Best value Bookshelf speaker

I have listened to both, and liked them. My recollection of the VA's is that they were tonally very elegant and well balanced, but that they were not particularly well focused. They played big, but without great spacial definition. It could have been the positioning. I really like the focus 140's, though they are more money. You could also listen to the Totem Rainmaker. I find them a little harsh on the high end, but for under $1000, they are a real value. With the right electronics they would probably be fine.

Marct- did listen to the Rainmakers at the same dealer and same set-up. He just changed over the wires and everything else was exactly the same including listening position.

Did appreciate the Rainmakers. Sounded very nice but both the dealer and I agreed the imaging and soundstage sounded quite a bit more pronounced with the Focals. He also gave them to me for $750 out the door NIB, so I couldn't decline.

I think the Polk LSi9 speakers have it all and then some. I do agree with the other posters regarding the midbass and to some extent the fine details in the higher freqs which I felt were being overshadowed by the larger amounts of bass the LSi9's were producing. So yeah, I thought they were just a little bass heavy. Otherwise, build quality, imaging, soundstage, slam, etc. pretty darn fantastic considering their size and price point.

So in the spirit of the hobby, I just started tweaking and tweaking these little monsters through trial and error to cater the sound to my ears. Long story short, they're keepers.

People really seem to enjoy tweaking these speakers with upgraded caps and what not. I didn't want to spend any money so first thing I did was play them without the grilles. If you leave the grilles on and play them at high volumes, the rubber surround on the lower woofers rubs against the backside of the Polk logo.

Secondly, since I wasn't biwiring and just got plain bored with this jumper and that, I desoldered the connections to the top lugs and resoldered them to the bottom ones. This made a huge, positive difference to the upper end, leaps and bounds better than jumper cables.

Third, some self adhesive felt pads under the speaker where it sits on bumpers mounted on my stands helped give the sound more immediacy and cohesiveness.

Fourth, plugged up the holes in the front. That elimated a majority of the muddiness errr chesitiness.

Fifth, added 1.3 oz of fill to control the bass as the speaker is made to produce as much bass as possible which I think is characteristic of the polk sound.

Sixth, used material similar to neoprene to create gaskets for the woofers and futher isolate them from the cabinet. That did wonders to improve imaging.

Seventh, lined the inside of the cabinets with thin sound absorbing material.

Eighth, cut out perfect self adhesive felt to completely cover the tweeter bezel and the painted white polk logo.

The speakers are placed 8' on center, tilted back 5-7 degrees, toed in 1", and placed approx. 20 inches from the front wall.

They abosolutely rock out. You won't get better sound from spending more, just a different flavor. Spend $2k more for solid copper phase plug woofers from the neitherlands and fancier cabs. You'll get more air, more truth of timbre, but lose the punch these speakers deliver.

These are speakers for the true audio hobbyist. They're instant out of the box classics. How can you beat that?