[Jon Liu]

Been a while and a lot has changed in my home theater, so here we go:

Equipment -

TV - Pioneer Elite PRO-151FD
Pre/Pro - Integra DHC-9.9
Amplifier - D-Sonic M2500-7
Blu-ray/DVD Player - Oppo Digital BDP-83
Power Conditioner - Panamax MAX5500-EX
Music Server - Logitech Squeezebox 3
Remote - Logitech Harmony One
Gaming Consoles - Sony Slim PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite (RE:5 Ed), Nintendo Wii

Speakers -

Front Main - AV123 Rosewood Focus LS-9's
Center - AV123 Satin Black X-Voce
Side Surrounds - GR Research A/V-1RS
Back Surrounds - GR Research A/V-1RS

No subwoofer. I used to own a Rosenut SVS PB13-Ultra, but about a month ago sold it. I know, I know... no subwoofer?! That's crazy and yes, I was torn on the decision. Well, the LS-9's handle the low frequencies better in nearly every single aspect over the PB13-Ultra. Regards to speed, articulation, musicality, the LS-9's bested the PB13-Ultra. In my room, the LS-9's also match the low frequency depth of the Ultra in native tuning. Overall slam is actually more impressive with the LS-9's due to the swiftness of the speakers.

 

[Sonnie]

Awesome looking speakers... would love to hear them sometime. Maybe you could ship them to me for the weekend. :whistling:

 

[Jon Liu]

Thanks, Sonny. They sound even better than they look!

As for shipping, they cost a pretty penny to do so. When I received the two speakers alone, palletized, the total weight was 692 according to the manifest!

My brother and I had a wonderful time unloading them from my pickup truck and getting them into place!

 

[Sonnie]

On second thought ... it might be cheaper for you to haul them over here to Alabama yourself. :bigsmile:

Definitely not for the weaker man to be moving around. :flex:

 

[tonyvdb]

Its amasing that they play as low as they do. I did some quick searching for more info and they play down to 18Hz:yikes: Thats just plain amazing. They sure would turn some heads. I am surprised that they are only around $4000. very reasonable for speakers that look and sound that good.

 

[chadcummings]

Amazing looking speakers. I will have to buy me a set when I hit the lottery.

I will be happy with my lowly Klipsche.

 

[recruit]

WOW, they are amazing speakers Jon :T must give some excellent bass response too if you felt you did not need the PB13 !

 

[Jon Liu]

Well the price for them now is $6000 and I think soon they will be going up to $10,000 a pair. Honestly, while it may be harder to swallow at the higher price tag, it is still worth it, if you have the space to accommodate them. They do need room... lots of room. Oh and the money...

Also, how low they go really depends on the room as well. In my room specifically, they go down to about 18Hz with a flat response, but I have a smaller room. A lot of rooms even larger they still will have a flat response down to 20Hz, maybe just a shade higher.

I'm a big fan of Dannie Richie from GR-Research now, after hearing the speakers he designed. In fact all the speakers I own now were designed by him. This man knows his stuff and isn't out to design speakers for the sake of making money, he loves doing it and wants people to experience music the way he does, and it seems making money is secondary to him.

They really are likely going to be the final pair of speakers for me for a very long time. I just can't wait to upgrade the crossover network components to really bring out the best of these bad boys.

 

[recruit]

Spec wise they are incredible and thinking of all them drive units could be a nightmare if you could not tune the bass response but the LS9 does allow you to tune! I do not think you would want any other speaker after them, just wish I had space to fit something like them in my rooms :huh:

 

[Jon Liu]

Well, the nice thing about the speakers is that they are easy to drive, and that's even without the variable low frequency tuning. The speakers are no harder to drive than most speakers I've had and have a 90dB efficiency and are 8ohms. They do love more power, but they don't require it!

 

[Jerrin7]

Looks awesome as ever Jon! Any changes in your opinion of the 9's?

Sonnie, no worries. You are welcome to come up and listen to mine when I finally receive them. I'll be a little bit closer than Jon. :T

 

[Prof.]

Fantastic speakers!!! :yikes:..but I have to say it..They are crying out for a projector and a BIG screen..:bigsmile:

 

[Jon Liu]

Jerrin, my opinions of the 9's have only gotten better! Jerrin, any news on when you'll get yours?

Prof. I had a projector and screen set up a couple years back. After my daughter was born, I decided to downgrade in size in order to accomodate my wife and daughter. I really didn't want them to have to watch content in the dark, and on top of that, waste bulb hours on baby/toddler cartoons.

Also, I still can't get the quality of image that my Kuro gives off with any PJ/Screen combo...

I loved the size, but the quality difference and my family's expense wasn't really worth it to me.

I will definitely be looking into it later down the road. First off I need a place big enough to accommodate for a 2 Channel listening room as well as another room for my dedicated home theater.

 

[Prof.]

Some of the better late model 1080p projectors can be as bright and sharp as an LCD or Plasma TV these days...but I certainly understand family must come first..

 

[Jerrin7]

Jerrin, my opinions of the 9's have only gotten better! Jerrin, any news on when you'll get yours?

Prof. I had a projector and screen set up a couple years back. After my daughter was born, I decided to downgrade in size in order to accomodate my wife and daughter. I really didn't want them to have to watch content in the dark, and on top of that, waste bulb hours on baby/toddler cartoons.

Also, I still can't get the quality of image that my Kuro gives off with any PJ/Screen combo...

I loved the size, but the quality difference and my family's expense wasn't really worth it to me.

I will definitely be looking into it later down the road. First off I need a place big enough to accommodate for a 2 Channel listening room as well as another room for my dedicated home theater.

So tell me more about them! :bigsmile:

As for when I'll get mine, I've heard possibly late october or early november. We'll see.

I can't wait to get mine and :hsd:. I already upgraded my crossovers, so I'll be good to go when they arrive.

For a couple of years mine wil be in a less than ideal position/room. But in a few short years I hope to have a special room just for them in a new house.

 

[Jon Liu]

Prof. yeah, it's essentially the family reasoning that keeps me from going back right now. I intend to keep my Kuro for a long while, but I am hoping that by the time that I get ready to go back into front projectors, the lumens and contrast ratio will be up to my standard.

Jerrin, what do you want to know about them??? They are heavenly to listen to. Effortless is the best word to describe them. Clarity, smoothness, authoritative... oh and... DYNAMICS. What I love is that they resolve fine details even at lower volumes and it still retains its composure going from soft to loud and back again. Kick drums have never sounded quite right until I experienced them on the LS-9's. Double kick drums? Oh my goodness... With a set of normal towers, like the Rocket 850's that I had right before the LS-9's or any other towers that I had heard, the speed was more to what I was expecting, but then the depth and impact was missing. When I let a sub handle the kick drums, I get the impact that I am looking for, but then the speed and decay suffer greatly and it becomes too weighted of a sound.

Instruments in general, from strings to brass and everything in between just sound so real. The speed I mentioned also translates throughout the frequency spectrum, too. My goodness, I cannot express how much more I am hearing within recordings I've listened to hundreds of times before.

The sound stage, also. Man. The sound stage. Width-wise, the audio imagery is massive. What surprised me even more is the depth. I never really experienced sound texture in front of or behind sounds in layers before the LS-9's. And this is just the beginning. If I can get some platinum sonicaps among other things into the crossover networks, then all these things I've grown to love about the speakers will improved pretty noticeably.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Spectacular! Lemme see: 7-foot tall speakers, $5000 TV, top-of-the-line pre-pro... Not getting the "humble" part, Jon!

Regards,
Wayne

 

[Jon Liu]

lol, humility is a relative word I guess.

Oh, the speakers are 6'8". 4" differences!

 

[tnbug]

Awesome.

 

[bambino]

Now those are some tower speakers in every word of the sense, they look spectacular and probly sound even better.