CS400i sounds "off"

HTguru1982

My center speaker has always sounded like this and figured it to be normal. All of the drivers seem to work but voices tend to sound muddied and overly chesty, especially male voices. When I to switch to phantom center, dialog sounds a lot more natural and coherent. My mains are RT1000i's btw. I have the powered subs in these turned off. I tried using my RT7 as a center speaker and the sound was much more in line with what I get with phantom center.

Is there something wrong with my CS400i?

disneyjoe7

I assume you're in a 5.1dd, if so did you ever balanced the speakers?

HTguru1982

Yes, I use the system for movies only. I've set all of my speakers to small with a 80hz crossover point. The speaker levels have been calibrated. I have played with the level settings and no matter what I try, the center sounds the same.

disneyjoe7

Have you tried Large? It what I use for that CS400i center speaker, it's serious.

ken brydson

Blown tweeter perhaps?

disneyjoe7

If so then a mode like "All Stereo" that center speaker would still sound bad / low.

messiah

try hooking it up as a left or right and see if it still sounds bad. Could be a crossover issue.

resperc

Take the jumpers off the back and test the speaker on both sets of binding posts. This might give you a better idea if the tweeter is blown.

shawn474

You may also want to take out the drivers/tweeter and see if they are wired correctly. Sometimes it may be that the drivers/tweeter are not connected correctly if the drivers have been replaced or a mistake in the factory.

headrott

I see a pattern developing here....... It is more than likely the tweeter inductor being faulty or the crossover where the inductor connects at least. It may less likely be the tweeter, but inless you can see some physical damage to the tweeter, I doubt it. My guess is the crossover and/or inductor for the tweeter. Take off the jumpers and hook the speaker wire up to each set of binding posts seperately and see if the tweeter works (top binding posts) and that the tweeter sounds OK. Also hook the speaker wires up to the bottom binding posts and make sure the drivers are working and sound OK. My guess is the tweeter will not work but the drivers will. If the tweeter does not work, you need a new crossover.

Unfortunately, Polk does not sell the crosoover for the CS400i anymore. They do have the one for the CS400 but am not sure if the crossovers are interchangable.

Greg

HTguru1982

Thanks for all the help guys. I'm sorry for not posting my results earlier.

I took the jumpers off and like the other poster, got no sound from the tweeter after connecting the wire to the top terminals. The mid range drivers worked fine. The tweeter seemed to work when the jumpers were connected.

I ended up putting the 400i and in the closet and am now using a RT7 as my center speaker.