Center Spkr For R30 Setup

dipiazza

I am trying to decide which polk center would be best to match with this setup, right now I have...

Reciever: Pioneer VSX-D914
Fronts: Polk R30
Surrounds: Polk R30
Subwoofer: Polk psw303

Which center would be best to match with this setup without spending too much.

Thanks for the imput.

Shizelbs

CSi20

dipiazza

I realize that polk recommends the csi20 but its not for sale new anywhere. and finding a reliable used one is difficult.

other options?

trees

There are used CSi20s out there. I just upgraded to LSis and sold my R system. I sold my CSi20, new condition, for $100 to a coworker.

More relevant, I was not impressed that much with the sound of the CSi20. I've seen some recommending that folks just use one or two R15s for the center channel. My opinion is the the R20 sounds much better than the R15. Do you have space for one or two 20s?

Trees

CA-AVR330

I strongly urge you to buy a csi40, not a csi20.
PLEASE. :eek:

TheReaper

An R20 does work as a center. With my R50s I ran a single R20 as a center for 6 months.

dipiazza

Let me update you all on what my situation is, i am a student living in a dorm room at the University of Maryland, so my space is very limited which is why i would like to use a center channel speaker in this situation.

Would the Csi3 be a good match?

Im trying to spend $200 Max.

Thanks

RawDeal

You'll probably find some good discussion on this if you look through some past posts as finding a center for the R series has been a common concern recently. I started a thread maybe a month ago on a center to match the R50's and some good discussion followed.

I'll leave the subjective listening tests out as I haven't compared all the possible options and those I have compared haven't been in ideal environments. But here's the breakdown of what I've learned, roughly in the order I recommend them, but your priorities may differ:



**CSi20 - The only center speaker actually designed to go with the R series. It's the only one which uses the same drivers (in particular tweeter). Seems to be out of production, but you certainly should be able to pick up one (possibly even new) off Ebay. I would think it would be an excellent match for the R30's as it has exactly the same driver configuration. Since I use my system mostly for HT where much of the program goes to the center, I was a bit concerned whether the CSi20 would be a bit overpowered by the R50's, especially in demanding movie soundtracks at relatively high levels.

**Another R-series speaker. As others have mentioned, unless space or asthetics prevent it, there's no reason not to use a main speaker as your center. In your case, another R30 would the best (can't get a better match than identical speakers), but not everybody has space for an R30 as a center, also the port makes the speaker asymetrical on it's side and thus doesn't always look great. An R20 should also be excellent as it is really an R30 in a smaller cabinet. An R15 would be a third choice, but should also sound good with the R30's.

**CS1 & CS2 - According to Polk, the monitor series is the replacement for the R-series and has very similar tonal characteristics. Thus, if you're looking to get a current model, these should probably be your first choices.

**CSi30 & CSi40 - In some of the Polk literature, these two centers are recommended for higher-end R series setups. But in truth they aren't really designed to match the R series, rather the RTi series. I think this is a bit of shortcut by Polk, instead of offering a higher-end center for the R-series, they borrowed one from a similar line. Still, I think the match would be quite good and the CSi30 & CSi40 might be a better choice than the CSi20 if you plan to drive the speakers hard.

**CSi3 & CSi5 - Polk kind of copped out in their descriptions by claiming these are timbre-matched to ANY Polk system, they're really designed to go with the RTi series. Clearly the different lines have different character and the CSi3 & 5 can't match them all. But all Polk's do seem to have some similar characteristics, so the CSi3 & 5 will still probably be better matched to the R30's than 95% of the center speakers out there and several people on this forum have had good success with these. In terms of timbre-matching, these are probably comparable to the CSi30 & 40 since all are designed to match the similar but not identical RTi line.




Hopefully this info gives you some options. Your choice will depend on personal preferences: How loud are you going to play them? How much space do you have? How important are looks relative to sound quality? How much do you want to spend? How important is the sound quality of the center channel relative to having a seamless match with your mains? etc.

Good luck.

dipiazza

Thanks, that was very helpfull.

dipiazza

I have decided to go with a pair of R20s, one will be a center the other a rear center. 6.1! Thansk for the help all!

CA-AVR330

Good luck

I love polk's seeming versatility and ease of purchase.