I hooked up a pair of LSi 7's tonight.

madmax

I have my SDA-SRS about 10' apart. On the insides I connected my pair of LSi 7's at about 30" height. I biwired them to a Sunfire 300 with the tweets on the current output and the woofs on the voltage output. The amp is fed with an AI Modulus 3A and it gets signal from a Theta Data Basic II CD transport with AudioNote Kit 1.0 DAC. Cheap speaker wire and average interconnects were used. The sound is much more closed in than the SDA's but the speakers have not broken in yet. Even so it sounds great and I am happier with them than I was with the previous LSi9's and 15's. They just seem more real and full. More to come.
madmax

madmax

Still breaking in but I need to figure out which stands to put them on. Any ideas?
madmax

hoosier21

tweets at ear level would seem to be the easy answer.

scottnbnj

polk is recommending 34-36" stands for 7's. for 9's they say 30-36". right now with my 9's i'm at about 32" with no angle(that's the way the polk rec. stands look too, but if anyone has seen them in person i'd be happy to hear from you for confirmation). i think if there is an angle too, 7's would be more likely to get it than 9's, being they have no mid driver on top of the tweet.

if anything, i'm going higher than lower. but then, i listen reclined in an executive type chair, so i'm probably higher than a sofa or furniture type chair and not too comfortable listening down my nose at my tunes. but,.. then,.. aligning the drivers will come into play if i go too high,.. how on earth do you angle a lsi9 *down* on a stand?.. ah,.. this **** never ends...

in any case, i'd wait a while until they're broken in to make a final decision(if changing it will be a problem later). if they're anything like the 9's and the rate i broke mine in, their sound will change alot for a month or so. not a bad idea to use the time to play with different heights and angles anyway.

)

jdhdiggs

Let me know how the break in works... I'm breaking in two of my pairs (phantom center) and won't connect the center (rear and backs) until I get some decent interconnects... In the mean time, I'll be setting up a day for Dallas Polkies to test their ears as to whether or not they can tell a difference between broken in speakers and not...

Oh, and the custom stands that we are working on will be 32" which places the tweeter about 1/2" above my ears.

timothyj

The tweeters on the Lsi 7's are actually higher than the 9's - even though the 9's are about two inches taller as a speaker.

Why would polk recommend the higher stands for the 7's?

jdhdiggs

That's why I measured!!!

Originally posted by timothyj
The tweeters on the Lsi 7's are actually higher than the 9's - even though the 9's are about two inches taller as a speaker.

Why would polk recommend the higher stands for the 7's?

faster100

Tonight I lowered the lsi7's to 30" and i lost 8-10 db in peak output on the same cd, same volume and song/./// It sounded flat, lost bass and db output... I couldnt believe it.. I raised them back up (mounted via the keyhole) to i guess the bottom of the speaker is at 41" and they sound great again and went from a peak of 85-86 db to around 93-96 db everything equal... i put a chair in the center swivaled it backwards and had my wife sit and listen as i moved them up and down without her knowing what i was doing.... she said it sounded better in the higher position after i told her what i was even doing.... strange and picky speakers, but they perform well. I do need a sub though....

michael_w

Faster100,

When you say you moved them down and up are you talking about when they are "up" they are at ear level? I realize the bottom of the speakers were at 41" but how high are your ears off the ground? I'm just curious because I have a pair of lsi7's on the way and I'd like to be ready for them to sound nice right outta the box (as opposed to positioned badly and getting a loss of sound like the one you had). The chair I sit in puts my ears about 29" off the ground which is a bit low for the polk reccomendation of having the speakers 34-36" off the ground.

faster100

I think sitting straight up my ear was 41", so no when they were down it was at ear level.... 30" to the bottom of the lsi, when i moved them back up on the wall to 41 they opened up bass and high end... strange like i said... it may be different on your setup though... Mine are mounted on a wood slat wall (solid wood) straight forward aimed.... i like em better up high

scottnbnj

now,.. what if it's a party, everyone is standing around,.. these speaks do not sound good looking/listening down at them,.. do you need keyholes at standing height too?

)

faster100

No, these sound good at the height i have them now.. standing up or sitting down, but if i have a party... i fire up the Rti70's and SVS..

RuSsMaN

I prefered them right at, or slightly below ear level. 21-24" seemed to do the trick in MY chair.

When Stu Lumsden was here at TPGII, we experimented with placement on the LSi9's. I had them parallel to the rear wall, Stu said they sound best pointing RIGHT at you.

Made all the difference in the world. Toe them in so they point RIGHT at you, see how it works for you.

scottnbnj

Originally posted by RuSsMaN
When Stu Lumsden was here at TPGII, we experimented with placement on the LSi9's. I had them parallel to the rear wall, Stu said they sound best pointing RIGHT at you.

Made all the difference in the world. Toe them in so they point RIGHT at you, see how it works for you.

something interesting, to me anyways, i have a door on the wall behind my lsi9's that the speaks can not be centered on.

when the speaks are placed within a couple of inches of the wall i can hear the bass from the power port reflected and hanging up on the outside edge of one of the door's casings (a foot or two off center of the soundstage). when i move the speaks away from the back wall (if i remember right, about half a foot) it moves around from the outside edge of the casing to the inside of the jamb. i didn't have the patience to figure out exactly how far away the speaks had to be before it was gone, but, at a foot and a half (which doesn't work well for other uses of the room) i can't hear the reflection and, sadly, did notice that the increased depth of the image was really nice(gonna have to see about a room where listening doesn't conflict with living).

this is the first time i've lived with rear ported speakers, let alone the power port. so it didn't dawn on me that it was the ports until after i had swapped wires and speaks and whatnot.

anyways, when i did figure it out, after just trying to move the speaks further away, i tried plugging the sides of the ports facing the door but quickly tired of playing that silly game.

next i tried toe in. it reinforced the off centered reflection and it made the center image so strong that it sucked everything(imagewise) between the centerstage and the speaks into the center. but then,.. i sit very close (mostly inside the golden triangle and inside sidewall reflections) and i understand that the toe in can help if you sit further away(outside golden) and you have unruly side wall reflections.

anyways, next i tried toe out. and it worked like magic, the bass from the port was solidly centered along with the rest of the center image, the image was detailed and on some tunes expanded slightly more outside of the speaks. i'm still playing with it, but i think i've got it down to about 1/4-1/8" across the back of the speak, and now that the break-in huffving is about gone, that seems to have helped too.

enough of the power port virgin positioning saga;

for anyone else trying toe in who normally listens further away from your speaks (outside golden), i'd experiment with various angles while sitting very close to the speaks to get a feel for what the sidewall reflections are doing when you are sitting further away and how much is just liking the toe in effect alone. if this is your idea of fun, just for **** and giggles, you might also try moving incrementally further away to see when the side wall effects kick in and how unfriendly they are to image detail too. i don't have the patience, i just decided it was easier to move closer when i really want to tear a tune apart(most of my listening),.. and i just really dig the increased detail and wider stage.

anyways, if when sitting close, you decide you like less toe better, but still need to sit further away when you're not doing hairball experiments, you might start thinking about wall treatments.

)

madmax

OK, I get it now, I need them 21" to 41" high, either straight or toed in, next to a door or not and my seating needs to be 24 to 40" high. Glad we got that one cleared up.

Used as surrounds how high would you put them?
madmax

organ

Congrats, Madmax. What would you say is the biggest difference between the 7 and 9?

I think you had your voltage/current output hooked up backwards. Shouldn't the tweets be connected to the voltage source and woofs on the current source? If I remeber correctly, te voltage output emulate tubes and the current output is SS sound.

Russ made a good point about the toe in. I have my LSi9 set up in the other side of the room and they sound better whe pointing directly at you. Same thing with my RF-35 which I just found out a few nights ago.

Maurice

PolkWannabie

Originally posted by organ
I think you had your voltage/current output hooked up backwards. Shouldn't the tweets be connected to the voltage source and woofs on the current source? If I remember correctly, the voltage output emulate tubes and the current output is SS sound.

No, it's the other way around ...

From Sunfire's site ... "Two output options: current source for a warmer, more open tube sound or voltage source for tight response "

madmax

I am going to try swapping the outputs anyway. The reason is that they say the tube style output is better for mids and the SS style is better for bass. Once I hook up a sub the bass speakers on the LSi's will be considered midrange. I'll try all the combo's.
madmax

mantis

Mad.
find a pair of Ultimate foundations.We used to carry them but I don't know if we still do.I haven't seen them in awhile

Dan

scottnbnj

Originally posted by madmax
OK, I get it now, I need them 21" to 41" high, either straight or toed in, next to a door or not and my seating needs to be 24 to 40" high. Glad we got that one cleared up.

Used as surrounds how high would you put them?
madmax

will they be close to a door?

)

madmax

Mantis,
Those look pretty nice. I was thinking about trying to make a pair that look like these.
http://www.studiotech.com/jsp/productDetail.jsp?prodID=12

I hate to spend more on the stands than I did the speakers.

And no, they are not by a door.

madmax