Polk CS20 sounds worse than CS10

greg100o

I have a speaker set up with TSI 500's in front, PSW110 sub, TSI200's surround and Onkyo TX SR 705. I had purchased the CS10 center speaker awhile back and thought perhaps an upgrade was in order to have better center sound. Not that the CS10 was not good sound. So Just bought a CS20

I purchased it and just set it up. I reran my audessy set up. Actually the system seems to sound worse now. The center speaker somehow sounds hollow or tonally off compared to the CS10 particularly in the lower voice frequencies which seems smoother and richer in the CS10. The opposite of what I thought would happen. Its almost like the sub no longer compliments or blends in like it used to with lower frequencies? Hard to explain.

I do have it mounted on a shelf above the TV, but it is so big that I have the rear right up against the wall, cannot safely get it further from the wall. But this did not seem to be an issue with the CS10.

Is there any truth to speaker burn in? Any ideas why this might be the case? Using the same crossover frequencies of 80 HZ as before.

Thanks

Greg

aboroth00

What you're saying sounds like a phase issue. Try rerunning audyssey and see if it resets your sub distance or phase correctly. Incorrect phase can cause poor integration of your speakers with the sub and suck out the bass.

slammin86

That is very strange. I went from the cs1 to cs2 and it was a night and day difference. The cs2 blows it out of the water.

greg100o

Thanks for the tips. Maybe I hooked the wires up backwards and I can check that. I also turned off audessy and changed the bass equalization which seemed to help a bit too with the male voices. Audessy really did a good job with my original speaker set, so I would think it would work well with th It does seem a bit like the center and sub are clashing. I will keep working on this.

greg100o

I looked at the speaker and the wires were not connected backwards to wrong terminals but I disconnected them and reconnected backwards anyway and note even worse sound, confirming to me that the original polarity was correct. When I reconnected them the way they were originally the sound seems much better and more what I would expect. Very mysterious. Hope there is not some problem with the speakers. Not sure why reconnecting would appear to solve the problem.