LSiM Series:Serious Sound
For Serious Listeners
When you go from riding a bicycle to driving a car, it's surprising how fast you can travel. When you go from driving a car to piloting a jet, you're surprised all over again at how fast you can travel. You see where we're going with this?
The new LSiM Series of high performance loudspeakers is a complete reimagining of the Polk Audio mission of making superior audio accessible to everyone. Even though these loudspeakers straddle the very sharpest cutting edge today's technologies, and feature custom-designed components and furniture-grade wood enclosures, they remain surprisingly affordable. Ultra-high performance for today's most demanding media is within reach. And there's never been a better time!
- Dynamic Sonic Engine—A single molded enclosure within the enclosure that houses the super-accurate Ring Radiator tweeter and Extended Motion Mid-Range Driver, the Dynamic Sonic Engine improves high-frequency dispersion and horizontal off-axis response by reducing performance-robbing back wave reflections.
- Super Cell Aerated Polypropylene Cones—Thicker, yet even lighter, Super Cell APP delivers better transient response and incredible detail.
- Internally Braced Enclosures—Solid MDF, braced with interior enclosures-within-enclosures featuring non-parallel surfaces, breaks up resonances and internal standing waves. The LSiM707 has five separate internal chambers.
- PowerPort® Bass Venting—A patented innovation that eliminates turbulence at the mouth of the bass port, increasing efficiency and enhancing deep, distortion-free bass.
The LSi Legacy
The holy grail for any serious listener is a loudspeaker that brings audio performances to warm, dynamic life. Polk Audio's LSi Series, introduced in 2001, was created to please just this kind of listener. LSi Series loudspeakers delivered flatter, more accurate frequency response, with lower distortion and more realistic details, than any speaker in their price range. Superior components, including tweeters normally found on much more expensive speakers, housed in beautifully sculpted cabinets, brought accolades from the professional audio press for superior imaging and tonal accuracy. LSi Series has remained the Polk Audio flagship product for a decade. Now, it's time to revisit the design and engineering of this incredible loudspeaker; to use newly developed technologies to increase the value equation of the series. This is not an evolution. It's a revolution. The new LSiM is an emphatic restatement of the qualities that made the original series so great.
Performance Objectives Of The LSiM Series:The performance objectives for the new LSiM Series predate the original LSi design and are, in fact, design principles Polk Audio first set down during development of its original Monitor loudspeakers. These ideals have been guiding principles for Polk Audio's best high performance loudspeakers:
Sound that virtually transports the listener to the scene of the recorded performance.- Pleasing tonality, even during extended listening at performance levels.
- Crisp, lifelike impulses, transients and coherent detail without any unnatural ringing or decay.
- Natural reproduction of complex low frequency instruments and special effects.
- Uniform sonic representation within the listening area and immersive spatial impression.
- Reproduce concert/theater levels while maintaining linearity and accuracy.
- Compatibility with a wide array of electronics both past, present and future.
- Work as promised for many years of enjoyment.
When it comes to crossovers, which can be one of the most expensive components in a loudspeaker, we believe less is more.
In a perfect world, a single driver would reproduce the whole of the audio spectrum, from the deepest lows to the highest highs. Polk Audio engineers have gotten as close to perfect as possible by developing drivers that push the dynamic range of their frequency response to the limits, and then quickly hand off the frequencies to the next driver like a marathon runner passing a baton. By designing our drivers this way from the start, we don't rely on expensive crossovers to manipulate the trade-off, and our speakers reproduce the full spectrum of audible information smoothly.
For the new LSiM, we designed-in the exact sound we wanted to hear: that natural, clear, deeply engaging "classic" Polk Audio sound. We completely reengineered transducers, developed new materials, conceived new structures, incorporated patented and proprietary technologies. And we listened very closely.
The result is a loudspeaker that delivers an astonishingly bold, totally realistic listening experience. It's effortlessly capable of utterly believable imaging with pinpoint details, wide, enveloping midrange and deep, musical low end response, even at lifelike volume levels.
Serious Fun For Serious ListenersWhether you enjoy music on vinyl, CD or MP3, or movies on DVD or BluRay®, the performance of the new LSiM Series will transport you. Experience dynamic musical tonality, coherent detail, and natural low frequency reproduction, even at lifelike volume levels. Build a home theater with new LSiM Series components and experience timbre-matched sonics and immersive spatial ambiance, with realistic accuracy and linearity, even at movie theater volume levels.
Technology and Features
Dynamic Sonic Engine (Driver and Tweeter)—The heart of the new LSiM Series is this incredible enclosure-within-the-enclosure,
the Dynamic Sonic Engine, that houses the mid-range driver and the Ring Radiator tweeter. Molded in one rigid piece, the DSE enclosure tapers to a "turbine" that
reduces back-wave reflections. The DSE combines its two speakers in an aligned, optimized array for wide, uniform dispersion in the critical 200Hz - 2kHz
range, improving transient response, and the combination delivers exact timbre-matching, improved high-frequency dispersion and greater horizontal off-axis response- Enhanced Ring Radiator Tweeter—This tweeter was a vital element in the success of the original LSi Series. Yet, that wasn't good enough for the engineers designing the new LSiM Series. They've made some nuanced improvements in the design of this tweeter. First, they reshaped the tweeter's bullet-shaped phase plug, allowing it to move farther out of the baffle, improving dispersion and eliminating horn-loading. Next, they opened up the tweeter's faceplate, then redesigned the tweeter's diaphragm roll to make it more efficient and improve dispersion even more. Finally, they gave their new Ring Radiator tweeter its own tuned enclosure in the exclusive Dynamic Sonic Engine. This new Ring Radiator boasts higher power handling, extended dynamic range, improved dispersion and extended top-end response.
- Cassini Oval Subwoofer Drivers—Oval shapes increase surface area exponentially for deeper, more musical low-frequency response, while allowing for a narrower baffle design. Overhung Voice Coil designs allow larger excursions and higher power handling. Bass is deep, and blending is smooth.
- Super Cell Aerated Polypropylene Cone Material
—If the perfect cone material is lightweight (for faster, more efficient action) and stiff
(for less distortion-causing flex), with enough internal damping to suppress and offset any limitations of its lightweight stiffness, then the Super
Cell APP Cone Material is about as perfect as cone material gets. Aerated Polypropylene (APP) is a mineral-filled polypropylene material that's been
"puffed up" with injected air to form a honey-comb structure. Our original APP cone approaches the ideal balance of lightweight stiffness with high
damping, along with good resistance to moisture, UV and temperature extremes. Next Gen LSiM Series Loudspeakers employ our next gen APP, Super Cell.
In Super Cell APP, the "puffed cells" are larger, for a thicker cone material that actually has less mass than the original APP material. Super
Cell APP has larger cells, for lighter weight and more inherent damping, plus uncompromised stiffness, for unsurpassed transient response and
resonance suppression. - Butyl Rubber Surrounds—Durable, soft, injection-molded butyl rubber surrounds are tuned to absorb and suppress unwanted cone resonances. Our new rubber material is impervious to UV, extreme temps and humidity, for a lifetime of smooth, reliable sound.
- Extended Linear Motion Voice Coils—Allowing lots of movement in a limited space, ELM Voice Coils power the LSiM mid-range and mid-woofer drivers to extend their higher-frequency response with much less impedance. (LSiM Subwoofers use Overhung Coils, which allow the larger excursions and greater power handling necessary for big subwoofer performance.) Cast Aluminum Baskets-These lightweight, splayed-strut design baskets provide a rigid structure for precise alignment of the speaker's active parts, for flat response and low distortion, with no mechanical resonances or ringing. The open design provides ample venting for unobstructed linear movement.
- Orth Crossovers—Proprietary engineering, designed and patented by Polk Audio to maintain a lower order crossover design and increase power handling. Orth Crossovers feature Mylar and Polypropylene Capacitors for sparkling highs and Air Core Inductors for superior transparency. Notch Filters and sophisticated Zobel circuits smooth the impedance curve of the system for more efficiency and better high frequency response.
- The enclosure is an integral part of the sound design of the new LSiM Series. All LSiM cabinets are made of 1.0" MDF on the sides, 3/4" MDF on the back and bottom, with wide-radius baffles of robust 1 1/4" MDF. Substantial internal bracing, each driver with its own separate non-parallel chamber, increases efficiency and banishes internal resonances and standing waves, for high power handling and incredible smoothness. Wide-radius baffles, along with zero-diffraction magnetic grilles, help stabilize imaging for a very wide, well-defined soundstage.
- Zero-Diffraction Magnetic Grilles—Super thin 1mm, zero-diffraction grilles have no measureable effect on the speaker's response. Completely unobtrusive, stylishly sheer, these grilles lock in place magnetically.
- PowerPort® Bass Venting—Patented Polk Audio technology that uses a specially designed "cone" at the mouth of the bass port to direct moving air as it exits the port. Air moving out of a bass port creates turbulence, which can result in boomy distortion and "port noise," especially at high volume. This distortion can cause bass output losses up to 3dB, wasting lots of amp power. To eliminate bass-stealing turbulence at the mouth of the port, Polk Audio engineers designed the PowerPort. It's unique shape promotes "laminar" airflow even in short tube ports by mimicking the properties of longer, flared port openings. No turbulence means no wasted power, which means more efficient bass response.
- Dual Metal Gold-Plated 5—Way Binding Posts-For the most professional, secure connections.
- Rubber Trim Finishes-Beautiful furniture—grade fit and finish, with no visible screws.
- Innovative Hex-Head Floor Spikes—Level your towers without having to tip them.
