sapphire st2 over rti or lsi

gioht

i own a pair of sapphire st2 and the center for rears i have mirage . I am thinking about switching over to polk . reason not sure i have the upgrade bug . i realy can not tell the sound differance between good and great speakers but i like to upgrade, the sapphire sound great and can play loud with out a problem . But they seem to be going down in price and im not sure why . Im a manager and most of my time is at work when i come home i like to listen to my ht , i dont know much about much that why im here i was looking for some help . Are the rti towers any better than the sapphire .? has anyone heard of sapphire ?will i hear a big difference ? are the lsi line alot better than the rtis ?

okiepolkie

Welcome to the Polk forum. If you want to know about Polk speakers, then you have come to the right place. Even though there is an obvious brand bias here, I think you will find there can will be a lot of help with different brands as well.

I don't have any experience with your speakers, but I can tell you a little about the Polk speakers you have picked out.

The LSi speakers are more refined and will be good for music and home theater. The RTi series will be okay for casual music listening, but will not show the same details as the LSi's. The RTi's will be good for home theater.

One thing to consider with the LSi's is the need for high current amplification. They are 4 ohm speakers, so you will most likely need a separate pre-amp/pro and amp, or a good receiver like Rotel, B&K, or Sunfire. The RTi's can be played using a good receiver, unless you go with the RTi10's or RTi12's for fronts. Then you will probably want a separate amplifer to enjoy them to the fullest.

I hope this has helped a little bit. Hopefully someone can point you in the right direction regarding your current lineup compared with the Polks.

Zach

venomclan

Hi gioht,
From what I know about Sapphire, they are an exclusive brand carried by Tweeter/Sound Advice. The line was taken on by Tweeter/Sound Advice to fill a void created when they lost B&W. From what I have seen, they are a low end brand.

Now that Polk is being sold in Tweeter/Sound Advice, they will probably phase out the Sapphire brand. That is most likly the reason for the dropping prices. It does not mean that these speakers are bad.

If they sound good to you then I would keep them. The LSi's should blow them away for critical listening imho, but for HT only, it might not make that much difference in your system.

Another factor is what equipment is used to drive them. If you upgrade to LSi's you will want to also upgrade to a moderate seperates system or high-end receiver.
Good Luck.
Venom

gioht

thanks for getting back to me . I have a yamaha receiver 6.1 and i realy dont know much about ohms and other amps . you dont think that just hooking up the lsi to my yamaha would make much of a difference /why would i need amp? help

AsSiMiLaTeD

I'm not sure which Yamaha you have, but I'd suggest not hooking the LSi up to that receiver.

Will the yamaha power the LSi? Sure, but not to their full potential. You could put $50 tires from Wal-Mart on a Ferarri, but would you really do that?

I think you'd be wasting your money on the LSi if you don't plan on adding another amp into the mix...

gioht

yes you would not want to put 50dollar tires on a fast car . I have the lower end yamaha i gotit for like 450 bucks .So with any high end towers you need a seperate amp would you still be able to get a complete ht effect. I mostly listen to concert dvds ( joe sach rules) and i listen to them 6.1 they sound good but like i said i wanna upgrade and polk seem pretty cool to me .So the lsi would not ideel for ht they are set up for 2 channel music ? I did not kno w that sapphires were low end i pais close to 900 bucks for them and the center was 350 . know you say that as far as 2 channel goes the lsi would cruch them how about the rti woul dthey do the same . or better yet the lsi bookshelf woul dthey sound better .

2+2

Hi...when I was buying my speakers recently, I was able to compare Sapphires (2 different floor standing models) to various models of RTi line. I also listened to LSi speakers but on different equipment. RTi line (RTi 10 and 12) is much more musical than the Sapphires.. and sound much better. Can't comment on the other RTis since they were too small for my needs. I cant comment on HT use either since that was not my focus. I would give RTis and LSis a listen with some good material you are familiar with...I think you will be pleased.
Speaking frankly, what I did not like about the Sapphire was that they were harsh sounding on the highs (tweeters) and thin on the mids as well....they look cool but that's about it for me.

gioht

would i get the best deal at tweeter ? i did not kno wthat tweeter carried B&W ?

cfrizz

Hi Gioht. Welcome to CP!

As far as I know, here in the Boston area Tweeter is the only store that carries these 2 lines.

If you purchase the speakers with a Tweeter card, you can get up to a year interest free to pay the bill off.

This is how I made my last 2 purchases from them!

You would be fine driving all but the largest RTI's with your receiver. But if you upgrade to the LSI line, you will need more power to drive them with.

Which Yamaha receiver do you have? We can see if it has pre-outs to hook up a separate amp to it.