RTi vs LSi (musicality vs theatericality)

josh_parsons626

Just taking like a little survey. Not a poll or anything, but to find the biggest preference here at Club Polk. For as far as theater sound goes what do people like? Your exact setup - center channel & surrounds included too. Do you like 5.1 or 7.1? And the same goes for musicality, also.

If you ask me what I like I cannot say because I've never heard either. And all I've got is monitor series: 40 fronts, cs1 center and Paradigm surrounds.

Joey_V

LSi all the way around for me..

Sami

LSi's easily...

HT currently has 5.1 system with 5 LSi7's with SVS PCU subwoofer. I am thinking of moving my bedroom 15's to HT mains if I move to a bigger house with bigger HT room (most likely happening soon).

aaharvel

Musicality always wins because it's the hardest thing for a speaker to do right.

Grimster74

I think a majority of the people running RTi's are running them due to being able to drive them alot easier with a H/T receiver (8 ohm stable) which seems to be a little less expensive then adding a additional amplifier and/or pre-pro. Here lately though, seems to be alot of people purchasing external amplifiers to drive there RTi's to get the extra head room and I'd be willing to say atleast 50% of these people would love to or are going to get LSi's series Polks. I myself have a all RTi 7.1 setup downstairs and my Outlaw 990/7700 combo should be coming in soon, and yes, I will soon be upgrading to a all LSi setup.

faster100

I had full 7 channel polk rti's and loved them on HT and OK on music.. Great on HT, kinda bright on music.. really bright when cranked up... overall good midrange series speaker..

Now i have a full Lsi rig and love it.. excellent on music and good on HT also.. I don't have a sub again yet so i can't get the full experience but the Lsi15's put out some excellent bass and sometimes it sounds like i have a small sub attatched..

Id say the lsi is great for both, Rti more for movies and some music at low to medium volumes... any higher and the harshness comes out

Ricardo

RTi8's and CSi5 fronts; JBL surrounds (7.1); SVS 20-39 PC Plus; driven by a Denon 3803. Love it for HT. Have absolutely no interest in upgrading, except for maybe some fxi's....

Music..I use the 1.2 TL's

Toxis

9's front and rear and wouldn't give them up for a free set of 12's. I love the musicallity of them but on HT, they're amazing! They give me exactly what I want, the dynamics of a movie without overexaggerating any certain frequency range. They will definitely get a lot of air moving for a bookshelf and with a sub, the sound is perfect. I do like the RTi's for movies but still to bright for my tastes.

McLoki

If you have the supporting equipment (amp - decet pre) the LSi's are awesome in home theater duty. 5.1 or 7.1 is kind of room dependent. I would like to try 7.1, but the 5.1 setup I have now sounds very good. (will sound MUCH better with a real preamp)

In my case - I know my pre-amp is currently my weak link - not the fact I am missing 2 speakers.

Michael

josh_parsons626

It seems that the ones that are fortunate enough to have the LSi have either the 9's or the 15's. I currently have monitor 40's as fronts and I wouldn't trade them NIB for 50's or 60's, 70's are tough but I mean just because Polk bookshelves sound THAT good. What makes the LSi full range so much better than the bookshelf? And dont say cause the 8" sub, cause that's crap. Get the 9's a nice SVS sub and bingo! You dont need the 8" sub.

Now granted VERY few of us are lucky enough to be able to have a dedicated HT room. So the rest of us living in "the real world" have to have our 2-channel setup as well as our HT as well. Now is this the reason that some people may choose the full range over the bookshelf? It's the only reason I can figure up. I used to be one of those huge fans of full-range tower speakers, but ever since I got my Polk bookshelves and my Velodyne my mind has been changed rather abrubtly.

Is there some reason I am missing here? I have put my bookshelves against monitor 50's and 70's and they blew away the 50's but was pretty close with the 70's and couldn't really tell a difference. With that minimal of a difference makes me change my mind QUICKLY to go spend the extra $600 if bookshelves aren't that much of a difference than bookshelves.

But then again maybe it's cause I live in an apartment with a tiny area for a HT setup. Would that difference of tower vs bookshelves be different if I had me a nice size area to play with? Maybe, maybe not.

Sherardp

Rti Line all the way for me with SVS, Im not ready to spend big money in the LSi line just yet. Im very content with the Rti product line.

Early B.

Generally, there should be no real distinction between musicality and theatericality. A good speaker is a good speaker. If a speaker sounds great with music, it'll sound great with HT, IMO (although not necessarily vice versa). The distinctions come in the form of preferences, i.e., the desire for more bass in the fronts, higher sensitivity, etc.

Holydoc

josh_parsons626 wrote:

Just taking like a little survey. Not a poll or anything, but to find the biggest preference here at Club Polk. For as far as theater sound goes what do people like? Your exact setup - center channel & surrounds included too. Do you like 5.1 or 7.1? And the same goes for musicality, also.

If you ask me what I like I cannot say because I've never heard either. And all I've got is monitor series: 40 fronts, cs1 center and Paradigm surrounds.

I cannot tell you which is better (to my ears) since I do not own but one set, the RTi line. When I purchased mine, I was very new at home theatre and knew little to nothing about how to test out speakers. I had went to Tweeters for about half a day and listened to the RTi line and the LSi line, and chose that way. I did not know that certain speakers needed certain amplification to sound correct and therefore should ensure that the speakers were being powered correctly before testing. I did not know that speakers would sound differently in your home as compared to in Tweeters nice display room. And a bazillion (it is a word if I used it) other things I did not know... I selected on what sounded best at that particular point to me. Therefore I cannot tell you that if I had selected the LSi brand, it would of been better or worse. I can only advise you to listen for yourself and select that way. Do not trust me or anyone else to tell you which is better.

I can tell you that for HT purposes, the RTi brand is great. They have high impact and convincing sound during action sequences. I am very pleased with them.

This does not mean I will not upgrade in the future to the LSi's or another brand. Now that I understand more about what I should expect from a speaker (in other words, I am not a complete moron on HT anymore), I will definitely be testing and upgrading some time in the future. For now, I am very pleased with my decision for both HT and stereo listening.

As for the 5.1 vs the 7.1 debate, this depends on room size. If you have enough space then there is no substitute for more speakers (i.e. larger soundstage with more audio movement). However if you do not have the space, a back speaker shoved in your back becomes a terrible distraction and actually localizes the soundstage throwing off the entire effect.

Holydoc

Early B. wrote:

Generally, there should be no real distinction between musicality and theatericality. A good speaker is a good speaker. If a speaker sounds great with music, it'll sound great with HT, IMO (although not necessarily vice versa). The distinctions come in the form of preferences, i.e., the desire for more bass in the fronts, higher sensitivity, etc.

Agreed.

josh_parsons626

Alright fellas how about this for instance, the other day I found in my gf and I's bedroom a pair of front-firing surround speakers. Now these were given to me and I dont know what brand they are and they just say "Universal" on them, so I'm assuming that's the brand name. Now I hooked them up positioned in the corners on 36" stands. I also have my regular surrounds as Paradigm dipole's hung on the back wall approx. 6 feet apart give or take. These "back surrounds" are sitting about 2 feet from where I sit. When the surrounds are going on you can hear them more than the Paradigms. Is this due to they are the "7.1 surround" and my room is too small, or do I have them calibrated unproperly? My regular surrounds are +3 and my backs are 0.

Now I dont really have a good spot to put "side" surrounds so that's why I put my dipole's on the back wall. Am I just killing good quality sound by trying to mess with them. Or am I just not thinking creative enough?

McLoki

Your back speakers are a little far apart. (I think around 2-3 feet is what most recommend.) They should be on your back wall (where they are).

your side surrounds should be on your side wall facing you (preferably aimed so a reflection will come at you - think of a bank shot in pool) from your description it doesn't sound like that is where they are at.
If you cant pull of the reflection (from a wall or ceiling) - just face them twords each other about 3 feet above your listening position.

Get an SPL meter from radio shack. It is some of the best $35 you will spend on your home theater. calibrate it with the test tones in your AVR if you don't have anything else. (if you have a test disk (avia or vid essentials) use that instead)

You are almost there - just play with it a little and see what works for you.

Michael

wingnut4772

L to the S to the I:D

josh_parsons626

wingnut4772 wrote:

L to the S to the I:D

No doubt about that buddy. Only if finances would prevail. Hell I'd even like to get the RTi. But I think for now I'm gonna get rid of the Paradigm (when the time comes) and do 2 pairs of monitor 40's for surrounds. For back surrounds would the 40's be as good as the 30's? I've heard 30's for regular surrounds but not for rear surrounds. And they (IMO) didn't sound very good

Jim Shearer

FWIW,
Last year I was looking for some bookshelf speakers for the dining room. Went to Tweeter to check out what's available (having been out of the speaker buying market for about 20 years.) Listened to lots of different speakers, but was most impressed by Polks. Note that last speakers I had influence on purchase of was a pair of Polks my brother bought (on my recommendation) back in '85. Think they were RT12c's or something like that.

Before deciding on which to buy, I made a second trip to Tweeter w/ CDs in hand to hear music (and recordings) I know. Focused on the Polk RTi and LSi bookshelves. Rejected the RTi4 immediately as it lacks bottom end (probably fine w/ a sub though.) Like the RTi6 and the LSi7 about equally. Thought there was something seriously wrong w/ the LSi9: might be just that pair, but it's all I had to go on; sounded like a bad hump in the mid-range. So I bought the RTi6. I'm still amazed at the performance for the price.

Note that the RTi6 cannot compete w/ my old (1974) RTR 280DR speakers. They can't match the sound stage, and certainly not the sonic impact. But then the RTRs contain four 10" woofers and 6 tweeters in each enclosure, weigh in at about 100 lbs each, and take up significant floor space.

Cheers, Jim

GATOR3000

Rti’s for HT are very nice. No complaint there. Lsi15’s on order for 2-channel audio. The Rti’s are a little too bright for my taste in music audio. I auditioned Lsi15’s in the store, but I’m convinced 15’s will sound much better at my home.

Gator

jdhdiggs

Got to agree with Early: Show me a truly musical speaker that sucks for HT, and all show you someone who has underamped or missetup their speakers.

aaharvel

Try listening to the rti's with their grilles off. Eeeesh.. :rolleyes:

All around, I'm getting neutral sound, but only b/c I keep the grilles on and have the speakers paired to warm, dry-sounding mid-fi gear.

josh_parsons626

Well since I have the Monitor series (well, half way) would y'all consider that sound to be warm, neutral, or bright? I'm just gonna stick with the Monitor series for a little bit, then I'll upgrade to a pre/pro & amp combo when I can get out of mechanics school and I'm working.

But y'all say that the LSi is the most musical? And if the music aspect can first be identified and conquered then the theater part of the speaker is simple from there? Right? Just to make sure I understand that much so.

But what would my Monitor series be considered? Cause I think they sound pretty good for music, treble wise, but I feel like they're not as loud when it comes to movies and tv. Would this make them neutral or warm? Cause I dont think that would make them bright. On another note, maybe it's cause I have the CS1 with 5.25 and haven't yet upgraded to the CS2 with 6.5. The fronts are pretty clear when it comes to doing their job. But my center channel is a little muffled when it comes to the dialogue which I'm not complaining about, because I love my "entry-level" system. I'm just stating self-criticism.

Willow

I , do to size of house, use Rti for both HT and music. I love them for music and can't complain for music though I know I could find better out there. So for what I have in terms of house size and $$ I will stick with my rti's. Will I upgrade in the future bet your best gear I will.

aaharvel

If I had lesser amplification driving them, I would be in the steps of upgrading now. But the way I look at it there's no point. They sound fine regardless of what you throw at them (again depending on how they're amped), and plus I have a smaller room so loud volume isn't necessary. By the way whoever said that the rti's sound good at low to mid volumes but then fall apart at higher volumes is 100% correct.