System setup advice

Devildog

Hi,
I'm another new member here and have been lurking for a few days trying to glean some advice without asking the same old questions over and over. My question is regarding a setup where I want to use some of my older (ancient) equipment together with my new Polks. I have RT2000s for FL and FR, CS1000 for center, F/X 1000's for surround and F/X 500's for center rear. I'm using a Denon 4800AVR as my receiver and I want to use two old (but still fully functional) Phase Linear 400's to drive the FR and FL. I could biwire the FR and FL and Center (using three of the four outputs) or biamp the FR and FL, driving the Center and the rest with the Denon. Sorry for the long post but could you guys please tell me how you would handle this? I'd be very grateful. Thank you in advance. Rick

CHRIS

I would try the amp with the front ‘L’&‘R’ useing a ‘Y’ splitter for the 2000s subs. Power the center with the receiver and the preout going to the sub on the CS1000. See how t sounds if YOU don't like it try it the other way. What sounds best to you is right.

mantis

Develdog,first let me say thats a very nice system you spec'd out and witha little time, you will be on your way.
1.Don't use the amp's to power your mains as this will cause a tonal imbalance when your watching movies,or listening to multichannel music.The Denon avr4800 has plenty of power to drive your system to reference level's.
2.If you have biwires for the front's,use them and take out the jumper's.This will give you the best performance and keep it simple.Adjust the sub to blend in with music you know very well and not let the built in sub's over power the mid's and high's as they can.Most people set this level to high and get poor responce.
3.The center should be biwired as well with the same kind of wire your main's have.Also take the jumper's out and tweak the sub to sound natural,blended so you can't hear the sub's go but support low bass.
4.The reard should also be biwired with the same kind of wire.Here's an example.If you own Transparent Musicwave biwires for the front 3,then you should run Transparent the upgradable 12x4 or 14x4 with the brick's terminated at the speaker end.Or if you own Monstercable M1.4's biwire for the front 4,you should buy M1.4 bulk wire and run it to the rears.
my piont is tonal quality as it will shift from wire to wire.
5.Break in the system with test tone or music for at least 40 to 80 hours before you should expect transparent sound stage and purity from speaker to speaker.Level adjustment's are very important,use a spl meter,then tweak the system after you setup with a meter,this will give you a great starting place.Most people will be very happy with the meter setup,but I have found it not to be as good for the whole room.

mantis

Sorry I hit Post before i was finished with my post,
well back to what I was saying,
The meter is a great start,but you can tweak it up to suit your need's.
If you love your old amps and think that the rt2000p's sound better then the denon does,you should find more of those amps to power the intire system and use the Denon as a preamp.
You could alway's use the old amps for just 2 channel playback,leave some interconnect's behind the system and rewire it for 2 channel playback.This is what I used to do,I own a Denon avr3801,rt1000p's and also have a B&K st140 that I love for 2 channel music.I have a set of straight wire chorus that I use to connect to the Denon Preout's and rerunmy main's to the amp,then switch back for movie and DVD-Audio and SACD playback.This was cool for a while but now I upgraded my system with Transparent wire and found no need to keep installing and unstalling my amp.The Denon Mates extremely well with Polk,I think it's the best match under 3,000.00 buck's The B&K avr307 mates better,but it cost a ton more,even more than your 4800.
If you need more help you can E-Mail me and or if you have Instant messenger with AOL or Compuserve,we would talk some more.
Best of luck with your system and I hope this help's you out.
Dan

Devildog

Thanks so much Dan and Chris,
As you guys can tell, I'm not an audiophile or videophile but just love music and videos. The extent of my electronics knowledge is still back in the 60's in the Marines (F-4 Phantoms, communication and navigation electronics) so the best I can do is read and try to pick up tips from you guys. I'm still waiting for some interconnects to arrive and then I'll jump in. The 4800 only has five channels so I'll need an amp to drive the F/X 500's in the rear. Would a smaller Denon amp be better or can I just use one of the Phase 400's since the rear doesn't get that much signal anyway and the 500's can't be biwired. I have a pair of old JBL L65 Jubals in the rear corners of the room too. I was going to use them for music playback only, but maybe the Polks will do just fine and I'll just have some extra gear to put on eBay. Anyway, thanks and I hope everyone has a very happy holiday. Rick

mantis

Rick,
the fx/1000 are biwired but the fx/500 are not you are correct.But just make sure you use the same wire class for the fx/500,just use the 2 conductor wire of the same series and your theater will scream.Denon makes a matching amp you can buy,I think you should go that way,If money is a problem,then use your amp untill you can get the Denon.Have fun !!
Dan

Devildog

Dan,
Thanks. I was sort of leaning that way, towards a Denon POA-5200. It has A-B switching (so I could use it for either the rear F/X 500's and/or the JBL's. It also links to the 4800 for remote on/off. The Phase Linears don't have either of these features (no on/off, so you need switched plugs). Guess I'll have to sell the Phase 400's along with their matching pre-amp. It was great and there's still a bunch of Bob Carver cultists who will want them. From what I can see, the same kind of loyalty is here with the Polk equipment. Great place to share information. Glad I bought Polks. Take care, Rick

joe logston

wecome to the polk forum devildog; i would try like chris, but i would do a little defferent, run rca from your denon mains pre out to your amp the phaseliner 400 , then take jumpers off the rt2000 , then run rca lfe out of denon to the rt2000 sub , if you get or have another sub use the rca out put from your rt-2000 , and start your set up. you can still run your mains large. wend you listen to music on two channel you wont loose nothing , just set your sub acording to what you like

ps devildog is your rt-2000 a ( p ) = rt-2000p


thats what i do but i use my rt-20p as surounds ,the rt-20 is about the same as the rt-2000.

Devildog

Hi Joe,
The serials numbers on the back say they're RT2000i's. Thank you for your input. Rick

joe logston

yes the p stands for powerd tower is yours powerd sub

Devildog

Hi Joe,
Yes, the front mains and the center all have powered subs. I hope this isn't overkill with the PSW650 in the mix. I'm biwiring all three (RF, C, LF) with the same monster cables but I read in the speaker manual that you can also make a line level connection in addition to the biwiring to the sub-in on the speakers. You then have to set the receiver for "Subwoofer - Yes". I'm confused as the what this does. Can you help? Rick

joe logston

no its not over kill my rt-20p are about like your rt-2000s. there are a lot of ways you can set it up, you can run them straight with jumpers in, or take jumpers off and use 2 spliters at the lfe rca out put on receiver run one to psw-650 , and run two rca to each rt-2000s, if you are going to get a denon poa- 5200 amp i would run the p- towers straight with jumpers on that amp will handel it real good, if you dont run it with the jumpers off. and set it small your mains, run your center large. run your surounds small. but you got to try them all and see what you like.one good thing you can change it any time.