Speaker System Advice

CLR62

I was advised my original post was in the wrong place, so am reposting here (along with TonyB response). Apologies if already viewed. Thanks, Chris


Hello,

Last week I had the following system installed to be used for both TV viewing and music:

Pioneer VSX 84TXSI AV Receiver
Polk LSi15 front speakers
Polk RM6902/RM202 center
Polk PSW404 sub

I did not elect to go with rear surround speakers because the tv is in my living room and I wanted to minimze the numer of speakers at my wife's request. Also, because of space contstraints, I elected to go with a small center channel (the TV is over the fireplace and I wanted to avoid having a gigantic center speaker underneath it). All of the quipment was professionally installed.

I have had a chance to listen to the system a few days and I have some concerns, as folows:

(1) The center speaker may not be up to the challenge of the LSi15s. I am a novice at this but am reading about timbre matching and have some concerns that these speakers may not be a good match.
Any thoughts or suggestions suggestions (including in wall center options)?

(2) I am finding that I miss not having the rear surrounds. I have an old set of polk satellite speakers (don't recall the model, but they are 2000 vintage $700 system speakers). Would these work as rear surrounds, or would I need to get entirely new speakers (I have read timbre matching doesnt matter as much with rear speaker)?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Chris


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Today, 01:57 PM #2
tonyb
Polkazoid


Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 664

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Hmmmm.....I see a few things wrong with your post.
YOUR POSTING IN THE WRONG SPOT!!!
You didn't give too much thought as to your needs and what you need in the way of gear to reach those needs.If your wife is upset over the amount of speakers in your living room,you should have gone in ceiling or in wall speakers.You must keep the lady happy.Your pioneer avr is not going to do justice to those LSI 15's.Your center is mismatched terribly and who installed this without any thought or guideance to your needs or the sound???Now that I'm off the soap box,Welcome!!!Well my friend,lets start from scratch.Give us your room dimensions,your preference to HT or music or both.Ceilling height,If your tv is over the fireplace,your limited to in-ceilling,OR just go no center and I think you will like it better.I take it you like the sound of the LSI'S,how far apart are they?Against a wall?Off the top of my head,and if I was you,here is what I would do.Do not use that center,just run the center from the front left and right speakers.Do an in-ceilling option for the rear if at all possible.Or the lsifx if the wife is ok with it....very important.Get a seperate amp for those LSI's to bring out the real beauty of what they can do.And lastly....never buy a thing from the company that sold and/or installed your gear.....pisses me off that they will just sell you anything instead of helping you achieve your goals.
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Today, 02:54 PM #3
CLR62
Polkie


Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 0

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Tonyb,
Thanks for the response. The LR is approximately 25 by 25, but one the rear left corner (that is to say, behind you as you are seated viewing the TV) juts out into another small area which results in the room not being a perfectly square and complicates the placement of rear surrounds.

I will use the system more for TV than music, but defintely want the music to be top notch when I play it.

The LSI15s are on ether side of the fireplace and so are around 7 feet apart (they can't be much further apart, because of a passageway on one side of the fireplace) They are approximately 2 feet away from the rear wall (the fireplace sticks out from the rear wall) and the subwoofer is directly behind the front right speaker against the rear wall. The center is on the mantlepiece (around 4 1/2 feet high) and the TV is approx. 2 inches above the center (or 8 inches above the mantlepiece). Ceilings are 9ft high.

I do like the LSi15s; they sound great, at least when playing cds. I have been a bit underwhelmed with the sound when I am watching TV. Its not terrible, just not what I expected given the cost of the system.

I elected to go with the small center because of space; only after it was installed last friday and I listened and thought "Is that all?" did I really research it and find out it was from a more modest system and probably not matched to the LSi15s. I initially did not go with rear surrounds because we plan on building a theater in the basement and did not want to go overboard in the living room. That said, I miss the rear surrounds

Assuming I want to keep the receiver and LSI15s, and large rear surrounds are not ideal given the room configuration, what are:

Best options for center (freestanding and in wall or just Lsi15s) How deep are inwalls?

Best options for rear (in ceiling or in wall)?

I am assuming the old polk speakers are a "no go" for rear

Any other advice on placement (particularly for subwoofer), although I am somewhat limited by placement constraints for the Lsi15s.

Finally, this is my first experience with a high end (at least for me) system and also my first experience with a programmed universal remote. I mention this because unlike previous systems, I am somewhat at the mercy of the installers when it comes to changing stuff around and have it continue to work/fit together.

Thanks very much.

pblanc

I have no experience with that center channel speaker but I strongly suspect that it is dragging your LSi15s down. Your placement of the LSi15s sounds fine: 7 foot separation and 2 feet from the walls should do just fine. An LSiC center channel speaker would be about 2.5 inches higher and not quite 5 inches deeper than your current center. It would be considerably wider, but I'm guessing that wouldn't make a difference. If you can accept the larger size of the LSiC I would say that would be the way to go. If not, I would go with a phantom center channel. The LSi15s image quite well and I bet if you disconnect your current center and reset your receiver to phantom center channel mode, your system will immediately sound better (give it a try and see). You will miss a lot without surrounds if you like movies. The LSiFXs are superb surround speakers. My left surround is positioned much further away from my listening position than the R surround and it doesn't make much difference as long as you use your receiver processing to adjust for the speaker distance and balance the volume. LSi7s might not be bad for surrounds since they can be wall mounted, as can the LSiFx. You can certainly use a different model/brand of speaker for your surrounds with less adverse effect than having a mixed center/main setup. I used RT25s as surround speakers and LSis in front and I thought it sounded just fine. I was suprised, though, when I switched to LSiFX surrounds how much better it sounded. If you plan to use any of the LSi series as surrounds, however, make sure your receiver can handle the 4 ohm load. Some receivers can handle 4 ohm mains and centers but require 6 ohm or greater load on the surround channels.

Pepi28

The reason the LSi's did not amaze you while watching tv was most likely your receiver. The LSi line needs to be fed alot of juice and your receiver definitely is not giving it. Buy a seperate amp for them. As for a center get rid of your current one and just use the fronts as a phantom center. The LSi center wont fit in the space your current center occupies if your measurements are accurate. Before you do anything though I suggest you purchase a sep amp to drive those LSi 15's.