Csi25 Center for R Series

jaharmon

My dad recently purchased a new CSi25 that matches perfectly with R50's and R30's from Fry's in Houston. Whats intresting is this speaker does not show up on the Polk Website, its a dual woofer Csi20 and sounds beautiful. I bought one on sale as well for 99$ since I have been looking for awhile now for a perfect center match for the r30's. Per the box it was manufactured in May. Anyone else get one of these, I assume Polk realized that their was still quite a demand for center channels to match up with the R series. Anyways If anyone knows all the details on why this unit was released so late I would be very curious to know! I dont know if its a limited release or anything; the Fry's rep said it was the perfect center for the R Series, and I verified it had the same silk polymer tweeter and woofers as the orginals.

I would call you local Frys if you are in the market for a center for this set and see if they have any in stock. Beats buying used on ebay for a Csi20/30/40. Take care.

RuSsMaN

Interesting, a pic or two would be nice.

Edit, it's listed on outpost, sure enough.

Ron Temple

That looks like a good solution. $100 would be a good price, $180 is a bit much when you can get the other Rs so cheaply. If my local Frys carries it, I'll audition. If it's a better match than the CSi3, I'll either keep it until I upgrade or put it back on the bay.

okiepolkie

I think someone was selling some(I think 3) of these on ebay within the last 3 months. I don't remember the price, but they described them as a cherry alternative to the CSi30 at the time.

Do you have pics of one of them?

Ron Temple

Local Frys does have a couple, but not on display. They are being brought back. I don't know for how long. The price was $180, so I passed. The only description I've seen is the one on Outpost. Few specs, but the design is definitely R.

Schris22

thats very interesting, especially because I just put together my R series system/CS1 together in the last month. At that price I rather take the CS1 though

I agree 100 would be a good match

Chris

Ron Temple

Chris I agree. The CS1 sounds great with the 50s so I wouldn't consider it.

jaharmon

After hearing it, I felt the Csi25 was a better match then the CS1 I brought previosuly. Both are excellent and if you ever plan to go for the tower Monitors the CS1 is the way to go. I could hear about a 30% diffrence with the CS1 and my old R15's on tonal quality. I recently picked up the R30's since they were on sale at Frys and went with the Csi25 midrange. I also noticed several articles online regading the Csi25 that were dated a number of years back. This unit has definetly been around, I am just suprised that its not listed with the others on the Polk website. I also havent seen it retail anywhere but Fry's. You would think if it was re-released that a number of audio stores would have it in stock. Anyways the manufacture date doesnt lie!

I am just moving into a new house so I will have the full speaker setup ready to go soon, and will let you know how everything does, I will be doing a 5.1 setup, with 4R30's and the CSi25 as the center. I may end up going 7.1 eventually with the r15's in the surround position.

With the R50's my dad configured the CSi25 sounded absolutely flawless, I was very impressed how clean the center sounded and how balanced the sound was. We watch a short LOR clip in DTS and were blown away by the clarity. They may be older generation speakers but for the price I dont think anything compares. Take care

Ron Temple

Glad to hear it sounds so good. There is definitely a mismatch between the lines. As retailers downplay the the R series and tell us that they are being closed out, it's nice to have a center choice, even briefly.

I think the Rs image well together, detailed and neutral with a hint of reverb compared to the Rtis (thats the only way I can describe the difference sonically between the CSi3 and my R50s), while the Rtis sound much more direct, accurate and bright. I listened to some Rti10s, 4s and a CSi3 briefly yesterday and they sounded like heaven together.

I guess my point is, it's best to stay within or close to your Polk line when choosing a center.

Rich86

I also have just purchased a csi25 from Fry's for $100 to replace the csi175 I had been using in my secondary/smaller system. The system now has a csi25 + R20's for the front, a pair of R15's for the rear and a 10" powered CSW subwoofer. It sounds better to me so far.
What I don't understand is why the csi25 isn't even recognized as being a Polk product anywhere in Polk's web site or literature. I can't find them mentioned anywhere even in the older product sections.
Also - why are the spec's included in the box no different than the csi175? One would think having 2, 5 1/4" drivers would surely extend the bottom end? It sounds like it goes deeper and is more open than the csi175?

jaharmon

I finally got everything hooked up, 5.1 Setup with 4 R30's, Csi25 center and my old polk sub, belive its the 202 model. Anyways, I couldnt be happier with the setup. The speakers sound correctly matched for the first time since I upgraded from my old sat System. I will probably be selling my CS1 on ebay in the next couple weeks. I have heard the Csi25 with both the R30's and R50's now, IMO the R50's give just a little bit more depth then the R30's. Since I have the sub this is really not an issue since it can take the load of the lower frequencies. I believe the diffrence between the R30's and R50's in the specs sheet is only 10hz on the low end of the spectrum. Listening to some fly by's in Episode 2 was incredible. I also like to test out using the opening sequence of Outbreak. Im ticktled to death with the performance of these speakers and still cant believe the prices at Frys. BTW R50's are onsale for 60$ right now. For about half the cost of my orginal system I got everything needed including a new reciever. Cant imagine needing an upgrade for a very very long time. Take care all, I appreicate all the help and advice!

Ron Temple

Another happy customer:)

Rich86

I've been listening and experimenting with my new secondary system setup. This started out with a pair of older R15's + a CS175i center channel in front only attached to a Pioneer VSX-D906S Dolby Digital receiver (no surrounds). I started upgrading it as I came across speakers at very inexpensive prices (mostly at the local Fry's). I picked up a newer pair of R15's and moved the older ones to the rear. Then I picked up a Cambridge Soundworks 10" powered sub. Then I bought a pair of R20's for the front - and moved the newer R15's to the rear. This made the cs175i really sound bad (of course it always sounded that way, but now it stood out like a sore thumb). Most recently, as stated above, I picked up a csi25 center to replace the cs175i. Now all sounds right again. The cost was very low, the improvements are very significant and what I am listening to now sounds balanced and really very good and even looks good as everything matches. It doesn't compete with our high powered Yamaha/M&K main system, but it is really very good given the cost especially. Of course now what to do with the old R15's and cs175i I started out with . . . . .