LSi15 vs. RTiA9?

megasat16

Yeah Dan, I would like to remind you that you need to allow the new speakers to break in before you evaluate the true extent of a speaker. Be it Polk or B&W or any other brand, any new speaker out of the box speakers usually do require the break in time of 20 hours to 100 hours depending on the speaker you use. You need to run the speakers at moderate volume level and let it sing for hours at a time for many sessions. This is to allow woofers and mid woofers to less stiffen the surrounds, spiders under the voice coil and sounds properly for their intended speaker parameters.

Rti A9 is a sweet speaker and so is B&W. But yes, the whole RTi series love amplification and excels at moderate to a loud volume. B&W 683 is a good speaker as well but I don't think there's a lot of significant improvement over the RTi A9. But if you listen classical music at low volume levels, B&W 683 may sounds smoother. But for more HT use, I would stick to RTi A9.

RutgersFTW

FWIW, Stereophile praised the A1 for its coherence and dynamics at all volumes. I find the A3 to have surprising richness in the midbass for late-night music and movies. It's cool to be a noob in a hobby and excited about your purchase, but I still don't think you gave the A9s a fair chance before you started dumping on them.

Furthermore, it's been pointed out that the A7s and A9s can be had on Pold Direct via eBay for basically half you paid for them (and the B & Ws). You paid almost list for the 683s, and probably bought them from a place without a return policy for when, in a few days, you start to ask yourself "I wonder what this song/soundtrack would sound like on the RTi As" and kick yourself for returning them to Amazon.

EDIT: a ginormous tower is probably never going to be what you want for low-volume dynamics since, speaking broadly, they'll be playing louder before they get woken up. I'll second the A5 rec (or even LSi7) if you're still curious of what Polk can do - there's a reason their products get so many accolades from so many reviewers of both consumer grade and high end stuff.

EDIT 2: The "American" comment wasn't a reference to the place of construction but to their character. Wharfedale, B&W, Mission, KEF etc are British speakers which, though different than each other, still have a trademark "sound" a seasoned audio hobbyist can recognize as British (bright). If you like British sound, that's great, but American warmth and dynamic slam are what get me hot.

jkacura39

I wasnt really going to listen to Danlarson about the b&w`s... i was already sold on the a9`s and mostly just being polite for his input as i am new here. He was real back and forth about everything from amps to speakers. He might buy something else tommorrow and like them more. its been my experience (very little) that whatever sounds good to you, is for you and I cant wait to get these a9`s and see what they sound like in my house.