Quote Originally Posted by nightflier
You should take a listen to Paradigm speakers. I've heard them often and have almost bought them several times. Mated with a used 200+ Watt Adcom amp, you should have the sound you're looking for. You also might want to consider Klipsch's previous lines, like the RF-5 or RF-7, they can be had for substantially less than your budget on eBay and Audiogon.

By the way, the Klipschs are 8ohm, and more sensitive than your typical speaker, so they should be much easier to drive with a smaller amp. You could probably get away with just a solid (PS Audio, Adcom, Carver) 100W amp that has plenty of overhead. The RF-7s are rated at 250W continuous / 400W peak, if memory serves me right, and so with a 200W amp, you'll be shaking the whole house. With a good quality amp that can tolerate 1-2 ohm swings, and speaker switch you should be able to drive 4 - 8 of these speakers quite easily,

One of the things that the Polk LSi towers do well is disperse the sound thanks to that amazing tweeter and the side-mounted woofer. To find something similar in a higher end speaker, you'd have to move up in price considerably (check our Audio Physic and Coincident). For $1200, the Polks are an excellent value, in that respect. Which leads me to wonder why they are not meeting your needs. I know they can be bass-shy and power-hungry, but that's not an issue for you since you can add subs.

So what is it that you don't like about the LSi's? And more to the point, will adding a solid, more analytical amp like the Adcom, be enough?
Yeah I've definitely been looking very hard at the Klipsch reference series. I just wanted to see if there was maybe something more suited to what I wanted to do for the same or less money.

I should restate that I have subs but I would really like some big, decent speakers that can rock the house. Don't get me wrong I like the LSi15s a lot BUT, if it makes any sense at all, I would like to trade the laid back accuracy of the LSi's for something that is more forward and exciting for parties etc. As you pointed out the Klipsch speakers are great for that too because they get loud easily. Listener fatigue is not so much of an issue when you are moving around. The Polks sound much better the more power you give them which is something I noticed and I'm not giving them enough power (160 watts) now so that is something I'm going to do too. I can't get them loud enough without the amp clipping at 160 watts. You can really tell the tweeter is special when you listen at a long distance. Normally all you would hear is the bass an really high percussion but that tweeter is still crystal clear and right in your face. I've never tried Adcom so that's the next amp I'm going to try.