Polk SDA SRS 3.1TL surround rear speakers

Looking for recommendations for rear surround speakers that best match the Polk SDA series. I’m currently running a couple small vintage Boston Acoustics for the rears with a PSB 8C from the imagine series. The PSB 3LR3 Speakers I have as extras are two large to fit on the side walls. I’m looking at acoustic suspension speakers, dipoles/bipoles or front ported speakers that don’t stick out more than about 4inches. Any suggestions on a well matched center speaker would be appreciated as wells. I’m thinking of going to the PSB 9C to get the woofer sizes to match better with the Polk 3.1TL speakers.

Comments

  • Surrounds don't matter AS MUCH with timbre matching. Center speaker either a single speaker from the monitor line (5 or 4 would be good as they aren't as big) or the CS350-LS. The CS250 is a good enough option but a little small and I found it lacking in midbass.

    Just a dude doing dude-ly things

    "Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
    " I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
    "Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
    "Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
    "Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member
  • I have a pair of these and love them.a8uo8m5m0bqn.jpg
    pp3lc565070f.jpg
    cao0f0p7390l.jpg
    605l4psj02t5.jpg
    Yamaha RXA1030, Yamaha CD-S2100, Yamaha AS-2200, Bluesound node 2i
    Polk SDA2btl highly modded
    Polk SDA 1C modded
    Polk CS350 LS x2
    Kimber 8TC
    Sony 55" Bravia
    Wish list SVS sub

  • Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)
  • Thanks for the recommendations. I have see a pair of Polk RT/fx series on Craigslist for $180, which is too much. I’ve seen the CS350-ls on eBay but the only one available was in VERY rough shape. I’ll be picking up a KEF 200C center channel for only $99 this weekend and give that a try... Mostly because I’ve been wanting to try out KEF for awhile. Also, it has three 6 1/2in woofers and goes down to 55hz, which is rare for a center speaker.
  • Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,481
    edited November 2018
    kwells920 wrote: »
    Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

    You can only see that on the full site, so if you're using a mobile atm you cannot even switch to see as the glorious site has a gremlin atm.
  • kwells920 wrote: »
    Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

    I’m using all Polk’s. A CS1000p center and a pair of Monitor 5jr’s for surround. Also an RT-35i for back surround.
  • pitdogg2 wrote: »
    kwells920 wrote: »
    Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

    You can only see that on the full site, so if you're using a mobile atm you cannot even switch to see as the glorious site has a gremlin atm.

    If using safari or chrome for mobile just switch to desktop mode. It displays the site as it would on a PC. That's atleast what I do since the mobile site is so horrible.
    Just a dude doing dude-ly things

    "Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
    " I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
    "Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
    "Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
    "Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member
  • The Polk CS1000P is now high on my priority list now! I’m on a bit of a budget but a powered center speaker with a voiced matched tweeter would be PERFECT!
  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,481
    kwells920 wrote: »
    The Polk CS1000P is now high on my priority list now! I’m on a bit of a budget but a powered center speaker with a voiced matched tweeter would be PERFECT!

    Good luck they are getting harder and harder to acquire.
  • The CS-400 is the same center. The difference between the two is the CS-1000p has the two powered woofers-one on each end. When I upgraded from my SDA-1C’s to my 3.1TL’s I decided to upgrade the center along with them. Make no mistake though, the CS-400 AIN’T NO SLOUCH! I definitely recommend being very patient and trolling Craig’s list and eBay regularly. It could take a while to find a CS-1000p and patience always pays off. However if you didn’t want to wait, the the CS-400 is STILL one heckova Center channel! I always had mine set to large-so there was no crossover to remove the low bass from it-and it never ceased to amaze me at the bass and dynamics that the 400 would pump out with no distortion or woofers bottoming EVER
    Of course you also want to make sure you have plenty of power going to either one in order to make sure what I described above happens without amplifier clipping problems. They’re both relatively efficient, but can be power hungry if you ever want to pump it up every so often. I’ve used several amps over the years with mine, from a Carver TFM-45 to a bridged Carver M-400a to a Sunfire Cinema Grand Signature. I never had less than 375 watts RMS going to mine.
  • kwells920 wrote: »
    The Polk CS1000P is now high on my priority list now! I’m on a bit of a budget but a powered center speaker with a voiced matched tweeter would be PERFECT!

    Just to clarify the CS1000p only has powered bass drivers on each end. You still need to hook it up the amp to drive the mids and tweeter.
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,712
    pitdogg2 wrote: »
    kwells920 wrote: »
    Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

    You can only see that on the full site, so if you're using a mobile atm you cannot even switch to see as the glorious site has a gremlin atm.

    If using safari or chrome for mobile just switch to desktop mode. It displays the site as it would on a PC. That's at least what I do since the mobile site is so horrible.

    That no longer works.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • headrott
    headrott Posts: 5,484
    edited November 2018
    I am using my 3.1TL's as rear surrounds in my home theater. My 2.3TL's double as front stereo and front left/right theater speakers too. I feel that 3.1TL's work great as rear surrounds, but as stated, they match well with front SDA speakers. Can't compare to Boston Acoustic rears. I recommend some 2B's as rears. They are relatively "easy" to attain, and are good matches to 3.1TL's in a theater. The CS-400 and/or the CS-1000 are both great centers. I am using the CS-400, but I will say the timbre are not an exact match to the RD0-198 tweeters in the 3.1TL's. They are somewhat close, but noticeably different.

    Hope that helps!
    Relayer-Big-O-Poster.jpg
    Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
    "I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion." :\
    My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....


    "Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson

    "Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee
  • dpowell
    dpowell Posts: 3,050
    Like others have mentioned, when it comes to rear speakers, timbre matching isn't as important. Anything from the FX or LS line will work just fine. Where it really matters is your center channel. I've owned the cs400 and cs1000p. While those are excellent center channels, they have brighter highs, less natural vocals and don't blend well with SDAs to my ears. The differences are very noticeable on multichannel music.

    My choice for center to pair with my 2.3TLs is the LSiM706C. Vocals are much more natural sounding than the RT series center speakers and it holds its own and blends beautifully with the 2.3s.
    ____________________________________________________________ polkaudio Fully Modded SDA SRS 1.2TLs + Dreadnaught, LSiM706c, 4 X Polk Surrounds + 4 X ATMOS SVS PB13 Ultra x 2Pass Labs X1, Marantz 7704, Sunfire Signature Cinema Grande 400, ADCOM 7807, Panasonic UB420, Sony SCD-C333ES, EPSON Pro Cinema 6050
  • How big is this room of yours to want/have 2Bs as rears and the 2.3tl fronts as a h/t.? I never had the balls to hook up anything to my piece of crap Yamaha RX-V665 for the fear of blowing it or the spkrs up. The Klipsch smalls can handle 100watts of true watts not AVR divided nonsense watts. when they said oh it's a 90 watt avr I had no idea it was divided by 7.1 and the second I go over to the plus side of the volume control the Yamaha shuts down goes into protecto mode, let it catch it's breath so to speak and lower it to the minus side. Could I at least put my Ohm E for my fronts and the Klipsch smalls for the rears or is that just an exercise in futility ? I like what I have but the Yammy is a gross disappointment.
    2chl- Adcom GFA- 555-Onkyo P-3150v pre/amp- JVC-QL-A200 tt- Denon 1940 ci cdp- Adcom GFS-6 -Modded '87 SDA 2Bs - Dynamat Ext.- BH-5- X-Overs VR-3, RDO-194 tweeters, Larry's Rings, Speakon/Neutrik I/C- Cherry stain tops Advent Maestros,Ohm model E

    H/T- Toshiba au40" flat- Yamaha RX- V665 avr- YSD-11 Dock- I-Pod- Klipsch #400HD Speaker set-

    Bdrm- Nikko 6065 receiver- JBL -G-200s--Pioneer 305 headphones--Sony CE375-5 disc
  • Sorry I forgot to mention the RX-V665 does have preouts so I could temporarily use the Adcom w/ power off and all spooled down and try that. Advise on this move either the Advent Maestros for front and the Ohm E for the rears and the Klipsch for sides. Is this doable or am I just asking for grief ???
    2chl- Adcom GFA- 555-Onkyo P-3150v pre/amp- JVC-QL-A200 tt- Denon 1940 ci cdp- Adcom GFS-6 -Modded '87 SDA 2Bs - Dynamat Ext.- BH-5- X-Overs VR-3, RDO-194 tweeters, Larry's Rings, Speakon/Neutrik I/C- Cherry stain tops Advent Maestros,Ohm model E

    H/T- Toshiba au40" flat- Yamaha RX- V665 avr- YSD-11 Dock- I-Pod- Klipsch #400HD Speaker set-

    Bdrm- Nikko 6065 receiver- JBL -G-200s--Pioneer 305 headphones--Sony CE375-5 disc
  • codycatalist
    codycatalist Posts: 2,662
    edited December 2018
    F1nut wrote: »
    pitdogg2 wrote: »
    kwells920 wrote: »
    Look at my equipment listing below in my living room system to see what I matched my 3.1TL’s with rear and center-wise. Match made in heaven o:)

    I don’t see the equipment listing.

    You can only see that on the full site, so if you're using a mobile atm you cannot even switch to see as the glorious site has a gremlin atm.

    If using safari or chrome for mobile just switch to desktop mode. It displays the site as it would on a PC. That's at least what I do since the mobile site is so horrible.

    That no longer works.

    Works for me no problem, on a Samsung S8 and IPad Pro running Safari 10+

    I will add you need to ensure that the sub domain isn't showing as "m." as that would indicate the mobile site and sometimes it won't revert to the desktop version until you remove it and just go to forum.polkaudio.com

    Your device may just be having trouble with it but in a general sense it does still work.
    Just a dude doing dude-ly things

    "Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
    " I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
    "Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
    "Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
    "Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member