Fair price for Polk LSiM707?

ChrisD06

I'm in Canada. So pricing will all be in Canadian Dollars.

I see these go in mint condition for $1600 on Canuck Audio Mart. This is from 2021 and up. I'll attach photos of these guys, but the cabinets are not only in extremely rough shape, but both tweeters and a midrange are cooked. They work according to the guy, but you can clearly see I'd need to replace them. The midrange coil rubs, it's not just the dust cap.

They want $900 as they have had then for 3 months and can't sell them, even to audiophiles. I offered $350 and said the replacement parts would run me $550 if I had to buy all 3, ship them from the US, do import fees, taxes, and shipping, and that I'd need to do cabinet work. Is this a fair price?

FYI this is a Pawn Shop, the $900 price tag is already huge profit to them, that's why they're letting them go for that. They originally wanted $1800 and said that it's only half off because they're taking up so much space and want a quick sale as it's been months.

Photos:

bcwsrt

I think only you can determine what they're worth to you. Just based on condition, those would be a hard pass for me at any price.

ChrisD06

@bcwsrt See, your response is actually what I saw others say. I found out about them from a local audiophile group and everyone said it was a hard pass. I'm the first person in 3 months to go "yeah I'll buy them". I think they'll cave, would be a totally wicked pair of speakers to own and I could repair them and they'd still be worth it.

F1nut

PASS

Toolfan66

PASS..

msg

Pass, even if they were free.
Too many unknowns with something clearly abused.

Plus, the one on the right has been airbrushed with the image of someone wearing sandals.

pitdogg2

Hard pass!

ChrisD06

@msg Bahahaha it's the only footwear I had all week, had to evacuate the home because of a wildfire. Fortunately the property is okay.

ChrisD06

Seeming as everyone said pass, I think I'll reconsider. To be fair, the biggest part of the LSiM series is the tweeters (and midrange), so when they're completely toast, and the cabinet is this abused, you're pretty much better off buying another pair of Polks for $350.

If I did get an even better price, like $100 or even free, where could I source drivers?

pitdogg2

I'd call polk and hold my breath.

bcwsrt

If you right now don’t know where you can get the drivers to replace the damaged ones, that’s even more reason to let these slide. Seems to me you are wanting these a little too much.

Kex

Although I can totally understand your attraction to a great deal on something that you can easily repair, I do wonder how your Onkyo TX-NR656 is going to handle driving something like the LSiM 707. 🤔

Your current setup seems rather well matched, so unless the Onkyo is also up for replacement, it doesn’t look as though you will be able to get the best from a repaired and restored pair of LSiM 707 at any price.

ChrisD06

@bcwsrt I only want them because I figured if I could get them and then repair them for $900, it'd be worth it, but it does seem like there might be other issues considering they don't even have the grilles and they were obviously abused. I'm gonna pass as per all of your better judgement.

@Kex Hell no I'm not driving them with my Onkyo haha. I would buy a proper amp. Current system is my HT setup, these would replace the RT800 in the TV room and I'd move the RT800 downstairs for a 7.1 system.

F1nut

No grills either...PASS!!!

ChrisD06

@F1nut My thoughts too. If all of the local audiophiles and local Polkies are passing (for 3 months), the store had to half the price, and you guys are all passing, I reconsidered and you're all right. I won't take these for anything more than free, and since that's not happening, I think I'll patiently wait for a pair to show up that's been properly taken care of.

msg

Free is still too much!
Unless you wanted to build garden planters. That could be kinda neat.

Were they really trying to sell these for $1799?

I will never understand how people end up wrecking audio gear. I guess a few home moves could cause some of it if not properly taken care of. Or transport by Miata. But those drivers are wrecked. Only thing missing is a box of Dixon-Ticonderogas jabbed into the cones.

And how do you lose the flippin' grills?

msg

disregard; wrong thread

Toolfan66

msg wrote: »

Free is still too much!
Unless you wanted to build garden planters. That could be kinda neat.

Were they really trying to sell these for $1799?

I will never understand how people end up wrecking audio gear. I guess a few home moves could cause some of it if not properly taken care of. Or transport by Miata. But those drivers are wrecked. Only thing missing is a box of Dixon-Ticonderogas jabbed into the cones.

And how do you lose the flippin' grills?

I have thought this many times as well, I am very anal over my gear..

ChrisD06

@Toolfan66 I don't even let my friends near my RT3000ps because they like to put their hand in front of the subwoofer drivers and let them slap their hand.

More concerned about the tweeters being pushed in. I'd be pissed if that was the case.

stangman67

Just to put the nail in the coffin. Pops doesn’t have replacement drivers for the LSIM series and hasn’t for years. Those things aren’t worth anything

Milito

Run away from them as fast as you can.

ChrisD06

Yeah the reaction of the forum convinced me. Not touching them at all. I'll spend that $350 on some RD2516-1 tweeters for my RT3000p instead.

Rich502

And who puts for sale stickers right on to an expensive product like that? Just doesn’t seem right. That itself would be enough to walk away.

ChrisD06

@Rich502 To be fair, their adhesive is very weak and completely peels with the sticker. I've bought from them before, usually retro games, they never put the sticker on the label.

VR3

Rule number one of audio, don't buy gear from places that use stickers

pitdogg2

VR3 wrote: »

Rule number one of audio, don't buy gear from places that use stickers

pffft, A little WD40 and gone.

VR3

Nah, unless it's just old and beat up maybe

shs

The other issue is that there is more than cosmetics and drivers in these speakers. I had a 705 that looked great but had terrible distortion from the mid bass driver. Replacing it did not help as it seemed that the problem was an air leak in the chamber in which it was mounted and it was not being properly acoustically suspended. If you have ever looked inside one of these speakers, you might understand that finding that leak might not be easy.

displayname

VR3 wrote: »

Rule number one of audio, don't buy gear from places that use stickers

That was one of the first things I noticed. I saw those sticker and thought "well that's going to ruin the paint forever, right on the front of the speaker."

displayname

The absolutely only reason I would spent a cent on these would be if I had a desire to practice fixing/building speakers myself. It might be a fun project to take the busted drivers out, give it a paint job, source new drivers, maybe build your own crossovers or modify the existing ones.

This wouldn't be a value buy. It would be the same idea as buying a junker car to build a bit of a rat rod.

If (and only if) that was something I wanted to do, I would spend maybe $50 US, essentially the wood for the cabinets and bass divers which all appear to be intact. If it's something your interested in, float them that number and let they same no. Then in 6 months float them that number again and see if they bite. I'm sure the speakers will still be collecting dust there at that point, unless another aspiring builder cuts a similar deal with them.

nooshinjohn

Here is a deal that makes sense for the OP.

https://tmraudio.com/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/polk-audio-lsim-705-floorstanding-speakers-lsim705-cherry-pair-1/