Calling all Polkies:Official Polk thread - Page 12

I have a pair of R15s for fronts with a csi25 center. I need new rears (currently old panasonic HTib speakers on wall mounts). They must be wall/ceiling mountable. Is the polk RM101 a good match for the R15? Can it be mounted on a universal bracket?

Get another pair of R15's. $75 shipped on eBay.

Just got two pairs of Polk TC60i in-ceilings for my kitchen and greatroom whole house audio set-up, great sound, great bass for an in-ceiling!

R15s won't work. I should have explained better. Our house was prewired for speakers and, because of the room layout, the rear wires come out of the ceiling. So right now I have panasonics mounted with brackets onto the ceiling. I prefer to reuse the speaker brackets that are already mounted, which is why I looked at the RM101s.

The R15's are easily mounted to walls or brackets. I guess I'm not seeing what the problem is.

Can the R15s hang upside down from the ceiling? I figured that they were a bit big for that

As well as anything else, though I guess you could settle for something much smaller. Personally I'd mount them on the wall and just route the cord to the wall rather than get completely different speakers for surrounds, but YMMV.

True, I hadn't thought about that, but it is about 3 feet from where the wire comes out to the wall.

Yup I hanged around here quite frequently last year when researching the Polk R series.

I currently have:
R50 fronts
4 x R15 for surrounds
CSM for center
and a dayton sub.
R's were bought purely on the deal and feedbacks from here, never heard of it before

I'm quite certain a lot of people have similar setup with the frys/outpost deals

Reason I asked that question was just to see what people feel about it. I felt it was a great buy for such speakers. but I don't think it's good because it's cheap buy, but rather because it is a good set of speakers. able to acquire them cheap is just a major bonus. however, spending almost equal amount of money to set them up properly (first set, so needed everything), I kind of said wtf to my self lol.

You think you have it bad?

I bought the R30s because I knew they were very nice speakers and I could *not* pass up $39 each. So I bought a pair.

I had to buy a receiver... and then a center channel.. and then surrounds... and then a big-screen TV.. and then build a subwoofer to go with them

No "innuendo" intended. My point was just that lots of people are attracted to Polk because of the excellent price/performance ratio of their affordable lines (eg R series, M series and Monitors.) When you get to speakers costing $700-$800 each, there is a lot more competition.

sorry, that came out a little harsher than was called for...

I just didn't want to see the stupid flame war that had been going on over in the sub board to spill over here. I quit reading it because some (few but loud) people were being so ridiculous about svs vs. velodyne (that and I had made my purchase, an svs pb12+/2 though my 2nd choice was a velo spl1200r).

clearly that was not your intention - apologies...

I got some R15's for my first set of speakers. I figured for the price it was a good deal. I have them hooked up to an H/K 335. Now I have two questions:
1) If I wanted to stick with polk, would CSi25 make a good center?

2) I hear almost no low end bass coming out of these things (compared to my cheap oem car speakers and old altec lansing computer speakers with a sub). I have them set up in the reciever as large speakers, since I don't have a sub yet. Do these just have a very poor bass response, or did I screw something up in the reciever setup? I'm not looking to shake the room with these, but hearing something would be nice.

1) The CSi25 is an ideal center, as it has the exact same drivers and styling as the R15.

2) They have very little bass response, being bookshelf speakers. Car speakers have the advantage of a very small enclosed space for enhanced bass response, and your computer speakers have a sub. Add a sub and you will be very happy (the Parts Exress Dayton Sub-120, part number 300-635 at $150 is a good inexpensive option)

Thanks for the reply, jonnythan. maybe I'll get on the sub and center this week. I just wish I had all that expensive equipment people use to test exactly what the response in the room is. Or I wish I had my wife's ears and eyes, she seems just as happy with tv speakers and a 20 inch screen.

I don't have one, but the SPL meters only go for something like $40 on eBay. I don't think it's that important though if you ask me. My system sounds awfully nice to my ears.

as many people said, CSi25 is perfect match. can be had cheap on occasional fry's/outpost deal. there's one right now actually as I post this.
however, the CSM at Circuit City is the next best match I think, consider it's the updated version of CSi25. looks nice too.

and yes, get a powered subwoofer to get that bass going.

Outpost has the R15s on sale this morning. If you search on the outpost for Polk R15 it comes up with the full price. But, on the front page there is a little ad on the right side that lists the R15 with the sale price.

I tried today. The speakers showed the sale price, but when you added them to your cart, they showed the full price. I called Outpost, and he said they were going off sale, but he honored the lower price & let me get 2 pair!

I am still about 1 month away from having my theatre set up & I have been buying my speakers over the last 4 months as they went on sale. I am going to be running a 7.1 setup. I ended up getting 2 R30's, 1 Csi25, and 4 R15's all for under $300.

The CSI25 center channel speaker is on sale for $49 until 6/15 at selected Frys, if someone is in the market.

Oh god! That horrible syndrome

I started off with a pair of R50s, $180 shipped. Oh wait, I need a reciever, lets go budget Pio VSX-815, $250 dollars, dont forget the R15 surrounds $60 shipped, or the Center $70 shipped. Top it off with a Dayton Sub for $160 shipped. Wow, what a great Home Theater system I put together for only $720 bucks.

But man does it look crappy on my 19" Viewsonic Monitor.

42" HDTV $1600 after tax.

Lets not forget the Netflix Membership $18/mnth, Blockbuster game pass $20/month, HD Cable an extra $30 a month, and all the money spent on DVDs and Video Games.


It's an addiction i tell ya! An addiction.

Man, that Harmoney 880 remote is JUST what I need to complete the setup.

I just found the polk PSW404 online for about $300 shipped. Is that a good deal?

I've been reading the forums and everyone seems to not like the Polk subs, but I can't find a reason. I mean, everyone seems to say buy a Dayton/Athena/SVS, but I can't seem to find out why? Price wise they seem better, but what am I looking for audio wise?

Forgive me, but I'm a newbie. I've had my RTi8's for about 6 months and love them. I decided this weekend to upgrade my center to CSi3 (Still reviewing it, but much better than my previous). And my surrounds are Yamaha NS-A526.

So, what's left is a sub and I'm currently torn on what to buy.

Reciever: Pioneer VSX-D710S
Front: Polk RTi8
Center: Polk CSi3
Surround: Yamaha NS-A526
Sub: Polk PSW404?

PS: Any comments on setup and how to improve are welcome.

Since you have non-polk surrounds, I assume you're not just looking for a polk sub, look for HSU, SVS. Polk subs really aren't good.

Thanks for the reply BTW

So, I got a 404 from Fry's to test it out and see if that's what I want. I've spent most of the day listening to different things (i.e. Music, movies) and like everyone else's opinion, I'm not impressed with the sub. If I switch the reciever so that it forwards all the bass to the fronts, I get a more satisfying response from the RTi8's. Just in case you were wondering, the CSi3 stays, its great and fits so well with the rest of the system. Now, if only I could find a better deal it would be that proverbial "cherry on top".

Being such a noob, what should I look for in a sub? I mean, the 404 I got does sound good, but not much better than the RTi's alone and definitely not worth the $300+ investment. If I turn it up, then it out shines the RTi's in terms of bass response, but the bass overwhelmes the rest of the music.

Also, any recommendations in terms of music/video tracks that can help me distinguish between a good sub vs. an ok sub? Of all the music I heard today, Circque Du Soleil's Alegria gave the system the best workout. It had good highs/mids (for the RTis/CSi) as well as deep base (for RTis/PSW).

The Yamahas are what's left of my old college system, and up to now, I've yet to hear something that I would think is worth the extra money.

Thanks for the recommendations BTW, I'll look into them as well as the Athena's.

Well.. Just orderd the following.

LC265i Front Left, right

Lsi Center

LC80i rear left, right, center

Along with the denon 4306.

Anyone have or learned any speacial tricks during install. Should i fab an enclosure for better sound, or jsut mount them as they are. This is my first surround set up so any info..... anything is more than welcome.

Thanks,Ed

New Monitor 70 pair owner.

Good heavens, I was perfectly content with my set of original 5's from probably 15 years ago.

The train that led to the new Monitor 70 purchase? Old receiver infra red / remote port died (old Kenwood something or other). Bought a Yamaha HTR 5990 with 7.1 capability. So I had to buy some new surrounds, right? DefTech cinema 80's - 4 of them. Replaced my old, really old ADS bookshelves. So then I decided that my TV needed upgrading, 10 year old Sony Trinitron. Replaced it with a Panasonic P60U plasma. Then of course I needed a new DVD player - Denon 2910 with analog multi channel outs for SACD/DVD-A, which my receiver supported but I had never heard. (WOW!). Then I noticed my old Kenwood sub in the corner and replaced with a Velodyne minivee (WOWWWW!). Upgraded the TIVO to the HR10-250 High Def unit. (another wow), and finally decided to replace the mains with a pair of Monitor 70s. I cannot believe the difference in those speakers, and I thought the 5's sounded nice.

All this in the last 3 or 4 months! Mrs. Schwingding could be happier, but for the budget I had I don't think I could be.

As I stated I would earlier, I just ordered the four LSi15 's (front left and right, rear left and right) and one LSiC to replace my old JBL entry level bookshelf speakers.

I got them from Tweeter for a fair price with interest-free financing. I can't wait to hook them up and drive my AVR to protection mode!

Just thought Id drop in & say I have three pairs of RT55i's & a CS400i for sale if there is anyone interested. I don't wont to jam up the thread with a bunch of junk so if there is anyone interested PM me & I can give you full details on them.

Hey guys. I'm looking to replace my old, big, boxy Vega mains with Polks.

Here's what my system consists of or will consist of:

Mains - Cerwin Vegas - don't know the model#
Center - Polk Audio CS400i
Rears - Polk Audio RT5's
Subs - Definitive Technology 15TLP+ 500W ea.
Receiver - Yamaha RX-V1600 - 120w x7
TV - Samsung HL-S6187W (ordered via TVA)
DVD player - Toshiba HD-A1

What would you guys recommend for mains? I've been eyeing the RTi12's but that might be a bit much. The others are RTi10's and RTi8's. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.