LSI vs Reserve

mantis

I wonder what series sounds better overall ? I assume the new Reserve would be more refined and overall better sounding But I remember really liking the LSI's when I owned them all those years ago.

Someone near me is selling a pair of LSI7's in Cherry in pretty good ( Not my Good) condition and I might just grab them to go down memory lane. I need a small bookshelf speaker for my Office and I think these might fit the bill.

I was considering picking up the R100's as they also would fit the bill nicely.

What do you think about these 2 book shelf speakers?

heiney9

Of the LSi series only the 7's really sounded good to me. I'd love to hear a pair of LSi 7's vs. R200's.

I owned a pair of 9's and really wanted to like them, but they had a very noticeable midbass bump. And frankly a lot of music sounded very similar because of the unnatural bump. It was a pleasurable bump in frequency, but if one really analyzed it, it was a bit too bloated.

I know VR3 was able to flatten the frequency response in the area of the bump with reworking the cross overs with better parts. I eventually moved them along as I never could get past that frequency anomaly in the midbass. Just too unnatural.

I had a couple friends that owned LSi 15's, nice mids and highs, but that sideways woofer never really performed at the level of the rest of the drivers and in it's price range. I remember a lot of people swapped the woofer with a car subwoofer (can't remember the brand) and that did wonders for bass response.

LSiM might be a better comparison. I only heard the prototypes at Lou's Polk Fest many years ago. They were sill working on perfecting the cross overs. They were impressive. I've never heard a regular pair. I believe from the reviews I read they refined the original LSi line and "fixed" some of the originals short comings.

H9

skrol

I am using a pair of LSi7 in my office powered by a Parasound HCA-800ii and paired with a cheap Dayton 10" sub. I love it. The only problem is that I tend to get lost in the music and forget about work.

I also have the LSi15 with the Polk DB840 car subs. They sound good if placed properly. I think the 7's sound better in their operating frequency range.

msg

I'd go LSi7s over R200s or R100s, personally, however, both series have their place.

I will say that I've found the LSi7s lackluster without volume boost on most of my gear, until I got a Musical Fidelity integrated. Something about that piece of gear brought those LSi7s to life without having to crank them up. I had them running on B&K and Parasound front and back ends previously, so it wasn't even about "high current" amplification.

Also, sub required for any of these. Well, depending on the room, placement and listening preferences. But for me, the Musical Fidelity A5, LSi7s, and musical sub were my ref 2ch for a long time and difficult to beat. Synergy.

L200s could displace them, which I discovered during the traveling demo pair. My next step after this was a move to the L800s during the promo, and ultimately "down" to a pair of Wharfedale Lintons, where my system currently sits, and has since last December.

The A5 was the first piece of gear that played the LSi7s nicely at even lower to moderate volumes without requiring cranking them up to get them to come alive. I don't know what this was about, it just was.

4Ω, remember.

I think the LSi7s are going to sound veiled vs the R or L series in a direct comparison, at least at first, but with the right gear they'll fill out nicely and not "feel" restrained, which is another word for how I'd describe their performance with most of my stuff.

Strangely, the only other piece of gear I tried them on where they sounded good was an old Realistic STA-84; 25wpc

from the webs

The Power Port will also make them more flexible with placement.

ALL212

I have LSI7’s, R200’s and L100’s.

All upgraded crossovers, no crossovers updated with the same components.

Lsi’s are behind a Bottlehead S.E.X that might, should it be going downhill with someone pushing, get close to 2w. Volume is normally at 50% to 75% but sounds great.

R200’s are TV speakers behind some low but new end Yammy receiver. It works. I can stream Roon through the Oppo and it’s acceptable.

L100’s are in the 2nd rig as a standard to test other equipment with. Currently behind a Yamaha CA-800. Never disappointed in that setup. Hopefully to end up behind a piece of Odyssey gear that Klaus is cooking for me.

mantis

heiney9 wrote: »

Of the LSi series only the 7's really sounded good to me. I'd love to hear a pair of LSi 7's vs. R200's.

I owned a pair of 9's and really wanted to like them, but they had a very noticeable midbass bump. And frankly a lot of music sounded very similar because of the unnatural bump. It was a pleasurable bump in frequency, but if one really analyzed it, it was a bit too bloated.

I know VR3 was able to flatten the frequency response in the area of the bump with reworking the cross overs with better parts. I eventually moved them along as I never could get past that frequency anomaly in the midbass. Just too unnatural.

I had a couple friends that owned LSi 15's, nice mids and highs, but that sideways woofer never really performed at the level of the rest of the drivers and in it's price range. I remember a lot of people swapped the woofer with a car subwoofer (can't remember the brand) and that did wonders for bass response.

LSiM might be a better comparison. I only heard the prototypes at Lou's Polk Fest many years ago. They were sill working on perfecting the cross overs. They were impressive. I've never heard a regular pair. I believe from the reviews I read they refined the original LSi line and "fixed" some of the originals short comings.

H9

I owned a full LSI system many years ago. I also never liked the LSI9's. I tried real hard to like them but they always sounded bloated. I thought the bass response was un natural and the speaker overall was unbalanced.
I had the LSI7's for Surround Back and as Surrounds once upon a time and I found that speaker to be very balanced. I also had the LSI/FX which I would swap around from the LSI7's for that bigger more wider sound, but always went back to the LSI7's as I thought they where the best fit.
The LSI15 I think the issue with them is most people tried to run them in LARGE in a surround system and yeah the lower extension was a bit loose, not terrible, I never got to do the Woofer swap everyone talked about, I moved on from them at that point. BUT when you ran the LSI15's in small with a subwoofer, they where amazingly good speakers as I remember.

Seems like we basically share the same opinion on the LSI line.

The LSIM line I only ever got to hear the LSIM bookshelf speakers when we had the LSIM demo pair years ago. I had them and thought they where very nice but similar how I felt about the LSI9's, they also bloated in the bass department.

skrol

As many have noted, the LSi series really benefits from the right amplifier. When I first set up my desktop system I used a Parasound Zamp because I figured it would be adequate for how I was using them. It sounded like ****. I was going to scrap the idea of using the LSi7 but then I dug out the Parasound HCA-800ii for grins. It made all the difference in the world. I am sure I could do even better than this lowly amp.

skrol

Was there ever a consensus of the LSi7 vs R100? As noted above, I am using LSi7 in my office rig and am very pleased with them. I have an opportunity to pick up a pair of R100 and trying to figure if it would be an upgrade in SQ or should I save my money and put it into upgrading the LSi7 crossovers.

I did make one very nice change to my office rig by replacing the Dayton sub with a humble HSU Research STF-1 8". It blends so much better than the Dayton or Polk PSW-111 that I've tried.