Calling all Polkies:Official Polk thread - Page 439

Hey everyone, I'm a new Polk audio owner, and I have a situation that I'm looking for some help with.

I just received my Polk PSWI225 wireless sub, and I am having some issues getting it to work with my Onkyo TX-NR609. The manual has two setups to use when connecting the sub, and mine falls under the one that they describe as "not very common" with the Onkyo having a pre out connection.

The Polk instructions describe things one way, the Onkyo's describe them another. One says to turn the receiver's subwoofer setting to "off", which doesn't make sense to me, but what do I know.

This may be much simpler than I am making it, but I cannot make it work.

Any help would be appreciated!

Geoff, how r u?

Have you used GLS locking banana plugs?

I bought Nakamichi locking plugs. The screws on those plugs are too short. Everytime I tried to tighten the both screws to make a good contact with cooper and sleeve, it fells into the casing.

I also tried double twist to copper so that screw can reach it and tighten the contact with copper. No luck..

btw I'm using Monoprice 14G CL2 speaker wire if that matters..

You plug an RCA cable between the Onkyo's sub out port into the LFE input on the Polk's transmitter.

I used GLS locking banana's with the same wire you did and it worked decent.

Personally I decided to go with thicker wire (because I could) and am using 2 14 gauge strands per connector. Makes it much easier to tighten down and feels stronger.

But thats also because I was using 14 gauge 4 strand wire so it was an easy option

Thank you both for your help. Makes total sense about bi-amping, and is obvious actually. I'm trained in electronics so I'm kind of embarassed to not have thought of that. lol

I figured I'd mention about the monitors because when I search for tsi speakers here all I find are people who don't answer the original questions but tell the OP not to bother and they should have gotten the monitors.

Most buy the Monitors because they cost about half as much and are nearly identical. The TSi's use a different tweeter and crossover electronics and sound a little brighter and clearer. Also the TSi have slightly larger cabinets and so have greater volume but mostly the difference is cosmetic. The TSi's may have better WAF. Lots of guys here see that the woofers are the same size and assume they are exactly the same overall. Certainly the Monitors are a better value.

Yeah, I heard GLS locking plug are better. Do you mind posting the length( in mm) of one of the screw from GLS plug?

Hey, doing great, thanks for asking. Haven't used the GLS but would like to give them a try some time.

It looks like Enders answered your question with experience behind it, right on.

Do you guys think a Denon avr-5805ci will do a good job driving a 5.1 set up consisting of lsi-25's and an lsi-c up front and lsi-9's for surrounds?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Dan

It won't work well if at all. Get a dedicated amp and spend less on the receiver.

I am in the market for Monitor floorstanders. They will be used for 70/30 home theater/music. I am trying to decide between the monitor 50 and 60.

I will be using a sub with them, a 12" SVS cylinder, probably crossed at 80hz per THX recommendations. Since I am crossing at this frequency, will I see any benefit to using monitor 60s over monitor 50s? Or is the only benefit to the 60s lower extension?

They'll be paired with a CS2 and monitor 30s for a 5.1 setup, off a denon 1912 (90w per channel)

Thanks!

You really won't see any benefit in the 60.

Great, two directly opposite opinions, lol.

I tend to go with RobLee's advice though simply because it seems you own both M50 and M60 sets? Was the change noticable when you switched, and did you have them crossed at 80hz? Thanks

I have every Monitor from M30's to M70's, starting out with M50's and a CS1 three years ago. That setup was entirely anemic and under-performing. The step up from M50's to M60's was more than merely "noticeable", it was dramatic. I used the M60's until one year ago, when I upgraded to M70's, which I felt were quite good, but after moving up to thr RTi line all around, I now regret having invested so much in the lower end Monitors (though I still use M40's in the bedroom, with a CS10 center). Hence, my frequent remarks regarding room size. Small speakers may work well in a smaller room, but for any decent size living room or theater room, you really need much larger speakers than M40's or M50's.

BTW I've tried practically every possible configuration and tend to prefer the 60Hz xover. Good thing is the Monitors were cheap. I figure I have less than $1000 invested in Monitors that will ultimately end up on CL. Initially I intended to keep the M70's, but now I'm even reconsidering that... that's how much better the RTi's are.

Pre-out for a sub is quite common.

Are you talking about the audyssey set up here? If the audio track of the movie has an LFE (.1) channel (which most do), setting it to "off" will only allow the LFE channel to go to the sub whereas turning it on will allow all frequencies below the crossover frequency that is set for the rest of your speakers without requard to the source of the frequencies below the crossover frequency. Setting it to "on" will work well for smaller speakers that don't extend down below maybe 80 to 100Hz when listening to stereo tracks that may not have an LFE channel embedded in it.

I believe this is correct.. I have a Denon and it uses the terminology LFE and LFE + Main for this switch. I have mine set to LFE + Main because my speakers are smaller and I need it for bass reproduction when playing FLAC, mp3 streams or even the FM Tuner.

The reason I asked is because a friend of mine is selling that amp for cheap but if you don't think it's going to work then I guess that's out of the running. Do you think the emotiva xpa-5 will be sufficient?

It will work fine, but I add this caveat: If your looking at the xpa-5 NEW there are much better options in the USED market that will stomp that amp. This is provided you are ok with purchasing off sites like Ebay, Audiogon, or other audio forums.

I bought a Carver AV-705x amp used for 250 that drives my LSi 15 (harder to drive than the 25's) and LSiC with NO problems.

^^^are you suggesting there are audible difference among amps?

I'm confused about what you think the Carver will do better than the Emotiva, especially considering it puts out only about 60% of the power.

QUALITY over QUANTITY, grasshopper.

Emotiva is a great amp. Carver is a better one.

Is there an audible difference between a high-end yamaha AVR and a Marantz? Of course! Not saying one is better than the other but different amps most certainly sound different.

In what way will it "stomp" the emotiva? I'm relatively new to external amps, can you explain how the carver out performs the emotiva? Do you have any other recommendations for $1000 or less that will perform better than the xpa-5 driving all five Lsi's?

Thanks again for everyone's input

Yes I am. Thats as far as I will go with it as everyone has an opinion on that and I dont want to start a flame war.


It was an example of what you can find used. I didnt mean to directly compare to the XPA-5. I will say that I could find a amp as good if not better for the price of a new XPA-5. Wattage isnt the end all of amps, current and amperage matter just as much.


I personally love my Carver and think it is a better investment than the Emo new. It has yet to not give me the wattage/amperage I need for teh LSi's. I saved a bunch of cash that went to other audio investments. Buying used is always a better option than used. That and I personally dont like Emo amps, but thats a very personal decision .


Agreed.


I personally am a fan of Sunfire amps. I know you can buy a used Sunfire Cinema Grand used for under 1k. Its 200x5 @ 8 ohms, but 450x5 @ 4 ohms. Thats a bit more wattage than the Emo. I also happen to know MANY folks running Sunfire Cinema Grands with LSi's and loving the combination.

Well, this is weird. If anyone is wondering what happened to the message that used to appear between the two above, it was erased by an AVS "bot" that apparently looks for the words "for" and "sail" used in conjunction with each other (note, the other kind of "sail"). Apparently since I inadvertently included such phrasing in my post has made me some sort of AVS pariah.

Guess I need to watch out in the future and merely mention nothing more than the fact that I intend to someday "get rid of" the unused Monitors. Note that I have never tried to actually sell them. I wonder if I would be allowed to give them away to anyone here... or will that get me in trouble too?

AVR's can sound different due to room correction and various processing. disable all that and i bet you wouldnt be able to distinguish one from another.

I dont want to start a flame war either, but if you insist on posting your opinion, please post it as opinion not as fact.

Numerous tests have been done for years that disproves the differences in amp sounds when properly level matched and properly functioning. For any one looking to step into the amp game this is something that should be remembered when shopping for gear.

Im gladly accepting donations :-)

I'll take that bet. I'm fairly certain I'd be able to tell the difference between an Arcam and a Sony running pure direct stereo. Even two AVRs in the same price class would sound at least slightly different with room correction off. Agree to disagree I suppose.

Well, I ended up buying a set of 60's, a CS2, and 30's from newegg today I'm sure they'll do just fine for under $500!

Yeah definitely hard to beat for the price. Welcome to the club!