New Polks on the way; options?
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jeberhart
Posts: 69
OK, guys, this may be a tough one, but here goes.
I jus ordered a new pair of Polk FXI30 surround speakers to use as my surrounds when playing DVDs. I have the option on my Denon 3801 to use two different sets of surrounds, one for music, one for movies. I'm replacing the movie surrounds, which have been just a pair of R40s, with these because the 40s are too direct. The FXI30s will be set in dipole mode, and I'm hoping to get more diffusion when playing DVDs.
My rather nice dilemma, I guess: What to do with the R40s? My options are to use them as speakers in another room, or to keep them somehow in the main AV room. Complication, though: I'm running my 13-year-old Polk Monitor 10Bs as main front L/R speakers, out of a beefy old ADCOM 555, with the ADCOM preamped out from the Denon. So I've already got a lot of muscle on the front end of this system. One thing I could do is put the R40s into the Denon speaker outs, and just put them on the front end along with the 10Bs, but is that going to be severe overkill? I don't want to bother with trying it if it's just going to be too much.
Here's the rest of the setup: Polk 450 sub, a Polk 245 for the center channel, and on the back, a set of small Polks for rear surround -- I think they're just those little Polk 15s, anyway, they hang on the wall. My music surrounds are a 23-year-old set of Advent loudspeakers, believe it or not, that I refitted myself with new drivers and capacitors; they sound great.
So that's the question -- try to keep the R40s in the main listening room, or not? I could add them to the room upstairs, which now has just a crappy little pair of Sonys that run off my 2nd outboard amp, which goes into the "multi zone" feature on the Denon, so that someone downstairs can listen to one source while someone upstairs listens to another.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any opinions -- except maybe any wisecracks about me having too many speakers and time on my hands.
From the age of some of the gear I have, I guess it's obvious I never like to toss anything out.
I jus ordered a new pair of Polk FXI30 surround speakers to use as my surrounds when playing DVDs. I have the option on my Denon 3801 to use two different sets of surrounds, one for music, one for movies. I'm replacing the movie surrounds, which have been just a pair of R40s, with these because the 40s are too direct. The FXI30s will be set in dipole mode, and I'm hoping to get more diffusion when playing DVDs.
My rather nice dilemma, I guess: What to do with the R40s? My options are to use them as speakers in another room, or to keep them somehow in the main AV room. Complication, though: I'm running my 13-year-old Polk Monitor 10Bs as main front L/R speakers, out of a beefy old ADCOM 555, with the ADCOM preamped out from the Denon. So I've already got a lot of muscle on the front end of this system. One thing I could do is put the R40s into the Denon speaker outs, and just put them on the front end along with the 10Bs, but is that going to be severe overkill? I don't want to bother with trying it if it's just going to be too much.
Here's the rest of the setup: Polk 450 sub, a Polk 245 for the center channel, and on the back, a set of small Polks for rear surround -- I think they're just those little Polk 15s, anyway, they hang on the wall. My music surrounds are a 23-year-old set of Advent loudspeakers, believe it or not, that I refitted myself with new drivers and capacitors; they sound great.
So that's the question -- try to keep the R40s in the main listening room, or not? I could add them to the room upstairs, which now has just a crappy little pair of Sonys that run off my 2nd outboard amp, which goes into the "multi zone" feature on the Denon, so that someone downstairs can listen to one source while someone upstairs listens to another.
Anyway, I'd appreciate any opinions -- except maybe any wisecracks about me having too many speakers and time on my hands.
From the age of some of the gear I have, I guess it's obvious I never like to toss anything out. Post edited by jeberhart on
Comments
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well, you could hook them up as surround 'b''s from the denon and use them for 5.1 channel music (if you have a dvd-a or sacd player?). if not, moving them into the second room would probably be the best option IMO. or just ship them to me, i can find a use for 'em...:D
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Thanks for the post. I think I'll keep 'em. But I'm leaning toward moving them out of the room. Actually, because the R40 is the only Polk speaker I haven't been too impressed with, and for that reason it's probably better to make them a remote or extension speaker rather than trying to keep them in the main mix. I don't have a DVD-A or SACD yet -- I'm still not convinced there's gonna be enough program material in the next two years to warrant that investment. But hey, Neil Young's aboard. Ancillary question: Why in hell would the Godfather of Grunge be so passionate about DVD-A? Yeah, like "Like a Hurricane" is really going to sound better! Just kidding. I'm sure that North California Bar Scene Les Paul Screechmeister Guitar Sound could really benefit from DVD-A. Long may we run.
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You could put the 10's into another room,multiroom out to the Adcom, and make a 2 channel room.Use the r40's for theater.And then you will have the same tonal amp quality all the way around the room.I would also pick up a RF remote or a Niles repeater system so you can control the music side(multiroom) in the new 2 channel room.
Thats what I would do with your setup.
Don't you just love the flexability of the Denon avr3801????Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
Mantis, that's a really interesting approach. I'm not sure I'm following you completely, though. If I put the 10s in another room and use the Adcom to multi them, which speakers then become my front speakers for my main room? The R40s?
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jeberhart - that sounds like what he was suggesting...
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Yes,
use the r40's as mains in the theater, run them in small and let the sub do the rest.This will most likely be the most effective approach to use all your speakers.The monitor's in another room running off the Adcom is where they should be as they are great 2 channel speakers.I personally love the way they sound.I never heard them mated with Adcom but I bet it sounds fantastic.Use good wire to make the long run from your main room.If you leave the amp in the theater,use Monstercable xp12-2.Or if you put the amp in the 2 channel room and run line level,you want to use bulk Transparent musiclink interconnect wire and buy the bricks to make them up.MOnstercable also sells interconnect cable in bulk for long runs.
Speaker wire would be cheaper,just keep it away from power wire's in your runs.Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
