lsi 9's for surround?

[tnathan]

Hello all,

I have not posted for a while. I am working on completing my system. I have an HK avr 430 connected to a parasound 1206 at 200wpc into 4 ohms. This set up is driving my LSI15's and the remnants of my Polk RM 7500(?). My local store salesman said that I should use LSI9's for the rear surrounds since they would be matched and can handle 200wpc. I think they look great. However it just seems like overkill for rear speakers. When I metered the wires, they do not seem to get anywhere near 200 watts in most modes. In fact with SACD and DVD-Audio they receive nothing since they are in 5.1.

Are LSI 9's overkill? Would LSI 7's be a better buy? Or, would I be better off with a set of LSI/fx's to diffuse the rear surround channels? Thanks for your thoughts.

Tim

[tnathan]

Ps: I may have forgotten to mention. I have a 7.1 system. The speakers I am talking about are the surround rears and not the surround lefts and rights. Thanks again.

Tim

[polkatese]

Tim, I went with LSi7 for the surround back for that exact reason (LSi7 vs. LSi9), moved the 9 for 2 channel system, and have been very happy on both decisions. What do you have for surround speaks right now? I ruled out Fx for surround back due to its odd shape, I have living room/breakfast nook connected/no back wall.

[Frank Z]

I chose the 7's for a few of reasons. First off the, 7's perform very well as rear channels without being calling too much attention to themselves. Second, the 7's are wall mountable without the use of shelves or additional mounting brackets. Third, the amount of sound from the rear channels just didn't justify the cost of the 9's for rear channel only duty.

I'm not going to say that you should scrape the idea of using 9's for the rear channels in your system, but I would suggest really thinking long and hard about the cost vs. benefit of the 9's vs. 7's. The money you save by using the 7's could be spent on other items for your HT.

[tnathan]

I have an RM7600 that I started with. I got it for $900 and it included a psw650. It gave me the time and flexibility to add speakers I wanted as I get funding rather than having to settle for lower quality to fit within my immediate budget to fill out a 7.1 system. It is funny how my stereo blew out of control. I started with a 35wpc Festival 80 HK 5.1 surround system. Not loud enough. I then bought the HK AVR 430 with 65wpc in a 7.1 and the rm7600. I thought twice the wpc with an extra two channels would have to be loud enough. Not loud enough. Next I bought a parasound 200wpc amp and connected it to the AVR. You guessed it. Still not loud enough. Now I am replacing all of the speakers of the RM7600 with LSI's. So far still not loud enough. My local dealer said that my problem is that my college years with bad equipment has tainted my opinions. He suspects that I equate distortion with loudness. He told me that he truely believes that 1500 total watts rms should be enough. THe problem is that all of my components have like 0.01 THD.

I guess my question is why spend the extra money on an LSI 9 when an LSI 7 will be frequency matched as well. When I metered my rear speakers, they seemed to be getting about a tenth of the wattage the fronts do. IF it was available why not use a 50 watt frequency matched speaker. It just seems to me anything more is overkill. Moreover, I also question why I waste my time amping my rear channels to 200wpc. One of my friends suggested bi-amping my fronts and running my rears at 65wpc off the receiver. It sounds interesting. However, I am not sure it is a good idea to run 400wpc through a 250 wpc LSI15.

As for the FX it is designed the way it is to diffuse sound so that you do not have a sharp identifible sound. IT is supposed to produce background noise. This is in contrast to fronts speakers where you do want to identify the source for voices etc. This is also why you are supposed to mount your surrounds above your head. I can't recall if diffusing sound in your rears is also desirable. It would seem so; however, I do recall talking to a polk tech once who said that they used LSI 9's or 7's for the rears in a convention hall setup. Then again this decision may have been to demonstrate the full line rather than for accoustics.

Thanks for your input.