LSi Owners, Please Read....

organ

About 15 mins ago, I decided to do some serious listening with my new LSi9. I noticed that the right speaker was imaging like crazy while the left seemed a little dull. Vocals sounded much stronger on the right side of the soundfield. Then I removed the grilles and checked each driver to make sure they were working. Yes, they were all working but there was one problem. Someone at Polk seems to be drinking on the job. What I discovered was that the crossovers of the woofers were backwards on the left speakers. The mids played on the bottom woofer and lows were on the upper woofer. So I had to open up the speaker and switch the wires. Now they sound much, much better.

So all you LSi owners, make sure you check your woofers to make sure the both woofers are connected to the appropriate crossover.

Finally, I remember many people complaining about the 20ga wires in the RTi line. No need to worry, the LSi line is eqipped with nice thick wires to all drivers. I think they are 14 or 16ga.

Ok, my rambling is finished and I'm going to do some late night listening in an altered state of mind.

Maurice

mantis

intresting.

Dr. Spec

Jesus Christ - that's inexcusable for a speaker of that price and quality.

I think this post deserves and official Polk response - fast.

If Polk effed up a bunch of LSi9's, there should be an official recall or service bulletin posted on this site and sent to any registered owners and dealers.

Doc

TheGrayGhost

Maurice,

Are you absolutely sure that the wiring phase to the left speaker is correct?

I’m not saying that the internal wiring was correct, but the top speaker produces mids and a full range of bass while the lower speaker augments the bass below a certain crossover frequency.

organ

Gray Ghost,
I'm absolutely sure the phase on both drivers were correct because there is no way to get any of the drivers out of phase. The -ve connection for each driver is smaller than the +ve connection which means the -ve will not fit on the +ve. I put my ear riht up to each woofer to make sure it was backwards before the "surgery". You're not suppose to hear any vocals from the LF driver and the vocals were playing on the lower woofer and low bass was playing on the upper woofer.

Dr. Spec,
I agree, when I have the time, I will e-mail ths post to Polk. At this price range I'm expecting better quality control.

Anyways, here something funny. While I was listening to them last night I actually started cracking up because I couldn't believe how good they sound. It's exactly what I've been looking for for many, many years. The speakers didn't just put a smile on my face, they made me laugh my **** off. I'm absolutely digging the sound. It's like they add their own icing to the recording to make them sound better. Vocals and instruments souds so real!

Maurice

*edit* I misread your post there Gray Ghost. Yes I triple checked the external wiring before firing them up.

TheGrayGhost

”You're not suppose to hear any vocals from the LF driver and the vocals were playing on the lower woofer and low bass was playing on the upper woofer.”

Maurice,

I agree that the vocals should not be coming from the lower speaker. However, bass will come from both speakers.

The speaker with vocals has a LPF (low pass filter) crossover at 2.5kHz that means all frequencies below 2500 Hz will be sent to that speaker including bass and frequencies above 2500 will be rolled off at 12dB per octave.

The other speaker which I assume is the lower one has a LPF of 200Hz with 12dB/octave rolloff above that frequency meaning that it will produce bass frequencies along with the top speaker.

stubby

A smaller (but highly respected) audio/video chain in the Kansas City area actually stopped carrying Polk after many years of selling them. They stated several quality control problems since the new plant opened up in Cali. Some speakers were DOA and warranty return work was taking a long time.
I myself have had nothing but excellent words for Polk's CS and speakers. I just thought about what the salesman said after reading this post. Matter of fact, the salesman said he owns Polks and loves his, he hated to see them go, just having too many problems.

Stubby

mantis

You see I said the same exact thing about the Lsi center when it was effed up.I recall would be in order.But I was called a moron for thinking along those lines..........

If there is a problem,and it made it past the inspection team....they need to be looked at.
I'm in no way picking on Polk but things like that should be addressed.

On a lighter note, there not the only company that allows things like that to slide.......there's more,Polk replies fast and customer service is top notch. Email them,call them ,they will do something about it.

Lsi9

Is this the case with a lot of Lsi9's....???

Shannon W.

NO!

organ

GrayGhost,
I did not know that the top woofers were supposed to produce bass as well. Anyways, I just checked both speakers and there seems to be the same amount of bass coming from the bottom and top woofers except the bottom woofer doesn't prodce mids. Everything's cool now.

Maurice

TheGrayGhost

Maurice,

I think this is an isolated case of a production worker connecting the speakers wrong and not a systemic problem with the LSi speaker design.