Well, I just pulled the trigger on a pair of LSA1 Statements from Underwood! It'll take about 10 days to get them. I'll report back when I have them set up. Any advice on set-up or break-in appreciated. |
I am very interested in this thread. I was thinking of buying the PSB Synchrony 2B (around $1700) but another dealer suggested that the LSA1 Statements blow the PSBs away, and he's got them on sale for a competitive price. It's a hard decision! I have a medium-small room (around 16 x 13 with an 8 foot ceiling) and I value transparency, listenability, and imaging/soundstage, and on all these fronts the online comments are stellar. So I'm stumped! |
Aktchi,
Yes I had the Ohm Micro Walsh Talls and Ohm Walsh 100's for a total of about 18 months. They have many strengths, to be sure and there was a lot to love about them. But after trying a good pair of monitors at home (PSB Synchrony 2b's) and being wowed by them, I've drawn the conclusion that the whole pseudo-omni thing isn't a great match for my listening room, which is rather small and rather lively. So I've been researching monitors for awhile and decided to pull the trigger on the LSA1 Statements. I'm psyched.
Tvad,
I will do some research on those set up methods. Thanks for the tips.
The designer of of the original LSA1, Larry Staples (great guy, by the way) wrote to me that I shouldnt do any really critical listening until the Statements have 100 hours on them. Beside the midrange driver, he said that the crossover components really need to settle in. And Walter at Underwood said that they start to open up at around 50 hours but will not have come fully into their own until about 200 hours of use. So maybe I'll try the wire-them-out-of-phase-facing-each-other method for breaking them in.
I have a couple of nice, all metal stands filled with sand for stability and resonance control. LSA sells a stand for use with the LSA1's, but they're not inexpensive and I'll see how my stands do first. |
For those of you with the LSA1:
What kind of speaker wire are you using? And are you biwiring?
Also, are you using LSA's stands or something else?
Thanks! |
Lrsky,
Thanks! I took the plunge and ordered some biwire cables, and sold my old Audioquest cable here on Audiogon.
Brian at LSA told me that if my current stands were 24" to 30" inches in height, they should work fine. But I'll investigate the LSA stands anyway. |
Tbg,
Excited about getting mine. They should ship Wednesday! |
Tbg,
I've done some pretty effective "horse trading" here on Audgiogon. :-) I now have a Bel Canto S300 power amp (150 w/ch into 8 ohms) fed by a Manley Shrimp tube preamp. Should be plenty of current. I'm just not sure how I'm going to speed break-in, which I understand they need a lot of. My wife's home office is above my listening room, so I can't just run them all day. So break in may take quite awhile. |
Tbg,
Yes I've heard of that method before. I don't think I have any mono CDs, though! Anyway, what do you actually hear when you do this?
Thanks. |
My Statements are shipping out today! Woo hoo! :-) |
Thanks! I decided I am going to spring for the LSA stands, by the way. Those Statements are heavy little beasts, and my current stands, while plenty sturdy for a smaller, lighter speaker, feel a little wobbly and precarious to me under the weight of the Statements. |
Finally got to temporarily hook up the speakers. (Temporarily because while my biwire cables finally arrived, I sold my old pair of stands and ordered the LSA stands, and those have yet to arrive. So now I have cables but no speaker stands... what a hobby this is!)
Lrsky is correct about the out of the box sound -- there are inklings of a lovely midrange, but the lows are constricted and the sound is still largely not "out of the box." Once I have the stands, though, I'll give them a good 50 hours before I really begin to fiddle with placement. I'll report back when I'm at that point! |
Well, I've got around 25 to 30 hours on my LSA1 Statement monitors... still a good deal of break in to go, but I'm beginning to hear what they can do.
One thing I can report -- they are, so far, very listenable, moreso than any other speaker I've auditioned in my listening room... and I've heard quite a few. They will go quite loud, but never seem to get shouty or obnoxious.
Soundstage and imaging is great. I've found that a slight bit of toe-in increases soundstage width quite a bit, and center fill is very stable and precise.
Was listening today to "Skylarking" by XTC on vinyl. It's an album of Beatle-esque psychedelia, produced and engineered by Todd Rundgren, with all sorts of phasey studio effects thrown in.
I was listening today to the opening cut, "Summer's Cauldron." There are synthesized cricket chirps that open the track, and they were spread way, way beyond the outer borders of the speakers. There's then a synthesized bird chirp and some sort of harmonica (or synth harmonica) that enters. And I heard something I've never heard before in my listening room: image HEIGHT! The bird chirp was coming from somewhere up near the ceiling of the room, and the harmonica melody was centered between the speakers but again, way, way up off the floor. It was spooky, and very cool.
More to come... |
Thanks, Artmaltman. Do you have them, as well? |
I guess I'll add here that I am really, really enjoying the Statements. The bass is beginning to open up and they do amazingly well in that department. And the highs are so open, airy and sweet.
I was listening the the other day to some Steely Dan -- a track from "Two Against Nature" called "Negative Girl," that features a vibraphone solo about half way through. I've listened to that cut hundreds of times, but never heard that instrument -- its percussive quality -- rendered so realistically. Indeed, the Statements sound so good so far, with only shy of 50 hours on them at the most, that I keep wondering how much better they can get.
Kudos, as well, to Brian Warford, President of LSA. My first pair of LSA Stands -- purchased from Underwood Hi Fi -- came with some problems. Brian sent me a new pair right away and emailed me a prepaid UPS label to return the old set. So these guys stand behind their product, which is a pleasure. |
More people should know about these, for sure! |
Well, the LSA1 Statements continue to sound better and better. I was listening to Ride Across The River from Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" CD today, and the amount of deep bass put out by those little mid woofers was amazing, plus, imaging and soundstage depth to die for. More to come... |
Bbchem,
Yeah, I was very taken with mine while I had them. Wait... they'll sound even better at 50 hours!
Had I not had a chance to grab a pair of Merlin TSM's at a very good price, I'd have kept my LSA's. Whether I experience buyer's remorse remains to be seen. Merlin's come tomorrow! |
