monitor 50s and center channels

vinhividivici

Hi Polks,

I've done some reading on the forum and noticed that you guys would recommend the csi5 as the center channel for the Monitor 50s front. Is there a reason for such recommendation since on the polk's website they recommended a CS1 as the center. Also have you guys heard of B&W? i have a friend that just got in to them and swore by the thing like they're all holy :P is there a line of polks that would be similar to a line of B&W?

Thanks

engtaz

The center channel is the number 1 speaker in a home theater. Why penny anty with the CS1 , CS2 and so on. Save up the money for the CSi5 you will not regret it. The center channel should never be neglected. No other speaker other then maybe the subwoofer is more important then the center in a home
theater setup.

Good luck

vinhividivici

Thanks, I've tested the CS2 with my set up and it seems like the CS2 overpowered the front a bit, not sure if the CSi5 will do the same. The reason I asked is because I thought things were supposed to be matched timbre or otherwise. So if the Polks recommended teh CS1, it must be for that reason, so you think the CSi5 won't overpower it or it needs to be set lower if they do?

danger boy

engtaz is right.. get the bigger center channel you can afford. It's well worth it.

as for B&W (Bowers & Wilkins) compared to Polk speakers.. i'd say that the LSi series would be similar.. of course every speaker maker out there has it's own unique sound. Certainly the Polk LSi line does.. it's very pleasing to
listen to.

Polks RTi line is also very good. But not quite the same level as their LSi line.

danger boy

vinhividivici wrote: »

Thanks, I've tested the CS2 with my set up and it seems like the CS2 overpowered the front a bit, not sure if the CSi5 will do the same. The reason I asked is because I thought things were supposed to be matched timbre or otherwise. So if the Polks recommended teh CS1, it must be for that reason, so you think the CSi5 won't overpower it or it needs to be set lower if they do?

it would need to be set to a lower volume.

does your recevier have an auto calibration? Meaning a set of tones that are played by the receiver and it sets the levels for all speakers? If it does.. give that a try. If not.. you should get a SPL meter (sound pressure level) and set the volume levels for each speaker.. You'll notice a difference once all the speakers are at the correct levels. Doing it by ear is not accurate enough.

vinhividivici

great, thanks. I just read some comparison on here about the B&W and the polks and should be enough to satisfied my curiosity. I guess the hunt for a CSi5 begins. My denon AVR 587 although is entry level but I believe do have those options. And so I'll try to adjust them with an SPL once I got them.

By the way, I just tried bi-wire last nite, after reading tons of links here and across the web, I'm still as clueless as I was before and just went and did it as such. My receiver has 7.1 capabilities and dual zone. What I did was removed the connecting plates from the Monitors 50 and connected the Zone A R+L to the top R+L and zone R+L to the bottom R+L. Then I turned both A+B on, and it seems to work just fine, except now when listenting to 5.1 (- the center channel) I seem to have to crank it up quite high to have some good sounds (to about -7 range or so) my AVR maxed out at about +5. The question is will it hurt the receiver to be running it that high for a long period of time say about 4+ hours?

I've tested the bi-wire setup by just running the A and it sounds like just the tweeters are playing, and when running just the B it sounds as if only the lows are playing, but when playing both A+B they sounded good. Hopefully I did the bi-wire right. By that time I lost my reference sound before I did the bi-wire and not sure if there were an improvement. Oh well.

danger boy

connecting both sets of wires from your avr's front speaker terminals to your monitor 50's speaker terminal's is called bi wiring. connecting your avr's speaker terminals to two different sets of speaker terminals from your avr to your speakers is call bi amping.

in both bi wiring and bi amping you remove the metal jumpers on your speakers.. one set goes to the top connectors on your speakers. the other to the bottom.

bi amping and bi wiring are different.. don't mix the two up. please.

vinhividivici

ok, now you've got me totally confused.... I thought bi-amping was connecting it to another amplifier. Ok so in my case, what have I done? Bi-amped? if that's the case can I still do bi-wire, meaning I can still get another set of wires and connect it the A terminals and go to the top set of the terminal on the speakers? and isn't bi-amp a waste since my speakers were set to small so not that much bass will be going into it anway?

engtaz

I also recommend you go to Radio Shack and pick up a sound (pressure) meter (SPL meter) to cal your system.. That Denon has speaker Large or Small ,distance from seated area and test tones. The SPL Meter with the use of your test tones is the best way to Cal your setup. No speaker will over drive another ecept maybe a sub.

Have fun and enjoy

danger boy

simple explanation of bi amping.

two stereo amps or four amplified channels from your receiver.

one amp channel, one set of speaker wires to top set of posts to your left speaker (remove metal jumpers)
one amp channel, one set of speaker wires to the bottom set of speaker posts on your left speaker (this can be two mono block amps for one speaker or two stereo amps for two speakers, OR the main front amps from your avr + another un-used pair of amps from your avr)

bi wiring
one stereo amp
two sets of speaker wires
one set goes to the top binding posts of your speaker
the other set of speaker wires go to the bottom binding posts if your speaker
(only one stereo amp needed for both (pair) of speakers

I know it's confusing. but not really that confusing. try bi wiring first.. you don't need any extra amps for it.. just extra speaker wires.

vinhividivici

ah I see, so you still would need to remove the metal jumpers for the bi-wiring correct? Thanks a bundle, will give bi-wiring a try.

danger boy

vinhividivici wrote: »

ah I see, so you still would need to remove the metal jumpers for the bi-wiring correct? Thanks a bundle, will give bi-wiring a try.

yup.. or else you're just increasing the speaker wire thickness if you leave the jumpers in place for bi wiring.

you must remove the jumpers for BI AMPING though. or else bad things will happen to your speakers.

but for try bi wiring, yes remove the metal jumpers too. You may or may not hear any difference with bi wiring. some people do. other's don't.

vinhividivici

ok will do. I think I'm one of those people with pretty blunt hearing so I wouldn't think bi-wiring would make a difference to me, but bi-amping for some reason makes me "feel" better. Never know until you try, anyway is there a recommended movie or music type that one can really distinguish the different between the two?

RaysR6

Pick something that you listen too a lot and that you are very familar with how it sounds already. Then use that to compare.