Need help with 10B's for a home theater

tilca

I have a new Samsung ln52a850 TV, and I want to add surround sound to my living room. Now here is the hard part. I have a pair of OLD big box type Polk Audio 10B speakers (maybe 30 years) and a pair of NHT SB3 speakers. The 10B's just sound great for my stereo system, so I would like to use them as part of my new surround system (Left and Right channels). I would also put the SB3's as the rear speakers. I will add a center channel (Probably Polk), and possibly a subwoofer if it sounds like I need it. I'm thinking of a getting a Onkyo SR606 as my receiver. My question is will this work, and if does, will it sound okay? And can you suggest a speaker to use as a center channel?
Thanks in advance for any help. If for some reason you don't think this will work, I'll take any suggestions.
Tim

zingo

It will work well and it will sound pretty good too! The rears won't be exactly matched to the fronts and center, but they are high quality speakers and will sound good. I believe the CSi3 is the match a lot of people are using for their vintage Polks.

Ron Temple

Welcome to CP...the NHTs are probably brighter than the M10s, but as zingo said, it's not as important for surrounds. The old Polks are excellent HT speakers. Pretty much any Polk center will work, but a used CS350 or CS400 are going to be a closer fit...or as suggested at AVS, a M5 or M5jr would just about be perfect.

tilca

Thanks for all the help. I really like the sound of the old Polk 10B's, it's why I keep using them after all these years. Now I have found a way to extend their life even more.
Tim

thsmith

I have Monitor 12s and SDA 1Cs with Polk CSi5/CSiA6 center and matches perfectly.

BigMac

Hi. I had this receiver and it will drive the 10b Polk monitors just fine in 2 channel (bass is a little thin and the highs can be harsh) but when in Dolby Digital or DTS it will go into protection mode if you turn the volume up to loud (I used my 10b for the fronts as well, still have them). I got rid of this receiver because of that issue. Was tired of it cutting off during loud action/explosion scenes or when I was listening to 5.1 muisc. I still have an older Onkyo sr502 and it has the same issue. I ended up going for a used Pioneer VSX-1014 for $120.00 locally because it is basically a Pioneer Elite minus a couple of features. You might want to check out some Harmon Kardan receivers as they are highly recommended.

rayslifecycle

The receiver you are looking at should perform adequately with your monitor 10s......and I would definitely use the Monitor 10s as your mains because they are much more efficient; ie. your system will sound "louder". I agree with the other posts on the choice of center channel. The monitor 10s do have decent bass - but check out some sub woofers to get a little extra rumble in your HT jungle.

bsoko2

I have 10A's for mains with 200 watt mono blocks from Outlaw Audio to drive them. My center is a CS350 and all of these speakers have the crossovers upgraded with new caps and resistors (Dayton). It handles the new HD audio formats just fine including DTS Master. I also use a set of subs with all of this. Added: my surrounds are Monitor 10's.

Bill

tilca

The one comment of the Onkyo receiver has me a bit worried about using that model. Looking at the specs, I thought it would run the speakers I have just fine, but now, maybe not.
I did a search on Ebay for an M5, or an M5jr, but nothing showed up. I'll have to be patient.
Thanks for all the advice, I think I could use a bit more on receivers. I'm still in the 2 channel stereo world. My NAD amp and preamp must be 30 years old also.
Tim

Rivrrat

I use m10b's as my mains, a csi3 for my center and rt/fx's as surrounds. I also have an Outlaw lfm1+ sub, pretty much because I was afraid that using my m10's as full range ht speakers was going to fry them.

According to everyone that comes over it sounds really good.

thsmith

tilca wrote: »

The one comment of the Onkyo receiver has me a bit worried about using that model. Looking at the specs, I thought it would run the speakers I have just fine, but now, maybe not.
I did a search on Ebay for an M5, or an M5jr, but nothing showed up. I'll have to be patient.
Thanks for all the advice, I think I could use a bit more on receivers. I'm still in the 2 channel stereo world. My NAD amp and preamp must be 30 years old also.
Tim

It would play fine as long as you don't plan spending a lot of time at Reference levels. I think the 606 is rated at 85wpc and the 10Bs are rated at 10-200wpc. Not sure but if the 606 has pre-outs for your amps you should be fine. I have ran my Monitor 12s 50-400wpc using my Denon rated at 110wpc just fine but reference levels was pushing the AVR near its max.

I think the Yamaha 663 is about the same price and I know it supports pre-outs.

BigMac

tilca wrote: »

The one comment of the Onkyo receiver has me a bit worried about using that model. Looking at the specs, I thought it would run the speakers I have just fine, but now, maybe not.
I did a search on Ebay for an M5, or an M5jr, but nothing showed up. I'll have to be patient.
Thanks for all the advice, I think I could use a bit more on receivers. I'm still in the 2 channel stereo world. My NAD amp and preamp must be 30 years old also.
Tim

The Onkyo receiver you are looking into will drive the monitor 10s with the other speakers hooked up just fine in 2 channel and in the surround modes unless you listen loud. When I listen to music or movies I have the volume up a good amount. You can still talk to someone in the room but it has to be pretty darn loud. Even though your NAD equipment is vintage you will notice a difference going from those to the Onkyo receiver. I have an older NADpe 2400 THX amp and run my NAD cd player directly into it with great results for sound quality. Once I hooked up my monitor 10s to the Onkyo I noticed an immediate degredation in sound quality. NAD is known for being on the warm side of neutral. I was missing the overall warmness and detail I was getting and during music playback some of the music was lost that I was use to hearing. For movies this receiver will be just fine but that overall pleasing sound you get in 2 channel with the NAD and Polks hooked up together you will miss imo. The Onyko has alot of features for the price and will serve you pretty well but just dont expect the same sound quality that your seperate NAD equipment gives you now.

tilca

BigMac, thsmith, clarknova_666,
Those are good answers to my question. I am also going to take a look at Pioneer, Harman Kardon, Denon, Yamaha receivers, although at this point I was leaning toward the Onkyo. It's been a long time since I even thought about replacing my NAD setup. With the Polk 10B's, the NAD equipment gave me everything I wanted in music, and I had no desire to change. I live in a a condo, so I can't play my music too loud anyway.
My problem is that I am really unfamiliar with 5.1 equipment, it's like starting over in the stereo world.
Tim

BigMac

tilca wrote: »

My problem is that I am really unfamiliar with 5.1 equipment, it's like starting over in the stereo world.
Tim

The Onkyo receiver you mentioned is a good choice but so is the Pioneer VSX-1018. The volume levels I was referring to are alot louder than you would listen to in a condo for sure, unless you have VERY nice and understanding neighbors,lol. I have been looking at forum after forum to help answer your dilemma and these 2 receivers come up over and over in comparisons against each other. There is one issue that coming up over and over for the Onkyo 606 though. It seems that some 606's produce a buzz in your speakers when passing through 1080p video with LPCM (e.g. from a PS3). This part came from a discussion forum:

Here is some more comparisons between the Onkyo 606 and the Pioneer 1018:

* The Pioneer 1018 doesn't have the buzzing issue that the Onkyo 606 does. The issue is when using a HDMI input, 1080p with LPCM (e.g. from the PS3), the 606 may buzz through your speakers.

* The Pioneer has more watts per channel in all modes

* The 1018 seems to switch between HDMI inputs twice as fast as the 606

* The Pioneer MCACC (room calibration) has more settings: phase prevention, EQ, reverb prevention, and standing wave prevention. It has 6 presets so you can set up different listening positions (e.g. your couch, chair, sofa, etc.), or different volume levels in each channel! For example I have one setting with the subwoofer at -8 dB, for movies and TV, and another at +10 dB for music. You can also tweak all the EQ settings after running the auto calibration, and you can do manual calibration.

The 606 on the other hand, has no tweaking or adjustment. Once the Audyssey (room calibration) is set, you can't change anything. The 606 doesn't have more than one Audyssey memory.

* The 606 HDMI-CEC volume control (change volume on TV, changes it on the receiver) worked with my TV, but the Pioneer didn't. Auto power off (power off TV, automatically power off receiver) worked for both receivers.

* The Pioneer runs surprisingly cold. The Onkyo runs hotter.

* The Pioneer remote glows; the Onkyo does not. The Onkyo remote has better control codes for TV's, satellite boxes, etc.

* The Pioneer has much better modes for Stereo. There is Neural THX, a bunch of reverb rooms, and a stereo repeat that plays the stereo in both front and surround speakers. The Onkyo has that too, but on the Pioneer, you can set the back level between 10% and 70% of the front which is very very nice!

* Pioneer has 7.1 analog ins, 606 does not

* 1018 came with AM antenna only; 606 has AM and FM antennas in the box

* The Pioneer costs a little more bit more but from everything I have seen it is worth every penny.

I also looked at other manufacturers receivers and there are alot of good ones out there. These 2 seem to be the top picks for budget surround receivers. Yamaha did get a nod or two as well as Denon but they cost even more. I am no expert by any means but I hope this helps ya' out a little.

** Or you could think of it this way......since you really like NAD stick with NAD. Sure it will cost quite a bit more for a NAD receiver with HDMI but you will know it will last forever. Plus you know what type of sound they produce and they generally use MUCH better quality parts inside than your typical HT receiver. **

Also check out the Onkyo TX-SR805

Ron Temple

Jeez BM...:D:eek:

thsmith

Why not keep the NAD AMP and get an AVR with Pre-outs? Again, look at that Yamaha 663.

BigMac

I did read about the Yamaha just now and it looks very good as well. Not sure I want to read through 265 pages though,lol. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=995796

So many choices, so little time.:D

Ron Temple wrote: »

Jeez BM...:D:eek:

I was off today and bored so I started reading and here I am still reading,lol.

tilca

I'd like to get another NAD, but I got married about 2 years ago. Enough said about that.
So now I look at the budget end of things.
I'm going to look at the Pioneer, and an AVR with pre-outs.
That's a lot of typing, BigMac, thanks.

tilca

I have read about the buzzing on the Onkyo, but I got the impression it was an isolated event, but maybe not.
How in the world were able to read all that about the Pioneer and Onkyo? That would take me weeks, even without moving my lips while I read.