Noob needing advice

Chris Pilgrim

Hello, I'm new to this forum and would like to get some help and advice on upgrading my old stereo to a home theater.

Background:
This may be a little boring and long-winded, but I thought it would be useful to let everybody know where I'm at with respect to knowledge, experience and budget. You can skip forward to "Help!" to avoid it.
My starting point is/was my first serious stereo which I started acquiring 25 to 30 years ago. At that time, I scraped together all the cash I could and bought a Yamaha receiver (I think it was the RX-596 that I still have, but I may have upgraded), a JVC QL-F4 quartz lock, direct drive semi-automatic turntable with a Stanton 651EEE cartridge and Polk Audio Monitor 5jr speakers. I would have liked to get the Monitor 5's but couldn't afford them. Over the next 10 years or so, I added a Yamaha KX-530 cassette deck, a Yamaha CDC-665 CD changer and a pair of Monitor 4's (again limited by budget), just because the receiver could drive 4 speakers.
At some point, my oldest daughter convinced me that my 5jr's were "blown" because the passive radiator on one of them had somehow gotten torn, and subsequently I found a used pair of Monitor 7's to replace them, although I hung on to the 5jr's. I sold the turntable and about 350 LP's in 2012 when we concluded that we had to downsize for financial reasons (namely, I retired about 10 years ahead of schedule due to my health)

Dec 31, 2013:
My upgrade started on New Years Eve, 2013, when I was at the local Visions store during their "Boxing Week" sale. I had decided that I needed a new receiver because my old one was "searching" when I switched inputs with the remote (it would cycle back and forth between tuner, CD and Phono and not stop). They also had some Polk speakers on sale: Monitor 65s were $298 per pair and Monitor 75's were $398 per pair. I decided that, although $398 was stretching my budget, I could find the extra cash somehow if the 75's sounded significantly better than the 65's.
Well, while I was comparing the 65's and 75's, the salesman said "you should listen to these" and switched to a set of towers beside the 75's. Well, they totally blew away the 75's, so I looked at the price tag: they were on sale for $750. At this point, I'm thinking "Yeah, right - in your dreams!", when I noticed that the regular price was only $100 more than the "regular price" listed for the 75's (since then I have NEVER seen them sell 75's for the "regular price"), so I said to the salesman that I would buy them if he would sell them to me for $100 more than the sale price for the 75's. He spoke to their manager and the manager said OK! I had just bought a pair of TSx 550t's for $499!
At that point, I was on a bit of a roll and feeling a little cocky, and I talked the manager down $100 on the sale price of a Yamaha RX-V675 7.2 channel home theater receiver and nearly another $100 on 12 gauge speaker wire, HDMI cable and sub-woofer cable. But I paid the full sale price of $148 for a PSW-110. Dang!
So I left the store having bought the start of a pretty good home theater system, BUT having just spent about double what I had intended to spend (and I hadn't really gotten THAT amount approved by my wife - I'm still in the "doghouse", but she's slowly regaining her sense of humor). Today I have a receiver, front speakers, a sub woofer, and I'm using my old monitor 7's for surround speakers. So I need a center speaker, two surround back speakers, two presence speakers and the receiver will drive a second sub woofer. It will also drive two more speakers in "zone 2" but they would use the rear surround connections, so I'll ignore them for now. I can also bi-amp the front speakers, but that also uses the rear surround connections. I'm glad I wasn't able to sell the 7's before I realized I could use them, but I practically gave away the 4's and 5jr's because I thought new ones would be far superior. Wrong! and I'm kicking myself.
Oh, yeah, my TV is a 30 year old 20" tube type; but that's another story!

Today - Help!:
OK, now we're past the boring part:
Question 1:
The frequency range for the monitor 4's and 5's listed in the vintage speaker section are better than those listed for current same sized speakers Is this really so? If so, why?
Question 2:
How important is timbre matching? Is it really necessary to match up my TSx 550's with a TSx 150 or 250 center, and TSx 110 or 220 surround / rear surround / presence speakers? The 7's seem to work as surrounds so far.
Question 3:
Assuming #2 is not really crucial, what vintage speakers would work best? At this point I'm hoping to find goo used speakers.
Question 4:
What does the "TSx" mean? What is the difference between that and "TSi"?

I apologize for the length of this first post, but I hope that some people will take me seriously enough to respond seriously.

Thanks,

voltz

Welcome to CP (club Polk) Chris

congrats on your new speakers, think you will like them, to answer a few question : the tsi have 4 6 1/2" drivers where the TSx have 2 5 1/4 & 2 8" drivers. I don't know if the TSx has any meaning over TSi other then its a step up.

cant answer about the 7's but others here can. also polk has a ebay store where the sell refurbish for very good prices if you chose to add other speakers to your setup

for now I would skip any thought of bi-amp with your AVR as it doesnt work well that way.

Chris Pilgrim

Thanks for the sdvice, voltz.
I'll look for the polk store on ebay, maybe I can find what I need within my budget.
I couldn't think of a real good reason to bi-amp the fronts, and many questions that would discourage it (for example what is the impedance of each connection?) Your comment pretty much cinches that for me!
Thanks.

F1nut

1. The size of the cabinet is just one factor, the design (ported. sealed, etc.), crossovers, drivers, etc. are another. So, it's entirely possible for one speaker to spec better than another of the same size.

2. The front 3 should be timbre matched. The surrounds are not as important. Since you are on a limited budget, forget the two presence speakers and second sub. Besides, those extra speakers are going to drain the available power from your AVR, same goes for the ghetto bi-amping.

Oh, yeah, my TV is a 30 year old 20" tube type;

You're going to need a newer TV.

pyrocyborg

Welcome!

#4 : Well, as everything here and there, it's simply a line name. Like in cars (let's say Toyota), you could have a Corolla (basic car), a Camry (bigger, cost more)... Every model has it's name, and then, there are the submodels (trims). The same goes for speakers: The Polk (brand) TSx is a speaker line replacing the old TSi one, which replaced the Monitor line. Some says that between the Monitor and TSi line, it was mostly a cosmetical change, but there were some difference in port design on some models, I think. However, The TSx is a different speaker. Compare on that page, you'll see that the TSx line is different than the TSi line when it comes to the number of drivers and their disposition: http://www.polkaudio.com/products/home-theater/floorstanding .

Chris Pilgrim

Thanks, F1nut and pyrocyborg,

So, I will concentrate on getting a good center speaker as my immediate priority. Recently I saw a CSiA6 on Kijiji for less than the new (sale) price for a TSx250c. I assume the CSiA6 is a "better" speaker since the new price is higher - would it sound "better" in my setup, or would the mis-match in timbre negate the difference in quality?

Also, I see the RTiA series has "F/Xi" surround speakers, where the TSx series has only the TSx220b for both surround and rear surround. Again, would the timbre mis-match negate the difference in quality?

With regards to the TV, fortunately, I upgraded my computer the year before I retired so I have a 27" computer monitor which can double as a TV for now. This is also fortunate in that about 90% of the set-up of the receiver is done through menus displayed on the TV.

Thanks,

F1nut

Stick with the same series for your front 3.

pyrocyborg

As F1nut said, and as you said yourself in your message, you want to have a similar frontstage, with a similar sound signature or timbre (timbre match). To do so, not only must you use speakers from the same brand, but also speakers from the same series (i.e. with the same woofer and tweeter construction).

The CSiA6 (and the CSiA4) is timbre matched to the RTiA and RTi lines speakers. Using it with speakers from the TSi or TSx might not yield excellent results, especially when it comes to voices coming from a side (in the movie) then coming to the front in the next second. You might hear a difference in timbre, as if it wasn't the same person speaking. It might not botter you, and there may be some ways to attenuate this effect and to try to modify the timbre of a speaker (well... I don't know if it really is possible, but I read something about it a few years back), but if I were you, I would try to stick with the same series, even if you have to wait for a better deal to come up.

As for the timbre match between the TSi and TSx series, I seriously do not even know. Someone who owns (or owned) both might chime in.

Chris Pilgrim

Thanks guys!

That helps a lot - if I scale back my search to the center speaker only, that helps my budget. Maybe I can start thinking about a TV.

It would have been interesting to see how the monitor 4's and 5jr's (with a new passive radiator) would have sounded as presence and rear surrounds. I'll stop kicking myself someday!

Cheers,
Chris

Phatattack

I wish there were more walk in showrooms up in Minnesota, Internet shopping leaves much to be desired

tonyb

Phatattack wrote: »

I wish there were more walk in showrooms up in Minnesota, Internet shopping leaves much to be desired

All depends on where you internet shop. Besides, showrooms are for people who buy stuff from them, not simply for convenience. If people don't buy stuff from a brick and mortar store, whats the point of having one ?