Upgrading to Polk for new construction

johnjhii

Although I know that these kind of posts are commonplace and repetitive, I thought I'd use my first post to get comments from all you Polk enthusiasts and audiophiles. I'm basically a newbie to the world of high-end (ok moderate end) audio.

I'm building a new house and have been planning the following system:

Receiver - Onkyo TX-SR 605
Mains - RTi10s
Center - CSi5
Side Surrounds - FXi3s
Back Surrounds - RTi4s
Sub - not yet determined, but my feeling is the choice on this is less critical

I was going to go with the FXi3s in the back, but the Crutchfield tech. rep., who claimed to be one of their 9 home speaker enthusiast / designers, suggested the FXi3s on the side. He suggested this due to my setup because the back surrounds will be in the back corners of the room at about 7' (not directly behind the listening position) and will be mounted directionally and angled downward toward the listening position.

Room size is about 20' by 20'.

Thanks in advance for your input.

dane_peterson

Sounds like a good setup. Two recommendations:
1) The Onkyo's run HOT. I powered an RTi system with a TXSR674 last year, and ended up returning it because I was afraid it wouldn't last long at that rate. If you can manage it, I would jump to the 705, which has preouts, and invest in a separate amplifier.
2) The subwoofer can truly make or break your system. It's much more crucial than you may realize. Two very good brands are SVS and HSU (www.svsound.com and www.hsuresearch.com) Look into those as starting points.

engtaz

+1 dp

cfrizz

Welcome John.

You are putting together a great system. Follow Dane's advice & you will enjoy it immensely!

Systems

johnjhii wrote: »

Although I know that these kind of posts are commonplace and repetitive, I thought I'd use my first post to get comments from all you Polk enthusiasts and audiophiles. I'm basically a newbie to the world of high-end (ok moderate end) audio.

I'm building a new house and have been planning the following system:

Receiver - Onkyo TX-SR 605
Mains - RTi10s
Center - CSi5
Side Surrounds - FXi3s
Back Surrounds - RTi4s
Sub - not yet determined, but my feeling is the choice on this is less critical

I was going to go with the FXi3s in the back, but the Crutchfield tech. rep., who claimed to be one of their 9 home speaker enthusiast / designers, suggested the FXi3s on the side. He suggested this due to my setup because the back surrounds will be in the back corners of the room at about 7' (not directly behind the listening position) and will be mounted directionally and angled downward toward the listening position.

Room size is about 20' by 20'.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Of course the new Polk Rti line is out so get your hands on them and be the first to review

disneyjoe7

If nothing else yes on the 705 with pre outs for future upgrades, if you wish. So little $ cash now and offering you savings later so you didn't have to buy another AVR with pre's.


Also Welcome to Polk

johnjhii

Thanks all. I appreciate the knowledge. This is going to sound stupid, but I didn't even realize the 605 didn't have pre-outs. I'm not sure if I'll ever want to get extra power, but I wouldn't want to preclude the possibility.

Just a quick question, while money is an object, is it worth jumping from the 705 to the 805? Obviously the 805 is at least a little better, but is it worth extra money?

Thanks again,

cfrizz

If the 805 has some other features that the 705 doesn't that you just have to have then get it. Otherwise, get the 705.

dane_peterson

I've been eyeing the 705 for a few weeks now. It has an amazing performance to dollar ratio, but so does the 605. The major downside on the 605 is no preouts.
The biggest difference on the 805 that I recall is having both a 2nd and 3rd zone, whereas the 705 only has a 2nd zone. (BIG deal! ) I believe the 805 is also THX Ultra 2 certified. Again, BIG deal...

With all that said, I've found the 805 for sale by reputable shops, but not the 705. So it may not be out yet.

Edit: Looks like the 805 is also 4ohm stable. One feature that may mean something to you, depending on what you decide to run in the future.

reeltrouble1

I would get one of the new Polk subs coming out or even one of the older ones, they go boom boom in movies, those others go boom boom in movies, but most here will tell you the other brands are better, I just like Polk.

RT1

walk

Looks like a great system (of course very similar to mine

I would also recc. the dipoles on the side and bookshelves in the rear. Sounds great in my room.

The 805 has more power, THX Ultra2, Burr-Brown DACs and 3 HDMI inputs (the 605 has only 2, the 705 may have 3 though). It's a monster and powers the Polks very well.