Denon AVR-4310 vs. PolkAudio LSi 15 fronts?

[vderka]

Dear All,

I just sold my TSi500, 100 and CS10 set to my father. Now I am able to upgrade my system. I just upgraded my receiver from AVR-2311 to AVR-4310 (made in Japan), so thats no longer a question. I was thinking of a mixed speaker system. 2x LSi 15, 1x CSA6 ans 2x RTi A1, with DSW Pro 660wi, (subwoofer may come later). Question is will my receiver be able to handle without problem the above mentioned mixed system, or should I stick to the same setup but with RTi A9 fronts? Any suggestions maybe?

Many thanks in advance,
Viktor

[Espolksytem]

As long as the speakers have same ohm rating you should be good. you can mix an match any speakers you want its about the quality you will be getting and from what ive seen and learned is that its better to get what speakers you like for each placement front, backs, center they can all be diffrent models as long as they are what you like to listen to.

[vderka]

Hi!

Thanks for the reply. To be exact, I want to mix 4 ohm and 8 ohm speakers. You say there could be degrade in sound quality if I use lower impedance speakers than my receiver can support, in that case why the better front speakers, right? Would it be better to use only 8 ohm speaker sets, then like the RTi A7-9 to fronts?

[rpf65]

The LSI is a 4 ohm speaker, while the RTI and RTI/A's are 8 ohm speakers. Given that the A9 is the better choice. In any event, start budgeting for an amp. Both of the fronts you mentioned like a lot of power, and you may as well hear what you're paying for.

[vderka]

What dou you mean by start budgeting for an amp, I just upgraded to a Denon 4310, which is as good as a better stereo receiver (AL24 processing and so on...). You say this Denon is weak for the LSi 15 fronts? I heard with RTi A series its a good choice.

[rpf65]

It's not that the Denon won't play the speakers, it's the speakers will sound better with more power. When you buy power hungry speakers, you have to feed them. Otherwise you will never hear what those speakers can really do.

[vderka]

Ok, you are saying that my choice of Denon receiver might be a bit weak for the LSi 15, and would be better to buy RTi A9 for fronts. On the other hand I read on the net saying the following:

"Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this - a higher volume on my sub-4 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver - my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad - at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints - only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon."

[rpf65]

Maybe a better way to explain this.
Your Denon will drive either one of these speakers, but the will sound better with more power.
The A9's are rated for 50 to 500 watts. Will 50 watts drive them, yes it will. Will 100 watts sound better than 50, again, yes. The speakers will take all the power your AVR can/will send them. It just sounds like you're looking to get the best sound you can. I don't know which Martin Logans you have, but I'm pretty sure that if you added a 200 wpc channel amp to the mix, you would hear a definate improvement.

Is it necessary to add an amp for either of these speakers, no. Will it sound better, yes.

[thsmith]

That AVR is rated down to 6 ohms.

[vderka]

yes I know, but the LSi series is 4 ohms, this is why I have some doubts before I go and purchase. I know that with RTi A series I will have zero problems with this 4310 Denon. But with mixing with LSi to the fronts is another question. I have a 20 square meter living room, yes I know its a smaller room, but I live in Hungary Budapest and its not the typical USA house with 5-6 extra rooms... :D no offense, just to let you know.

[rpf65]

You don't want to mix any speakers with different impedances. Always 4 ohm with only 4 ohm, or 8 ohm with 8 ohm. That's why the A9 is a better choice than the LSI.

[thsmith]

What is more important the sound quality using just the avr or sound quality using an avr and amp?

If mostly watching movies go with RTis.

[vderka]

I will just use the 4310 avr, no separate amp. but in this case I take your advice and go for the A9

[KellyMic]

The Denon is a great receive but you could damage it or the LSi15's. You can get a decent 4ohm amp though to just drive to LSi15. The Denon has pre-amp outputs so it would work great. Either way a dedicated amp (200+wpc) will sound better than just the receiver. Made a huge difference for me, love it that way.

[vderka]

Sadly, I am unable to purchase LSi 15 as the local dealers cannot order from the distributors in Hungary. So I have to stick to RTi A7 or A9. Shall I go for A9, will it sound better than A7, or it is just capable of dealing greater volumes for larges rooms, remember my living room is only 20 square meters... :( They also tell me, that I should buy the Proson Rumble 12 subwoofer instead of DSW Pro 660wi. As it sounds way better in it's category than any oth sub out there. Any suggestions on this maybe? Many thanks!

[F1nut]

Since you want to use an AVR only and considering the size of your room you are much better off getting the A7's as the A9's really need an external amp to drive them properly and a bigger room. For movies an all RTi A series set of speakers will do you very well. I've never heard of the Proson sub, it may very well be better, but I'm very happy with my DSW Pro 660wi, which like my RTi A's is used for HT purposes only.

[chumlie]

With a room that small and your reciever i would go with the A7's. My room is larger and have no problems with the 7's. Never heard of a Proson Rumble 12 but i do know the 660 sounds great.

[vderka]

Thank you both chumlie and F1nut for the info. In my opinion I will choose 2x RTiA7, 2x RTiA1, 1x CSiA6 and 1x DSW PRO 660wi setup, as these are available for me with some discount. I think it will be a nice upgrade compared to my old TSi set. However I wanted to buy LSi 15 to the fronts for music, but many of you didn't share this mixed setup. For music I will stick to Denon AH-100 then. Unfortunatelly I cannot test the DSW Pro 660 before I purchase it, so it will be a blind purchase, and I hope it will be as good as the swedish Proson R12. I will have one more sleep till I order the set, so please make suggestions and advise me if possible. I am using Inakustik cables to connect the speakers with the AVR. Link

[F1nut]

BTW, don't take anything this guy has to say seriously as he's full of sh!t. There isn't an AVR made that will trip a 15 amp breaker on it's own.

"Doesn't get too hot! I tried pushing this - a higher volume on my sub-4 ohm Martin Logans and no sweat! Receiver does get hot but not too hot that you will burn your fingers! This is one big reason I bought this receiver - my experience with other brand rececivers was quite bad - at 75-90 watt/channel, these receivers trip my house fuses frequently; Denon (both my old 1508 at 75 watts and 4310 now at 130 watts) does admirably well in this regard and I have no complaints - only superlative praises for the efficiency and power handling of Denon."

[F1nut]

Thank you both chumlie and F1nut for the info. In my opinion I will choose 2x RTiA7, 2x RTiA1, 1x CSiA6 and 1x DSW PRO 660wi setup, as these are available for me with some discount. I think it will be a nice upgrade compared to my old TSi set. However I wanted to buy LSi 15 to the fronts for music, but many of you didn't share this mixed setup. For music I will stick to Denon AH-100 then. Unfortunatelly I cannot test the DSW Pro 660 before I purchase it, so it will be a blind purchase, and I hope it will be as good as the swedish Proson R12. I will have one more sleep till I order the set, so please make suggestions and advise me if possible. I am using Inakustik cables to connect the speakers with the AVR. Link

Viktor, I can't tell you how the Polk sub or speakers will sound for music as I've never tried mine that way. Mine is strickly for TV and movies, which it does very well at. I have other rigs for 2 channel music.

[chumlie]

Sounds like a nice system your putting together. I do use them for music and am quite happy with the results. Have a good sleep and welcome to Club Polk.

[tonyb]

Vderka, the reason we are steering you away from the LSI 15's is you'll need a seperate amplifier to drive them, which you said your not interested in doing. Rather than risk damaging your new speakers by underpowering them, the RTIA line is much more receiver friendly.

[vderka]

Hi tonyb,

Yes, thank you, and it really seems that I will order the polk 5.1 set, although I was very pleased with the Proson Rumble 12 sub, now I will try out the flagship sub of polk. Mostly I will be pleased with it too, but here some dealers in Hungary told me, that they dont recommend other subs in this category than the proson. As one of the advice I got from You guys here, I also want the whole speaker system, from the same manufacturer, in this case polk. I need to wait like 1-2 weeks, until they ship the speakers to my flat, so now I start to feel the withdrawal symptoms already... :D

[tonyb]

I hear ya man, but it's much more important to have the speakers all the same, voice/timbre matched than a subwoofer. Mainly because a sub doesn't reproduce voices. Don't limit yourself with a subwoofer just to have the same name brand, lots of steller subs out there.

[specd_out]

Viktor, I can't tell you how the Polk sub or speakers will sound for music as I've never tried mine that way. Mine is strickly for TV and movies, which it does very well at. I have other rigs for 2 channel music.

I had a similar setup. I had a5's powered off of my vsx32 and then off a Carver power amp. I can tell you I had a huge improvement when I used the Carver. If you ever get a power amp for your a7's I bet they will completely change how they sound.

Over all the Rtia and DSW are great for movies and decent for music. After a while I wasnt to happy with the DSW for music. Its a large sub and is kinda boomy. I kept it for movies but got to smaller and quicker 8" subs for music.

Now if I saw this question two days ago my answer would have been a little more positive for the Rtia speakers. But after purchasing my lsi9s I now see how much I was missing.