Polk LSiM speakers 58% - 67% off..

Boy am I glad I didn't buy the LSiM's for the living room. It would have been a disaster.

After the second re-arrangement of speakers, the Wahrfedale's are now at the front again, and the Zu's were placed in the far corners. Being bottom ported, I was thinking I was safe from bass boom. Little did I know. In those damn corners, the Zu's are just as boomy as the W's were, even being bottom ported.

I now understand that the problem is not with the speakers, it is with the room - there must be bass modes (nodes, whatever they're called) in those corners that makes any speakers other than front-ported ones to boom. Putting those big Polk's in there would have made it only worse, or just as bad, which still isn't good.

Apparently, my bedroom is much better acoustically, for neither the Zu's, nor even the Wharfedale's were boomy there, and the W's were much closer to the wall there than in the living room, and still didn't boom.

I'm back to square one - I need a new pair of front-ported speakers for the living room, to put in the far corners, so I can pull the Zu's forward. Too bad the LSiM's cannot do.

 

What do you guys think about that new port design and the test of it in the video? Please post a link to the thread here if/when it is posted about these new Polk models.

 

There are pictures of the new Polks here https://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-s...s-l800-stereo-dimensional-array-speakers.html

 

Seems that the RTi series is no longer being offered, having been replaced by the Legend series. According to a post on the 2nd page of the AVS Forum link (above).

"With the introduction of the legend series, it seems that Polk is discontinuing the RTIA series. On their website, the 'Shop' button for the RTIAs is missing as of this evening and so is the pricing on the individual RTIA speakers missing on the website. It was there till yesterday. Is the signature series a replacement for the RTIAs?"

"You got it, gave a call to Polk and that was relayed to me it was a replacement "

I checked the RTi page on the Polk web site today and the RTi's are still available.

 

Well, could not resist. Grabbed a pair of Polk LSiM 707's for 1098. That is 400 less than I paid for my 705's. Just came today. Cannot believe I got these monsters up 2 flights of stairs by myself. Anyway, did a quick replacement of the 705's and something is amiss: There is no soundstage. I am mostly aware of sound coming from the left speaker, nothing in the middle. The right speaker is working and I checked the output levels with test tones in the set-up mode of my Onkyo TX-NR3007 and the left and right fronts are the same. Will take me a while to switch left and right speakers, put the 705's back, etc. Using direct and pure direct modes on the AVR. Literally, nothing across the width of the two spkrs. I am baffled. Never seen this before. Naturally, I will troubleshoot, tweak, etc.
Question: Is it possible for a pair of speakers to do this if they are too large for a room? These are bigger than the measurements suggest! I just had to compare to the 705's though. I was obsessing! First impression is that I made a mistake. Should be able to sell whatever pair does not work out though. The aesthetics were better with the smaller 705's. Have not gotten to the point of knowing if the bass with the 707's is too much for this room yet. That was my main concern, not this lack of soundstage. Folks have stated the 705 is the better balanced of the line. Wanted to hear for myself. Let you all know what pans out in my room. And I know I need a real amp.

 

1098? Where? That's an incredible buy! I thought I did good at 1600 for the pair.

Your issue is baffling.

Check wiring, phase, and all connections - I have plenty of soundstage with mine (12 x 17 room with 9 foot ceiling).

 

They are essentially the same speaker, but with more and lower bass in the 707's.

The 705's are not necessarily better balanced, but are more suitable for a smaller room than you would use a 707 in.

Sounds like your 707's are defective?

 

...or a more powerful amp.

 

Just got them today so it will take some spare time to figure it out. Drivers seem to be working. Tried mono and it seems ok. Maybe it is my avr. Maybe a crossover? Lot of maybes.

 

Bought them from Adorama. Last week followed a link for the cherry 707 at 549. Old link was still active. I wanted the midnight so I called and sales was great, no problem. By the way the 706c was 349! Get this, I cancelled the order cause I have the 705 and a 706c. Then, the other day, I decided I really wanted to try the 707. Checked the price from that link and it now showed nearly 800 each. Called my salesman and he honored the 707 at the price I cancelled. I think there is room to bargain at Adorama, not sure.

Our room is similar except my ceilings are lower. I have the speakers on the 13 foot wall and I am sitting about 12 feet away on the 18 foot dimension. The speakers have about 8 feet btw them. Maybe too wide?? Still, the 705's were fine, but I need to re-check that to be sure. I will check any things and get back to all. Man, these suckers are dense and heavy to move.

 

Nice...

 

Port configuration won't make much difference in a room prone to bass modes. The only real solutions are adjusting speaker placement or room treatments. Get some big ugly GIK bass traps.

 

If you saw the picture of my room, you probably saw those corners - no room for any bass traps left.

 

Check the connecting braces between the two sets of binding posts on the speakers. When those come loose, what you described happens. It has happened to me.

 

While I realize that every room and situation is different, I have placed speakers and subs in normal rooms like yours and have never used nor felt compelled to use bass traps.

I always try to match the equipment to the room and this approach has always worked for me.

 

That's what I'm trying to do - I noticed that front-ported speakers work best in those two corners. Now, I just need to find a pair that sounds as good to my ears as those Wharfedale's do.

 

In general, my preference is for front ported speakers.

With rear ported speakers, there will almost always be issues with the proximity of rear walls. With front ports or bottom ports, this is never a problem.

While I don't have any modern Wharfedale's, I do have three vintage pairs, W60's, W70's and W90's. They are really nice sounding. I prefer them to most modern speakers for a normal living room stereo speaker.

 

Actually, as I've described above, even bottom-ported Zu's are booming in my living room, so, front-ported only for those corners, in my case.

 

I bought a pair of Cherry RTi's from their eBay closeout store years ago. They arrived in perfect condition and still sound great. 60 percent off retail. They still have an eBay presence.

 

I think your best bet is to get speakers of an acoustic suspension or true transmission-line design.

 

Thanks to all! Had them wired out of phase. Old Vandehul wires have a round and a hex shape for the positive and negative. I was aware of that but I still screwed it up! What a relief. Imaging and soundstage is fine now. They sound a bit unforgiving and thin up top at the moment. Need some hours and a decent amp. Man, these things are heavy!

 

You may be right with those, but front-ported do work just fine - I know that from running my PSB's there. In fact, my PSB's were the first "hi-fi" speakers of mine, period, bought back in 2003, when I got back into better audio gear with the NAD/PSB system. I guess I lucked out on those being front-ported. At the time, I didn't even know the differences.

As far as "suspension" (i.e. closed box) and transmission line, do you have anything specific in mind? I can always entertain good ideas, provided they stay within reasonable budget.

 

New Large Advents

 

Is Advent still n business?