speaker choice

tasdisr

I am looking for 2 front speakers and a center speaker for
my Home theater setup. It is used about 50% for music and 50% for movies. I will add two rear speakers at a later date. These
are replacements for what I have now. I am looking at two R20s for the front and a CSi20 for the center and add two R15s for the rear at a later date. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Originally posted by tasdisr
I am looking for 2 front speakers and a center speaker for
my Home theater setup. It is used about 50% for music and 50% for movies. I will add two rear speakers at a later date. These
are replacements for what I have now. I am looking at two R20s for the front and a CSi20 for the center and add two R15s for the rear at a later date. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

First thing, what is your budget? That will help us find a place to start...

tasdisr

I am looking to spend $300-$350 for the two front and center speakers. Not really sure if that is realistic or not for those three
speakers.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Honestly, with your budget in mind, here's what I'd do:

Grab a better set of fronts than the R20s and hold off on the center. Spend your $300 on good front speakers that way you at least have a solid 2 channel setup, you can always buy a center chanel later.

It's tempting to try and grab as many pieces at a time as you can, but you'll be happier and better off in the long run if you just slowly upgrade piece by piece.

Given the above logic, you really have two options:

If you think you'll be adding a good subwoofer someday, then you can get a really nice pair of bookshelf speakers for the fronts. Generally speaking, with equally priced bookshelves and floorstanding speakers, the bookshelves may give a better sound at the same price point, but will lack the bass response and that's why a sub is needed, especially for movies...

If a sub is not in your future, then you'll need some towers with at least some bass response, you may be able to pick up some RTi70s or 100s still at a local Circuit City for cheap since they're discontiued models...

Hope this helps...

stereo55

Originally posted by tasdisr
I am looking to spend $300-$350 for the two front and center speakers. Not really sure if that is realistic or not for those three
speakers.

If you can bump up your budget to $560 than you can get a third free item (or -$200 discount) over at Crutchfield and save yourself a good chunk of change ($200) in the long run and be a head of the game with a better setup .
Try this ; as this is what I did on a very limited budget :
RTi4's/fronts = $260
CSi3/center = $200
PSW303/sub = $300
TOTAL $760
-$200 off Polk order totaling over $500
End total = $560 (= free CSi3/center) and FREE shipping / no tax

*note*
(Promotion at Crutchfield as follows : FREE PSW202/sub , or "substitute" -$200 discount on Polk order totaling over $500/ ; promo ends 5/31/04 ).

Just something to consider .
I too did not want to spend this amount of money right now , but if you consider the savings (25% off) and much better system I ended up with over my original planned system with just the RXX series . This option/deal was pretty good in my opinion .

You may also want to look at CircuitCity for some demos/open boxed items too . I picked up a set of demo RTi28's for $120 that were to be used originaly as fronts , but are now rears . I too can do the Circuitcity "1yr speaker upgrade policy " on these without loosing any money on them (I'll be trading these in somewhere down the 1 yr road towards a pair of RTi6's for the front and put my RTi4's for rears) .

Good luck .

steveinaz

Rti6's would make good fronts, or if your wanting a floorstander, hit the used market. Mate with a good subwoofer later to dig-up the very low frequencies.

tasdisr

I am thinking of getting a set of of Rti4 or Rti6 for my front speaker
and a csi3 for my center channel. I would continue to use the subwoofer I have now and upgrade later.

tasdisr

If I use the Rti6 for my front speakers and the Csi3 for the center channel, could the RM2350s be used for my rear surround speakers? I have a very limited space for my rear surrounds.

tasdisr

Well, I think I am going to take the leap this weekend or early next week and buy a pair of RTi6's, a CSi3 center and a PSW404
for my HT setup and keep the two rear speakers, (small Kenwoods) for now till I figure out what to use there. It is a small
shelf only 6 inches deep and a foot in height.
Great forum and a lot of honest advice!

movieguy

tas if youre on a tight budget as we were you can put together a pretty decent system going entry level all the way. we used r30's as the mains , csi3 center ,r15 surrounds ,and a psw202 sub hooked up to a yamaha htr-5630 home theater amp and a hitatchi 46 inch widescreen 46f500, it shakes the house , has unreal imaging and you'd have to spend a pile more to get a nominal improvement. don't get me wrong, i'd love to go topshelf also but budgets are budgets , this is leaps and bounds above the "theater in a box" route. when funds aloow in the future it can always be upgraded , better mains , move the r30's to the rear etc. polk makes the best entry level speakers i've heard. just mho.

tasdisr

Well I ordered my pair of rti6, csi3 and psw404 from Crutchfield
and should have them Friday. I had the oppurtunity to hear them at Circuit City, but the deal at Crutchfield with being able to apply the $200 credit toward the 404 subwoofer was better. Plus free delivery. I got some 12 gauge speaker wire from KnuKoncpeptz
for .45 a ft and some banana plugs to hook everything up.

stereo55

Originally posted by tasdisr
Well I ordered my pair of rti6, csi3 and psw404 from Crutchfield
and should have them Friday. I had the oppurtunity to hear them at Circuit City, but the deal at Crutchfield with being able to apply the $200 credit toward the 404 subwoofer was better. Plus free delivery. I got some 12 gauge speaker wire from KnuKoncpeptz
for .45 a ft and some banana plugs to hook everything up.

Very nice choice I must say . I too have been thinking of returing the RTi4's and getting the RTi6's instead for my fronts . Cool thing is , NO shipping charges for the (30 day) returns at Crutchfield . How nice is that .

Lets us know how well you like your setup when you get a chance . (personally I would luv hear your opinion , since Iam kinda in the same boat as yourself at this time ) .

tasdisr

I hope to have everything hooked up and ready Friday afternoon
and will let everyone know how I like the setup. I am curious to see how the speaker wire works too. It is comparable to Monster cable, but a lot less expensive. It is oxygen free copper and each conductor has 259 strands of 36 gauge copper.

tasdisr

I received my speakers yesterday and hooked everything up
today. What a dramatic improvement over the Infinity speakers
and Kenwood subwoofer. Sound and separation are fantastic!!

steveinaz

Great! Looks like you made the right choice.