Energy RC50's in / Polk LSi9's out

dougy

Not really a fair comparison in light of the price difference, but who said life (or speaker comparisons) had to be fair? I didn't A-B'em exactly, but I had been listening to the Polks pretty heavy before the Energys arrived, so I just listened to a lot of the same stuff on the Energy speakers. Number one difference: the Energys have tweeters! I guess it's just a taste thing as most folks like the LSi tweeter just fine. Not me. I tried to like it because of all the good press, but to my ears it was dullsville. The aluminum dome on the Energys has lots of...energy The shimmer of cymbals is back! The "air" is back. Nice! Crappy recordings sound like crappy recordings, too. Oh well, ya can't have everything.

Mids are very good. Probably on par with the 9's, but not as good as the La Scala II's I had previous to the LSi's. But there is more midrange air than the big ol' Klipsch, which is nice. And the sweet spot is much wider. That is nice, too. Wider than the LSi9's. I don't know why, though.

Bass is good, but not too extended. It seems to peter out at about 40Hz with both ports open. But since I use the pair of Velodyne subs, that's not really an issue. In fact, I get extremely smooth bass plugging both ports and crossing over from the RC50's to the subs at around 100 Hz. In fact, it's the smoothest bass response I've ever measured. And flat down to the 25Hz band...not too shabby if I do say so myself!

All in all a very well-balanced speaker. It does well with all kinds of music, which is very important to me.

Build quality is outstanding and the finish is exquisite. The color of the cherry is a little redder than I hoped (I was hoping for something more like the LSi9's) but I guess I'll get used to it. It's just that it doesn't exactly compliment anything in the house as our house and furnishings are almost all in oak and walnut. But taken on their own, they are beautiful.

I'll post some pics soon.

Gravyfries

I have the RC-30's in my office in Rosenut and they are beautiful and laid back compared to my Monitor Audio RS6. I got mine real cheap on ebay with the Microsoft Live cashback offer. Around $300 after the rebate!

kingtut

It's definitely a preference thing when it comes to sound, especially the tweeter. My brother-in-law has Energy speakers, and I feel the tweeter is on the bright side. I feel the same w/the current Polk RTI line, and the LSI is too laid back. I prefer the older RTI line, which is detailed but not bright.

dougy

A few pics of the new Energy RC-50's:

jimmydep

Sweet speakers, very nice room.

Enjoy


Jimmy

cnh

kingtut wrote: »

It's definitely a preference thing when it comes to sound, especially the tweeter. My brother-in-law has Energy speakers, and I feel the tweeter is on the bright side. I feel the same w/the current Polk RTI line, and the LSI is too laid back. I prefer the older RTI line, which is detailed but not bright.

I completely agree with that assessment.

Cool pics Dougy...they look nice! My very first bookshelves were Energy.

How do you like that Onkyo CDP???

cnh

danz1906

Congrats,Nice speakers:D

dougy

cnh wrote: »

I completely agree with that assessment.

Cool pics Dougy...they look nice! My very first bookshelves were Energy.

How do you like that Onkyo CDP???

cnh

I like the Onkyo cdp real well. It doesn't have the same heavy, quality feel my old Sony ES machine from the early 90's had, but it looks nice (to me) and plays everything I feed it very well. And it sounds good to my ears!

These are my first Energy speakers. My first Canadian speakers, for that matter. I think that whole thing with the government sponsored research up there really paid off, at least sonically. (Since klipsch bought API, you could argue it didn't pay off on the business end, I suppose.) I digress... Anyway, I think Energy and Paradigm, at least, have really put some fine speakers on the market lately.

hydrostream

I had a set RTi10's that i used for 2 channel that i thought were to
brite and not very good in the low end. I picked up a pair of energy
C-500's at $350.00 for the pair new. All i can say is they rock and
they are at the bottom in the energy line.
jerry

dougy

Hey, that's a great buy on those C500's! I looked hard at a pair myself -Audio Advisor has them right now for, I think, $400/pr., which is still a very good price. I don't know why they seem to be blowing out the cherry and rosenut RC50/70's and some or all models in the "C" line. But the way I look at it, their loss is our gain. I suppose the discounted models are being either dropped, replaced or updated, but who cares? Often, the changes are more cosmetic or just change for the sake of change. The deals being offered on some speakers in the Mirage and Energy families are tremendous. I even saw at Vanns.com the top-of-the-line Mirage OM-28, which lists for $3750 each, marked down to $1250 each! Which is probably about what they ought to sell for anyway. Still, a heck of an opportunity for someone with the spare coin to acquire a world-class speaker at a bargain price.

hydrostream

Keep your eye on world wide stereo they have great prices
and alot of free shipping.
jerry