New guy with his hat in his hand.

longtime

Hello everyone! I will be the first to admit that I am new to the audio arena. It is semi-overwhelming as of right now. So please hang in there with me.

So first I guess I'll explain my current setup and then say what direction I want to go.

Here is a link to my listening room drawing

ROOM LAYOUT

AVR - Harman Kardon 2650

Subwoofer - SVS Sound PC12 NSD

2 Channel - Polk Audio LSI 9's

My brother-in-law help me set all this up and frankly, it's really fun. Also keep in mind that I have plans (long term plans) to build my a hi-fi old vintage setup, so this is not what that is going to be for. Plans for that is a SET amp, a pair of Altec Lansing Voice of Theater yadda yadda yadda. This main purpose of this current setup is a family room, blue-ray, a lot of tv watching, Football, some PS3 gaming, and music playing. (FLAC, Mp3 etc).

If I'm being honest with you guys, the sub is pure awesomeness.. I can do about anything I want to do with it and am happy. Things like Band of brothers on Blue-ray with the planes flying around and whatnot...... I mean really it's awesome.The problem comes in when I want to listen to some music. My music hypocrisy knows no bounds! I listen to anything from James Taylor to modern Dubstep.... my favorite is acoustic guitar like Andy McKee and Michael Mucklow etc, then I'll rock it out to some Breaking benjamin... to alter bridge etc...


That's where the current setup is lacking imo.. and I think it's just they are to small for the room they are in. So I'm looking to replace the LSI9's with something else. I've got the Rti A9's or the LSi25 floorstanders in mind. can snag the lsi25's off the polk ebay for $1299 and the Rti A9's are well.. listed on here. Anyway, any help is greatly appreciated.

Also, I know the lsi9's are 4ohm and my AVR is 8ohm, but my brother-in-law assured my I would have no issues with it and so far so good. It is 95W per channel at 8ohm.

Thanks again!

B Run

I'd go with the Lsim703's! They're within your budget, easier to drive, great for music and HT duty and would be a nice upgrade from the 9's.

Edit: Only thing is I can't comment on how well they would fill your room, I know the sub will definitely cover the low end. Maybe someone else can chime in.

PSOVLSK

Can I agree with both B Run and DSkip even though they have given totally opposite advice???

If you're set on speakers, the 703's are awesome. Love mine and they replaced LSi9's (which I thought I loved until I got the 703's).

BUT, DSkip is also correct and could save you a few bucks as a nice 2-channel amp can be had for much less than the 703's. I've got a Carver tfm-55 that drives them very well. It should be listed for sale, but I just haven't gotten around to doing it.

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk!

What DSkip said above! +1.

I've run my smaller LSi-7s on an HK 3490 which has a lot more power than your unit for two channel (120 x 2 at 8 ohms, and 150 x 2 at 4 ohms) and I was not entirely satisfied with that set up. Lsis, even the bookies, benefit from more good clean power. (And as I say that I await someone to play games with that statement....wait for it...where is Y....?).

You don't have to USE ALL the power you have available to notice a difference in amplification because you WILL NOTICE it even at LOWER volumes. Why? Because YOU DO! I have and so have a lot of others.

(I'm still waiting for it? Any trolls about?)

In any case. Get yourself a nice Power amp to drive those Lsi-9s as they are more difficult to drive than my Lsi-7s and I have a 25 lbs NAD power amp on them with a decent size toroidal transformer in it!

Lsi-9s with good power and that fabulous sub should sound pretty good, indeed!

cnh

longtime

My friends and I all bought these LSi 9's about the same time.. we all went on a rampage about the same time haha.

A couple of them have them amped now and they are using this one here

EMOTIVA UL-200

Thoughts?

tonyb

Welcome to the club. The guys above me are doing you some justice, your brother in law...not so much. The reason your LSI9's don't sound "full" is because your under powering them plain and simple. If you go even bigger speakers like the LSI15'S,25'S or A9's, you will need an amp even more so.

Also, your room is fairly large, but you also have them jammed in the corner....which isn't doing you any favors either. Put them along the 20 ft. wall, space out about 7-8 feet and about 2 ft off the back wall. Toe in slightly so they intersect at your listening position. Are they set to large or small in the receiver ? Set to large if not and see if that helps.

B Run

While I still believe the 703's would be a nice choice, I didn't know the HK specs off the top of my head. I agree you could definitely do better with more power before you write them off and should start with that. Try adding an amp, then get the 703's :twisted:

longtime

OH BOY! Decisions!

Anyone got any thoughts on that amp I linked to?j

Also, leave it to me to forget something on the drawing..... there's a front door slap in the middle of that wall! HAH

longtime

This Emotiva is $349 from their site - http://shop.emotiva.com/products/upa200

But I'm not against spending a few more bucks if needed to get some type of better quality if this isn't good enough.

I'd say I'd like to stay in that range... maximum I'd spend is $500.

B Run

I'd look used on local CL, Ebay or Audiogon. Check out Rotel, Adcom, B&K, Parasound, Carver, Outlaw, Nad, etc. There's lots of choices in your price range if you don't have to have a brand new one.

PSOVLSK

Where are you located?

txcoastal1

^^^^...I have a couple of these and they are a great bang for the buck

Geoff4rfc

Sorry I can't comment on the Emotiva and 4ohm speakers. What I have learned with Emotiva and 8ohm speakers, namely Monitor and RTiA series, the more power you give them, the better they sound.

Where 200wpch was better than the AVR, 300 was better still.

I'll let you know my "opinion" when I employ 860wpc on my A9's after using 200 and 300.

And, since I still have a sack, my word is true

F1nut

tonyb wrote: »

Welcome to the club. The guys above me are doing you some justice, your brother in law...not so much. The reason your LSI9's don't sound "full" is because your under powering them plain and simple. If you go even bigger speakers like the LSI15'S,25'S or A9's, you will need an amp even more so.

Also, your room is fairly large, but you also have them jammed in the corner....which isn't doing you any favors either. Put them along the 20 ft. wall, space out about 7-8 feet and about 2 ft off the back wall. Toe in slightly so they intersect at your listening position. Are they set to large or small in the receiver ? Set to large if not and see if that helps.

^This^

Your current set up is all wrong and that AVR or any AVR is not going to drive the LSi 9's properly. You will still need a good 2 channel amp, which means do not follow the same road your friends went down.

nguyendot

Welcome to the club.

Here is some good reading for you on the LSi series of yore.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?111022-Powering-LSi-7-9-15-25-you-better-have-preouts-baby!

Bob1947

I was in your same situation months back. Received great feedback from this board. I had the LSi9's and moved over to the LSIm's ffor front, back and center and the difference is night and day. I also like various types of music, ie., classical, rock, jazz, etc. I am also in to vinyl. My tt sounds spectacular with this set up. LSI's are nice, but if you have the $ I recommend moving up. Don't know much about the ADCOM, but from what I do know it should be fine for the LSIm's. Best of luck on your project.

drumminman

+2 on Tonyb's advice. Get the speakers on the 20' wall, out of the corner, and get some serious ampage behind them.

Imaging will improve dramatically with better placement, bass will too. I imagine you're getting some boominess now with one of the speakers in the corner, along with a contracted soundstage.

Also, AVR's just don't have the balls to bring out what those speakers can do. Even at low volumes you'll be able to hear an improvement in sound quality with more high current power pushing your polks. You have pre (amp) outs on your HK, so you can use that to drive a power amp.

badchad

Most have already provided the comments I would. I'd experiment by putting the speakers on the longest wall in the space, with the back of the couch facing the "20 ft" wall.

If you want to experiment with floor plans try floorplanner.com. It's free and you can input the exact specs of couch sizes, doorway widths etc. Even provides 3d views of rooms. It's saved me some time moving stuff around a room.

Other than that, look into an amp. I'd be patient and hammer Craigslist for ultra-bargain deals. I've found that married guys in their late 30's with children are always forced to give up their beloved equipment for a fraction of the cost.

ZLTFUL

Welcome to CP.

I will parrot most of what has been said already.

But I will add that I owned the UPA-2 (The predecessor to the Emotiva you linked rated at the same output) and found it to be quite sterile with my LSi9s. There was just no color to the music at all. I felt like I was listening to music on a cheap pair of computer speakers with a mediocre sub.

From there I went to an Adcom GFA-555 and while I won't say that it was perfect, it truly was a night and day difference over the UPA-2. The sound just opened up so much more with the Adcom.

Since then, I have experimented with a few other options. Parasound, AMC, Marantz and 2 Adcoms (GFA-555 and GFA-5500). All of these sounded fuller and richer than the Emotiva.

This isn't a bash on Emotiva in any way. I enjoyed the UPA-5 I ran in my HT system but have since moved on. Emotiva is a good foot in the door but better options are readily available on the used market.

longtime

Thank you guys for the wonderful information. I am def. going to be looking and studying all of the advice more.

I am located in Alabama. (Someone asked that earlier)

Like I said in the drawings, the front door to my house is on that 20 foot wall.. so I think it's kind of out of the question to put the speakers there. Doh' me... for not putting that in there.

devani

I also have HK AVR but mine weighs 40lbs....I tried to see what they can do with LSi15 at one time....you can hear the HK struggling to push them when driven theater level.....also tested with LSi9 and although less struggle compared to LSi15 and sounded to mellow given the nature of both polk LSi series and HK sound....this was a brief test

your HK AVR is 24lbs and I can safely say it has less power than mine....I now use RTi series setup for HT duty and it sounds much better since RTi's are 8 ohms and combination of RTi series and HK sound makes it better then paired with LSi series....

you will need an amp to drive them properly and they are capable of filling your space once they are separated.....I've had LSi series in 20x30 room with proper amplication and it rocked.

tonyb

Ok, so the front door is on the 20 ft wall, so take your system which is now in the corner of the longer 30 ft wall and see if you can move the whole thing to the left by about 10 feet. Won't be ideal, but should be tons better.