buying the LSiM 703, what electronics to buy

Kinetic

Hi guys, im not a new member in the forum however im new in home audio..

i have a car audio system with the Polks Signature references, a 2.1 in an Accord..

Now i wanted to replicate that buying a pair of Polks LSiM703 and Little by Little buying an integrated amp, a CD or DVD reciever, and also a Polk subwoofer...

So.. what do I have to learn guys? Im new but i can learn fast from my little car audio experience..

why the polks LSiM703 have two connections at the back? is it like the DVC subs? and I can change the speakers from 8 ohms to 4? or is it for bi amp them?

whats a good cheap amp for them? i saw this one, but im not familiar with the Brand..
http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/nova220se-amplifier-with-dac.html

any comment would be good to learn, thanks a lot guys..

Nightfall

From what I hear, this is the ticket:

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165685/integrated-amp-for-sale#latest

txcoastal1

Excellent choice of speaker

Scratch the subwoofer unless you are in a large room or listen to heavy bass music. The 703's are a well rounded 2channel speaker

The 4 taps on rear are high and lows, keep strapped but best to replace factory jumpers with a pair of speaker jumpers or bi-wire cables
http://www.douglasconnection.com/
Doug is a Polk house member here give him a shout...has excellent cables too

That Peachtree is a nice cost effective combo unit

ken brydson

Welcome to the forum. Check your wallet at the door. As much as I love Polk, you mentioned getting a sub as well. I'd suggest looking beyond Polk for that. Get your read on...

txcoastal1

Nightfall wrote: »

From what I hear, this is the ticket:

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/165685/integrated-amp-for-sale#latest

My bad...that unit was highly regarded by some great ears in January. The Plinius brand is excellent

Skip is a great member here....excellent combo with the 703's

Kinetic

the Plinius 9100 looks very nice, its a good recomendation thanks guys

silly question though, the plinius does not have a headphone output?
I have a pair of Sennheisers HD800, which I want to use..

also I think it has a phono input, wich it will be used in a medium period of time..

learning a lot, and also Reading this forum to learn more..

F1nut

How much are you actually looking to spend on the integrated amp?

a CD or DVD reciever

I'm sure you meant a CD player. What about SACD capability? How much did you want to spend on that?

tonyb

I think for starters, you have to forget about car audio when you say you want to replicate that for home audio. 2 different animals.

Home speakers aren't switchable to 4 ohm/8 ohm. It would help if we knew how big this room is too. The 703's is a good choice providing they are put in an appropriate sized room. If your a car audio buff, then you'll for sure want a subwoofer from the likes of SVS-HSU-Velodyne-Rel. You'll also need to tell us if this will be only for music or if you plan on doing movies too, which is yet another animal. Do you plan on any type of computer music or streaming ? Buy used and you can get more for your buck.

polkfarmboy

Kinetic you may want to buy a Dac instead of a cd player. A dac is just like a cd player, imagine a dac as a cd player only instead of cds the data is read from your laptop via usb or coax cable. You can also buy some cool devices for streaming wifi radio that will have a lil modes dac built in and can play all the music on your home computer via wifi.

Integrated amps are awesome and save money as you use less cables.

cnh

The 703s sound pretty good with almost any credible integrated with reasonable power. They're not picky. But, of course, the higher up the food chain you go the "better" they will sound.

HD 800s usually need a "dedicated" H-phone amp. They are the opposite of the Polk speakers and will sound like AxS if you don't have appropriate, or should I say, close to perfect synergy! Maybe Assimilated can chime in here?

Skip's amp would be an excellent choice but if your budget does not allow for that, there are other amps under that price point that would do OK with 703s-not a particularly difficult load to drive!

voltz

^^^^^^

I agree a headphone amp is what you need for you SENN's

http://schiit.com/ makes some nice ones at a good price

WLDock

tonyb wrote: »

I think for starters, you have to forget about car audio when you say you want to replicate that for home audio. 2 different animals.

I'm guessing the OP meant he wants to stay with Polk's top speakers in a 2.1 system for the car and home. Of course he wants it to sound good.

Kinetic

F1nut wrote: »

How much are you actually looking to spend on the integrated amp?

a CD or DVD reciever

I'm sure you meant a CD player. What about SACD capability? How much did you want to spend on that?

well yep I meant a DAC with SACD capability like my car..
and those are expensive too.. home audio is very complicated..

Nightfall

Kinetic wrote: »

F1nut wrote: »

How much are you actually looking to spend on the integrated amp?

a CD or DVD reciever

I'm sure you meant a CD player. What about SACD capability? How much did you want to spend on that?

well yep I meant a DAC with SACD capability like my car..
and those are expensive too.. home audio is very complicated..

A DAC with SACD capability? Do you mean a DAC that can do DSD or do you mean a player that plays physical SACD's?

Kinetic

tonyb wrote: »

I think for starters, you have to forget about car audio when you say you want to replicate that for home audio. 2 different animals.

Home speakers aren't switchable to 4 ohm/8 ohm. It would help if we knew how big this room is too. The 703's is a good choice providing they are put in an appropriate sized room. If your a car audio buff, then you'll for sure want a subwoofer from the likes of SVS-HSU-Velodyne-Rel. You'll also need to tell us if this will be only for music or if you plan on doing movies too, which is yet another animal. Do you plan on any type of computer music or streaming ? Buy used and you can get more for your buck.

you are right on that, I have to admit that I dont know about home audio at all, there are parameters that i dont even know they exist..

the room is small, im live in mexico, here even big apartments are small, we are all packed together, thats why i didnt bought the PSB floor standing speakers, and instead reached for a bookshelfs with a sub..

let me talk a Little about me..

love car audio, compete in SQL (Sound Quality) and become 3rd place national
(again I live in mexico so it wasnt that hard)

then I bought a Onkyo Home theater a 5.1, and love it.
then I bought another Onkyo but a 7.1 for my room, still love it

I love movies, but my real passion is music..
so after spending a lot of money on home theaters, i bought a Little micro system for the living room, a cheap onkyo CS-525 with an Onkyo SKW-204 subwoofer

but for my surprise, the cheap 2.1 micro system was way better in sound quality, than the HTs, of course never as loud as the HTs, but way better SQ

and since my passion is music, I wanted to start to make a 2.1 micro system as a medium term Project.. (like my 3 cars)

I just bought the 703s (not even in my place yet)
maybe in a month the integrated amplifier (with heaphones output would be great)
then a DAC with SACD (DVD Audio is not my thing)
maybe a turntable or a computer music or streaming source (way later)
then a subwoofer to match my Polks, maybe a Polk, maybe a Velodyne..

So thats my story, thats my Project..

Kinetic

voltz wrote: »

^^^^^^

I agree a headphone amp is what you need for you SENN's

http://schiit.com/ makes some nice ones at a good price

love the site, and the amps are very cheap, and look great, maybe i would buy one of those, and skip the headphone capability on the 703s amp..

also great service..

Kinetic

Guys, how much watts do I really need?

in car audio, we choose "bigger" amps, and then lower the "gain" so we can have all the volumen up with no distortion.. however it not seems to be the case here.

I was looking at the Yamaha A-S700 i dont know if 115w are enough for my polks, my cars have more than 150 wrms at each channel, and the sub have a 1,000 wrms..

also Yamaha HiFi, is enough quality for these polks?

since its a different "animal", maybe 115w is enough for home audio, my bedroom is maybe 5x4 meters..

we have Yamaha in méxico, so I could find a good deal at my local store.

I would love to have the amp and a player (DVD SACD and a DAC) from the same Brand..

so I could use the 2.1 for music, but sometimes for movies (wich is not my primary intention) because the Onkyo 7.1 is moving to the livingroom and thats enough SQ for movies..

vcwatkins

703's have been stellar with the 30 watt Pass rig in signature below (office rip/demo).

codyc1ark

Home audio is about quality watts, not quantity. The specs I'm seeing on that Yammy are 90w/channel. That would be plenty for the polks but I can't comment on the pair together.

You are on the right track with that integrated. You may one day decide to dump the Onk systems once you get this up and running If there is a chance at that I would look hard at the Pioneer Elite receivers, or even a higher end Harmon-Kardon. Good luck!

vcwatkins

One caveat: mine are in a small space, 15'x20'x9'. In the den - at ~9000cf - it would never work.

Kinetic

codyc1ark wrote: »

Home audio is about quality watts, not quantity. The specs I'm seeing on that Yammy are 90w/channel. That would be plenty for the polks but I can't comment on the pair together.

You are on the right track with that integrated. You may one day decide to dump the Onk systems once you get this up and running If there is a chance at that I would look hard at the Pioneer Elite receivers, or even a higher end Harmon-Kardon. Good luck!

couldnt find any Pioneer Elite, 2 channel integrated amp.. ( i love pioneer)
I used to have an old Blu ray player from Pioneer, hooked to my Onkyo and I used to love the output sound.

however, there is a Harman the HK3770, wich is a perfect match, however for the Price it looks like quality watts, ( i own a lot of harman things, not a big fan)

voltz

Kinetic wrote: »

voltz wrote: »

^^^^^^

I agree a headphone amp is what you need for you SENN's

http://schiit.com/ makes some nice ones at a good price

love the site, and the amps are very cheap, and look great, maybe i would buy one of those, and skip the headphone capability on the 703s amp..

also great service..

There is a lot of really cool Schiit there several people here including me use their headphone amps are all really like them!

voltz

no if you do want a SACD player, SACD's cost a lot more then regular CD's but have the better sound if mastered right. I have a marantz 8005 SACD and it has a very good DAC and a windows driver so you can play hi-rez files from your Computer using it as your DAC. most SACD's cost $20-$50.

codyc1ark

DSkip wrote: »

codyc1ark wrote: »

You are on the right track with that integrated.

I have to disagree with you. He is already hitting a wall and saying the volume level is not where he wants it to be. This means he simply does not have enough power to reach the SPL he wants.

I'll reiterate again - I'm not calling the Yamaha an ugly duckling, but I don't see how its a proper fit in this situation.


I see two options - keep the 705's and replace the Yamaha, or return the 705's and look elsewhere for speakers.

I should have been more clear, I met that he has the right idea. As opposed to most people we get through here wanting to power five of those puppies off of a $300 avr and expect great results.

I'm not familiar with that Yammy, or for that matter integrateds for the most part. I'm sure we'll have some members chime in with some great suggestions.

Kinetic

DSkip wrote: »

codyc1ark wrote: »

You are on the right track with that integrated.

I have to disagree with you. He is already hitting a wall and saying the volume level is not where he wants it to be. This means he simply does not have enough power to reach the SPL he wants.

I'll reiterate again - I'm not calling the Yamaha an ugly duckling, but I don't see how its a proper fit in this situation.


I see two options - keep the 705's and replace the Yamaha, or return the 705's and look elsewhere for speakers.

well, I have no idea on the SPL but defintly want more Quality than Power.
but sometimes we can have a good balance between power and quality.
I dont know how much is a 100 wrms in a home...
(sorry for my ignorance in home systems, thats why I ask the experts)

The Polks 703s are going to stay thats a fact and im building the system arround them.

I dont have the Yamaha, I havent decided on the amp yet.. (it was a question since someone suggested the Pioneer and the Harman)


I want to spend between 1,000 to 1,500 dls on a nice amp..
Actually your choices are the best at this moment DSkip

Again, I need a good amp and a good Disc player (CD+DVD+SACD)
the subwoofer would be way later.. lets forget about it..

Kinetic

voltz wrote: »

no if you do want a SACD player, SACD's cost a lot more then regular CD's but have the better sound if mastered right. I have a marantz 8005 SACD and it has a very good DAC and a windows driver so you can play hi-rez files from your Computer using it as your DAC. most SACD's cost $20-$50.

Marantz its another Brand that i know, and like it a lot...

I was looking at the PM8005 is it good? for the LSIM703?

voltz

that is a good question... if the 60 wpc of the Marantz is good enough to drive the 703's then this last model the Marantz 7005 demo at MusicDirect is at a excellent price deal.
here is a link, but its a store here in the states.

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-285994-marantz-pm7005-integrated-amp-demo.aspx

Kinetic

http://www.studio-22.com/marantz/images/pm_8005_marantz_alta_fidelidad_amplificador_integrado_y_sa8005.jpg

this combo looks nice in terms of what i want for the features, and I can get good deals on Marantz here in mexico, but again the question, is it good Sound Quality enough for matching the Polks?

voltz

I know the SA8005 SACD player quailty is very good as I have one and love it, I just do not know how if Marantz integrated Amp is a good match for enough power or not and also how would it sound with those speakers? this i cannot answer as I have never heard them pair together so I just be make a guess. so maybe others could answer it for you.

Kinetic

for narrowing things down

in terms of sound quality, wich of the japanesse is better for the integrated 2ch amp?
(I can get them on the special offers of may here in mexico)

Onkyo
Yamaha Hi Fi
Pioneer Elite
Marantz

or go directly to:
(wich are more expensive and difficult to get here in mexico and import raises the prices) (also maybe not in this year)

Peachtree
Krell
Classe
Plinius

Money is not a big issue if I wait long enough, however, as you guys know I want to experience those new puppies as fast as possible

Kinetic

also forget parasound (wich I belive is too expensive)