Hey folks...I've been reading up for a few days on different speaker setups. Decided to go w/the polk setup as follows:

Fronts: R50s from outpost
Center: I opted for a CSI3 as it matched the R50's cherry finish...I am now slightly concerned that it won't match the R50's sound that well; as I understand it polks are timbre matched but the tweeters are different and impart a different sound. Will this be a huge issue? Should I return it to get a CSR (only available in black and from all reports I've read an inferior speaker to the more costly CSi3)

Rears: R150s - again, will these sound ok w/the R50s? Probably less of an issue since they're rears..

Planning to drive this setup with an HK245. Waiting to get a better sub, for now my old and faithful infinity bu-1 (10 years old and functions as new) will have to do.

I would greatly appreciate any advice - it would be a hassle to return any of the speakers but if it's strongly advised I will probably do it. Additionally if anyone has any advice on setup or break-in (beyond the usual) I'm all ears.

Cheers

...............as I understand it polks are timbre matched but the tweeters are different and impart a different sound. Will this be a huge issue?If the tweeters are different, then they aren't timbre matched. WIll it be a huge issue? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends upon how different the timbre is and how discerning you are. Honestly, the R series center may sound better with your R50s than the CSi series center. That's your call. Any chance you can place a 3rd R50 in the center of your setup?

What's the lowest you can you get the RTi4s or RTi6s for, BTW? There ought to be some really good deals out there on them since the newer RTi series speakers have been released.



Rears: R150s - again, will these sound ok w/the R50s? Probably less of an issue since they're rears..Yes, much less of an issue. You're not interested in puttng R150s up front?



I would greatly appreciate any advice..........
What did you spend total for the 2 R50s CSi3, and 2 R150s?

First thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately I can't fit an R50 in the center of my setup and to be honest the RTi series is still way out of my budget. The R50s, CSI, and R150s totalled $340 before taxes. Just a pair of RTi8's (the cheapest floor standing RTi's i could find) is over$100 more than this entire setup I've ordered. I thought the R50s with their dual woofers would sound better than R150/R300s up front.

...
Center: I opted for a CSI3 as it matched the R50's cherry finish...I am now slightly concerned that it won't match the R50's sound that well; as I understand it polks are timbre matched but the tweeters are different and impart a different sound. Will this be a huge issue?
...
Planning to drive this setup with an HK245. Waiting to get a better sub, for now my old and faithful infinity bu-1 (10 years old and functions as new) will have to do. ...
I just recently dealt with a similar issue: We had an old stereo setup using two sets of speakers (A/B) that were ten year old Polk Audio New MiniMonitors.

First point: I contacted Polk C/S and asked for a recommendation for a center in a 5.1 setup and they suggested the CS1, but this costs more than the CSi3 and is not reputed to be as good. Still, the important thing is that the CS1 has a 1" tweeter whereas the New MiniMonitors (manufacturing ended in 1996) have only 0.5" tweeters and they still recommended it as a decent (but not perfect) match.

Second point: I was pointed to a great deal on a CS245i by another AVS member on sale from craigslist.com for just $50. I decided to go for it. Now, I cannot tell if this is a perfect match or not, but I can say that I have owned some high end gear in the past and am currently using the CS245i and New MiniMonitors with a new h/k AVR 147 (refurb) and the sound is fabulous. A truly vast improvement IMO over the what our previous Yamaha RX-395 stereo receiver could manage. This is true for music (even without a sub) but especially true for movies.

So my intuition would be to say it may not be a huge issue at all. We think our four MiniMonitors do a great job of working with the CS245i, even if they may not be a perfect match. We probably will eventually upgrade to RTs or something different, but in the meantime we are very happy with our sound.

On the subwoofer issue: we did not have one at all before, so we added the BIC H-100 which you will see frequently in these threads as one of the best choices under $500. It is available on e-Bay for $239 shipped. I am not sure what difference it would make with your existing subwoofer, but for us, this helped especially with sound effects in DTS or Dolby Digital. It also gives extra power to music listening at lower sound levels. We now find that we have powerful melodious sound for music and movies, not loud noisy sound.

I think I would very probably have picked your chosen setup as a darn good recommendation to anyone trying to avoid a HTiB (in fact I think I may even have suggested R50s with a CSi3 in another thread somewhere).

The R50s, CSI, and R150s totalled $340 before taxes.
Hard to beat that. :)



I thought the R50s with their dual woofers would sound better than R150/R300s up front.
You're probably right, I just wasn't sure how competent your sub is. I thought that if it was decent, you might not need the towers up front. If your sub is "iffy", you may actually find that the towers run as LARGE with NO SUB may actually sound better than using the sub.