Need insightful opinion help to choose between CSiA4 and CSiA 7

nypapaya

Hi buddies!
I recently redo my basement and started setting up my third system.
My experience with Polk started 5 years ago, with monitor 70 then jump to LSI15. my second system is Energy RC-70 with Velodyne miniVee10) . However, I always have the RTi series in mind, so when I have the extra space done, I just move on to my dream.
Originally I wanted the RTiA9, well, guys always think bigger the better, however the ceiling for the space (also noted in the attachment layout) is only 7'4", so it will overwhelm the space. Thought about RTiA 5, but I am 70% music 20% movie (50% cartoon time for my boy in this merely 20%), meaning most of time I am using 3.0 or 2.0 system without sub. (I do have a Pinnacle babyboomer in this system), these are all being driven by Pioneer SC-1522-k (yes, the Costco deal).
I audit the CSiA6 and A4 a couple years ago in a acoustic room, which as I remember is 30X30 and 14' height, in that kind of space, the difference is more obvious. However, as the basement is must smaller with lots of corner, and I hasn't had much experience in setup in such a limited space. Please give your opinion of which center will be a better match to the system and the space.
Addition information: the A7s are about 9' apart from each other, with 1' plus to walls. the center will be 9'~10' to listening position.

thanks in advance.

zane77

The CSi-A6 is a much better center channel speaker IMO.

ZLTFUL

I would recommend then CSiA6 over the A4.
Since you are using the center for music some times as well and most of the dialogue and a bunch of the soundtrack is handled by the center channel when watching movies, you will want to have the strongest timbre match between the front 3 that you can get.

nypapaya

Thanks a bunch for the quick replies.

When I audit the two center, the lead from CSiA6 was obvious. And I know with A6, I will have four 6' woofer in a row, instead or 6' - 5' -5- 6', thus the timbre match is better. What I lack of experence and opportunities to listen to, is with these big speakers in such a low ceiling room. I also need get some idea of the clarity in low volume between the two center, as most of time I will be listening at -25 db to reference level. In term of db, I also need to mention that MCACC already put the mains to -9 db due the size of the room.

tonyb

nypapaya wrote: »

I also need to mention that MCACC already put the mains to -9 db due the size of the room.

That seems a tad low to me. I would do it manually instead, MCACC doesn't always get things right and should be used as a baseline and not a gospel. Start at 0 on your channel levels and adjust from there while sitting in your listening position. Also check where it set the other levels to, center, surrounds, subwoofer.

Clarity on either center at low volumes is fine, you can also adjust that in the receiver by channel levels or if it has a night mode for low volume listening.

nypapaya

Thanks Tony, I have been enjoying your posts for years. And I lived on Ohio street for a year before.
I did the channel levels (from manual setup) few times since I got the system a month ago. the level is ok, but I will try to adjust to -4~-6 tonight.
One thing I do desire is the mid-range, and that shall be made up by either choice I guess.
The Pioneer has a dialogue mode to improve dialogue clarity in low volume.