Calling all Polkies:Official Polk thread - Page 561

Originally Posted by GusGus748s 

Nice set up. You just gave me a few ideas. What brand / model subs?

Originally Posted by RobLee 

Good price on the Rti6's. You would not be disappointed. I too am not familiar with vintage Polk models, but I do use Rti6's with a Csi3 in the family room for TV viewing and light music with Rti4 surrounds and a smallish Klipsch 8" sub and it all works very well. $200 was NewEgg's closeout price on the Rti6's before they sold out.

Originally Posted by GusGus748s 

Nice set up. You just gave me a few ideas. What brand / model subs?

Originally Posted by XStanleyX 

I think those are Epik Empires. Not available any more. Epik be kaput.

Originally Posted by Geoff4RFC 

Thank you very much, Stanley called it, Epik Empires, VERY impressive dual 15" sealed subs.
WHAT?????? Say it isn't so. I noticed the site is up but no inventory. Surely they aren't a thing of the past!?

Originally Posted by Geoff4RFC 

Bummer, wonder what the deal is?

Originally Posted by XStanleyX 

Sure looks that way. He has not responded to phone calls or e-mails since he sold his last sub. No customer support at all. Really sucks for the folks who own them.

Originally Posted by Geoff4RFC 


Ah ha! That's a very respectable set up. Here's another wrench for you; go ahead and get the M60's as well, to accommodate your M70's.

70's as mains, 60's as wides, that is, if you can run a 7.1 set up.

I've tried heights, rears and wides. To my surprise and delight, the wides (set up in DSX configuration) deliver so much sound that it literally doubles your front sound stage. Some have told my set up is overkill, my motto is; too much is NEVER enough and.....once you've heard a properly set up wide config, you never go back :-)

What would that look like???? So glad you asked;

Originally Posted by EndersShadow 

Used both floor-standers and bookshelves as surrounds. Personally given the surrounds are supposed to be 2-3 feet above your ears when seated, bookshelves fit that mold better. Does that mean you will like em better, only you can tell.

For me I have LSi F/X surrounds right now. But if I were to stumble into another set of LSi 15's I cant say I wouldn't give it a try\ with them as surrounds.

Mostly the surrounds dont produce tons of sound requiring lots of drivers, but if you dont have a sub or have a less than decent one, you can cross floorstanders over lower normally so you would be able to better augment the bass your sub isnt producing.

Originally Posted by 67jason 

depends on what standard you are going by. dolby says surrounds should be at ear level or slightly above. thx recommends surrounds should be 2 - 3 ft above ear level. I prefer dolby's recommendation for my set up and have the tweeter of my 40's about .5 ft above ear level when seated, as I find it provides better directionality of surround effects coming from the surround speakers while still maintaining enough ambiance to not be overwhelming. While thx's recommendation of 2-3 ft above ear level works, I find that I loose the directionality of surround effects and gain a more ambient feel for the surround content. I also find it odd to have the effects coming from above me rather then beside me...kinda hard to explain...but when I did experiment with placing my monitor 40 surrounds close to 3 ft above ear level it presented me with a weird sense of sound effects "beaming" down on me rather then surrounding me like I get when using dolby's recommended placement....as always though, your mileage may vary.

fwiw, i too have ran towers and bookies as surrounds, and i actually prefer towers, especially when listening to multichannel music. however in my experience it is easier to get bookshelf speakers to the proper height over towers.

disclaimer: wife and i were new couch shopping and she fell in love with a great couch with corner piece and sectional that was just delivered this past Friday (it really is a great couch, has recliners and rockers built in as well as cup holders and is super comfy) ...but it has high backs and now the corner piece blocks one of my surrounds so I am going to have to raise it....maybe I can learn to like the thx style recommendation....or....i donno....i am not sure what I am going to do just yet. ahhh the joys of compromising when one has a significant other and a HT room that doubles as a proper living room....

Originally Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice 

Not a thing. BTW, bass traps don't trap bass. They trap midbass,100Hz and higher, mostly higher. They're called bass traps because what we perceive as 'boomy' bass occurs in the region from 100 to 200Hz. For a trap to function effectively below 100Hz it would have to be a few feet thick.
A wise one you are. Yes, bass does not actually travel though walls etc. It causes objects to vibrate, and those objects transfer those vibrations to the air on the other side; that air mass in turn also vibrates, passing the sound along to eardrums on the other side. When we say that sound travels through objects it's a major oversimplification of the actual process. But when the vast majority don't grasp the concepts of how sound works even when those concepts are greatly simplified it usually serves no purpose to further confuse the issue with facts.

One common example of how this works is the passing car with a sub cranked, and the one-note booming that you hear. It's not because the sub is making a one-note boom. It's because you're not hearing the sub, you're hearing the sound created by the vibration of the car body, said vibration created by the output of the sub inside the car. Since the car has a single resonant frequency what you mostly hear is that resonant frequency. The rest of the frequencies created by the sub are there, but due to precedence effect you don't hear them, being drowned out by the resonant frequency output of the car body. To a great extent this is duplicated in a room to room scenario. It's not as obvious in adjoining rooms, as there are sound pathways for other frequencies to travel from room to room. It's quite obvious in rooms up or downstairs from the sub, where the resonant frequency of the floor or ceiling will dominate.

Originally Posted by XStanleyX 

Dunno, he just pulled the plug and won't communicate with any one. No update on his web site or anything. Bad way to handle things. You'd think he would at least say adios amigos.

Originally Posted by 67jason 

depends on what standard you are going by. dolby says surrounds should be at ear level or slightly above. thx recommends surrounds should be 2 - 3 ft above ear level. I prefer dolby's recommendation for my set up and have the tweeter of my 40's about .5 ft above ear level when seated, as I find it provides better directionality of surround effects coming from the surround speakers while still maintaining enough ambiance to not be overwhelming. While thx's recommendation of 2-3 ft above ear level works, I find that I loose the directionality of surround effects and gain a more ambient feel for the surround content. I also find it odd to have the effects coming from above me rather then beside me...kinda hard to explain...but when I did experiment with placing my monitor 40 surrounds close to 3 ft above ear level it presented me with a weird sense of sound effects "beaming" down on me rather then surrounding me like I get when using dolby's recommended placement....as always though, your mileage may vary.

fwiw, i too have ran towers and bookies as surrounds, and i actually prefer towers, especially when listening to multichannel music. however in my experience it is easier to get bookshelf speakers to the proper height over towers.

disclaimer: wife and i were new couch shopping and she fell in love with a great couch with corner piece and sectional that was just delivered this past Friday (it really is a great couch, has recliners and rockers built in as well as cup holders and is super comfy) ...but it has high backs and now the corner piece blocks one of my surrounds so I am going to have to raise it....maybe I can learn to like the thx style recommendation....or....i donno....i am not sure what I am going to do just yet. ahhh the joys of compromising when one has a significant other and a HT room that doubles as a proper living room....

Originally Posted by Geoff4RFC 

In light of your statement, is it safe to say that I can reduce the overall "sound" by installing bass traps and "L" shaped sheets of foam where the ceiling and wall meet?

Originally Posted by myoda 


Placement of rear surrounds is sometimes dependent upon WAF..If I had my druthers, my center channel would be mounted to the molding above the TV. I tried the DSX setup a few months ago, liked it, but went back to my old setup. I might give DSX another shot today before the stupor bowl.

old DSX setup


I relocated the rear channels to they are aimed directly at the main listening position with the tweeters of the 60's at ear level. I found that inverting a few dvd spindles works ok to support and rasie the 60's to the same height as my 70's. I prefer the towers for a rear surround stage over bookshelf speakers for DVD audio and movies too. My placement options are limited due to the size of the LR. The surround rear speakers are 5 ft from the mlp. Jason, you might be interested in the new remiix of 2112 from Rush - might be worth a listen. Some other bands that mix in 5.1- Porcupine Tree, Donald Fagen....

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blog/2013/01/25/2112-51-0

right surround


left surround

Originally Posted by 67jason 

huge +1 for considering the 60s for 'wides' duty. I am currently running 60s for wides with 70s as mains, with cs2 center and 40's rounding out the surrounds. the front 5 are powered off an xpa-5 with my onk 809 powering the surrounds. audyssey dsx technology surely provides a very impressive and immerse soundsage with the inclusion of the wides. granted it is not discreet info found in proper 7.1 encoded content, it is still very very satisfying and I recommend it to anyone with the space and power to pull it off.

Originally Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice 

Before you fix anything make sure it's broken. You use bass traps to reduce midbass boom; how and why is very well explained here:
http://www.realtraps.com/articles.htm

This applies to what you hear in the listening room, not to the passage of sound into adjacent rooms. Most of that occurs in the longer wavelength lower frequencies below where bass traps work, so bass traps will have little to no effect on that.

Originally Posted by 67jason 

huge +1 for considering the 60s for 'wides' duty. I am currently running 60s for wides with 70s as mains, with cs2 center and 40's rounding out the surrounds. the front 5 are powered off an xpa-5 with my onk 809 powering the surrounds. audyssey dsx technology surely provides a very impressive and immerse soundsage with the inclusion of the wides. granted it is not discreet info found in proper 7.1 encoded content, it is still very very satisfying and I recommend it to anyone with the space and power to pull it off.

Originally Posted by chrisu7582 

Guys, I have asked before but really didnt get a lot of info.

I currently have RTiA3's that will be my Rear Surrounds in my 7.1. I am wondering if getting the FXi6's would be better. I have heard that bi-di poles are better for Surrounds, but the same guy said he likes directional speakers over bi/di's as rear surrounds . Anyone have any experience with those setups. (bi-di's in REAR surrounds and Directional in Rear surrounds) Thanks

Originally Posted by XStanleyX 

Yeah, I've had boxes look like that too. FedEx has been the worst. Luckily no damage to the contents. At least so far. I would not mind trying those FXi6's myself but I have other fish I gotta fry first.

Originally Posted by Geoff4RFC 

What can I do?????? I'm recently moved from my glorious cave and into a house converted into a duplex with my neighbors above me. I realize I won't be able to keep my LF from intruding above however, my goal is to try and at least dampen the sound if any, and I was hoping by adding bass traps and angled foam (72"x 48") on four walls and the ceiling, I could come close. Is there anything else I could attempt?

Originally Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice 

Six inches of concrete is one option. There's no easy way to stop bass, and the effective methods all involve major structural alterations. Foam, forget about it. If it won't stop a 9mm round it won't stop a 40 foot wavelength.