TSI 400 vs TSI 300 and CS-10 vs CS-20 speakers

JCMINNESOTA

Hi...I'm getting ready to purchase new polk speakers. I am evaluating the TSI 400 tower and the 300 tower. The 300 tower sounds brighter to me...and the 400 a bit muddy. Am I hallucinating? My son thinks the 400 is far superior. Is the brighter sound of the 300 better for home theater?

Any advice on this? My main application is home theater. Not much music. Onkyo 700 receiver.
Polk R-15 surrounds.

A second question: Is there much difference in sound quality between the CS-10 center and the CS-20 center? I am thinking the CS-10 will be awesome and the CS-20 might be a tad better but not $150 better.

Thanks!

wutadumsn23

I don't have alot of experience with the TSi series, but I have their predacesors, the Monitor series. I would go with whatever sounds best, I would imagine the 400's would be better sutied for the job, but that is just my $.02. I would also recommend the CS20 over the CS10, too many people have bought the lesser model center and regretted it later. Either one will be a good match for the 400's, which are very similar to the Monitor 60's. I have the Monitor 70's (basically the TSi 500's) and use a CS2 with much sucess.

comfortablycurt

I've never heard any of the TSi's personally, but they have the same tweeter, so one shouldn't really be brighter than the other. It's possible that one of the speakers you were listening to wasn't broken in as much as the other.

if budget allows, I'd definitely go with the bigger speakers, especially when it comes to the center channel. A bigger center channel is going to make the biggest difference when watching movies, because your center carries roughly 60% of a movies soundtrack.

That Onkyo should do a fine job powering everything. The R-15's should do fine as surrounds, sometime down the line you might want to look into replacing them with speakers from the TSi series though, so you'd have a full voice-matched set.

by the way, welcome to Club Polk.

landgraftj

JCMinnesota - I've got the 300's, 100s, PSW110 and CS10 and everything sounds great to me. Guess it just depends on how much you want to spend!

wutadumsn23

land makes a good point, if it all sounds good to you then that is all that matters. If you get the sound you are looking for, and spend less by getting the 300's, CS10, and the 100's then that is all that matters. Just my opinion on getting the bigger ones, so that damn upgrade bug doesn't get you as fast, lol. Good luck.

nooshinjohn

find monitors instead... i dont care for the tsi... they look killer but thats where it ends for me... you can even find rti8s for less than the tsi's if you look for them. these are a much better sounding and looking speaker imho

nooshinjohn

check these out...

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrfull&1237600642&/Polk-Audio-RTi8-cherry-nordost

JCMINNESOTA

Thanks to all for the advice. I called Polk customer service and was blown away by the fact that a person actually answered the phone----no menu---and that person was awesome in his knowledge and willing to share it! He said TSI 400s would be good for my theater app----and since I dont use the system for music that the CS-10 would be fully acceptable---and not really discernable from the CS-20. The frequency range is not greatly different and he said it would not affect voice which is what I would mainly be using my center speaker for. He also said that if I listen to music on the system that the tsi 400s would fill in the frequency gap anyway so the CS-10 should be fine. So I am planning to buy the TSI 400's and the CS-10 center and upgrade my rears to the matching OWM-3's.

JCMINNESOTA

Well, I got the TSI 400 and CS-10 this weekend. They are awesome!! I now plan to replace the rear surrounds with TSI 200's. I experimented with my old yamaha 636 front in the rear and the results were astounding. The polk folks suggested the TSI 200s rather than the OM3's and I now know why. The larger speaker in the rear really does make a major difference.

If you want a relatively low price system for a medium size room...this works well. TSI 400 and CS-10 front and TSI 200 rear.

viperflyer

I am planning on using ADS L730 with a new receiver. Based on what I have read here and at the other forums, I would like to go with Polk center speaker. However, I have also read that it matches well with the Monitor series. But, I don't have personal experience with those and would like to know how well would this suite with the ADS. I have bought Klipsch Synergy S3 for surround. I am still planning on add a few more surround channels but that's for later.

I would like the expert opinion on how well would CS2 or CS20 would suite with the ADS.

Thanks,
JR

cnh

JCMINNESOTA wrote: »

Well, I got the TSI 400 and CS-10 this weekend. They are awesome!! I now plan to replace the rear surrounds with TSI 200's. I experimented with my old yamaha 636 front in the rear and the results were astounding. The polk folks suggested the TSI 200s rather than the OM3's and I now know why. The larger speaker in the rear really does make a major difference.

If you want a relatively low price system for a medium size room...this works well. TSI 400 and CS-10 front and TSI 200 rear.

Welcome to the Club JC...glad you like your new Polks...that's a nice set...and larger rears do make a difference...some guys here run towers as rears, for example...did you say you whether you were going to add or already had a sub?

cnh

cnh

viperflyer wrote: »

I am planning on using ADS L730 with a new receiver. Based on what I have read here and at the other forums, I would like to go with Polk center speaker. However, I have also read that it matches well with the Monitor series. But, I don't have personal experience with those and would like to know how well would this suite with the ADS. I have bought Klipsch Synergy S3 for surround. I am still planning on add a few more surround channels but that's for later.

I would like the expert opinion on how well would CS2 or CS20 would suite with the ADS.

Thanks,
JR

Welcome to Club Polk JR...I haven't heard any ADS recently...so I can't help you there. But I suggest you make this a separate thread because you'll get more hits that way?

cnh

rebug

hey everyone. i just joined the forum. i'm not sure how this all works as i'm new to forums. i just ordered the tsi300's and matched it with a cs10 center speaker. that is supposed to be the match for the 300 tower. can you guys tell me how to start my own thread so that i can ask some questions about these speakers. mine haven't been delivered yet and i want to know if it's okay to place them within under 2 feet of my speaker system. i wasn't so lucky about getting someone on the phone and i'm green when it comes to this forum stuff but i'm willing to learn.

wutadumsn23

Look at the "top" of the screen under where it says User CP, you will see a button that you can click on that says "post new thread" click on that and have at it.

-Jeff

rebug

thanks jeff, figured it out. i posted new thread. i'd still like more your imput. rebug