeter from the 15's in there...LOL

That is pretty much the only area were the 12's do come up somewhat short..altho, it's not at all bad.

The 15's on the other hand, just can't dive down to the bottom end and produce the punch the 12's can.

Since i can't hear the 15's.....it's just a question of..spend the money, and hope you like them more then the 12's.

jbooker82

If you want a little more refined sound out of the RTi's then talk with Trey (V3R or VR3 can't remember). Don't expect it to make a speaker you can't stand in to something you love. If you like the RTi sound he will make it even better.

naturallight

Thanks. No i think the 12's are great speakers. The only fault i could find..altho not bad at all. Would be the tweeter.
Now i'm not sure putting in different caps and stuff in the cross-over will fix that..as the tweeter itself seems to be the main problem....(if you consider it a problem)...Now yes if the cross-over is just "voiced" too bright..maybe.

But more then willing to see what he has to say......

slider2828

I suggest you pm Trey (VR3) for what he thinks about his fortress mods. I just did mine over the past couple of weeks on RTI8's. From my experience, they become more efficient (louder at same volumn), stage the sound better, and the RTi8's are very bright. It sort of tames the brightness down.

Now if that isn't wait your looking for then maybe there can be some custom setup for you, but I am loving it.

Lietuvis91

If you like the rti12s for music, I doubt you would like the lsi15s. You sound like the kind of guy that will like the tria9s thought. They are similar to your 12s, but have a slighly more refined tweeter.

nooshinjohn

In a room that big, you need SDA-SRS 1.2TL's.:cheesygrin:

VR3

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

If you like the rti12s for music, I doubt you would like the lsi15s. You sound like the kind of guy that will like the tria9s thought. They are similar to your 12s, but have a slighly more refined tweeter.

RTiA9 is the same as the RTi12 except for some crossover tweaking.

jbooker82

VR3 wrote: »

RTiA9 is the same as the RTi12 except for some crossover tweaking.

So can you build the RTi 12's xo with the values that the RTi A9's use.

Lietuvis91

VR3 wrote: »

RTiA9 is the same as the RTi12 except for some crossover tweaking.

That's news... I thought for sure the tweeter had to be different since they do have a different sound. But i guess that difference could be achieved through cross-over shinanigans.

In that case, this is rightfully a good question:

jbooker82 wrote: »

So can you build the RTi 12's xo with the values that the RTi A9's use.

mantis

The Lsi15's are a wonder multipurpose speaker. They sound a bit better to me then the rti12's. They are smoother in the highs , have better mid range but the bass is lacking as in sloppy and not as tight as could be.
There is a mod with changing out the woofer for a different model , research it in here as many guys have done this with stellar results.
The RTi12's are loud and clear but get shrill or annoying at high volumes to me. I much prefer the LSi15's over them. I'm not exactly sure how loud you listen but the LSi15's can play pretty loud and stay clear and clean.
Maybe you should consider treating your music room instead of getting new speakers , I'm gonna say that would yield better results. The Lsi15's are to me a better speaker but not by a lot.

VR3

The biggest difference (as I recall) between the RTiA9 and 12 is the 9 uses a higher grade cap in the tweeter network and the lows are cut out from the mids where the 12 has neither.

naturallight

VR3, so with a few cap changes, you can "tame" the, what might be considered shrill tweeter?? Is there an old thread that you explain how and what parts you need to do this? The fact that they don't seperate the lows from the mid's on the 12's would seem strange, but if thats an easy fix would love to know how to do it.

Thanks

naturallight

To better explain this...Now i have had nothing but Polk speakers for the last 25 years. They are great.
Now i almost bought the 15's...but the price on the 12's were too good to pass up...LOL.

Now the room is large. It's about 17x35. The speakers are a good 10' apart at least. They fire strait ahead.

I sit about 12-15 feet back in the room. Now the comments on the 12's, too forward, too brite over all, tweeter too brite, can't produce the bass. Now most of that i don't agree with at all.
For the most part, it has to do with the equipment your running. Now my Onkyo M-504 power amp is not brite at all, the Adcom pre is pretty neutral, and the Jolida cd I changed the tubes out to old EH stuff (i think, can't remember what i really put in there).

So I don't find the 12's to be overly forward, nor brite, nor lacking any bass at all. The high end "accuracy" may come into question as opposed to the 15's. I do find some source cd's to be at the point of shrill. But i also think that the fault of the producer, more then the speakers. Since only about 5-10 CD's out of well over 500 tend to be that way, i can't really point a finger at the 12's. Now from..I will say the mid bass on down....the 12's are as "accurate" as any speaker can be. There is no sag, sloppy...no nothing. They hit hard and "accurate"

If i can make the 12's more" accurate" in the high end and maybe not as shrill (altho i don't think that will really help those couple of cd's)...then i all for it and would love to know what i need to fix it.

To be blunt i think the 12's are wonderfull speakers and are really hard to beat even in stock form.

heiney9

What Adcom pre are you running? The only one worth a damn, really, is the GFP-750 and thats a very neutral pre-amp. The rest are 'ok' and not what I would consider neutral at all, they use far too many op-amps to be dead neutral.

Glad you are enjoying your 12's, but the 15's might have been even sweeter.

H9

erniejade

In my basement before the woman moved in with kids and the basement got converted to a bedroom and a small den, I had JBL L150 ( actually a darn good speaker) SDA 2.3 and SDA 1.2, Carver amazing original, and Vandersteen 3A. The 2 that sounded best in the basement was the 1.2 and the carver amazing but with different music.

Since the move, my sound room is the living room. The acoustics are dead in that room. All the above speakers did not sound right in that room and except for the 2.3?s have been sold. In addition, I went through Polk 10B ( amazing for the $ on the used market) Def Tech 20?s, and Tyler acoustics reference monitor II ( thanks VR3!) . Recently I got a set of rti 12 ( thanks dekuda) and the 12?s sounded just right in that dead room. Dekuda actually brought the 12?s over so we could hear it in my room since I described the issues I was having so I wouldn?t have to resell them if I didn?t care for them. When he came in he heard the tylers playing and said they sound great. I said thanks but, they are missing that live soundstage. Then I showed him the smaller jm lab 815 I have in the den and he understood what I said they were missing.

We put the rti 12 in the livingroom and the room came to life. In my room the 12?s don?t sound shrill or over bright. They sounded like they just kind of belonged in that room.

I guess this was just a long way of saying sometimes its not always the quality or price of the speaker but, synergy with the room itself. Most of the speakers I mentioned above should have beat the 12's out but in that room... Nope! If your happy with 90% of that speaker, maybe take a look at other things that might make them sound shrill in the room itself like, what is on the wall behind you? how far is the wall behind you? If its close, can you pull it out from that wall or put something to absorb on that wall? .Sometimes room treatments go a long way. They did in my basement but not so much in the living room.

BTW put the Tylers in the den and they came to life. Sounded like I got new speakers!

nooshinjohn

To the OP... your room is SCREAMING for a set of SDA-SRS 2.3's or the 1.2's. With you positioning the speakers as you have described, I feel that you will find sonic BLISS with the vintage Polks. Don't get me wrong here, as the ones you are considering are plenty good, but the SDA's really work a room like yours in such a way that is hard to believe until you have tried them.

erniejade

nooshinjohn wrote: »

To the OP... your room is SCREAMING for a set of SDA-SRS 2.3's or the 1.2's. With you positioning the speakers as you have described, I feel that you will find sonic BLISS with the vintage Polks. Don't get me wrong here, as the ones you are considering are plenty good, but the SDA's really work a room like yours in such a way that is hard to believe until you have tried them.

I am going to have to agree here. It does kind of sound like my old basment setup! do the rdo update though if you do get a set.

naturallight

LMAO...yeah guys,,belive me I know. I had a set of SDA's 1c's that i had for years ..until animal damage and some water damage took there toll on them.
NO..the 12's cannot match the SDA's. But to find a set of SDA- SRS 2.3's that are even in good shape, then the cost to ship them and hope they show up intact.....thats a big IF...

Believe me..I wanted those speakers SOOO bad....but nobody who has them will ship them. Then if some of the drivers are bad..I'm not sure Polk even sells those any more...the drivers are very hard to replace. Thats also "assumeing" the X-overs are still good.

Yeah..you guys pretty much hit on the speakers i always wanted.....but I don't see how i could get them...

EndersShadow

naturallight wrote: »

LMAO...yeah guys,,belive me I know. I had a set of SDA's 1c's that i had for years ..until animal damage and some water damage took there toll on them.
NO..the 12's cannot match the SDA's. But to find a set of SDA- SRS 2.3's that are even in good shape, then the cost to ship them and hope they show up intact.....thats a big IF...

Believe me..I wanted those speakers SOOO bad....but nobody who has them will ship them. Then if some of the drivers are bad..I'm not sure Polk even sells those any more...the drivers are very hard to replace. Thats also "assumeing" the X-overs are still good.

Yeah..you guys pretty much hit on the speakers i always wanted.....but I don't see how i could get them...

Just by being on this forum you now have access to the Polk "hoarders". I can promise you folks out there have drivers, crossovers, and just about any part you would need for a set. You might even find someone close with a set they can sell just dont have posted.

But since your profile doesnt list where you live thats a bit hard

naturallight

Sorry...i live in GA. But i will be honest. I have never sold any Polk speakers...I keep them till they fall apart..LOL

So to me..if someone is selling a set of those SDA-SRS speakers..to me.....that means there pretty beat...and not in very good shape. It's like I would never sell them if i had them...so it's very hard for me to look at these as anything but...NOT so good shape.

Now OK..maybe that's just me...but if i had those speakers I would NEVER sell them...and just keep fixing them if they needed it. But thats just me...LOL

EndersShadow

naturallight wrote: »

Sorry...i live in GA. But i will be honest. I have never sold any Polk speakers...I keep them till they fall apart..LOL

So to me..if someone is selling a set of those SDA-SRS speakers..to me.....that means there pretty beat...and not in very good shape. It's like I would never sell them if i had them...so it's very hard for me to look at these as anything but...NOT so good shape.

Now OK..maybe that's just me...but if i had those speakers I would NEVER sell them...and just keep fixing them if they needed it. But thats just me...LOL

There are some Polkies in your area as an FYI. Scottyboy, TNINDYMAN (not sure thats spelled right) and a couple others. Also there is a thread that gets updated with SDA's folks find posted on Craigslist and whatnot.

I can say with certainty that if you want em bad enough we can help you aquire a set of the SRS's...... just gotta be patient......

EndersShadow

Speaking of which..... lookie here: http://greenville.craigslist.org/ele/2886234057.html