B&W 602S3 vs Polk LSi9

zingo

I currently have a pair of B&W 602S3 which have been very good to me. They are my computer speakers running though the Audiosource Pre-One and a pair of the Audiosource Amp-Ones. But, I know the rave reviews of the LSi9 and who isn't curious about other speakers? What would the difference be like from my current British sound reproducers? Any thoughts would be helpful...

jltrdavis

Having owned both, I can say that the 602S3 is not on the same level as the LSi9 in terms of detail. You will hear things through the LSi9's that are just not there with the 602's. The LSi9's are more comparable to the B&W 705's. That said, the 602S3's do have the edge in bass output and imaging. The LSi's are much more finicky about placement. It's also a matter of personal preference as the LSi9's are not as forward sounding as the 602's, so you'll have to listen for yourself.

zingo

That was a great comparison. Thanks!

Chicomoralessxm

jltrdavis wrote: »

Having owned both, I can say that the 602S3 is not on the same level as the LSi9 in terms of detail. You will hear things through the LSi9's that are just not there with the 602's. The LSi9's are more comparable to the B&W 705's. That said, the 602S3's do have the edge in bass output and imaging. The LSi's are much more finicky about placement. It's also a matter of personal preference as the LSi9's are not as forward sounding as the 602's, so you'll have to listen for yourself.

Hmm some 'interesting observations.

zingo

Why do you say that?

Yashu

How are you getting the sound from your computer to your system? Do you listen to uncompressed music or mp3s?

These are important questions because if you like mp3s and use your soundcard's analog out then speaker swapping is not going to give you as much performance gains as would, say, investing in a USB DAC. Also, I would recommend the LSi9s anyway because, while the B&Ws are good speakers, you are probably going to find them more fatiguing on your ears than the LSis, especially if you are plugging directly into your computer's analog soundcard.

zingo

To start, I am listening to uncompressed tracks. I am trying to finalize my set-up by adding a DAC. My computer has an optical out, and so I am going to run that into the DAC and out to my preamp. I just need to find a resonable DAC...

Yashu

When you say it has an optical out, is this an on board soundcard or a soundblaster earlier than the x-fi?

Most on board soundcards resample to 48khz before sampling back to what you have selected to output. All soundblasters also did this before they came out with the x-fi. This severely degrades the sound, especially in the treble.

If you have this resampling problem, I would forget about using that digital out completely and look into a DAC with a USB connection, and then set up your computer so you are getting a bit-perfect output. You want to get a clean signal... you don't want resampling and you want to make sure you are bypassing the OS's mixers as well by using ASIO output.

So... unless you know for sure you are getting a clean bit-perfect digital output, I would invest in a DAC with a USB connection. They are not hard to find, and are not too expensive. You could also invest in a quality USB s/pdif adapter to get a clean signal from, but then you would still need to get a DAC, and it is probably easier and cheaper to get a DAC with a USB connection. If you already had a DAC I would have said go for he USB s/pdif adapter (like a trends UD-10 or Haggerman USB), but since you do not have a DAC, now is the chance to get one that has it all built in. The ones with USB built in are also free from jitter issues, which is a plus.

Face

I had jitter problems from a internal XFI card. I went to a external card and placed about 5lbs of stuff on top of it, no more jitter.