Should i buy thePolk reserve r400 or upgrade the crossover for the polk csi-5 with vr3 mods?

jorge12

Please let me know.

F1nut

A little more info helps, such as what are your mains?

jorge12

Rti-12 front,rear rti-10

Hermitism

The CSi5 would be the one that is timbre matched to the RTi line of speakers. One mod that you can do is remove the drivers to your speakers and apply Dynamat to the baskets. The RTi/CSi5 baskets are stamped steel and can ring. Another good tip is to remove the stock jumpers with good quality speaker wire. I have the RTi8 fronts and CSi5 center. Great home theater speakers.

jbreezy5

I would go with a pair of Polk audio RTI4, and either lay it on it’s side, or, if you have the vertical clearance, stand it upright. Use the extra as another rear center, or as a back-up if one fails.

Center channel speakers suffer from lobing which makes them localizable when listening to surround sound.

Laying an RTI4 on it’s side will eliminate lobing that is common to center channel speakers and improve soundstaging and imaging.

Here’s a photo of my Wharfedale 10.1, functioning as a center channel:

F1nut

Center channel speakers suffer from lobing which makes them localizable when listening to surround sound.

First off, any decent center channel addresses lobing by sending different frequency ranges to the 2 drivers thus eliminating that issue.

The center is the prominent speaker by design. It's where most of the dialogue is heard to center or anchor what you're watching. You should be able to localize it.

F1nut

jorge12 wrote: »

Rti-12 front,rear rti-10

The Reserve series will not timbre match your mains, so keep the CSi5. If you upgrade the crossovers you should do all 3 fronts.

jbreezy5

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jbreezy5

F1nut wrote: »

Center channel speakers suffer from lobing which makes them localizable when listening to surround sound.

First off, any decent center channel addresses lobing by sending different frequency ranges to the 2 drivers thus eliminating that issue.

The center is the prominent speaker by design. It's where most of the dialogue is heard to center or anchor what you're watching. You should be able to localize it.

I don’t agree, but the problem is most center channels don’t address this issue. If the CSi5 does, great!

Otherwise, my suggestion is a perfectly reasonable way of addressing the issue of lobing; it just bucks the trend with potentially superior soundstaging and imaging.

The RTi4 will timbre-match the RTi12 beautifully, and arguably better than the CSi5. It is part of the same series of speakers for one.

RTi12 and RTi4 both have 5 1/4” midrange and 1” tweeter configurations, their crossovers for mid/tweet are also more similar.

The larger slower midranges of the CSi5 also won’t be as seamless as the RTi4, as a result.
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I don’t entirely agree with your claim that the center channel should be localizable; I consider that to be conditionally true.

Example, when watching a movie that is predominantly story-based dialogue: dramas, comedies, and the like. Yes, of course, everyone can tell that most of the sound comes from the center channel.

But sensational films full of explosions, gunfire, left-to-right sonic panning, and fast moving sequences, are more enjoyable (to me) when a center channel is not localizable, because it breaks up the surround experience.

People can choose for themselves; there’s not only one right way to do things.

Just my $.02