best matching center for r50s

lriker

I have been looking for the best match for a center channel speaker to go with my r50s. Someone has suggested csm, csr or csi25. I emailed polk and asked them if cs1 or cs2 woulld work and they said they would - said a step up from the other ones listed. What do I look at to match. SHould the tweeters be the same or the midranges, or both. the r50s had 2 61/2 mids and 3/4 tweeter. THank you.

Knucklehead

CSM or CSR is the "proper" match, I have R50's being driven 150w from my Rotel with the CS350 center and I think it sounds awesome.

BeefJerky

Actually, the CSR is not a proper match for the R50's. It uses the newer R-series tweeter that matches the R150's and R300's.

The R50 uses the older R-series tweeter, which is the same as the one in the R30, T15 and R15. The proper center is either a CSM or CSi25. From what I gather those two centers are the same, with only aesthetic differences.

I speak from experience on this matter. I started off with R50's for the front and a CSR for the center, and it was a very obvious mismatch. I changed it to a CSM and now have a proper seamless front stage.

As a side note, while many will say that the surround speakers don't have to match, I will disagree here. I started off with R150's for my four surround speakers (7.1), and they never did mesh well. I switched them out to T15's, which have matching tweeters, and the surround stage became much more seamless.

Knucklehead

Ill have to take your word for it on the CSR and the Csi25 as I have not heard either, as for the CSM, my brother in law has a CSM that I tried with my R50's, I just didnt like the soundstage at all, I felt like the dialouge was extremley weak. FWIW, Ken at Polk CS said the CSR was a good match, didnt mention the csi25.

David

lriker

Thanks for all the help. But since newegg has such great prices I am decided on getting a set of the tsi300s or monitor 60s to replace my r50s and that helps ease up finding the right center speaker. NOt sure which one, the tsi300 or the monitor 60 will give me the best increase in performance above my r50s. Hopefully I can unload the r50s for a few dollars, only a year old.

lriker

just noticed that the tsi500s in cherry can be had for 399 from dell. I take it these are the new monitor 70s and would be a high quality speaker? I have a denon 1610 powering my setup, will she be able to handle these, a cs1,2 or cs10(depending on whether or not I buy the monitor or the tsi) with monitor 30s in the rear?

lriker

I had misunderstood the pricing, that price was for a single speaker. I am using a 5 speaker setup. Seeing how the r50s, which to a novice like me sound great, are similar to monitor 50s, I will most likely go with a set of monitor 60s and a cs2, can get all at newegg for around 280 shipped. Thanks for the help. Would love to get some of the higher end ones but money calls to be spent elsewhere in the house.