RT800 + CS1000p front stage?

frodaddy

I currently have R50's for the L/R, and right now my CSi40 is showing them up pretty bad. (After extended listening I've come to this conclusion, but in a previous post I stated otherwise.) My best friend is about to build a center channel so I will be picking up his CS1000p from him. We both agreed that the RT800's should be a good upgrade, and comparing the specs they seem like an almost perfect match.

But how seamless would my front stage be since the CS1000p has two extra woofers dedicated to 150Hz info and below? I'm worried that I'd notice that the center would have more defined bass than the RT800s. Also how would the tonal balance be?

Thanks for any help!

Dennis Gardner

The 800s and 1000p are good matches for each other, due to the timbre matched drivers. Much better than your R50/CSi40 rig now. Proper calibration takes away any balance issue.

The 1000p is a great center for multi-channel music, but I have found that the powered subs give the dialog in movies an unnatural chesty kind of sound. Peoples voices sound deeper than normal to me using the subs. With the subs off, it is basically a CS400 which isn't a bad thing either.

I'm sure that others that have owned the beast will no doubt call BS on my assessment since some just have to own the biggest & baddest stuff offered, but I found the 400, 350 and even the cascaded 40 all better than the 1000p.

frodaddy

Thanks for the reply. My best friend has his CS1000p configured to where the voices do not sound heavy. One day he showed me the difference between his setting and turning the bass up on them. I agree that the CS1000p can give an unnatural sound to voices if not properly setup. It is articulate enough for voices when setup properly, but provide enough low end dynamics when the soundtrack calls for it. Action sequences are taken to a whole new level with the cs1000p, and I can't wait to buy this from him.

I won some RT800's on e-bay today and paid $400 for them ($75 of that was shipping). That price might be a little high, but I hope that the reason they rarely go on sale is becuase they are just THAT GOOD. So it turns out that I will have the L/R speakers before I get the cs1000p! I hope these RT800's will blend well with my CSi40 in the meantime; I'm skeptical since they have a different tweeter.

Tour2ma

Hey, since he's your best friend, get him to bring it over and try it out.

He brings the CS1000p... you supply the beer.

EDIT: And early on in my Club Polk career my blood was up for a CS1000p... then I heard Polk's powered towers. Cured me. Very happy with my (now) twin CS400's. Of course, if my best friend...

Skynut

With the cs1000 you can feed the subs an LFE signal and it will not use the subs for the center signal.
I like to have the sub pulling center duty just so I get more range from my center.
your new setup should sound nice.

Good luck.

frodaddy

An update to this thread... I'm using RT800's for front and rear L/R channels and they sound great.

AND..... This weekend I'm buying my friend's cs1000p!! I'm really excited :cool:

frodaddy

I got it early and just got finished listening to several of my favorite demo scenes. I watched movies at my friend's house who I bought it from, but it's different when you get it into your own home and carefully evaluate it with your own material. This is one BAD mother trucker!! I can fully understand what all the hype is about now. Crisp highs, chest vibrating mid, and a low end to handle all the info in the soundtrack. I know there are better center channels out there, but the price can't be touched by same speakers in it's performance category.

frodaddy wrote:

But how seamless would my front stage be since the CS1000p has two extra woofers dedicated to 150Hz info and below? I'm worried that I'd notice that the center would have more defined bass than the RT800s. Also how would the tonal balance be?

I can finally answer my own question: It is seamless! The Jurassic Park T-Rex scene is one of my favorites to test tonal matching for the front stage. Dripping water on different surfaces, echos, rustling papers, a pissed off T-Rex, and an SUV being turned over are at times panning or a "phantom" speaker in between the center and L/R speakers. Every special effect, voice, and dino scream sounded perfectly matched no matter which speaker it originated from.

The bass response on the RT800s is surprisingly good. The big cabinet the 6.5" drivers are in allows for a low tune. Bass response on the cs1000p can be dialed in, so it really does mate well with the RT800s. I need to do some measured sweeps, but right now my ears tell me the RT800s have more extension but the cs1000p has more SPL.

Here is how I have it setup: I am feeding my cs1000p subwoofers with the center channel line output from my receiver (which is how Polk intended that input to be used). I also have all my speakers set to large.

So to finish this out, I haven't seen anyone try to use the cs1000p with RT800 mains but they really do sound great together. I know, big surprise since they are from the same family of speaker at the same timeframe. I'm happy with the system I've put together and feel it's a good blend of simplicity, cost effectiveness, and quality! Hopefully I won't get the upgrade-bug for a while!!

Skynut

Congrats on the new center.
It is nice to improve your system and enjoy it all over again.
From now on the up-grades get more and more expensive.