How to be more impressed w/ Lsi-15's?

sdurfee

Hello all. I'm not a big audiophile with a huge disposable income but I like descent equipment w/ a good cost/benefit ratio.

Recently, I purchased a pair of Polk Lsi-15's for my front main speakers. I have some relatively inexpensive Wharfedale Diamond 7's as my surround bookshelves. They are going thru a Pioneer Elite VSX-35txi A/V receiver w/ 100watts per 5 channels.
I use top-of-the line Monster cables with a Panamax surge protector. Nothing earth-shattering but adequate enough to run these speakers I'm assuming.

My dilemma is that that regardless if I'm in 2 channel or 5 channel stereo mode (with no DSP effects), the output is simply not all that impressive. The only culprit I can think of is that I'm using a relatively cheap DVD player to play audio CDs. I do have a Harmon Kardon FL8385 CD-only 5 disc changer coming next week. I'm hoping that that will save the day but I'm not extremely hopeful.

Is this more of a limitation of maybe my bass/treble controls on my receiver or some system fine-tuning? Would it be worth hooking up an equalizer just to the HK CD changer for more dynamic output for audio CDs.

I've read all of the reviews of the Lsi-15s and I just feeling I'm definitely not experiencing what I've been reading.

Thanks for any insight.

- Stephen Durfee

gatemplin

Welcome to Club Polk,
Make sure that dynamic compression is turned of on the receiver and player. Turn the bass/treble controls off. Other than that I dont know what the problem could be. Is that receiver rated for 4 Ohm speakers?

KarlJShields

Stephen
I'm sure that there are persons with greater experience that will weigh in soon, but two possibilities spring to mind:

--First, the Lsi series loudspeakers have been reported to take a while to break in--I know my Lsi-9s did. How long have you been running them?

--Second, is your receiver up to pushing the Lsi's at 4 ohms? I'm not familiar with your equipment, but I would check the documentation that accompanied your receiver to see if it is spec'ed to handle 4-ohm speaker loads.

Good luck!

pjdami

Stephen,

I own the LSi speakers both the 9s and the 15s. The majority of us here at Club Polk use NAD, Outlaw, Rotel, or B&K to drive these 4 ohm speakers. You need at least 150 watts into 4 ohms to 200 watts into 4 ohms to get them to sound good at higher volumes. They sound better and better the higher you play them and also have a "threshold" volume where they really open up. I'm afraid that your Pioneer Elite receiver may not be up to par with the load that you are trying to drive these speakers with. May be okay at lower volumes but not at higher volumes.

If you do a search on LSi and power or amps you will find a lot of discussions about this. An option for you would be to purchase a seperate amp and use your receiver as a pre-pro until you can afford seperates or a high quality receiver like a NAD, Rotel, or a B&K (or the Outlaw seperates).

Paul

VR3

I agree, Receiver - add an amp.

I'll add to the list...

Soundcraftsmen
Adcom
Yamaha (Older)
AMC

Frank Z

sdurfee,
I was using a -37tx when I upgraded from Rti series to Lsi's and I understand what you're going through. The Elite receivers are not rated to handle 4 ohm speakers, so naturally mine ran very hot. I added an Outlaw 7100 amp (165wpc x7 @4ohms) and it made a very big difference. I really liked the PE receiver but it just isn't up to the task of driving the Lsi's. As others have already stated, there are quite a few possiblities when it comes to adding a seperate amp to your existing receiver, it boils down to budget and personnal preference.

gshisme

sdurfee, I did what was suggested in the previous posts here..added a Rotel amp to my Harman Kardon reciever untill funds allowed the purchase of a processor. I suffered the same symptons as you are experiencing using the H/K alone (AVR320). The LSi's are power hungry and you will be rewarded immensely when you feed them with the appropriate scources which are already mentioned above. Good Luck.

Greg


Spell checker please!

Frank Z

symptons

Should be symptoms

scources

Should be sources

reciever

Should be receiver

untill

Should be until

Rotel

Should be Outlaw!



NEXT!!

gshisme

four out of five isn't to shabby

fireshoes

Got a picture of the room layout?

Tour2ma

Originally posted by Frank Z
Should be symptoms
Should be sources
Should be receiver
Should be until
Should be Outlaw!

When YOU need Spell Checking call...
Frank's SpellCheckerZ... Exclusively serving the Polk Forum 24/ 7...

sdurfee,
Welcome to the Club...
You're in good hands above... well, except for Frank...