LSI9 Review

erniejade
erniejade Posts: 6,288
edited July 2014 in Speakers
[IMG][/img]20140704_094824_zps96f9de55.jpg
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Post edited by erniejade on

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  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    edited July 2014
    1st off I had to do that pic LOL I have always had floor standing speakers. Here they are next to the SDA2.3 The legacy is a hair taller then the 2.3. As some of you read, my room is 11x12. With the floor standing speakers I have tried in this room, i had an issue of no bass, or no imaging so, I decided to try out some bookies. Associated equipment used for this review / comparison is McIntosh MC402 amp, Cayin SCD50T, AR sp16 pre, DH labs IC's, Dougs speaker cable. I also have a dac2 but, one of the cd's i used was sacd so I decided to use the internal dac from the cayin to keep all things the same.

    I do not have stands yet so for now they are on boxes to put them close to the level they need to be at. I put them around the same place where I had the legacy and while they sounded ok, the mid bass was way over the top in a bad way. I moved them back, same thing, fwd, same thing, moved the left speaker out a food and things started to come into place. While they sounded good, they didnt sound quite right so, I tried the other wall. Midbass hump gone and lower bass came in nicely. I am surprised at the bass on them actually. This sounds crazy with the legacys i had to use a sub because i was battling standing waves and wave cancellation in the bass so to overcome it, the velodyne spl1200 always had to be on. I still have some tweaking of positioning but, I will old off till i have stands and besides I wanted to do some listening. They are darn picky on placement and 6" can make or break the low end, or make the mid bass wayyyyy too much.

    1st observation on the first disk, James Taylor Audio Fidelity Sweet Baby James, I was not missing the subwoofer! They actually have more bass in this room because of the issues I have by themselves then the Legacy by themselves. Believe me, the Legacy have WAY more bass then the LSI9 by far but, because of this room, it was not big enough and it was killing them. Vocals were sweet, not in your face but not in left field either. The 9's were just as good 4 feet away as the were 6 feet and didnt get in your face too much like the legacys did using them as near field. The highs never got fatiguing no matter how loud or long I listened. Very sweet sounding. At first I thought i was missing some detail till I noticed nope, its all there just a bit mellower and smoother at close range vs the legacy or 2.3's sda for that matter.

    Disk 2 Santana 1st cd on Mofi. For this i needed to hit the subwoofer. Every try to listen to Santana soft or without it shaking you a bit? its just not right I tell ya! Ok i did listen to a few without the sub and while it was good, i felt it needed the extra hit of the sub. Lots of percussion on that cd and on some speakers it just sounds like its all a mesh of nothing without separation of the instruments. The 9's did a good job not making it sound like mush and i could still pick out everything and hear things being struck without getting fatiguing. The mids jump out nicely but still well defined. The highs are a bit more mellower but, after a few minutes, i stooped noticing they were mellower. it was basically when i went between the legacy and the 9's that I would re-notice but, after a few minutes you just enjoy the music.

    Right now they are 5 feet between and 6 feet to the listening spot on the couch. Not too shabby!

    Onto America 1st sacd Audio Fidelity. Turned the sub back off since they don't have a lot of bass. Things just sound right again. I cant say it does one thing better then another in this room but, it just sounds right. I did notice they do take more power then the Legacy or SDA's do! The legacy or 2.3 I hardly ever hit the 40 watt mark on the vu's and that was LOUD. The 9's seem to like that mark to bring them alive or pressurize the room properly. They need and like current! They sound much bigger then they are in this room. I can definitely see why people like them and bookies for smaller rooms. It makes it easier to place and just add a sub where the bass is good in the room. Im not giving up on my legacy's but, might just need to put them on hold till I have a bigger room back of the house.

    The 9's do well with tube cd and preamp and the warmer sounding Mcintosh and Doug's speaker cables. I do have some DH labs q10 I can check to see if I like them better. On the legacy I liked Dougs better but, i was also trying to tame a giant in a tiny room.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    edited July 2014
    legacy vs 9.jpg
    a better pic
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • Mikey081057
    Mikey081057 Posts: 7,127
    edited July 2014
    Send those 9's to Trey at VR3 and have him do a fortress or fortress plus xover mod...
    My New Year's resolution is 3840 × 2160

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  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    edited July 2014
    Trey is a good guy. He did the Def tech's I had. He also sold me the Tylers I had the Juan has now. If I decide to keep them, i might just do that. I get the upgrade bug quick sometimes. I will say for the first time, since i had to move to the small den, this is the first speaker that isn't fatiguing me out!
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • bill1908
    bill1908 Posts: 10
    edited July 2014
    I am also interested in getting a pair of LSI9's. If anybody has a pair they would like to sell let me know. I'm also in the Chicago western suburbs.

    Please pm me, Thanks.
  • bill1908
    bill1908 Posts: 10
    edited July 2014
    bill1908 wrote: »
    I am also interested in getting a pair of LSI9's. If anybody has a pair they would like to sell let me know. I'm also in the Chicago western suburbs.

    Please pm me, Thanks.

    Also need a LSIC.
  • Inspector 24
    Inspector 24 Posts: 1,308
    edited July 2014
    Glad you're enjoying them!!
    At first I thought i was missing some detail till I noticed nope, its all there just a bit mellower and smoother

    going from RTiA's to LSi's I feel much the same way, makes the LSi's a pleasure to listen to for hours!!
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,032
    edited July 2014
    I would like to hear a pair of Modded LSi9's. Hopefully Trey addresses the over bass issues they have.
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    edited July 2014
    It takes some time playing with position to get rid of the lower mid bass boom. A few inches in the wrong direction and too much lower mid bass boom.

    I sat with them for about 4 hours. The beatles love sounded great but had to kick the sub back on because of a few songs that have one heck of a bass drop im them. Lots of boooooommmm and goes down low. No way anything that small can hit that deep. They do hit deep and low for its size and come together without the sub makes the bookshelves rattle.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    edited July 2014
    Dskip I agree with what you say. Thats where personal preference comes into play on if you like a more fwd. Sound, in your face, laid back, or something inbetween. Or room acoustics. Because my living room is dead sounding, my rti12 are as bright as the lsi in the den. I had the rti in the den once. No way would I put them back into the den again. Way over bright in that room.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • Inspector 24
    Inspector 24 Posts: 1,308
    edited July 2014
    Agreed, the level of detail to me is fairly equal between the LSi and RTiA sound, just a very different presentation. Currently loving my LSi15's and RTiA9's to play with. :D For comparison, to me the older RTxxxi series to me lacks detail all together, but is still nice to listen to. :)
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    LSi15 LSiC - RX-V3000

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  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    edited December 2018
    erniejade wrote: »
    It takes some time playing with position to get rid of the lower mid bass boom. A few inches in the wrong direction and too much lower mid bass boom.

    I sat with them for about 4 hours. The beatles love sounded great but had to kick the sub back on because of a few songs that have one heck of a bass drop im them. Lots of boooooommmm and goes down low. No way anything that small can hit that deep. They do hit deep and low for its size and come together without the sub makes the bookshelves rattle.

    Perhaps having basically a square room 11'x12' would accent a certain range of bass quite substantially.
    I have tried ours in our mid size rectangular room and they sound quite great, but in one smaller nearly square bedroom, fairly boomy overall and it almost ruins the sound due to the congested mid bass sound.

    (sorry just saw the date on this....oops)
  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    Lol. Yep they are gone and kef ls50w in its place. Although i did enjoy the lsi9 sound so much i went to the lsi25. Its like the 9's on steroids.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • cincycat13
    cincycat13 Posts: 882
    edited December 2018
    h1neo45ne4ig.jpg



    Wow old thread comes alive. Here are my 9s by 3.2 and 705. Yes those are 703 on the floor. I prefer the modded 9s to the 703. I may change my mind once flooring is done and room is more set up.

    I really quit trying to go up the food chain.

  • didnt attach properly

    n9239tfqoajm.jpg
  • cincycat13
    cincycat13 Posts: 882
    edited December 2018
    Ah. 2.3. Yes! Great catch.

    In case someone does pull this up looking for an LSi9 review...

    I modified mine with clarity caps in similar method to what VR3 does. I did not change indictors. As others have mentioned ... room and placement can impact the sound. I currently have pieced used gear together of a peachtree Pre, Yamaha M4 amp and a denon dvd3810 source.

    At moderate volume listening I find detail and separation very good and perfect for my needs.
  • halo
    halo Posts: 5,616
    At the Chicagoland Polkfest, I preferred the LSi9's > the LSi15's. Additionally, I preferred the Von Schweikert VR-2's over everything else. That is, of course, my humble and subjective opinion. YMMV.
    Audio: Polk S15 * Polk S35 * Polk S10 * SVS SB-1000 Pro
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  • erniejade
    erniejade Posts: 6,288
    The vr2 and 3 are wonderful speakers. I am with you on that one.
    Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 300, Audioquest Thunderbird Zero Speaker Cable, Tyler Highland H2, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    cincycat13 wrote: »
    h1neo45ne4ig.jpg



    Wow old thread comes alive. Here are my 9s by 3.2 and 705. Yes those are 703 on the floor. I prefer the modded 9s to the 703. I may change my mind once flooring is done and room is more set up.

    I really quit trying to go up the food chain.

    Pull those Lsi9's out of the corners!!
    Not sure if that is your normal location, with the floording stuff going on, but we found out they do not like being equidistant from the back and side wall, creates a LOT of midbass boom, and makes the speaker sound more lacking in clarity.
  • mpitogo
    mpitogo Posts: 475
    Hi, I have an LSiC if you find matching LSi9.
    bill1908 wrote: »
    bill1908 wrote: »
    I am also interested in getting a pair of LSI9's. If anybody has a pair they would like to sell let me know. I'm also in the Chicago western suburbs.

    Please pm me, Thanks.

    Also need a LSIC.
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