question on center speaker

boston1450

i have SDA 2 speaker manuel. it shows on the cover a center speaker. with stand. what is that.??i didnt quite understand manuel. i think it was geared for the speakers i bought which the manuel came with. how easy is it going to be to find that n how many dollars would something like that go for today market. is there something that would work just as well. i have a csi40 for now. im using speakers for 2channel for cd's n stereo...then on dvd source it goes to theater surround. im hoping to get something old instead of this csi40 which i think is newer. any thoughts. thanx

boston1450

another question. i bought a 8 inch polk powered sub. its mint. i paid 20.00 beautiful dollars for it. its a downfiring. no model number tag. its only got 1 adjustable knob. im thinking its only a 100watt sub. with my speakers it doesnt seem bad all. it works. sda2 rta15tl seem to have plenty enough. but any thoughts what or how to find out model number. this 20.00 sub was where i saw the sda2 speakers that were NOT for sale. i was in love. i had to have them. long story. but i talked him into selling them. i was blessed.

falconcry72

That speaker on the stand on your manual is likely an SDA-CRS, which is not a center channel. It was sold in sterro pairs and uses the same SDA effect as your 2's. Polk did not make any matching center channels for the SDA, RTA, or Monitor lines.

There are basically (3) schools of thought when outfitting a center channel for use with SDA's (I've done all three):

1) Use a small vintage Polk from the same era that uses the same tweeters and similar drivers, i.e., a Monitor 5 ,Monitor 7, even a Monitor 10 if you have the room. This is my favorite option, if you have the space, though a Monitor 5 on its side isn't much larger than a modern center channel.

2) Use a modern Polk center channel. The modern centers that are usually recommended are the CS-350LS, CS-400i, or possibly the CS-1000p. I used a 350ls and thought it matched very well. In fact, I still have it, and I'd probably sell it...

3) Use a phantom center. Depending on your setup, you may prefer the sound of having your fronts do all center channel duties. This is an easy one to try, as it's free!


Just experiment and see what works for you.

Good luck!:biggrin:

Joe08867

I believe the sub is called a PSW8. It is rated at 300watts I believe.

As far as a center goes. Get yourself a Monitor 5 or Monitor 7. Either that or use a phantom center like falconcry suggested. None of the newer centers really does the trick. They just don't match well enough to me.

chandler9a

Phantom center works fine with SDA's for sure. At the moment, I am using a Monitor 10, all speakers have RDO tweets. I am not a huge HT guy and don't know too much about it compared to others around here but this set up sounds good to me.

teekay0007

boston1450 wrote: »

i have SDA 2 speaker manuel. it shows on the cover a center speaker. with stand. what is that.??i didnt quite understand manuel. i think it was geared for the speakers i bought which the manuel came with. how easy is it going to be to find that n how many dollars would something like that go for today market. is there something that would work just as well. i have a csi40 for now. im using speakers for 2channel for cd's n stereo...then on dvd source it goes to theater surround. im hoping to get something old instead of this csi40 which i think is newer. any thoughts. thanx

I'd suggest trying to find either a CS400 or a CS400i in good condition as a nicely matching center for your SDAs. I recently - literally a few days ago - had the same dilemma (looking for a good center for my SDA 2Bs) and had a great opportunity to pick up a very minty CS400 at a sweet price ($40!!). This, of course, begged the question of "What's the dirrerence b/w the 400 and the 400i?". After checking all over this forum and coming up with many conflicting opinions, none sounding too sure, I checked directly with Ken Swauger - MANY years of Polk in-house technical experience. His reply to me:

'The real difference between the CS400 and the CS400i is in two areas. The "i" version has a slightly improved tweeter that the original version. The newer tweeter had a smoother treble response with less spikes, this gave a less tiring quality to the sound. The second difference was in the material used to cover the cabinet. In the "i" version it was a real wood veneer and the original it was a very high quality vinyl covering.

All of your Polk speakers use a similar 1" dome tweeter which is the same kind as both of the CS400 models. So, really you should get fine results with whatever you try. The CS400 was one of my favorite Polk center channel speakers, you should have an awesome "front stage".'


In saying "all of your Polk speakers use a similar 1" dome tweeter", he was refering to my question about using the CS400 with either the SDA-2Bs or my Monitor 10Bs as fronts with my Monitor 5jrs as surrounds. After getting his response, I jumped on getting the CS400 and hooked it up right away with the 2Bs. It sounds fantastic, just love it! :biggrin:

Good luck.

boston1450

hey. i thank all of you here. GREAT info im using a new model csi40 that i got dirt cheap. but i want something that will preform better and match better with great sound quality. nice. thank you again

boston1450

it took me awhile to process this....i got it. on the manuel it shows a stand with what looked like to me a center speaker on it.. thats NOT a center speaker.so i can rule that out....PHANTOM is mentioned..is that a vintage speaker POLK speaker..i will try to see if i can find info on that speaker. im using a CSi 40 for now..but id like to use something that will look old school to match up nicely with the sda2's and still preform good. i will try googling polk phantom n see if anything pops up..i think im trying to set up a 5/1 system using sda2 speakers that were made more to be a 2channel set up back in the day..as i do believe these sda2's are 1987 speakers as the original owner stated to me..thank you for feedback

Lego1

Phantom is not a speaker. It means disconnecting your center channel and not using any speaker there. If no center channel speaker is connected, the sound and voices that would go to the center speaker go to your right and left speaker instead.

ambiophonics

If you choose to run a "phantom" center channel make sure you adjust your AVR settings so that it sends the material that would have been handled by the center channel to your front left and right speakers.

teekay0007

You should probably try the phantom center first - as mentioned above, it is FREE!

If that doesn't do it for you and, as you say above, "...id like to use something that will look old school to match up nicely with the sda2's and still preform good", the CS400 (or CS400i) might be just what you're looking for. The 400 was made only up until 1990 and the 400i from there into the mid-90s. They're pretty much the same speaker (see my earlier post for the couple of differences) and are quite beefy, measuring roughly 9"H x 19"W x 14"D, have 2x 6-1/2" drivers and are rated to 250 WPC.

Otherwise, as mentioned by falconcry72 above, either the CS1000P (same dimensions H and D, but about 15" wider - to fit the two 6-1/2" powered subs), if you have A LOT of real estate or the CS350LS (with 4x 4-1/2" drivers) would work nicely.

All four of these mentioned centers fit your wishes for being both old school and great performers.

colddirt

I was wondering about using a CS400 center with my 3.1's.............I guess it wouldn't hurt!

mole'

i used a CSi5 and then a CSia6 with my SDA 2.3TLs. i could not find an older one to try out. i was happy with the new ones i used.