so...why are the LSi speakers made 4 instead of 8 ohms?

mightymouse

There is something to be said about active speakers. The amps match up very well with the speakers.

cmy330go

I've only ever heard 1 or 2 powered speakers that I thought sounded right.

sucks2beme

cmy330go wrote: »

I've only ever heard 1 or 2 powered speakers that I thought sounded right.

Linn makes activ setups. Their amps and speakers can be made to not use the crossovers.
They sound good, but for that kind of money, they'd better.

Poee7R

I thought it was simple myself. A 4ohm load digs into the meaty center of an amp, giving it access to the current and power than an 8 ohm load wouldnt be able to provide as well. Its actually quite cost conscious I believe, you can find a 100 watt @ 8ohm amp pretty easily to get you that "200wpc" @ 4ohms that most seem to rave about.

And to me the pricing should note the use of an amp, $1850 retail or so should lead people to think that these may not be the best thing to run off of that $400 reciever that they bought on clearance 2 months ago. Yet i have a feeling that Tweeter/Fry's or whoever it was that was blowing lsi's out the door for pennies on the dollar are responsible for the newer onslaught of these questions. But then again who knows, these questions have been asked since the begining of time it seems.

But I digress, maybe Polk should throw on a label or "warning" in the manual or even on the back of the speaker near the terminals that state's these speaker's were designed for and require an amplifier that can handle a 4 ohm load.

Thats my story and im sticking to it.


Dave

skipf

ben62670 wrote: »

Even the some of the upper crust chain stores that I have seen them at were not properly driving them.

Now if that isn't an oxymoron, I've never seen one.:D

cmy330go

Forget about stores not driving them with good amps. What's even worse...the last time I saw the LSi's displayed at Tweeter the damn things were wired out of phase. Talk about crappy sound.:rolleyes:

steveinaz

It's a choice Polk had to make; build a highly "marketable" speaker or build a "good sounding" speaker. The Lsi series are for the serious audiophile, who should understand that a 4 ohm speaker will require a robust amplifier.

There are terrible driver's that buy Corvettes everyday, it's not Chevrolets fault when they crash them.

phuz

I prefer the question:

"Why don't receiver manufacturers put amplifiers, power supplies, and related compoents in their receivers that can actually do what they say they can do?" (like drive a 4ohm load)

Or how about:

"Why are most speakers 4 ohms?"

To use steve's analogy (I love using cars as metaphors for audio) - even if you made a corvette with a V6 in it, it'd still only have a V6 and wouldn't perform like a true vette. In other words, an Onkyo, Pioneer, Denon receiver, etc are never going to stack up to seperates. Even with speakers rated at 8 ohms, or even 16 ohms.

cfrizz

Thank you Steve & Phuz!

But what's truly mind boggling is when they are given good advice on what it takes to make the LSI's they try to find all kinds of justifications & reasons why the advice just couldn't be right!

But then again the advice is all over the map with disagreements ending up going on between the "audiophiles" and the rest who are budget conscience & pratical.

So it ends up being one big disgusting mess.

polktiger

steveinaz wrote: »

It's a choice Polk had to make; build a highly "marketable" speaker or build a "good sounding" speaker. The Lsi series are for the serious audiophile, who should understand that a 4 ohm speaker will require a robust amplifier.

There are terrible driver's that buy Corvettes everyday, it's not Chevrolets fault when they crash them.

As I was reading this thread, the exact analogy I was thinking of was the Corvette.

One other thing to consider, and this may be way off, but a company like polk may develop the LSi line, invest a lot of R&D and come up with a really top flight speaker. Several years from now that technology will filter down into their lower line speakers. One thing I am thinking of would be the dynamic balance drivers that are common in the low level speakers. Seems like 15 or more years ago, these were a big deal and were only in their more expensive speakers. Much like engineering that goes into a corvette will influence what shows up in a "common" cars ten years from now.