csi40 with lsi 15's

NotaSuv

Will a csi40 center work well with a pair of lsi15's as my mains, and what would be a good choice for surrounds.....right now all would be hooked to a 1 year old denon avr-3806

thanks........

dorokusai

The center channel should be the LSiC but you could get by with using "unmatched" surround speakers. Your front stage should be timbre matched and the center channel pulls most of the weight. The CSi40, while a great center channel, would probably stand out like a sore thumb.

john22614

I used a CS400i which is almost identical to the 40 with my LSi9's for a while and thought it was fine....it certainly had plenty of presence and was great for movie dialogue, etc., and it blended in to the front sound stage pretty well. It weighed 33 lbs and had excellent sonic qualities; ultilmately I bought the LSIc and gave the big 400 to my daughter. It was not a perfect match, but not that far off either, really an excellent center. I wanted something smaller and lighter and of course the LSIc was the choice. I also really like the high gloss finish and look of the LSIc up front with the 9's...even with the grills on. But, I could have gone indefinetly with the 400 had it been a bit smaller. And, unless you're playing a lot of five channel music, I think you can be pretty flexible with surrounds......they broadcast less than 10 percent of movie sound and it's pretty much all discreet....like raindrops, applause, birds tweeting, background conversation and traffic, etc. I use cool little Monitor 45 Radius cubes for my surrounds, and they work great, but I don't use them for music. If you play a lot of five channel music, I'd go with LSI7's or FX's.

So, if I were buying a new set of15's without a new center, I wouldn't hesitate. If at a later date you want to get an LSIc, great....the street price is only $500 at Fry's these days. In the meantime, I think you will be very happy.