Lii Audio/Lii Song F15 Tested!!

[@939Productions]

I want to adres the comments regarding the authenticity of the drivers I have. I have Lii Song branded drivers. These are supposedly fakes. There are two labels out there from what i have found. One that says lii audio with a red top 1/3 with the bottom saying "lii audio of hangzhou. china" and a lii song with a green top 1/3 with the bottum 1/3 saying "lii song of hangzhou. china" The resonant frequency is 50Hz on the lii audio and 37Hz on the lii song The lii audio branded drives are seen with a black foam surround and a wooden phase plug. Lii song branded drivers are seen with gray surrounds and a orange transparant phase plug. The rest of the construction seems to be the same. Presented spec sheets are the same on sites like "lii-audio-europe.com/", "www.lii-audio.com/", "aliexpress.com" and taobao The first two sell the lii song branded speakers. The Chinees sites sell multiple branded drivers with a mix of surrounds, phase plugs and magnet cup. Now the story on the Lii-audio.com site the story is this: "Lii Audio / Lii Song has been found in 2016, by the rear of beautiful Xizi Lake in Hangzhou, China. The company concentrates on designing and developing many types of high quality full-range audio speakers. The sound is artistic, we hold in belief that only by achieving a perfect design, insisting on handmade craftship and sound adjustment with restricted exigences can a speaker be made enchanted with art and life. We are devoted to provide to music amateurs worldwide a feast of exquisite hearing experience. Since the year 2020, for unifying our brand name for global market, we use Lii Song brand name in addition to Lii Audio as to establish unified brand recognition for both domestic and international markets." On the lii audio flagship store on aliexpress they sell 2 different versions of the f15 and neither can be found on site mentioned earlier. This seller sells allot of different drivers all branded lii audio but with a entirely different label as first two I mentioned. This rabbit hole goes deep. My personal thoughts on this. I think that lii audio and lii song are the same company. The drivers are more or less the same. Hifi Cave reviewed the lii song branded speakers and he liked them. I don't and that is fine. I will change the video title to lii audio/lii song since I believe these to be the same from my own research.

[@mohdpazli]

from aliexpress..official store were Lii Audio Flagship Store..the easiest way to identify it..lii audio never have silver 10..only crystal 10 (2 version)

[@christophrogers7248]

No fake! Lii Song is for the european market only... :-)

​@@christophrogers7248 Lii Song is the original team and the Aliexpress "Lii Audio‘’ is one of their ex-partner who squatted the trademark in the US in 2019, after which they split...

[@artanderson8827]

There are many variables that contribute to the final sound. I've had the F15's in an open baffle configuration and what I hear are very different from yours, especially in the midrange. You do not provide any context of your other components during the evaluation, which contributes to the sound you are describing. Without that context, this review is not particularly helpful.

[@gravelymccravy9861]

The latest edition of the F-15's have an improved motor and I love mine!

[@christophrogers7248]

They do take 200 hours for break in... :-) Do not judge from out of the box...

[@STUANX]

ridicule pufff , il y a les defauts classiques des bicones meme 1000 h ne changera rien

[@sc0or]

That means they are very strange so your ears need an age to get used to them. Cause the others typically require 10-20 hours to “warm up”

[@justlovelyaintit]

Have them 7 months now and they sound amazing.Combined them with a good tube amp .Just amazing.Better than my Magnepan 1.7i' s.

[@939Productions]

Very glad you like yours. But it very much wasn't my sound. Alot of people like them and personally I do not understand why. On the other hand I'm the odd one out so I could be " wrong"

[@justlovelyaintit]

@@939Productions Ze hebben een grote baffle nodig en veel ruimte. Bij mij staan ze midden in de kamer.En inspeeltijd.Heb ik nooit in geloofd maar na 200 uur komen ze echt los. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2SxXmabeqieeZI

[@939Productions]

@@justlovelyaintit ik heb waarschijnlijk meer dan 1000 uur gegeven. Ik heb ze gebruikt in een twee weg systeem en als full range speaker. Ze stonden bij mij 1,6m van de muur dus ruimte hadden we genoeg naar mijn mening.

[@justlovelyaintit]

@@939Productions Tja.Dan houdt het op.Blijft apart.Maarrrrrrr....smaken verschillen.Ook ingeluid.groet

[@939Productions]

@@justlovelyaintit Ja inderdaad. Jij zoekt waarschijnlijk naar heel iets anders in je hifi dan ik zoek. Je bent niet de eerst die van een magnapan speaker afkomt en deze speaker heeft gekocht en helemaal verkocht is.

[@briantrev1]

I just got mine hooked up the other day so they are still breaking in but Bass thru my TUBE Primaluna amp is playing them wonderfully with as good of bass as I expected. Don't know what tube amp you're speaking of but its the wrong one.

[@939Productions]

Its a reisong a10 single ended pentode. But I'm clad your amp can controle them

[@mjw25a1]

@@939Productions having tried the Reisong A10..... I did not really think much of it. I've had much better success with a number of Olchen/Laochen amps after a number of mods. That said, I've since moved to VFET power amps which are the best of both worlds (tube/solid state) sound..... Likewise, roll off with F15 is too low for me and I prefer the Silver-6 in a back loaded horn. Much nicer.

[@天边一朵云]

@@939Productions

[@noest-onge3031]

939Productions thanks for providing clarity. I'm curious which equivalent on the market (old or new) would you recommand instead of these? Thanks.

[@ronk5551]

I ran a few sweeps on my F15 in Declare designed Zenmaster baffles. I found a very similar spl curve. The drop at 3-4k was so marked, I assumed I had some kind of problem with my testing setup. (I am a complete novice.) Similar hump following. I sent the curve to Lii audio asking if they thought there may be an issue with the speaker. I never heard back. ( maybe they never received the email) I plan to retest in the near future and compare results after hundreds of hours of use. I should add, much of the harshness is gone. I cross with a single sub at 250. I do find the sound quite good at this point with my impression of greater clarity and richness crossing at 250.

[@gee3883]

any update pls ?

[@ronk5551]

@@gee3883Sorry for the delay I repeated the sweeps and find identical results. about 15-20 db fall between 3.4k and4.5k. This is essentially unchanged and virtually identical to the original sweeps. They are also virtually identical to the spl sweeps presented in the video.( I was not able to include the scans in the comment section)

[@JC-lk3oy]

​@@ronk5551 Have you run the sweep with other speakers? It could be a null in the room.

[@ronk5551]

I have run other sweeps. My sweeps confirm the original post results so it is not the room. (I was wondering if it could be diffraction from the whizzer and if I had one I might try putting some Folan around the edge just to see what would happen , but I gifted my set and more importantly I have no expertise in these matters at all.

[@JC-lk3oy]

@@ronk5551 Fair enough. Thanks for the answer and for satisfying my curiosity.

[@Mapledrip40]

Saved me a couple bucks. Great review, thanks!

[@word2RG]

i never trust a manufacturer that displays a 10db graph

[@anthonyarmstrong9174]

Hi there - it's very refreshing to see an actual honest review. Everyone has differing tastes but most reviewers seem to tell us that almost anything is the latest, greatest thing ! Thank you - much appreciated.

[@939Productions]

Thank you very much. There is a lot of BS in audio KZbin is no exception.

[@sc0or]

Thank you for the review sir. Do you think W-15 will have the same good low end? Do you think it will be a good mid bass driver followed by a compression driver from 1-1.2kHz? If F-15 and W-15 have a same magnet and a membrane this could be possible I guess

[@baktashzameer4193]

Thanks for this. It was an awesome review, and very similar to my experience with these speakers. Please kindly consider reviewing the Lii Audio Fast 15. I sold my F-15 because it had too much sibilance. I am enjoying the Fast 15 so far. I would love to see measurements and your opinions.

[@939Productions]

I don't think I will return to the brand anytime soon. This weekend I've heard a speaker using their 8 inch and it's the same sound signature. It isn't for me.

[@electricj5]

@@939Productions bit disheartening, as I was thinking of building a speaker with the 8. But I must admit the comparison at the end of your video woke me up. They sounded bad.

[@Daves2024]

Thank you very much for this review. My KZbin feed has been getting completely saturated with reviews (basically adverts) for these speakers. Had my doubts about these and now you have confirmed my suspicions. I just hope now they will quit trying to “sell” these to me cause there is no way I will ever buy them!

[@939Productions]

You're welcome. I was sold on them too but they weren't my thing.

[@klepp19]

I need to you use 300b tube integrated so I will stick with my search for Klipsch Cornwall IVs!

[@klepp19]

I'm glad to see real measurements! From manufacturer you think this speaker is flat 20hz to 20 khz! Lol

[@gravelymccravy9861]

After so many positive reviews of the F-15 this is the only negative one I've found. With speakers I trust what I hear.

[@939Productions]

Yea I only saw positive ones too so I bought them. They weren't for after listening to them

[@Rasenkrieger]

These could be but might not be usable at all with the small Reisong Amp. It is a 15" not impedance equalized etc. driver. You did use it with the entry level amplifier, that Reisong El34, correct?

[@939Productions]

@@Rasenkrieger yes the single ended one with the skunkidesign mods

[@robertyates9973]

My recommendation for full range drivers are from Cube Audio, Supravox, Mark Audio or Sonido.

[@939Productions]

Mark audio is a good fullranger but I do recommend some form of crossover on them. They are on the brighter side of things

[@robertyates9973]

@@939Productions have you tried any of the others I mentioned?

[@939Productions]

@@robertyates9973 no I haven't

[@robertyates9973]

@@939Productions thanks

[@pro-ey8bp]

Your OB is too small..different OB and wood will make big different on this speaker..I made it base on Dacware design. Sounds very satisfied..

[@939Productions]

I had them on a similar baffle size to decware but the baffle diffraction had a swing of 6 dB so I changed the shape to counter that. That's why it's so small

[@mediascapes2011]

My Lii F15 are the best that happen to me, obviously not everyone got their ears tuned, keep measuring bro!

[@939Productions]

My ears telling me there is more wrong with these things then I can measure. Happy you like them

[@mediascapes2011]

I understand hearing limitations are a hereditary thing, ears evolve very slowly and over many generations. Likely you can otrace such limitations within the DNA line. @@939Productions

[@sc0or]

Did you measure the diameter? )) Because considering what you say they could appear to be F-18 which always were a different thing

[@billbones1000]

I have a set of these in open baffles which are better than my spatial audio speakers which cost 5 times the price which I sold in place of the F15s. I believe your impressions would dramatically change if you did a better job on baffle design. The joy of these speakers is in building and modifying baffles until you tune them to your taste and room.

[@PaoloCaminiti]

Which model if spatials did these replace? I own m3 turbo s and have been looking for a more tube friendly speaker for a while (one that I can buy in europe)

[@billbones1000]

@@PaoloCaminiti these replaced my set of spatial M4 turbo S. Zero regrets I'm really loving the Lii F15s. I have them paired with a SET amp and two REL subs. Been living with them for a few months now and can't see myself ever needing anything else. At this price they are a lifetime speaker and with a few sheets of plywood I can build modified baffles for years and change their sound signature whenever the mood strikes.

[@howard5992]

@@billbones1000 which RELs are hey paired with ? Does the REL manage the low pass filter ? About where do you cross them over ?

[@billbones1000]

@@howard5992 paired to a set of small T5i RELs. I like the small REL subs because they are incredibly fast and output at a level that is similar to the lower register of most acoustic instruments lower registers (kick drum, low octaves on a piano, upright bass ect ......a 12 inch sub is overkill unless you listen to a lot of hip-hop, electronic or church organ music). Setting the crossover and output level on the sub is highly room and taste dependent.......turn the knobs on the subs until you find it sounds great in your room and to your ears

[@justlovelyaintit]

@@billbones1000 My F15 open baffles are matched with two RelT5x subs.Great match indeed.Not always switched on. But for some piecesof music they add just that needed lows.

[@jked7463]

Did you break them in with pink noise for a few hours? That should lower the Fs. If you design a box to the higher Fs, the box will be too small once the suspension loosens up. Your description of the midrange also sounds like it was not broken in.

[@939Productions]

They have hundreds of hours on them. So they are broken in

[@Justwantahover]

@@939Productions Yep, sounds like they are broken. 🤣

[@Shaumgummi]

Thank you

[@deoncruywagen5191]

Have you tried the foam tweak between the whizzer and the main cone? This should maybe help with the suckout. And then an LCR filter for the high frequencies. I wonder what the results would be with a bit of tweaking.

[@939Productions]

I haven't tried that but it might work to some degree. Can't test it anymore because I sold them

[@deoncruywagen5191]

@@939Productions , pity, but thanks for the great video. 👍🏻🙂

[@doogee6157]

Seems your impression of these drivers goes against what many others claim, not that i own any but it seems a long break in period is needed, plus a well designed baffle.

[@prismaticsky5460]

Great review! Have you, by chance, heard any of the full range speakers from Omega? I'd be very interested to hear your take on them, and how you thought they compared to the Lii drivers.

[@939Productions]

I haven't heard then

[@prismaticsky5460]

@@939Productions Ah ok, thanks for the quick reply! I have a set of Omegas with their custom built Omega driver, and find them very, very good... Perhaps something for you to keep an eye on in case you were interested in doing a review. Cheers!

[@springersound1844]

I had them in one baffle OB config and they didn't sound very good. I made a 10 inch deep open-back box and they sound better than anything else now.

[@gtrguyinaz]

Great but I want to build a 12 or 15 open baffle sub woofers

[@rc5406]

Cadê os alto falantes tocando?

[@Z00L..ChUpAcUpS]

You thinking that's bad Im using a guitar speaker as part of an open baffle 3 way speaker so anything is good to me 🤣 at least your look nice though 👍 loved the video

[@Z00L..ChUpAcUpS]

My Frankin speaker uses a cheap midrange horn a bullet tweet and a 15" guitar driver trust me you would go mad 💢 if you had to do a review on it lol

[@klepp19]

What is your reference speaker?

[@Михаил-и8ъ7д]

What is the best full range drivers under $1000 for a pair in your opinion?

[@939Productions]

I've only tried the mark audio alpair 10.3 and lii audio f15 so I can't really say. The high end tang bands seem nice and voxativ is a good bet from what I see

[@christophrogers7248]

I guess a missmatch with your SE tube amp... Cant controll the speaker... try more power! PP 30Watts maybe or the Yamaha A S700... :-) Dont judgw with SE tube amp only... :-)

[@939Productions]

You are right but I also talked about my 80 watt solid state amp. It works great in terms of powerhandeling but the speaker is to flawed from the start. No amp will save these things.

[@DaleCrommie]

Yak yak yak….build good baffles and actually listen to them. Just a bunch of bullshit yak.

[@939Productions]

They have been on multiple versions. These, minus the hole that I used for a two way version, had the flattest response in the mid range. If you liked them then just say that instead of flaming me without knowing the whole story

[@christophrogers7248]

No fake! Lii Song is original and only for the european market... Lii Audio wrote me a mail yesterday...

[@mjw25a1]

Neither Lii Audio nor Lii Song are fake. They split in late 2019 and are now two separate companies. Lii Audio caters to the domestic Chinese market and Lii Song international markets.

[@АлександрПрайм-я7б]

@@mjw25a1 lii song version... fake

[@mariuszs9263]

Hi I wonder if you can design and make crossovers for my three way open baffle speakers or maybe you know somebody who can do this job. I'm from New Jersey

[@939Productions]

Well there is about 3700 miles between us so it ain't gonna be me. My recommendation is look at dedicated open baffle bass drivers from manufacturers like eminance or sb acoustics/audiance. purpose build/designed drivers are usually better equipped to do the range they where build for. This is a full range driver so it has compromises over the full bandwidth. The f15's call it quits below 50Hz where a dedicated driver can get maybe an octave lower. Believe me you want that. If you want to start building crossovers I recommend Xsim and looking at @speakerscott on YT(Edit: His video's are not online anymore sadly). This guy explains the basics of speaker building really well. Get a Umik-1 and REW and start with getting you measurements right then try and build cross overs.

[@Phloored]

Where did you purchase them? There is a controversy between authentic and fake. Do you have pictures of the label?

[@939Productions]

They seem authentic

[@Phloored]

They could be. The originals have a hornflower logo on the label and sometimes on the cone. The fake ones say lii-song on the label. If it says lii-song anywhere on the label them it's a copy.

[@939Productions]

@@Phloored It says Lii Song but it's the same label as the website. So I doe believe they ar original Lii Audio drivers

[@Phloored]

Unfortunately the owner of lii-song, who was a employee of the original lii-audio, started producing copies of lii audio after he secured the web address. The original lii-audio speaks no English and has no website. There are some reputable dealers of the originals on ali express. The lii-audio website is owned by lii-song and they are copies. I despise anyone who would do this and am trying to get the word out on this. So the people buying from lii-audio all over the world are buying copies. I am informed by someone who has been to China and visited both locations and lii-audio are building speakers in house while lii-song are outsourcing. I don't even own any but this makes me determined to get the world out because it's just wrong.

[@justlovelyaintit]

@@Phloored You dont own a pair but haveheard a story by someone?Please keep this to yourself.

[@aquaescape411]

Are these Lii Audio brand , or Lii Song brand?

[@939Productions]

Lii song but they are from the lii audio site

[@johncallaghan3097]

Tried different speaker cables? If people don't believe in speaker cables, nothing I can say will convince them. But for what it's worth, IMHO My Decware ZF15M clones sound pretty bad on one cable but excellent on another. Just a personal observation -- take it as you will.

[@939Productions]

Speaker cables aren't enough to fix this level of problem. I've had thin silver coated copper, thick flexible copper and solid copper on there. Nothing is gonna fix the problems these speakers have.

[@johncallaghan3097]

@@939Productions What can I say? They sound much better on Tellurium Q blue II's than they do on Audioquest Rocket 22's. That's just the way I hear them; to me, they sound gobsmackingly glorious -- much better than my Dali Menuet SE's, for example. I can only think you might have inadvertently done something wrong -- maybe unwittingly bought a pair of substandard or maybe even fake drivers? BTW, my baffles are 40mm thick oak and cut to authentic size specification as shown in the plans/licence -- not sure what yours are, but maybe that could have an influence?

[@939Productions]

@@johncallaghan3097 they sound good to allot of people but they do something that really don't like and it's that papery sound. The baffle might do something to tonality but it can't fix that papery sound I don't think. This papery sound is present in other lii audio drivers as well. It's something I noticed only wen I've setup my full range markaudios again and they are flawed in their own ways, that's why I made them into a two-way. The F15s do dynamics to a degree I haven't heard anything do before.

[@IsleOfFeldspar]

A 15” can’t be used with a whizzer for several reasons. A 15” can’t go high enough to meet up with the whizzer (as you’ve discovered) but a 15 suffers from poor off axis response above, say, 600 hz as well.

[@johnmoser1162]

So think a 12 or even a 10 inch would be better ?

[@thomasschafer7268]

Nobody says its only for open baffle. A lot of enclosures with bassreflex style. Look for the other Tests in KZbin. Should go to your war doctor.

[@garywong8361]

Your brought a pair of fake (F15) bro.. I purchase directly from taobao china website, the driver label is Sky Tone of Hangzhou China, Lii Audio not Lii Song, mine is sounds good no distortion and clarity even with low watts tube amplifier

[@939Productions]

I've looked into this today and there are "official" ready made speakers with lii-audio branding as well as lii-song branding. I have made a pinned comment on the video explaining farther

[@Justwantahover]

Vocals on large drivers suck! Resonance makes the voice sound, sound sour! I build coaxial speakers with 8" paper cone "guitar" drivers and 1" dome tweeters set inside the cores. I build up the coaxials and also make complete speakers with the coaxials. And the 8" drivers have sour coloured sound as well! That is when original but I modify the drivers to greatly mitigate the resonance by a cut away in the cone like half way out, with a 3 mm gap right around the cone. And it's joined underneath by 5 balsa spokes keeping the cone in one piece. It makes magic for med tone! It's 99% as good as the smaller 4-5" FR drivers. I would NOT listen to the original 8" drivers without the mod. No Way!

[@939Productions]

Guitar drivers are build to add colour so that makes sense. I believe its the light weight undampened non ridged nature of the drivers. Alot of the high efficiency full rangers have the same build structure. They are meant to be flawed.

[@justlovelyaintit]

The F15are amazing with voicesand midrange. They blow away anything I've owned over the last 30 years. Including Magnep and and coaxial Tannoys.