Hello all I am new to the whole Home Theater world and I'm starting to be known in Club Polk. Currently I have:

Onkyo TX-SR503 receiver
Pioneer CS-G9001 Floor Speakers
Polk Audio CS 1 Center Channel
Paradigm Surrounds
Velodyne VRP-1200 Sub

My dream Polk Audio LSi Home Theater system would be:

LSi 25 Front Speakers
LSi C Center Channel Speaker
LSi FX Surrounds
LSi 9 Rear Surrounds
PSW 1000 Subwoofer

Now the guys at Club Polk have talked to much good stuff about Outlaw Audio. Everybody over there says go with it, it's the best bang for the buck. Now the Polk Audio LSi series is a very demanding series of speaker @ 4ohm. The guys at Club Polk have suggested going with a Outlaw 990 pre/pro and an Outlaw 7700 amp. Can you guys comment and help me out and tell me what you think that would sound like?

And another thing. For when I do get the pre/pro, amp combo could somebody tell me where I can get balanced outputs to link the two together. And should I hook just the 2 fronts, or should I hook up all 7 channels where they're all 4 ohm?

The larger LSi speakers present very difficult loads for an amplifier to drive - an amp like the 7700 is a good choice for keeping them properly fed. The 990 is an excellent processor, especially considering its price tag. Together, the two would be an excellent fit with the speakers you describe.

Whether to use balanced connections or not is not going to be dependent on the impedance of the speakers. The processor and amp both need to offer balanced connections (which the 990 and 7700 do), at which point all you need is cables . (The current stock appears to be a bit low, but Outlaw usually offers a range of lengths and packages of two or seven cables.) If you use balanced cables at all, I'd use them for all seven channels. When to use them is a source of much debate in this hobby. They were developed originally for counteracting interference over long cable runs in harsh environments (recording studios typically have a lot of opportunities for electromagnetic interference and a lot of need for very long cables). For short runs (a meter or so) in the much less EMI-noisy environment of a home the need for balanced is lessened, and some people prefer to avoid the additional circuitry required for a balanced connection when the run is short. Even over those short runs, though, some people have found that balanced connections help mitigate the effects of ground loops (which can crop up from time to time). If you plan to have your 990 and 7700 close together, you don't have to run balanced, but the 990/7700 will give you the option to do so if you wish to.

Yeah I plan to have all of my a/v components (preamp, amp, cable box, etc, etc) in one tall a/v rack. But my question is even though every speaker is 4ohm should I run every speaker on the amp or just the fronts or what?

It depends on the amp. If you're thinking about the 7700, I would think you'd be just fine running them all on it. You can download the manuals for Outlaw's amps in the products section of the site. Check 'em out and see what you think.

You've got to find amp channels to drive all of those speakers anyway, and one reason that multichannel amps like the 7700 have become so popular is the simplicity - the alternative (buying an assortment of one, two, and three channel amps to drive the five or seven speakers required for a surround setup) takes up more shelf space and can often cost more (since a single amp can be more economical to build on a dollar per channel basis). Your mains are going to need a substantial amp to drive them, and the center is likely to be similarly demanding. I'd go with the 7700 to drive everything.

Hey thanks guys. That's what I was thinking anyway but it makes me feel more confident in my decision when people feel the same as I do.

OK if I would run all 7 speakers off the amp what would i do then just connect the amm and the preamp together and just hook up my sub to the preamp?

Precisely - hook the processor's pre-amp outputs to the amp's inputs to drive the speakers, and hook the sub to the processor's sub output. ( These diagrams might also help.)

Hi Josh, I have two complete Polk systems:

Music: LSi15 (front)/LSiC (center)/LSi9 (surround)/LSi9 (back)

HT: RTi8 (front)/CSi5 (center)/ RTi6 (surround)/FXi5 (back)

I started with the LSi system for HT but found that it lacked the desired punch for movies. I then got the RTi speakers for HT and couldn't be happier. In fact, the CSi5 is my favorite Polk speaker of all (it's about 3 times the size of the LSiC and packs a wallop, plus I find it better for dialog clarity).

I used to drive all 7 LSis with a Denon 3803 AVR with no problem. Of course, I was careful to keep the volume levels reasonable. I then moved up to the Outlaw 990 and 755.

I have the Outlaw 7100 driving the Polk RTis. There's a SVS PC Ultra sub in my system, so that keeps some of the bass-induced strain off the amp.

If you're more into HT than music, then I would strongly suggest you check out the RTi line. Also, the LSi25 has a built in amp/subwoofer system... for the price difference between it and the LSi15, you can get a "real" sub from someone like SVS.

Edit: Sorry--just reread your post and noticed you already have a sub... didn't mean anything by my "real sub" reference other than to contrast it to the built-in subs in the LSi25.