surrounds for csi3 and rti4

powers20

i just got the csi3 and rti4's and they sound great, but i can't afford to get more rti4's or the fxi's either. What cheaper, perhaps older polk speakers would work good. I've got 4 speakers to replace. the side and back pairs. Or should I try a different brand? Everything i have read says to stick with speakers of the same "family". Does that mean same brand or same drivers and tweeter material?

PolkWannabie

Originally posted by powers20
Does that mean same brand or same drivers and tweeter material?

Same brand and tweeters is the simplest.

fgr41

Keep your eyes open here and on ebay. You may be able to find some good prices if you are patient.

For Home Theater it's best if you are able to have all the speakers timber match. By timber match I mean all have the same tweeter and woofer so the sound quality is very similar. It helps with making the sound in the room seem seemless.

Donduck

I just hooked up my new Yamaha rxv1400 with PLIIx.
I have the RTi4's for front and the CSi3 for center.
I have 4 Polk R15's for my side and rear surrounds.
People say they are not timbre matched but I don't believe that.
I used the AB switch to jump between the RTi4's and a pair of R15's. Every thing sounds exactly the same except the RTi4's have a hair more volume.

I got my R15's for $38 apiece (retail $89 each) at our local AmericanTV store in Wisconsin. Can't get them on their online store.

For 2-channel music Dolby PLIIx is superb with this set up.
Only had a little time to check some movies out with my speaker setup, but what I haved checked out it is truly awesome.

By the way, the Polk PSW303 subwoofer is performing fantastic also. Don't know why that gets some bad reviews.

I manually setup everything with the sound and vision disc and my radio shack dpl meter. Don't know if I will use Yamaha Auto setup feature.

Willow

I would go with the R15 as well , they are innexpensive but decent speakers. If you are stuck, you don't need to have the rears timbre matched,it's suggested they are but not mandatory, the rears don't carry the majority of the sounds or effects. If you're on a budget and want polks go with the r15s

powers20

Thanks alot for the input guys. Are the Monitor 30s a better speaker than the R15? I looked at them in CC, and they look almost identical to my RTI4. Same exact tweeter. The same size woofer also. I liked the mounting bracket on the Monitor 30, although they are pretty deep for wall mounting still. Anyone have a picture of the back of the R15. I wonder why this site doesn't show the back view of the speakers. Any help would be great. I'm still not ruling out fxi for side either. I think I will definately have to get Atrium 45 for rear surrounds(7.1) because of room limitations and I want to use existing mounting hardware. Would the Atriums sound too different to blend with this family of speakers?

leroyjr1

This thread is 4 years old

powers20

oops I see that now

dylanblada

welcome to 2008

devani

so 4 years later, how are the speakers?

powers20

It doesn't seem that long ago. They're still 100%. Love em. But I do agree with some other people who posted about the CSI3 not being shielded enough. I have a CRT with a stand on top for the CSI, and I notice a little distortion on my screen. I'll have to rig something. What about dynomat? Does that stuff have any magnetic shielding properties? Anyway, I'm still in the same spot I was 4 years ago, trying to complete my starter HT. I think I've decided to bite the bullet and get the FXI3 or A1. More money than I wanted to spend, but oh well. Cry once, and be happy for a long time. I still gotta find something small for my back surrounds. Theres barely any room, so the Atrium 45 is what I'm looking at. Even if it's not perfect, It will be a huge step up from my RCA 50wpc two way swivel bose wannabees. They suck.

JohnLocke88

What'd you end up getting for your rears? I feel so behind the times, I just got my RTI6s, and looking for RTi4s.

powers20

I went ahead and got the FXIa6 from crutchfield, and got the free Atrium 45s for my back surround. I know they are probably not the perfect match, but they will be better than what I got now. Actually Crutchfield's description of the Atriums says they are voice matched with the RTI series, but I think they are wrong, being that the tweeters are totally different. But I still don't understand that stuff. In a perfect world, I would have gotten the RTI6 for fronts and moved the RTI 4 to rear back. Maybe in my next house. The Atrium deal ends today if your interested. Got to spend 500 bucks to get it though. Good luck, and thanks to everybody for their input.