LSI 15's and new upgrades

tcrossma

Well, we finally sold our house and I now have time/money for some upgrades!

Here's what I currently have:

Yamaha RX-V2500 receiver (mid-level receiver, supposed 140wpc and has preouts)
Polk Monitor 60's for the fronts
Polk Monitor 30's for surrounds
Paradigm Ultracube 10 sub (not the deepest but i'm happy with what it does for movies for me)
The center died a while ago so i'm currently without a center.
Yamaha DVD player (about 6 years old)

The other day I bought a pair of LSI 15's and hooked them up. I like the sound, but i'm a bit underwhelmed by the improvement -- I thought it would better.

I'm currently more interested in improving the quality of music than HT, since even with my old speakers HT sounded just fine to me. In addition to standard CD's I do like to listen to music videos (such as the Eagles Fairwell Tour I) in 5.1.

Here's what i'm thinking of upgrading, in this order. Please let me know if anyone has suggestions or opinions.

1. Buy an amp. I'm currently looking at a B&K 200.5 (200w @ 8) on Agon for $1250.

2. Buy some good interconnects. I'm looking at Signal Cable, probably either their Audio Two or Silver lines.

2. Buy a DVD player. I'm thinking of getting a used Denon 3910 Universal player, with hopes of getting a good audio boost in addition to the mutli-format capabilities mine now lacks.

3. Buy a preamp. I'm thinking of an Adcom 750, which has an HT bypass. Theoretically i'd route the fronts from my Yamaha receiver through the preamp so that for 5.1 i'd be using my receiver and for 2-channel the receiver would be left out completely.

4. Buy a center speaker - LSiC

5. Buy new surrounds - LSiFX.

6. Upgrade the speaker cables. I currently have some form of mid-level Monster speaker cables (I know, they suck)

Thoughts or suggestions?

engtaz

#1 is a good start. Don't limit your amp selection to 1 Manufacture. Make sure the amp can do 4 ohms or lower. 200 to 250 wpc is good stuff.

Good Luck,
engtaz

cfrizz

Well you have certainly been paying attention to all the advice given here! Great job, keep us updated as you improve your system.

You will be overwhelmed by the improvement to your LSI's once you get decent power behind them!

MSALLA

Great plan. If it was me, I would buy one piece at a time (except for the DVD player) and see how I liked it.

Dennis Gardner

Just my thoughts...........I like your upgrade path, but don't rule out a higher quality SACD/CD player or the special texture that a tube preamp can add to music.

Any DVD source in todays market should consider HD capabilities with HD displays coming down in price.

Compare many, buy once if possible.

phuz

If you bought brand new LSi15s, don't forget to give them some time to break in. They'll really sweeten up between 40 and 100 hrs.

Also, placement is important. You'll need to play with placement quite a bit before you get them just right.

Refefer

Your 15's will sound much better when mated with an amp with some balls, such as the one you're looking at on agon.

tcrossma

Thanks for all the info everyone. I did buy the LSI 15's brand new and will let them break-in for a while before passing any judgement.

I'll hopefully decide on an amp within the next few days, and i'll let you know how it works out.

Sami

1, 4 & 5, in that order. Switch the DVD player to a HD player.

After those are done, evaluate the changes. Then continue if necessary.

Face

What are you using for cable now?

tcrossma

Face wrote: »

What are you using for cable now?

I'm using mostly Monster cables... some of their middle-of-the-road stuff. For the speaker cables it's 12awg I believe. For my DVD interconnects, I am using a cheapie analog interconnect to my CD input for listening to music, and an optical for DVD (and I can't hear any difference between the two).

tcrossma

Sami wrote: »

1, 4 & 5, in that order. Switch the DVD player to a HD player.

After those are done, evaluate the changes. Then continue if necessary.

I'm not particularly interested in HD DVD right now. I have this system hooked up to a 42" plasma and while I certainly prefer an HD picture, I do not have much in the way of complaints about my 6 year old DVD's picture quality.

I'm more concerned with audio quality. I'd given thought to buying a separate CD player, but I do want an improvement in my music videos as well. I figured a good Universal player (which the Denon 3910 seems to be) would be a good middle ground?

Face

Cables can make or break a system. Nothing I've heard from Monster has impressed me, but I've never heard their top of line cables. I use SignalCables in my HT rig. But in my 2ch. rig I use Goertz/Alpha Core Sapphire cables. Not cheap, but definitely worth the extra coin.