CSI3 vs CSI5

mrloren

Hello,

I currently have a CSI5 in my setup. The wife has been complaining about all the wires and crud from our old TV stand which is not made for all the goodies i have stuffed in it. Actually our current stand was made for a 36" Sony CRT TV that now has a 60" Samsung sitting on it.

I designed a new TV stand that I am going to build from scratch (haven't done wood work in 20 years) but for the life of me I can't design it to fit my CSI5, I can fit the CSI3 in the space I am allowed.

Now the question, how much am I going to loose going down in center speaker.

thanks,

polkfarmboy

Your going to loose a lot of dynamic range not to mention the bass on its going to be weak. The positive thing about the csi3 is that it sounds more natural especially with female voices.

mrloren

that's what I thought. hard to design a TV stand that can actually fit all my goodies and 61" long space.

rooftop59

Yes it will be a discernable difference, but with your sub it won't be the end of the world. It will be most apparent with deep male voices and action movies with lots of explosions and deep bass coming from the center channel. But domestic peace is more important that a cool explosion lol. Heck I went from bookselves to in-ceiling in part to keep the peace. Does it sound as good? Heck no. Is it still fun to watch tv and movies? Absolutely. And the peace that came as a result? Priceless. YMMV...

mrloren

Ok so I have swapped the CSi3 from my bedroom to see if there is going that big of a difference this weekend. Bummer!

The WAF in my HT has been hard over the years. When we moved into the house in 2k she had the ceiling prewired for in-ceiling speakers. The Advents I loved so much never made it in the house. (Advent Maestro front, baby advent for center and surrounds) no sub needed. So I agree to try the WAF in-ceilings speakers and the ones the builder put in sounded like poo. So I replaced them with some Polks and they sounded better. I then added a sub but they never came close to my Advents. I went to go hookup my advents to find she gave them away..... Around 04 I went to book shelf speakers (RTi4 and CSi3) and the sound got better. Then Fry's had the RTi8 on sale for $149 and I went with them and my house returned to rocking. Wife got a little pissed but she lived. When Sony closed the CRT plant I used all my Sony store money on an ES receiver and the wife started to like my HT sounded great. Over the years I did small adds like going from a small Sony sub to a small HSU then to a big HSU sub, Changing the center to from a CSI3 to a 5. The wife never said anything till we put in the 60" Samsung. Now she is complaining about the wires all over the back of the TV stand. TV looks funny on the stand too.

mrloren

see looks funny

tonyb

Yeah, does look a tad funny. Nothing a proper stand wont fix and hide the wires too. Which btw, your exposed wires don't look nearly as bad as some I've seen.

Maybe pull those speaks forward about 6 inches too.

cnh

Good move. It is possible to tweak a CSi3 by sending more of its bass to a good sub. I've done that myself and have no complaints. But if you have big towers the larger center is a better match.

Enjoy!

Wives? My wife emailed me today asking me if a CHEAP 49.99 inch 7" Android tablet would be OK for her because she managed to LOSE her ipad! lol I didn't even know where to begin, even though my own tablet is a cheap **** 9" android 1 gig Dual core 1.6 Ghz that's over a year old and can't really output a true HD pic.

But I don't have ALL my stuff on it like her ipad! Sigh!

I told her to STOP BEING CHEAP and get a decent $200 dollar or more Samsung or the equivalent android unit. She's out in Chicago for a few weeks and we "can" afford it!!

System is looking good above!

cnh

mrloren

tonyb wrote: »

Yeah, does look a tad funny. Nothing a proper stand wont fix and hide the wires too. Which btw, your exposed wires don't look nearly as bad as some I've seen.

The bad part is when going up the stairs it looks like a rats nest. Our house is not HT friendly at all.

So far we watched one movie and the CSI3 is lacking over the CSi5. Going to watch a chick flick tonight so I will see.

tonyb

Well, the 3 will lack over the 5, the 5 is just a better center speaker and it should sound better. Get a console as a stand and you might hide the wires better.

CNH,
You sure she "lost" it ? This is Chicago after all.

EndersShadow

mrloren wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

Yeah, does look a tad funny. Nothing a proper stand wont fix and hide the wires too. Which btw, your exposed wires don't look nearly as bad as some I've seen.

The bad part is when going up the stairs it looks like a rats nest. Our house is not HT friendly at all.

So far we watched one movie and the CSI3 is lacking over the CSi5. Going to watch a chick flick tonight so I will see.

Buy some conduit/gutter stuff from lowes (blanking it's real name) and route all your cables through it on the top so it at least looks a bit better.

Might help.

tonyb

He actually doesn't have a lot on the floor, it's the interconnecting wires between pieces that's visible as you walk up the stairs that the wife objects too. Putting everything in a cabinet style stand would hide all that imho.

voltz

Look for some cable management stuff from different sites, and here is a example of what you may find to tidy it up a bit.

http://www.amazon.com/OmniMount-OECMS-Neoprene-Cable-Management/dp/B004M8SSW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420986967&sr=8-1&keywords=cable+management

EndersShadow

tonyb wrote: »

He actually doesn't have a lot on the floor, it's the interconnecting wires between pieces that's visible as you walk up the stairs that the wife objects too. Putting everything in a cabinet style stand would hide all that imho.

Or just build a false extension on the back for the unit to hide everything.

tonyb

EndersShadow wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

He actually doesn't have a lot on the floor, it's the interconnecting wires between pieces that's visible as you walk up the stairs that the wife objects too. Putting everything in a cabinet style stand would hide all that imho.

Or just build a false extension on the back for the unit to hide everything.

That might look like a-s-s though considering the glass stand he has now. I say if it's the wife thats complaining, then a new stand is in the cards which she most likely will approve and he certainly needs anyway.

voltz

Those stairs really are a pain, Your not suppose to be able to see behind there. I have never been able to really make mine look alright back there.

mrloren

The design I made does have a 3" for a false gap for wire management. New TV stand will be nice when completed, only exposed wires will be speaker and power with a little to the TV.

After a few movies the CSI3 is back in the bedroom, I had to turn it up +4db over the CSI5 setting and it still didn't come out clear.

EndersShadow

If the center stays maybe also buy these guys. Isolate the center a bit and let you point it up.

jeremymarcinko

I use the CSi3, and it sounds great to me. I have no issue with clarity of dialogue or level. My room is nearly 24ft x 26ft and ypao sets it to -1 with the Mic 12ft back. You may try to aim it towards your head. I have no doubt that the csi5 is better but you should be able to get acceptable performance from the 3 as well. I agree though you may be further ahead to just remove it. Having the speakers that close together you may be getting some cancellation issues.

mrloren

might give it a try DSkip one problem is I have some nice 5.1 SACD I still rock on. So it looks like I will be stuck with a CSi3 in there. The center by design will be right under the TV. Having the CSi3 in there for 2 day was not bad but I could tell it was different from the CSi5. Polk does say the CSi3 goes with the RTi8 towers I have so I might get use to it.

mrloren

So last night I hooked the CSi3 back up. I ran the auto calibrate mic and it set the center to +6.5db with setting the fronts, sub and surrounds as normal. The sound was much more detial than it was when I had it at +4db, guess it just needed a little more push.. If I do go this way I will just get a new CSi3 from the Polk eBay store for $100, the one I have is very old, pre dates my CSi5 by about 3 years.

tonyb

Wow, that's pretty high. Before you decide though, play a movie your familiar with, an action movie. Play it at volumes you normally listen at and see if you can hear any distortion from the center. Boosting the gain that much on the center may introduce some distortion.

jeremymarcinko

I agree. How far away is the center to your listening position? One of my RTi6 surrounds is hanging on a side wall nearly 12ft feet away and not angled towards my ears....ypao only raised it +2.5. Looking at the pic you should try to prop up the front of the 3 it looks like it is pointed directly at the coffee table...or maybe move the table out.

The CSi3 on Polks eBay store is a great deal. I purchased a new cherry CSi3 from there last month, and it arrived in only three days.

mrloren

[quote="jeremymarcinko;The CSi3 on Polks eBay store is a great deal. I purchased a new cherry CSi3 from there last month, and it arrived in only three days.[/quote]

It takes Polk only two day to ship to me in San Diego. sucks I cant do "will-call". they ship from either Otay or Vista CA, all in San Diego County.

I will try another movie tomorrow (football tonight), but I can't change the level of the speaker right now, nice little cable box in the way. Once I get the new stand built the center will be in a much better place

mrloren

Ship from Vista 15 miles away from my cube http://www.ebay.com/itm/Polk-Audio-CSi3-CHERRY-RTi-Center-Channel-Speaker-NEW-/390959286757?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item5b06fd49e5 where I am sitting right now

mrloren

Ok,

So I played for a few days with the CSi3 and have come to find it does sound very good with the crossover set @ 80HZ and +3DB. I had the CSI5 set @ 70HZ +1DB.

I ran through a lot of action movie scenes and after the Breaking Bad ending machine gun scene it come close and actually sounds very good, don't think I will miss it.

The wife gave me the green light to start building the TV stand this weekend so I will order a new CSi3 from the Polk eBay store. I will get a cherry one, it will go better the TV stand than black

jeremymarcinko

Glad to hear it all worked out. Enjoy!

trj

mrloren, glad it worked out for you and with your experience, I might go for CSi3. I am on the same boat as you are. I have RTi8 towers and limited space. With my current TV stand, CSi5 is not going to fit without a TV riser. I was thinking CSi3 would be shadowed by RTi8s, but looks like its not the case. I plan to move to a house soon and wife would not let me buy a new TV stand till we move. Well, she has the point though, so I am holding off.
Since you have experience with both CSi3 and CSi5, would you say I will fine with CSi3 and RTi8's in a small room (family room opening to kitchen)? Probably around 11 x 20 ft, with the TV on the long wall. So, viewing and listening distance is at 8 ft.
Running all of it with yamaha rx-v667 for now. Going to install a 12" sub soon so, the receiver wont be straining on the lows. Cant use an amp yet because of the same space constraint.

mrloren

On the old Polk site they use to have a chart of what matched speakers, CSi-3 is the match for RTi-4, 6 and 8. I like over kill in audio so I picked up the CSi5 when I had the extra money. The CSi-3 is a very good center speaker, mine still sounds very good after having it for years. Yes the CSi5 will go up for sale soon.

jeremymarcinko

Is it black or cherry?

mrloren

Black