Inwall combo options - what diff will I hear?

kproegler

I am planning a 5:1 speaker setup for a new home. Brands narrowed to Polk, RBH and Speakercraft. I have identified several combinations in the Polk line, and I am not sure I understand the perceivable differences.

Finding inwall setups to listen to is difficult...hope you can at least help me narrow options!

Here is my basic situation:

-- Great room is about 16x17, with a vaulted (18')ceiling. So on the order of 5000 cubic feet in the direct listening area. It is also pretty open on one side to kitchen and loft, and on the back to a stairway.

-- My intention is a 5:1 system. Front and rears already prewired as inwall. Center to be on top of TV, sub somewhere. My intention is to have the space look more like a living room than an AV or HT room, hence the inwalls.

-- I want to make sure music (orchestral, pipe organ, harpsichord, celtic, easy listening, classic rock and more) sounds wonderful - at both background levels as well as high volume. TV and movies, too - but I think if music is well-reproduced the rest will take care of itself.

-- My receiver is a Yamaha RX-V750. Min RMS 7.1 100W discrete at 8 ohm. I take advantage of its ability to take normal stereo and convert to 5:1.

I expect subwoofer for that sized space to be Velodyne or SVS - and thanks to posters in these forums for those leads.

Polk combos for the rest follow.

A: LC265i fronts; LC65i rears; LSiC center
B: LC65i fronts; LC65i reares; LSiC center
C: TC265i fronts; TC65i rears; CSi5 center
TC65i fronts; TC615i rears; CSi5 center
E: RC85i fronts; RC65i rears; CSi5 center

There is a wide range of prices represented above. How well will "E" meet my needs? How will "A" be different?

dragon1952

Mine have yet to be installed but I went with the RC85i's x 5. Your dimensions are pretty similar (if not exact) to mine. My situation is different. I have a nice 2-channel system in a dedicated room so music was not a priority, only as background. HT was the main priority and I just felt the RC line would be OK for that. For you, I'm not sure it would be. If you want 'wonderful' you would probably want to go with the best you can afford. I just didn't want to spend gobs of money on mine as I have 2 other more important (to me) hobbies (2-channel system and guitars). The 'LC' series uses the ring radiator tweeters and better drivers like in the LSi series so would be more likely to give you what you were looking for. Then again, not sure what 'wonderful' means to you as that is very subjective and depends on what you are used to and how critical of a listener you are. 'RC' might be wonderful to some (hopefully they will suprise me) The 'LC' series are definitely going to be more difficult to drive however, although I think the Yamaha's can handle the 4ohm load I don't know to what sound levels.
BTW, if you are familiar with the Polk bookshelf/floorstanding lines, the RC's are on par with the lower priced Monitor series, the 'TC''s with the Rti's and the 'LC's with the top of the line 'Lsi's. I would guess there would be a big difference between the RC/TC models compared to the LC models, especially for music.
Of course the final product will be highly dependant on your amplification and sources. Most people here probably wouldn't think all that highly of the Yamaha for amplification (it's what I'll be using for my HT though) and you don't mention your source(s).

reeltrouble1

KPR,

Welcome to Club Polk.

Ok, I am the grinch. Sorry.

Your statement about music being glorious, is commendable.

If you want that then the LCi265 are the minimum.

I would suggest the

LCi-RTS lineup though

LCi RTS 105 fronts
LCi RTS-C center
Lci RTS-FX surrounds

You are going to need a better receiver if you really want glorious. If you want ok, well then OK.

If a A/V receiver you must, then the NAD line is a place start. Another would be Outlaw and Parasound, they sound different from each other. These are very solid mid-line companies, true glory costs alot, there are others above these, look at Krell, Meridian to name a couple.

Have a ball though and in the end everything you suggested above will sound nice, Polk does make junk products at any level.

RT1

kproegler

dragon1952 wrote: »

If you want 'wonderful' you would probably want to go with the best you can afford. I just didn't want to spend gobs of money on mine as I have 2 other more important (to me) hobbies (2-channel system and guitars). .... Most people here probably wouldn't think all that highly of the Yamaha for amplification ....

Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for reminder on other hobbies, which enter into the "what can you afford". With inwalls being hard to audition ahead of time (especially in comparable space) and presumably at the very least inconvenient to upgrade, I may end up erring on the high side for this hobby:(

Agree that the sense of these forums is that I will need to add an amp. From the discussions, it seems that a) this will be self evident once I have all else in place and b) I can go ahead and add it at that time. Agree, all?

My main reason for the AV receiver I have was mainly as a switch. Prior setup had all manner of switches and couplers among sources (cassette, reel to reel, turntable, CD, VCR, PC...) and outputs (.....) - to the point that it was hard for family to figure out even with cheat sheet.

dragon1952

I personally think the Yamahas are great processors for HT...maybe the best of the comparable brands in that department. I just got the RX-V659 specifically for HT and it's multi-channel processing. None of them are going to be 'stellar' at amplification IMO though. Easy enough to remedy though, as you mention. If it doesn't do the trick for you I would still keep it for it's good qualities and add external amplification if necessary.
You're right about in-walls being a crap shoot. You pretty much have to take a shot with a quality manufacturer and hope for the best.
Let us know how it all plays out.

kproegler

dragon1952 wrote: »

You pretty much have to take a shot with a quality manufacturer and hope for the best.

I know this is a Polk forum, but if anyone can say anything about RBH or Speakercraft relative to Polk, I'd appreciate it. Head to head inwall reviews with these are sparse.

From a non-audio perspective, Polk gets high marks for customer service and support, but only has 5 year warranty. RBH inwalls typ 25 year warranty, Speakercraft lifetime.

dragon1952

I was looking at the Speakercraft's as well as the Boston Acoustic DSi480's and these Dayton's http://www.av-cables.net/in-wall-speakers/speakers-300-286.html

The Bostons and Polk RC85i's were both around $220 shipped per pair on Ebay. I was about to take a shot on the Dayton's when I found the Polks on Ebay for about $175 shipped. The Speakercrafts looked interesting though.
The RC85i's are still going for $220 shipped but it looks like the Bostons are down to around $205 shipped. I wanted the 8" drivers and the Speakercraft MT8 would have been more than I cared to spend for a brand I didn't know much about.
I don't remember running across the RBH's. And who knows how any of them compare. There's probably more info on the Polks than anything else. You probably won't get a heck of a lot of input here. I think only a few of us use in-walls at all and a couple of us don't have them up and running yet.

TheWick

I'm in the same boat as Dragon on this one have RC85i x 6 ready to go into a very similar sized room. The only difference is my use is 90% HT so I couldn't justify the extra expense of the higher end models. For the deals you can get on ebay for the RC's they seem to be a heck of a bargain...I guess I'll see in another 6 weeks or so. Good luck in whatever you decide. Do you plan on doing any type of enclosures inside the walls? I'm still up in the air on what I'll do.

Cheers

Randy

dragon1952

Welcome to the foray! For the record, I plan to do what many suggest by placing a 2x4 1' above and below the speaker and filling the space with insulation.

kproegler

TheWick wrote: »

Do you plan on doing any type of enclosures inside the walls?

No. Decision was easy since walls were up and finished before I realized this was even a consideration.

Even so, based on research across various forums, my conclusion would be that:
a) factor-provided enclosures designed for the specific speaker would provide noticeable improvement and maximize performance of the inwall
b) anything else is a crap shoot

reeltrouble1

well,the Polk enclosures can be installed easily post construction. Polk engineers try to cover all the bases. The perfomance enclosures will add a great deal to your system.

RT1