Need to Upgrade from Monitor 50

pandaribeye · October 2012

Hi,

A month ago I picked up a pair of refurbished Polk Audio Monitor 50's direct from Polk Audio's eBay store for dirty cheap @ $179 a pair!

I'm happy with them especially for the price. They perform really well for the price. However I decided I want to upgrade to something better and move the 50's to the kid's game room. What do you think is a good upgrade for my setup? I want to keep it under $4K

I am look at to upgrade to either:

(other speaker suggestions are welcomed)

I use them with my current 2.0 setup:
DAC/Preamp: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD PCIe
Power Amp: Rotel RB-1080 (connected via unbalanced rca audioquest cables)

Attachment not found.

My setup is in a small home office room. My use is mainly for music during the days I work from home. I listen to Rock, Dance, Most anything with female vocals, Orchestra type music, and NPR.

sandworms · October 2012

Your sure your budget is $4k, that would open the door to some very exotic choices! If not, I would get the a9's. My Rti10's aren't the best for strictly 2 ch

pandaribeye · October 2012

Yes the cheaper the better but max of 4K.

Is my attachment picture viewable? I'm new to this forum.

nhhiep · October 2012

if music is your thing and in that small room. why not just get lsi9s for just $550 on ebay now? they go fairly low, 40hz, in my room. you don't even need a sub.

zingo · October 2012

If you're going B&W, the 804 is a clear choice for me over the 683, but I think the 805 would be a better choice based on the room.

pandaribeye · October 2012

pandaribeye wrote: »

Yes the cheaper the better but max of 4K.

Is my attachment picture viewable? I'm new to this forum.

pandaribeye · October 2012

Hi. these are book shelf right? I don't have any surface to put them on so I'm looking at floor standing. Th

EndersShadow · October 2012

pandaribeye wrote: »

Hi. these are book shelf right? I don't have any surface to put them on so I'm looking at floor standing. Th

Any of the LSi or RTi speakers can be mounted using the PinPoint AM40 mounts I believe which are 50 bucks on amazon. You could also get some really nice stands and load them up so they are super heavy and not moveable as well. Many prefer the stands to wallmounting.

The LSi 9's and LSi 7's are really good choices.

Can I ask what file format your music is your listening to. FLAC, MP3 (if so what bitrate) and what program your using to playback the music. All these items matter a bit.

I also would suggest (given your budget) a USB DAC to replace your soundcard and also a pre-amp of some sort since controling volume from the computer generates a bit more noise than using a dedicated item. There are LOTS of really small pre-amps that would fit on top your Rotel and barely be noticeable and right at hand to change volume (if they dont have a remote)

bklynNupe · October 2012

pandaribeye wrote: »

Hi. these are book shelf right? I don't have any surface to put them on so I'm looking at floor standing. Th

Welcome to the forum!

RTi A9's are fantastic for HT, ok for music.
Lsi9's are best for music, however you would really want to add an external amp and I would sub. Also, Lsi9's will really come alive with upgraded caps ( a couple of folks on the forum can provide these to you) and external power. Don't let the smaller bookshelf size fool you, right now I'm hard pressed to find some used full range speakers that can outmatch my Lsi 9's ( and sub) without considerably stepping up my budget.
I've heard great things about the Lsim series, but I'll let others who have experience with these chime in.

Personally, I think you can put together a killer 2-channel system on the used market through sites like Audiogon, audio asylum, etc with 4k. :cool:

Clipdat · October 2012

EndersShadow wrote: »

I also would suggest (given your budget) a USB DAC to replace your soundcard

I would normally agree with this, especially due to our PM conversation, but in this case, he actually already has a really nice sound card with a nice DAC built in: http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-Titanium-HD/M/B0041OUA38.htm

122db SNR Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) From the comments, a Burr-Brown PCM1794.

pandaribeye · October 2012

bklynNupe wrote: »

Welcome to the forum!

RTi A9's are fantastic for HT, ok for music.
Lsi9's are best for music, however you would really want to add an external amp and I would sub. Also, Lsi9's will really come alive with upgraded caps ( a couple of folks on the forum can provide these to you) and external power. Don't let the smaller bookshelf size fool you, right now I'm hard pressed to find some used full range speakers that can outmatch my Lsi 9's ( and sub) without considerably stepping up my budget.
I've heard great things about the Lsim series, but I'll let others who have experience with these chime in.

Personally, I think you can put together a killer 2-channel system on the used market through sites like Audiogon, audio asylum, etc with 4k. :cool:

Hi thanks for the reply I'll consider the Lsi 9.

However I'm not sure what you meant by external amp and external power. I'm powering it with a Rotel RB-1080 but I can move my krell fpb-350m to the office if the Lsi9 require more power. Also what do you mean by upgrade caps? Thanks!

pandaribeye · October 2012

Clipdat wrote: »

I would normally agree with this, especially due to our PM conversation, but in this case, he actually already has a really nice sound card with a nice DAC built in: http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-Titanium-HD/M/B0041OUA38.htm

122db SNR Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) From the comments, a Burr-Brown PCM1794.

Yes my sound card has good DACs I made sure of that. In addition I bought it for only 99.99 when Amazon had the sale. Which is a steal.

EndersShadow · October 2012

Clipdat wrote: »

I would normally agree with this, especially due to our PM conversation, but in this case, he actually already has a really nice sound card with a nice DAC built in: http://us.store.creative.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-XFi-Titanium-HD/M/B0041OUA38.htm

122db SNR Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs) From the comments, a Burr-Brown PCM1794.

I still think a USB DAC would be a better option due to being able to go asynchronus as well as eliminate the possibility of noise from the computer. I also am not too familiar with how dedicated soundcards (that your using RCA's out of) handle FLAC decoding and if they can handle the higher bitrates (24/192, etc). Thats normally one of the main benefits of going USB is that you can handle the higher bitrates whereas I dont think the dedicated PC soundcards are setup to do so (feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

The more I look at computer audio the more I get away from dedicated PC soundcards as you could get a nice Asynchronus USB DAC for less than that and for a bit more you could get a REALLY good one. Plus by staying external you can upgrade as you go.

P.S. I am not saying he cant keep what he's using by any means, but what I am saying is that with a budget of 4k, its totally an option. Especially since he already has amplification.

Clipdat · October 2012

EndersShadow wrote: »

P.S. I am not saying he cant keep what he's using by any means, but what I am saying is that with a budget of 4k, its totally an option. Especially since he already has amplification.

Agreed 100%, that really opens up the options for sure. Personally if I were him I would get some Lsi9s with VR3 Fortress mod or LSiM703s and some really nice stands to get them at ear level when sitting. That Rotel would make either of them sing.

ravaneli · October 2012

i would go to Stereophille.com and look through the equipment reviews. Open a dozen of them they you like by the looks. Then skip straight to the measurments pages and see if they have a flat response curve. If it is flat, do some more research on that particular speaker, read some reviews..
You have a lot greater choice that what u listed

pandaribeye · October 2012

EndersShadow wrote: »

I still think a USB DAC would be a better option due to being able to go asynchronus as well as eliminate the possibility of noise from the computer. I also am not too familiar with how dedicated soundcards (that your using RCA's out of) handle FLAC decoding and if they can handle the higher bitrates (24/192, etc). Thats normally one of the main benefits of going USB is that you can handle the higher bitrates whereas I dont think the dedicated PC soundcards are setup to do so (feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

The more I look at computer audio the more I get away from dedicated PC soundcards as you could get a nice Asynchronus USB DAC for less than that and for a bit more you could get a REALLY good one. Plus by staying external you can upgrade as you go.

P.S. I am not saying he cant keep what he's using by any means, but what I am saying is that with a budget of 4k, its totally an option. Especially since he already has amplification.

I listen mostly to iTunes and MP3's I download are usually 192-320k and I do have some awesome flac collection.

Need to Upgrade from Monitor 50

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