LSI 15 v. Energy RC-70

jmwest1970

I was tired of sitting at the hotel this morning and decided to venture to Milwaukee and listen to some Energy speakers I had saw in an American advertisement yesterday. They had the full line of Energy RC speakers and I noticed that they also carried the Polk and Klipsch. I asked the salesperson for a demo of the Energy speakers and he proceed to oblige me using the new Justin Timberlake CD. Although Justin isn't my cup of tea, it did provide dynamic sound to test the speed of the speakers. My impression of the Energy speakers was that they were very bottom heavy. The bass was muddy and vocals seemed muffuled and the high end was almost non existant. Since the LSI 15s were sitting next to the RC-70s, I asked the salesperson to switch to those and it was like the fog had lifted. The high end was crisp and clear, but not too bright. The vocals were clear and Justin's falsetto sounded exactly like a bad singer should sound. The most noticable difference was the bass. It was strong, clear, and tight. I wanted to look around for a bass drum although I knew there wasn't one around.

I've found my next set of speakers!

MikeC78

Were the LSi's connected to an external amp? If they weren't, you haven't heard anything yet!

Glad you were happy with them.

Mike

Refefer

Any idea what the audio's lineage was? By that I mean what was it's source, pre, amp, cables?

I'd be curious to see if they knew what they were doing.

steveinaz

Energy's (I have Connoisseurs) have a tendency to sound laid back, especially upon first listening, but that later equates to wonderful listenability. They remind me of vintage AR speakers in that regard. You need to listen to them for an extended period to really appreciate the neutrality in the treble/midrange. No offense, but you couldn't give me 2 pairs of Lsi15's for my C-9's, I love them; but I have not heard the RC series from Energy.

Bass can be a bit fat, move them out about 36" from the back wall (from the front baffle) and place them on tiles if your room is carpeted. Problem solved.

jmwest1970

MikeC78 wrote:

Were the LSi's connected to an external amp? If they weren't, you haven't heard anything yet!

They were powered by a Denon 2807 Receiver using a Denon cd player as the source. I suspected, and have read, that an amp would make the LSis sing even more than I heard.

Refefer wrote:

Any idea what the audio's lineage was? By that I mean what was it's source, pre, amp, cables?

I'd be curious to see if they knew what they were doing.

It's American, which is comparitive to BB or CC except they sell furniture and more models/brands. Based on the placement of the speakers, which as 20 ft apart and 6 ft from the listening area, I'd say they don't have a clue about setting up a good listening area. FWIW, the LSis were about a foot farther apart and still sounded wonderful. As far as the other items I'm sure they're using composite connections, and I saw standard no name 14ga speaker wire for all of their connections. To be perfectly fair I'd have to ask them to remove both sets of speakers from their selector and hook them directly to the receiver.

fireshoes

Yeah, it's unfortunate to use the selector box but in that type of setting there's not too many other ways to do it. I work at American in Des Moines. The wire is crap and the room is too shallow to get good imaging from the outer pairs of speakers.

What I've found with the RC70's is that, at least in our demo rooms, they sound pretty tubby in the lineup, but when you pull them off the wall a little bit they sound much better. I do like the finish of the RefCon line as well as the build quality. I also prefer them with Yamaha receivers rather than Denon, although I usually prefer Yamaha to Denon anyway and plenty disagree with me here.

Sorry about the choice of demo music too. Yuck!

cmy330go

I also used to work at the American store in Des Moines. I can honestly say that room does those speakers ZERO justice. And I do know exactly what you were dealing with as all American stores use the same floor plan.

I personally have the LSI line (see signature) here at home and can tell you they sound absolutely nothing like they do in the store.

I also have had extended time with the Energy RC-10's here in my home, and they too sounded completely different. In fact I did back to back comparisons with my LSi9s (currently out of rotation:) ) in my 2ch rig, and can honestly say I preferred the RC-10's.

Just do yourself a favor and get them home for a listen before making your selection. Trust me...you won't believe how different they will sound.

Later.

reeltrouble1

LSI speakers are great sounding, although these were underpowered with just the Denon, I would take them over the others.

RT1