Speaker Stand Height and Stuff

Fly B

Greetings, all. I'm new to the board and naturally have a head full of questions.

I'm slowly but surely building an all-Polk speaker system for my Home Theatre. I've got the PSW350 Sub, the CS245i Center, and RT25i Fronts. Still using a JBL Flix set for Surrounds...more on that later.

My TV is fairly large, about 57 inches from base to top. Therefore the Center's tweeters and drivers sit just around the 5 ft (60 inches) mark. Here's the question: Is it more important to keep the tweeters/drivers of the Fronts at sitting ear level, or to try to keep them within 12 inches of the Center height? So far I've gathered that it would be crucial to keep the Fronts at ear level, and tilt the Center down toward the listening area to compensate. I'm trying to figure what height Speaker Stands to get....24, 26, 28, 31, or 42 inches (or higher?). Any thoughts?

And...this has been discussed here before, but I'll put it forth again: When upgrading my Surrounds, I was initially going to go with RT25i's, but it's been suggested that RT15i's or even R10's could get it done. Is voice matching as much of an issue for the Surrounds as it is for the Center/Fronts?

Thanks,

B

mjk91383

welcome to the forum!

i've currently got a pair of RT35i's in the front, and i'm using 20" sanus stands. this puts them about an inch below ear level when seated. for your 25i's, i would say either 24" or 28" would work nicely.

as for my center, i'm still using the remains of my RM7500 satellite system. it sits on top of my 60" philips hdtv, so like yours, it's about 5' off of the ground. i've considered going with a center channel stand so that i could put it right below the screen, but it works just fine up there at the top.

for surrounds, like i said above, i'm still using the 7500 satellites which are very similar to your 25's. in my opinion, for the money right now, it wouldn't hurt to have another pair of 25's in the back. 10's will cut the cost in half (just $100) but the 15i's would only save you $20-30.

with the old speakers being phased out, you might want to hurry up and get your hands on them. i'm in the process of trying to hunt down a CS400i at a local circuit city, but i've had no luck so far.

i haven't heard the new line, but i don't think the changes are that dramatic.

good luck, and make sure to follow up and let us know what you decide!

joe

kanicker

Try and keep all your front tweeters at ear level, but also all at all about the same height. I had a similar issue, and it was well resovled by tilting my center channel downward toward the listening position.

shack

I've got my rt55i on a 18" stand. This puts the tweeter about 35" off the ground. This seems to be just about where the tweeters on the towers are. It seems about right at "ear" level.

I would go for the rt25i. They are only a few bucks more than the rt15i (less than $200/pr). I say this and I am using the 15s as my back suround and they are an excellent speaker. I wanted the 25s but I had to use the 15s because of space consideration. The rt25i won Stereophile magazines budget speaker of the year award. Here is their review rt25i review .

I also think there is something to be said for having all of the speakers the same. I am considering getting another pair of rt55is and put them on stands as my back surrounds (We have a WAF issue here though). Here is another review from Sound And Vision where they have the exact setup you are considering HERE
Either way you can't go wrong!

Fly B

Thanks, everyone.

I guess I'll be looking for 28" to 31" stands at the local Best Buy this weekend.

And I'll keep an eye out in the coming weeks/months online and in catalogs for specials on the RT25i's.