Realistic Optimus Pro LX5 & Pro X7

Crossfade

Active Member
So I picked up these speakers recently and wanted to know what you guys think about them. Despite the Pro LX5 being the more popular of the two I prefer the sound of the X7's. The LX5's are just a tad too bright for my tastes as opposed to the X7 which are very full sounding. They are both in metal housings, however the LX5 has a removable grille.

The LX5 is well known for its 2"x4" Linaeum Dipole Tweeter. It's interesting, but I don't think it sounds out of the ordinary. The LX5 is also packing a 5" polypropylene woofer.

The X7 does not have a film tweeter and instead has a one-inch cloth soft dome tweeter paired with a 4" paper cone woofer.

Both speakers are rated for 50w RMS to 100w peak input at 8 Ohms.


Some pictures I took of the LX5 (Black) and X7 (White)

LX5+-+1


LX5+-+2


13+-+1
 
Believe that the X7 is another version of the Minimus 7, of which there are plenty of comments on this forum, most are favorable and many 7s have been modded.
 
So I picked up these speakers recently and wanted to know what you guys think about them. Despite the Pro LX5 being the more popular of the two I prefer the sound of the X7's. The LX5's are just a tad too bright for my tastes as opposed to the X7 which are very full sounding. They are both in metal housings, however the LX5 has a removable grille.

The LX5 is well known for its 2"x4" Linaeum Dipole Tweeter. It's interesting, but I don't think it sounds out of the ordinary. The LX5 is also packing a 5" polypropylene woofer.

The X7 does not have a film tweeter and instead has a one-inch cloth soft dome tweeter paired with a 4" paper cone woofer.

Both speakers are rated for 50w RMS to 100w peak input at 8 Ohms.


Some pictures I took of the LX5 (Black) and X7 (White)

LX5+-+1


LX5+-+2


13+-+1
LOL. If only you knew how many people complained of the opposite i.e. "lacking highs" you'd understand my laughter. Probably the biggest issue with the LX5 (and I own 4pr, so far, along with LX8 and LX center) is the mismatch woofer. Should have been installed in a larger cabinet. The smallish cabinet becomes, like, a mechanical limiter to the bottom end so it suffers in the lows. This of course means it tends to excel in vocals and other mid to high range material, which is OFTEN pointed out as a strength. The only ones I listen to with regularity are the LX5 and 8 in my garage. Serve me well there. I have 12ksqft of property and can listen to them almost anywhere except when I'm on the opposite side of the house.

The caps I've tested, thus far are always on the money so I've never seen the need to recap. However, one of the upgrades consists of changing the value of the cap and the coil. Some also go so far as changing the woofer, including one or two that downsize the woofer. I'm thinking of building larger wood cabinets, but that's a back-burner project for the moment.
 
LOL. If only you knew how many people complained of the opposite i.e. "lacking highs" you'd understand my laughter. Probably the biggest issue with the LX5 (and I own 4pr, so far, along with LX8 and LX center) is the mismatch woofer. Should have been installed in a larger cabinet. The smallish cabinet becomes, like, a mechanical limiter to the bottom end so it suffers in the lows. This of course means it tends to excel in vocals and other mid to high range material, which is OFTEN pointed out as a strength. The only ones I listen to with regularity are the LX5 and 8 in my garage. Serve me well there. I have 12ksqft of property and can listen to them almost anywhere except when I'm on the opposite side of the house.

The caps I've tested, thus far are always on the money so I've never seen the need to recap. However, one of the upgrades consists of changing the value of the cap and the coil. Some also go so far as changing the woofer, including one or two that downsize the woofer. I'm thinking of building larger wood cabinets, but that's a back-burner project for the moment.

Could be the mismatch woofer that makes the thing seem so bright to me. :scratch2:

It's not that it's a sibilant tweeter, it's that there isn't anything to compliment it I think. That's why the X7 is my preference, because it has a bit more lower-end to compliment the tweeter. But with the LX5 it just sounds a bit empty to my ears... Could just be me, I'm used to much larger speakers most of the time, lol.
 
I have four LX-5s which I like very much. Handling 80 Hz or so on up in a HT system suits them nicely.
 
Could be the mismatch woofer that makes the thing seem so bright to me. :scratch2:

It's not that it's a sibilant tweeter, it's that there isn't anything to compliment it I think. That's why the X7 is my preference, because it has a bit more lower-end to compliment the tweeter. But with the LX5 it just sounds a bit empty to my ears... Could just be me, I'm used to much larger speakers most of the time, lol.
I tested with DATS and the T/S specs clearly dictate a larger cabinet is in order. This has been confirmed by others, and even your ears by how you describe them. Not saying this is a bad thing, just they could be better. Since the woofer isn't doing the job one "expects", but rather aiding the tweeter, you get more mids and highs than lows. I posted the T/S specs in one of the other LX5 threads. One of the beauties of the DiPole is no need to toe-in the speakers as they have great off axis performance.
 
Back
Top Bottom