Polk CS400i's vs 5jr?
Comments
-
Does anyone have any knowledge if some inexpensive aftermarket jumper cables would further increase the performance of these speakers?
-
-
-
Found these. They may have different sizes. Parts Express or Simply Speaker or others may have what your looking for. Especially if your using speaker cable .. -
Does anyone have any knowledge if some inexpensive aftermarket jumper cables would further increase the performance of these speakers?
Speaker cable is better than jumper plates, IMO. I make mine from the same cable as my speaker cables.
Out of curiosity I looked online and saw a lot of jumper cables obviously made in China. I would avoid those at all cost as you never know what crap metal they are using.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 -
Does anyone have any knowledge if some inexpensive aftermarket jumper cables would further increase the performance of these speakers?
Speaker cable is better than jumper plates, IMO. I make mine from the same cable as my speaker cables.
Out of curiosity I looked online and saw a lot of jumper cables obviously made in China. I would avoid those at all cost as you never know what crap metal they are using.
Thanks Jesse! Yeah on the not knowing what kind of crap wire you could be getting. Will look into putting some quality speaker wire in the jumper position soon. -
boston1450 wrote: » Found these. They may have different sizes. Parts Express or Simply Speaker or others may have what your looking for. Especially if your using speaker cable
Thanks. Going to be looking to be using speaker wire instead of plates. -
Does anyone have any knowledge if some inexpensive aftermarket jumper cables would further increase the performance of these speakers?
Speaker cable is better than jumper plates, IMO. I make mine from the same cable as my speaker cables.
Out of curiosity I looked online and saw a lot of jumper cables obviously made in China. I would avoid those at all cost as you never know what crap metal they are using.
I remembered this story from the 80's to give Jesse's comment re using crap metal some reality. Link to story from UPI Archives April 2, 1984
Radioactive tables recovered in 40 states
WASHINGTON -- The government says tables made with radioactive scrap metal have been found in 40 states and are being shipped back to the Mexican company that produced them, but officials fear that a similar incident cannot be guarded against.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said at a briefing Monday recovery of the tables with legs and pedestals made with castings contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60 is '99 percent complete.' ....."Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"Anger is just anger. It isn’t good. It isn’t bad. It just is. What you do with it is what matters.
You can use it to build or to destroy. You just have to make the choice. Jim Butcher
Harry / Marietta GA -
After listening for a good portion of the day and tweaking. Have ended up with a smiley curve from about 3khz to 8khz. The main offender was definitely 5khz. Initially i was surprised how great they sounded then started to notice that sizzle hitting my eardrums and i needed to do something about that. Glad i could correct it with eq for the most part. Maybe a crossover tweak would do more but i am not that savvy or knowledgeable as to what that would be. Can definitely live with these tweeters like this. Was living with the SL1000 tweets on the 5jr's.....soooooooo...hah. Had those pointing not directly at me at all however. Neither are these. Definitely blowing by my shoulders and still getting good center imaging.
I'm glad you like them in this use. I tried this once and was VERY underwhelmed and disappointed. The treble was way too much and the bass was thin compared to my Polk Rt7s I was using at the time. I sold the extra and just kept using one as a center. Excellent center channel though!Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
Game Room 5.1.4: Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
Bedroom 2.1 Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
BlueBirdMusic wrote: »Does anyone have any knowledge if some inexpensive aftermarket jumper cables would further increase the performance of these speakers?
Speaker cable is better than jumper plates, IMO. I make mine from the same cable as my speaker cables.
Out of curiosity I looked online and saw a lot of jumper cables obviously made in China. I would avoid those at all cost as you never know what crap metal they are using.
I remembered this story from the 80's to give Jesse's comment re using crap metal some reality. Link to story from UPI Archives April 2, 1984
Radioactive tables recovered in 40 states
WASHINGTON -- The government says tables made with radioactive scrap metal have been found in 40 states and are being shipped back to the Mexican company that produced them, but officials fear that a similar incident cannot be guarded against.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said at a briefing Monday recovery of the tables with legs and pedestals made with castings contaminated with radioactive cobalt-60 is '99 percent complete.' .....
Wow! Crazy -
After listening for a good portion of the day and tweaking. Have ended up with a smiley curve from about 3khz to 8khz. The main offender was definitely 5khz. Initially i was surprised how great they sounded then started to notice that sizzle hitting my eardrums and i needed to do something about that. Glad i could correct it with eq for the most part. Maybe a crossover tweak would do more but i am not that savvy or knowledgeable as to what that would be. Can definitely live with these tweeters like this. Was living with the SL1000 tweets on the 5jr's.....soooooooo...hah. Had those pointing not directly at me at all however. Neither are these. Definitely blowing by my shoulders and still getting good center imaging.
I'm glad you like them in this use. I tried this once and was VERY underwhelmed and disappointed. The treble was way too much and the bass was thin compared to my Polk Rt7s I was using at the time. I sold the extra and just kept using one as a center. Excellent center channel though!
Well without that EQ that i applied the treble did become fatiguing. After....they sound phenomenal! The CS400's I received and am listening to as i type are anything but lacking in bass. In fact i am kind of in disbelief how good the bass sounds. That tight and warm thump of the kick drum is extraordinary. Perfect integration with the bass guitar on the track i am listening to. Bringing down those treble frequencies also made the mids sound so much more integrated as well. Totally satisfied!! Not even sure I feel the need to dabble with jumper cables after further listening today. "Searching for the sound" though right. Will probably have to experiment just to see what that may bring to the sonic table. -
boston1450 wrote: » Found these. They may have different sizes. Parts Express or Simply Speaker or others may have what your looking for. Especially if your using speaker cable
Thanks. Going to be looking to be using speaker wire instead of plates.
That's why I suggested clean speaker wire. Wasn't sure if you were using cables with plug in banana's & wouldn't be able to use speaker wire also. KooL.. -
You should try the other way around. After listening to the center channel pretend 2 channel speakers for a while switch back to the Monitor 5's & see what you think.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
You should try the other way around. After listening to the center channel pretend 2 channel speakers for a while switch back to the Monitor 5's & see what you think.
Down the road i will most likely do that. For right now though, it is no contest. The CS400's in this position are the clear winners for me. Clear sounding with great mids and tight bass. Excellent soundstage. The 5jr's couldn't pull all of this off. That being said, they sounded great but after getting these in place I now know what their limitations were. The CS400's nearest rear corner is 11" from the front wall and then i have them angled so that the left rear corner is 14" from the front wall. The tweeters would intersect a few feet behind my head. Seems far i guess but the sound stage sounds great and center imaging is excellent like this. Was really concerned that that rear bass port was going to be doing some gawd awful things back there. NOPE....sounds beautiful! Actually perfect to my ears. The sound is just filled in so nicely, and as mentioned, it is not boomy or muddy bass but accurate sounding bass. I can't tolerate muddy or any overbearing boomy bass. That was one of the first things i noticed actually was how good the bass/lowmids sounded. -
Also wanted to add. I was having a difficult time with just getting everything perfectly balanced regarding stereo imaging. Always seem to have a hard time getting it perfect in this room and find myself measuring speakers from the wall and moving slightly this way or that way until i finally get it right.
Today i was feeling like i didn't have it locked in perfectly. Went to Youtube and searched for a mono track. One of the first things to pop up was "A Day in the Life" mono version on "The Beatles" Youtube channel. Listened to that and adjusted the speakers to where that was sounding perfect mono as i could get it. The measurements were not equal at all from speaker to speaker off the front wall. Probably my own ear imbalance. Went to their channel and started playing some of their stereo mixed songs and BAM...totally locked in!
They have some GREAT sounding vids up on their channel. I don't care if it is Youtube compression....those tracks sound goood. Try the "Come Together" that has the cartoon psychedelic...ish vid of theirs. Sounds AMAZING and the stereo perfect now! Wow...their is no way in Heck the 5jr's could pull off the sound that these CS400's are doing. Ringo's drums are tight punchy and crazy good on these. Wow! I love the 5jr's but these things have taken that up a serious notch. Holy crap...yeah! -
I’ve always been impressed with the CS400, but I used it as a center. The big bookshelf equivalent I ran it with are the RT55, which are equally impressive (for their price range, and current used prices). Exactly for the reasons you describe.
I may have missed what you power them with, but I’ve found that they love NAD power (even just a receiver on its own, without an external amp), as well as the diminutive Jolida 1301-A Hybrid Amp (solid state & tubes).Alea jacta est! -
I’ve always been impressed with the CS400, but I used it as a center. The big bookshelf equivalent I ran it with are the RT55, which are equally impressive (for their price range, and current used prices). Exactly for the reasons you describe.
I may have missed what you power them with, but I’ve found that they love NAD power (even just a receiver on its own, without an external amp), as well as the diminutive Jolida 1301-A Hybrid Amp (solid state & tubes).
Nice! Are you still using the RT55's or have you moved on?
Never did mention what i power them with. Late 2012 Mac Mini > Ifi Zen Dac V1 > Suca Audio Tube Buffer > Mackie 10" powered sub > Aiyima A07 amplifier. Thought i would give the Aiyima a shot since it was so affordable and i was reading great things about it. Figured I could always return it if the hype was BS. Well this amp is incredible and is not going anywhere! I purchased a Red Wine Audio (Vinnie Rossi) Signature 30 chip amp when they first came out. That sounded good but the constant battery drain was a pain and i retired it. Vinnie recently said he could put a line stage in it for $400 plus shipping both ways. Since technology has moved forward in leaps and bounds, and at close to $500, I passed.
Thought i would give the Aiyima a shot for $80. Chip amps have come a LONG way. This thing is so much better sounding than the RWA amp. That was good for it's day but this is much better and fine myself lacking nothing. I use to have a bunch of tube gear ....SET George Wright amps with Sophia 300B tubes, running large horn speakers. I am very well aware of what a decent tonal balance sounds like and this Aiyima is killing it. Ridiculous actually. Not even close to running out of gas at the desk. Not sterile sounding AT ALL(surprised!!!). Have the Aiyima set at a smidge over NOON and running the volume of the Zen Dac's variable volume control (high gain) that is loud at 10-11o'clock depending on source. No discernible sonic stress anywhere when getting loud. Listed power specs are overblown on the Aiyima. Reality folks have gathered are more like 75w/per at 4ohms and 55ish/per at 8ohms. It's all the clean power i need to wake any speakers up i have tried here.... that is for sure. Really kind of ridiculous due it's diminutive size. Time will tell how it holds up. -
Thanks for your comments on these speakers! I've got the CS400i as a center in my basement between two RT55i's and I love them! I recently picked up a pair of 5jr's with the passive radiator for my daughter, but have only had them hooked up for about 30 minutes so far. The cabinets need some TLC before I give them to her for her birthday. Anyway, my initial impressions are similar to yours, the 5jr's are great, but the 55i's just reach lower. I don't notice any issue with tweeter fatigue, but that's probably due to the crossover in the 55i as opposed to the CS400i. I do need to give the 5jr a longer listen with a better amp, I really just wanted to make sure they were in working order before I started cleaning them up for my daughter. I also got her a smaller Dayton Audio class D amp for her bedroom, looking forward to having it all together and giving it a listen.Family Room 7.2.4: S35, S60, S10, MM2104 endtables, TL1
Basement 5.1.2: CS400i, RT55i, RT25, PSW450, MC60
Living Room Stereo: SDA 2a -
Just wanted to add this for anyone that may read through this thread in the future. I ordered a set of decent jumper cables to replace the plates (brass?) that were on there. Put them on a few days ago. I immediately noticed the highs sounding better. Adjusted the eq again to compensate. Much smoother with the added jumpers which are supposedly 99.9% OFC. Still a very bright tweeter but able to be more accurately tamed now. Find myself able to dial it in much better with this jumper in place. I had success with jumpers on the Mirage floorstanders in my living room so figured I would try them with the CS400's. Thumbs up!
These should do. Jk. Try some clean wire.
