What amp for lsi series speakers?
Pegleg2001
Posts: 4
I bought a pair of LSi25's, 1 LSiC and two pairs of LSi F/X speakers. They sound great with my cheap Sony STR-DG820 receiver. I am thinking of upgrading to a DENON 3312CI receiver. Does anyone have this combination or maybe a better suggestion in that price range?
Post edited by Pegleg2001 on
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Welcome to CP!:cheesygrin:
And congrats on the speakers; that's a serious setup! I think the LSi-FX's are some of the best surrounds out there...
Those speakers will really benefit from external amplification. As you move up the amp chain, they'll keep giving back more and more. You won't know what they're capable of until you give them some real power.2-Channel: PC > Schiit Eitr > Audio Research DAC-8 > Audio Research LS-26 > Pass Labs X-250.5 > Magnepan 3.7's
Living Room: PC > Marantz AV-7703 > Emotiva XPA-5 > Sonus Faber Liuto Towers, Sonus Faber Liuto Center, Sonus Faber Liuto Bookshelves > Dual SVS PC12-Pluses
Office: Phone/Tablet > AudioEngine B1 > McIntosh D100 > Bryston 4B-ST > Polk Audio LSiM-703's -
I was pressing my luck running my LSi's off of a pretty beefy Harmon Kardon. Not recommended.
I would limit the strain on the Sony (lower volume levels) until I found a separate amplifier. That means you will need either a preprocessor or a receiver with preouts.Do you hear that buzzing noise?
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As they say : I would keep it to minimal volume as those speakers are 4 ohm, and your receiver probably only drives 8 ohm speakers. In other words, it double the "strain" on your receiver. By keeping the volume down to a medium-low level, you won't have any problem.
If you want to listen at higher level, or for best immersion for movies, I would try to get separates at least for your LSi25 and LSiC : You'll need a 3 channel amp with 4 ohm capabilities. It's fine running a single pair of 4 ohm speakers from a receiver, but I wouldn't do that at higher volume level. Anything more than that can fry up your receiver
If you don't mind going with used amplifiers, you could get something great for your budget. Anyways, you'll need a receiver with pre-out: double-check yours, just to be sure. If you can't find any pre-out on the back of your receiver, I guess you'll need a new one. No need to get the best you can, but you need something with a pre-out.Speakers: Polk Audio LSiM 705, LSiM 703, LSiM 704c
Receiver: Denon X3500H -
mole'
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Pegleg2001 wrote: »I bought a pair of LSi25's, 1 LSiC and two pairs of LSi F/X speakers. They sound great with my cheap Sony STR-DG820 receiver. I am thinking of upgrading to a DENON 3312CI receiver. Does anyone have this combination or maybe a better suggestion in that price range?
And your receiver lives to tell the story?! Wow...
You have heard NOTHING yet. These speakers don't sound good run off receivers, even good ones that are designed for 4ohm loads(your's isn't), they really weren't meant to run on avr's alone. Get a dedicated amp and you will hear an entirely different speaker.
If you are on a tight budget, this 5 channel NAD T955 for $799 is a really good option and will beat the pants off any avr in that price range, I just bought one and am very pleased. However, if your sony doesn't have pre-outs, then you will have to replace the avr as well.
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NAT955Living Room 7.1 HT Rig:
M70 | CS2 | M60 | Atrium5 - Surr. | SUB - Emotiva ULTRA12 + Tara Labs sub cable | Pioneer Elite VSX-52 | Parasound HCAs 1000A | Sony BDP-S790 | Belkin PureAV PF60 | MIT Exp2 Wires
Bedroom 5.0 HT Rig (Music/Movies/Gaming) :
LSi9 | LsiC | Lsi/fx | Marantz SR7002 | NAD T955 | Sony BDP-S360 | Belkin PureAV PF30 | AQ Blue Racer II ICs & AQ Type 4 wires | PS3 -
We really need a sticky on powering LSI's.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Good advice from all. Thanks! I am leaning towards the Onkyo PA-MC5500 for the amp and the Onkyo TX-NR708 for the receiver with preouts. I can pick them both up factory refurbished with five year ext warr for about $1500. Anyone bought refurbished?
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While those in the know are addressing this for Pegleg2001, could you please throw in a little info on why one should use some of these higher-end (more expensive) receivers when you aren't going to use the built-in amplifiers? It seems to me that a lot of people are throwing money away when they are just using the pre-outs to external amplification when they could get by fine using an AVR with a little less power but still with pre-outs. I'm assuming that the biggest difference between say the X08 vs. the (X+1)08 series (Onkyo AVRs) is the greater built-in power in the X+1 series.
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could you please throw in a little info on why one should use some of these higher-end (more expensive) receivers when you aren't going to use the built-in amplifiers?
Features, connection options and processing.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Plus some use a combination of a seperate amp say for the front 3 speakers and let the receivers amps handle surrounds or height channels.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Teekay0007 - My shopping experience suggests that receivers with preouts also tend to be the high-end models.Do you hear that buzzing noise?
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What F1nut said. I want to stream from my pc. Connect devices through the receiver, etc. Teekay00007 is also right. My shopping experience was that the higher ens stuff are the only ones with pre outs. I pulled the trigger the other night on the Onkyo setup. Should get it in a couple of days!
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mole'
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Hey Bro, if i may ask,How do you like the output with your Parasound?.I have two Emotiva's UPA-1 monoblocks.I am looking into upgrading too a Parasound.They have a really nice Halo amp.Spec's look really good on it. The Damping Facter and a really nice power supply.Was looking at B&K amps also and Adcom amps but for some reason too me from what i have read up on the Parasounds they seem too have that much nicer refined quality to them?The Halo amps that is.Any input on this would help a lot.I agree with pyrocyborg, you definitely need a dedicated amp to power the LSi25. Emotiva are great bang for the buck amps. But if you are looking for something higher end, I recommend Parasound. I have a Parasound Halo A51 and Pioneer VSX-1121-k to power my LSi15 LSiC and LSiFX and they sound awesome.
