Lsi or Rti?

JWBurns

sickicw wrote:

oh and by the way, if you are looking at the rti12s, the outlaw combo will not "fully" power them to give them maximum performance (400+ watts). (but they will fully power the lsi15s).

Sickicw, Which Lsi's on the fronts did you go with?

Thanks for all the great replies guys!

Airplay355

I'm pretty sure the max power rating is the thermal rating of the voicecoil. Just because you have a 500wpc amp doesn't mean you are actually using 500 watts though. Ask anyone with meters on their amp, you don't even come close to the 500 watts. Thats why people can use 8 watt tube amps and still crank it big time.

marcpam

sickicw wrote:

oh and by the way, if you are looking at the rti12s, the outlaw combo will not "fully" power them to give them maximum performance (400+ watts). (but they will fully power the lsi15s).

You don't know what you are talking about. I have the Outlaw 770 and I have the rti12 for mains. For fun, I biamped the rti12's with two channels to each speaker giving them 400 watts apiece. I played movies, music and I could not tell. Anything 200 or over will make these speakers sing. Under 200 watts, I say go with the rti8's.

IMO, I think that the lsi line is geared towards music and the rti is geared towards movies. My god, do a comparison on the size of the csi5 vs. the lsic. Movie centers are meant to be large and in charge. The Rti12 vs. the Lsi25 are also larger and take more power, why is that!?!

Rti--movies
Lsi--music (5.1 superaudio cd or dvd-a) not saying you can't use them for movies, but it is geared toward music.

JWBurns

"I played movies, music and I could not tell. Anything 200 or over will make these speakers sing."

Are you saying you could not tell a difference in them once they were bi-amped?

So since I'm 90% movies, the 12's appear to be the way to go.. IF I decide to upgrade.

marcpam

JWBurns wrote:

"I played movies, music and I could not tell. Anything 200 or over will make these speakers sing."

Are you saying you could not tell a difference in them once they were bi-amped?

So since I'm 90% movies, the 12's appear to be the way to go.. IF I decide to upgrade.

I used a y-splitter and basically biamped two channels to each rti12. There is no reason to run over 200 watts/speaker on the rti12 unless your room is the size of an auditorium, in which case you will need the extra power to fill the space.

If you can run reference levels out of your speakers with no clipping and virtually no problems, then I say you are set. If you need to go over reference level than i would recommend a hearing aid.

Mjr7531

One of the best upgrades I have ever made was from receiver to receiver. I went from the Pioneer VSX-D412 to the Harmon Kardon AVR 235. The difference was immense, the sound was cleared up probably because the model I went to took far less shortcuts.

Airplay355 wrote:

I'm pretty sure the max power rating is the thermal rating of the voicecoil. Just because you have a 500wpc amp doesn't mean you are actually using 500 watts though. Ask anyone with meters on their amp, you don't even come close to the 500 watts. Thats why people can use 8 watt tube amps and still crank it big time.

Well, I wouldn't say that, I get this feeling that Polk fairly rates their speakers, I think you are refering to limits of our ears, nobody goes up to 500 watts on their because they don't want to, because it would make their ears bleed...

tdeluce

marcpam wrote:

You don't know what you are talking about. I have the Outlaw 770 and I have the rti12 for mains. For fun, I biamped the rti12's with two channels to each speaker giving them 400 watts apiece. I played movies, music and I could not tell. Anything 200 or over will make these speakers sing. Under 200 watts, I say go with the rti8's.

IMO, I think that the lsi line is geared towards music and the rti is geared towards movies. My god, do a comparison on the size of the csi5 vs. the lsic. Movie centers are meant to be large and in charge. The Rti12 vs. the Lsi25 are also larger and take more power, why is that!?!

Rti--movies
Lsi--music (5.1 superaudio cd or dvd-a) not saying you can't use them for movies, but it is geared toward music.

In general, if something is good for music it will be good
for movies. The reverse, is not necessarily true...

sickicw

JWBurns wrote:

Sickicw, Which Lsi's on the fronts did you go with?

Thanks for all the great replies guys!

I went with the lsi9s. you can demo them at most tweeter stores if you can find one. They are much more musical than the rti line. You can even tell the difference with standard definition audio tv signals. If you have or are planning on using a good sub with your set up, i would go with a lsi7 or lsi9. the rti12 seems like overkill, and they dont come with the sweet tweeter Ring Radiator tweeter.

McLoki

You are going to need an amp for the LSi line anyway.

I would do what many here are suggesting and get a good sub and a separate amplifier so what you have sounds as good as you can get it. Once everything is hooked up and running, decide if you like the sound or not.

I personally like the sound of the LSi line, but it is really a different sound than the RTi line. It is not better or worse, just a different sound that will appeal to some and not others. With a good sub and amp, you have the flexability to move to any speaker you like the sound of be it LSi, RTi, SDA, or whatever.

Michael