Please give advice on speakers...

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wcostin
wcostin Posts: 25
edited December 2001 in Technical/Setup
I currently own a set of Polk Bookshelf Speakers (Monitor 10's,
I believe), a Polk cs100 Center channel, and a set of Boston
Acoustics A40 bookshelf speakers (which I have kinda used as rears). I have had them all for a while and all are in excellent shape. I, for one reason or another have never purchased a subwoofer. My problem now is....do I keep what I have and purchase a subwoofer or I have been looking at
Polks RM6200 satellite set with the PSW250, which is better?

I think I have stopped moving for a while and want to finish out my system. I don't need anything fancy...just something that sounds good. I have a Denon AVR900 receiver, which I plan on upgrading to a digital receiver. I will not buy an expensive receiver, probably one in the $500 range. So, which speaker setup above will work for me?

Looking for any and all advice,

Thanks,

Wayne
Post edited by wcostin on
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  • trubluluc
    trubluluc Posts: 2,067
    edited November 2001
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    Hi wcostin-

    It would be cheaper to just buy the sub.
    However your system would not have the quality of sound a matched set of speakers would give you.
    As the signal moves from speaker to speaker, it makes a big difference if all the speakers are matched in pitch. Otherwise you get the teenage boy syndrome, where the voice changes mid sentence.
    If you can afford it go for the 6200,
    and sell your older stuff to someone at a good price, and make them happy too.

    -luc
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  • newsman
    newsman Posts: 199
    edited November 2001
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    I would go with the Polk bookshelves 4x(15i or 25i) + (CS225i) + 250 sub, I think it will be cheaper and better sounding than satellite system.
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  • TroyD
    TroyD Posts: 13,077
    edited November 2001
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    I think that your Monitor 10's are a good pair to build your system around. This is what I would do:

    Sub: I would go for at least a PSW350 (10") or better
    Center: CS400i

    You could upgrade your reciever and rears as you see fit.

    Those A40's are damn good speakers and while they don't match perfectly, should work fine for rears for the time being.

    That is just my opinion, however.

    BTW: if you ever decide to part with those A40's, I would be very interested.

    Troy
    I plan for the future. - F1Nut
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited November 2001
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    I would sell everything, your car if neccessary, and purchase some nice SRT speakers. I mean, what household is complete without them? For more useless advice, tune in next time.

    Aaron
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited November 2001
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    i just got the speaker catalogue in the mail yesterday, and i was drooling over those srt's. do you know what the pricing on those badboys are???
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited November 2001
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    Sadly they don't make the SRT's anymore. When they did, the list price for the stereo pair was $7300. :D

    Aaron
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited November 2001
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    have you ever heard them?
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  • Aaron
    Aaron Posts: 1,853
    edited November 2001
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    I've seen them, though. I just didn't have the balls to ask the guy to demo them for me. Those things are imposing.

    Aaron
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited November 2001
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    when i saw them in the catalogue, my jaw dropped! i would love to hear those somewhere. i searched the web for them, don't seem to be too many out there. guess i'll just have to imagine...
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  • Larry Chanin
    Larry Chanin Posts: 601
    edited November 2001
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    If you've got $65,000 you might be able to buy this Cinepro ForceField Predator System that uses Polk Audio SRTs.

    For that much money they should throw in the cost of an audiologist, since you're going to need some serious professional help if you crank this bad boy up with 10,400 watts RMS of amplification! (No, that's not a typo.):eek:



    On this web page Cinepro gives credit to Polk Audio for the STEREO DIMENSIONAL ARRAY® technology that the SRTs are based upon.

    Larry
    Larry's Home Theater
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  • juice21
    juice21 Posts: 1,866
    edited November 2001
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    that's an ear-bleeder system!!!
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  • gidrah
    gidrah Posts: 3,049
    edited November 2001
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    I have a pair of Monitor 10Bs. I wouldn't call them bookshelfs though as they are almost 2&1/2 ft tall. If this is what you have and are on a budget, a sub wouldn't be my first choice as the 10s have pretty good bass on their own. To make a noticable improvement without muddying things up you'd be looking at spending around $350.
    I would get some stands to tighten up the bass, upgrade the center to a used 350i (I think) or 400i, and do some serious investigating into a 5.1 receiver. I would leave the rears as they are for now. They don't sound the same as the Polks, but this isn't really too noticable as rears.
    Good luck and welcome to the club.

    P.S. There's a thread started by Ceruleance a while back in which I suggest a JVC RX9010VBK. I still stand by this receiver for what it does in it's price range. Sometimes it's better to get a top of the line Toyota compared to a bottom of the line Mercedes.
    Make it Funky! :)
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  • joelll
    joelll Posts: 120
    edited November 2001
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    Hello...

    Monitor 10s have the following frequency range in their specs:

    22Hz - 25,000Hz
    30Hz - 20,500Hz +/- 2dB

    (more complete specs are available in this forum on the thread titled "monitor 10s", i just typed them in there a minute ago).

    The RM6200 set lists for $650 (Crutchfield). Not bad, but I think you already have the beginnings of a much better system. Compare Polk's separates to their all-in-one systems by specs -- in my humble opinion, the separates are the way to go if you want great sound. It takes a while to compare specs, but Polk is honest about them.

    Of course, for movies, a powered subwoofer can be run louder, for more effects kick, but your Monitor 10s are already pretty solid in the low range. Note that on Polk's main web page, the PSW-250 is only rated down to 30Hz, and 40Hz at -3dB. Your Monitor 10's are rated to bass below that.

    If you're considering buying a subwoofer, you really want one that will outperform your Monitor 10s on the low end. Polk recommends their PSW-450 ($530 list) as a minimum.

    If you have the money, I'd match up a CS400i ($400 Crutchfield) center-channel speaker instead of the CS100 that you have (I really like my CS400 quite a bit!), and concentrate on buying a home-theater receiver that you like. The key to getting a good HT reciever is finding a place that will allow home trials, and bring the receivers home and run them with your system. The CS245i ($200 Crutchfield) would also match up well; it might fit the bill at a lower cost than the CS400.

    The $650 price mentioned earlier? You can probably get much better sound with your Monitor 10s and upgrading your center channel speaker. The combination of CS245i and PSW-450 would bring in more bass. The surround speakers you have now should be just fine; they don't really need to be timbre-matched to the center and front left and right speakers. Eventually, maybe a pair of something in the range of R10s through RT35i's could replace them, or a pair of f/x 500i's if you like the dipole design better.


    I really, really like the big Monitor-series speakers (my main music system has Monitor 12s). They're quite solid, they can be bought cheap, and they're great speakers.


    Keep us posted!
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  • wcostin
    wcostin Posts: 25
    edited November 2001
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    Thanks to everyone who gave advice. I think that I am going to go ahead and purchase the satellite system. I would like to build up a surround system with what I have, however I also need to make the wife happy. She likes the ideal of the satellites being small enough to hide and/or mount up out of the way. So it will be a compromise.

    My only problem now is deciding between the 6600 or 6200's.

    Thanks again
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  • doorbell
    doorbell Posts: 30
    edited November 2001
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    Get the RM6600.
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  • trubluluc
    trubluluc Posts: 2,067
    edited November 2001
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    Hi wcostin-

    I second that, if you can swing it, get the 6600.
    The 350 sub is a contender for its size.
    You compromised toward a satelite system, now get the better of the two.

    over and ...

    -luc
    :cool:
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  • doorbell
    doorbell Posts: 30
    edited December 2001
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    BTW, Polk has a promo on the RM series, $100. bucks off. CC sells the RM6600 for $650. and with $100 bucks off, comes down to $550. Sweet deal.:D
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