New Lsi 9's !

bklynNupe

I just pulled the trigger on a pair of Lsi 9’s.
I purchased these primarily for digital music. What should I be looking at in terms of power to make these babies sing properly for 2-channel?
I'm been looking at the Outlaw Audio RR2150 and the HK 3490. The HK is a lot cheaper, so is it better in this class? Any suggestions or comments? Thanks.

ben62670

I would go with the HK. It has pre outs and dual sub outs for future amp , or sub upgrades.
Ben

bklynNupe

:DThanks Ben, I'm lovin' the price

AudioFilet

I have both of those receivers. The RR2150 is a much better sounding piece of gear, and is one of the best pieces of equipment I own. It is so good that it is the reason that I sold my NAD C372 integrated amp. The Outlaw just completely blew it out of the water, specs be dammed. It has plenty of power reserves to drive your LSSi9's. It also has integrated bass management built into it for integrating it with your sub, with a variable crossover. Much better than the simple sub outputs of the HK.

The HK is good, but the Outlaw is a premium piece of gear, and well worth the extra cost.

bluecomet

Congrats on the Lsi 9's. They are sweet bookself speakers. If I were you I would go with a good power amp and pre amp for these. They love power. 200 watts per channel should do the trick.

heiney9

*IF* you are dead set on going the receiver route (not what I would recommend for LSi's) I would go with the Outlaw. It will do a decent job. A nice integrated or seperates would be much better. Don;t skimp on cables either. If the budget is tight go with the Outlaw and nice cables rather than spending the entire budget on a nice integrated or seperates and then not having any $$$ left for cables.

Of course the ideal situation would be a nice int. or seperates AND nice cables.

YMMV

H9

coolsax

If you do decide to go the HK route, look at their ebay store they are always listing refurb 3480, 3485, and 3490s, with a warranty and they usually go for under 300 sometimes under 250

heiney9

If you go the HK route you'll never get close to what the 9's have to offer. Frankly, if you go the receiver route you'll never get close to what the 9's have to offer.

I'm just saying.............

H9

bluecomet

Put the receiver down and slowly back away. You need seperates for the Lsi series.
+1 on the comment Heiney9 said.

Cpyder

bluecomet wrote: »

Put the receiver down and slowly back away. You need seperates for the Lsi series.
+1 on the comment Heiney9 said.

Congrats on the LSi9s! I know I love my pair. And I agree with this comment. You CAN use a receiver to power them, but I highly recommend a separate amp capable of pushing 2 ohm resistances. I don't know of any receivers that do this. Currently I am only using a Marantz receiver to push them. They get plenty of power from it, but real low sustained bass will pull too much current through the receiver and can send it into protect. Or worse yet, damage it. For music, I've never had a problem, but with some movies with extra low bass, if it's set too loud, it has the possibility to go into protect mode.

bklynNupe

bluecomet wrote: »

If you go the HK route you'll never get close to what the 9's have to offer. Frankly, if you go the receiver route you'll never get close to what the 9's have to offer.

I'm just saying.............

H9

Put the receiver down and slowly back away. You need seperates for the Lsi series.
+1 on the comment Heiney9 said.

So what should I be looking at ( used market) is if I go for separates?
I’ve been scouring audiogon and lots of reviews but I haven’t been able to able to determine what’s best for the Lsi9’s. I’d like a nice amp, perhaps a FM tuner and the best possible way of connecting my digital music. I have been looking at some Rotel amps other that, I know I’m all over the place with this project. I feel good about my choice of speakers. I just don’t want to waste a lot of time and expense pairing with the wrong equipment.

Help me out fellas, .02 cents please!
Thanks.

bklynNupe

Cpyder wrote: »

You CAN use a receiver to power them, but I highly recommend a separate amp capable of pushing 2 ohm resistances. I don't know of any receivers that do this. Currently I am only using a Marantz receiver to push them. They get plenty of power from it, but real low sustained bass will pull too much current through the receiver and can send it into protect. Or worse yet, damage it. For music, I've never had a problem, but with some movies with extra low bass, if it's set too loud, it has the possibility to go into protect mode.

Interesting, any brands/models that come to mind?

maximillian

To name a few...

Carver, Adcom, Outlaw, Mcintosh, Emotiva, B&K, Harman Kardon, Sunfire, Rotel

Really there are a lot of good brands out there. Some will sound a little different than others. I am not experienced enough to know which sounds warmer than the others. Generally you want to find an amp that is stable at 4 Ohms. One way to tell is to look at the power ratings of 8 vs 4 Ohms. The ones that are 4 Ohm stable will have a power rating listed, and will be higher than the rating at 8 Ohms.

Amp selection has been discussed quite a bit on this forum. Here are a couple threads I found quickly:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51120
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41944

You can sometimes get a good deal by buying used. Look at that, someone is selling a nice Rotel in the FM that will drive your LSi9's nicely.

bluecomet

I would go vintage equipment if you want a reciever. This is stickly 2 channel. You can get a Luxman R-117, Kenwood KR9600, Sansui 9090 or other monster receivers from the late 70's. The Luxman is from the 80's and uses a remote. Most of the monster receivers normally have great tuners built into them. They all handle 4 ohm speakers and blow away todays receivers for powering 4 ohm speakers like the Lsi's. It is an idea but I still like seperates the best. It depends on how much room you have in your bedroom to put equipment. Food for thought.

heiney9

bklynNupe wrote: »

Interesting, any brands/models that come to mind?

Two that come to mind are Adcom and B&K, but I thought this was for a 2ch rig????? No receiver is going to cut it if you are looking for a nice 2ch rig. Too many compromises built into even the nicest receiver.

http://www.wildwestelectronics.net/adgfhi4ohmst.html

You need something with high current capabilities a nice Cambridge integrated would do very well

Also in a previous post you mentioned "the best possible way of connecting my digital music". Could you explain further?

Also what type of budget have you set for yourself?

H9

heiney9

bluecomet wrote: »

I would go vintage equipment if you want a reciever. This is stickly 2 channel. You can get a Luxman R-117, Kenwood KR9600, Sansui 9090 or other monster receivers from the late 70's. The Luxman is from the 80's and uses a remote. Most of the monster receivers normally have great tuners built into them. They all handle 4 ohm speakers and blow away todays receivers for powering 4 ohm speakers like the Lsi's. It is an idea but I still like seperates the best. It depends on how much room you have in your bedroom to put equipment. Food for thought.

Nope, not going to cut it, IMO.

bluecomet

Vintage receivers are a better alternative than todays receivers for 2 channel. If this is a second system for the bedroom and you don't want a stack of seperates, it's not a bad way to go. If you want the best sound I would go with seperates and mix and match the components that work best for you. I am not a big fan of intergrated systems. There's compromises in receivers and intergrated systems. Everything has it's pros and cons.

bklynNupe

heiney9 wrote: »

Also in a previous post you mentioned "the best possible way of connecting my digital music". Could you explain further?

Also what type of budget have you set for yourself?

H9

I currently have my music on a MAC computer. I have about 1400 cds but I prefer to play music from a music server in my bedroom. I'm just wondering if there are better considerations for connecting my music. I would like to keep the amp/ pre/tuner selection under $1000 but it would be nice to know the "good" and "better" choices out there that are not 5x what the speakers cost. Like the Polks, bang for the buck is what I'm after. Thanks.

devani

across GWB, there's someone selling Adcom amp and pre/tuner for $300....:D

just bring the speakers to test;)

PSOVLSK

Since devani didn't post his own FS thread, I'll do it for him;)

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98831

I'd seriously consider this combo for the 9's. Definitely a good starting point that you could probably flip without losing much if you decided to upgrade.

devani

PSOVLSK wrote: »

Since devani didn't post his own FS thread, I'll do it for him;)

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98831

I'd seriously consider this combo for the 9's. Definitely a good starting point that you could probably flip without losing much if you decided to upgrade.

thanks...:D:D
let me know if you are interested...

cnh

Devani's got some nice stuff for you LSi9s there. It's a very good place to start!

cnh

Cpyder

In my post (post 10), I meant to say you need an amp that is rated to 4 ohms, although the 9s do drop to about 2 ohms at some frequencies, but any amp that rated at 4 should do the trick as far as being able to handle the load. How much were you thinking of spending for an amp?

mdaudioguy

heiney9 wrote: »

You need something with high current capabilities a nice Cambridge integrated would do very well

Based partly (ok, mostly) on H9's recommendation, I'm now the happy owner of a Cambridge Audio integrated amp that's driving my LSi7s in a 2-channel rig that includes a Squeezebox receiver - currently playing randomly through my digital collection as everything breaks in.

cnh wrote: »

Devani's got some nice stuff for you LSi9s there. It's a very good place to start!

cnh

Yep, and if he were a little closer, it would have been mine! Another good choice, I'd think.

jabrax

I have a rotel 980bx that I forgot to move along LOL. A sale fell through many months ago, and kinda outta sight outta mind. I need to get it back in the for sale thread if you are interested.

Without thinking it through - 250 shipping and paypal included. Has not been used in 2years.

This is what I started my LSI9's with before selling. Rotel amp through a Yammi receiver. Didn't realize how much I was missing until I added the Rotel to the Yammi. Whatever you go with, you should definitely see a nice change.

Jeff

mightymouse

You need a good USB DAC to get the best sound quality from your computer. I am using a Benchmark DAC1.

adam2434

bklynNupe wrote: »

I currently have my music on a MAC computer. I have about 1400 cds but I prefer to play music from a music server in my bedroom. I'm just wondering if there are better considerations for connecting my music. I would like to keep the amp/ pre/tuner selection under $1000 but it would be nice to know the "good" and "better" choices out there that are not 5x what the speakers cost. Like the Polks, bang for the buck is what I'm after. Thanks.

How are you planning to connect the MAC to the rest of the system?

In case you're not aware, the headphone jack of most MACs doubles as a mini optical output, allowing you to connect to any DAC or digital processor with an optical input.

A good DAC will be a huge improvement over the MAC's onboard headphone out and/or line out.

bklynNupe

I decided to take the advice of a few on the forum that suggested separates if I wanted the most out of my Lsi 9’s. Originally I thought of the 9’s as a part of a bedroom “mini system.” I do not have an endless budget but in the meantime I don’t want to waste the full potential of these speakers. I decided to purchase a separate amp for my 9’s to be controlled by my current Belles preamp that is currently being used by my turntable only.
I just purchased a B&K 2140 2-channel amp.

I currently have my 2-channel xpa 2 run through the Belles for ht-bypass in pure audio mode to play my music.

How should I now connect the new B&K to the Belles so that so that I have the option to play 2- channel stereo using B & K, Mac Mini, Music Hall DAC and Lsi9’s AND maintain my current set up of running my Mac Mini through the DAC, emotive amps, HT Bypass preamp and Rti speakers?
My apologies in advance if I’ve made this sound more confusing than it really is!


Thanks.

steveinaz

If you like to "put the pedal to the metal" occassionally, and your room is medium to large'ish, I'd recommend at least 200 watts. Lsi9's can be pretty demanding on an amp.

Litz

I have not had luck with any of the recent HK products. One of my recievers sounded good and worked for one year before the whole HDMI section died. 2008-2009 RIP. I would opt for the outlaw based on the superior sound/power output and reliability. The outlaw integrated is bulletproof and almost embarasses other integrateds and separates anywhere near the price. I'd like a set of LSi9's and a sub in the future.

markmarc

bklyNupe:
You've made a good choice going with a BK power amp. The next step for hardware is definitely a DAC. There are plenty of Benchmark's out there on the used market to choose from just because they make so many models After the DAC, if you really want to open your system up, consider modifying the x-over in the LSi9's. The stock one's are the weak link in the LSi9. You can search this forum for various threads on this subject.