CS1 or CS2 for my setup?

djseafood

I'm currently running Monitor 40's up front with my old Infinity Sterling Video center channel. I can barely hear dialogue in movies or tv and need to upgrade. I feel I want to protect myself in case I uprgrade my front channels in the future and go ahead and get the bigger CS2 but will that be overkill for my monitor 40's? I know the CS1 has the same size 5 1/4 drivers as the Monitor 40's and would probably be the better match. Is it bad to have larger mid-bass driver's on your center channel than are in the fronts?

Chances are I won't ever really upgrade my front channels, at least not for a long time and if I do I'll be going for the LSi series or something like that.

Thanks in advance for any replies!

MrGlobe

I vote go for the CS2. I have one and dialogue in movies and such is amazingly clear. That being said, when I used the CS2 with Monitor 60s up front, I could tell there was a difference, but that can be adjusted easily by turning the center volume down a little. Plus, 40s make great surrounds, so you'd be set to get 70s or something for the front if you had the CS2.

Even if you aren't going to upgrade the 40s I suggest the CS2

vc69

Get the CS2. You will never look back.

gelinas

i have admitedly never heard the cs2 or cs1 but if you go for the smaller one you WILL run the risk of getting a case of the "what if's" or upgradeitis.

djseafood

Thanks for all the feedback! I just wanted to make sure my center isn't too overbearing, but that was a good point that I can scale it back.

Now the challenge is to get a good deal on one from Polk Direct! I keep getting into these bidding wars with everyone. I just don't understand people's mentality on ebay. I'll be the first to bid on one and there are several more available. If I saw someone already bid on the first one but there were no bids on the next one, logically I would place my bid on the next one and that way we both would get a good deal. Instead, people keep getting into a bidding war with me on every one I bid on even though there are other's available with no bids. I'm calling Polk out on this one and saying it's gotta be rigged! I bet they are the one's bidding against me to drive the price up! I'll never prove it, but that's my story ;-)

gelinas

Try calling Jessica, she handles all of the Polk ebay stuff. She may have one that she can sell you for the starting bid price+tax/ship.
410-764-5211

djseafood

Hey gelinas, thanks for that tip! I left her a message so we'll see if she can do anything for me there. I can't really justify paying any more than $60 for one with $20 shipping when Newegg will have sales on brand new one's for about $110 with free shipping. I'll let you know how it works out.

jzheng

CS2 for sure. The only downside is that it will force you to upgrade your fronts very soon. that's what happened to me :-)

Bliip

It's hard to beat this with Free Shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=polk+cs2&x=9&y=27

cnh

+1,

CS2 is the ticket, remember that in surround that center carries even more information than the L/R speakers...so you can not do 'wrong' with a larger center..it's got 50 percent of the surround load coming to it.

Lots of people run either CS20s with TSI-200s or TSi-300s, or CS2s with M40s or M50s and are very happy that they do!

cnh

domflane

Go with the CS2, I bought a CS10 when I first went to 5.1 and have found myself wanting a bigger center channel ever since. For HT, the center channel gets the work load anyway. And for stereo, it wont even be playing, so you don't have to worry about it overpowering you monitors.

KASR

I'm gonna throw in a vote for the under-dog: CS1
(nevermind the fact, that I have one and love it! )

djseafood

Gotta thank you again gelinas! Jessica got me squared away with a cherry CS2 for $85 and that includes shipping and tax!

Now of course I have an outstanding bid on the following and will probably win and be stuck with two!
http://cgi.ebay.com/CS2-Cherry-Center-Channel-Speaker-from-Polk-Audio_W0QQitemZ360206692598QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSpeakers_Subwoofers?hash=item53ddfdf0f6#ht_2221wt_939


Anyone care to outbid me? (FYI, my max bid is $58 on it)

MrGlobe

Seriously man, 2 might not be a bad thing. After I got mine set up and broken in, I had a split second thought of getting 5 of them to make a surround setup. The CS2 is just such a full sounding speaker, and I was surprised with the low end output as well

djseafood

Yeah, I don't know how thrilled the wife is going to be about the first one, much less two! Haha!

djseafood

Off the hook. I got outbid

I can't wait to hear this thing when it shows up. I just know it's going to blow my old Infinity Sterling Video away!

djseafood

xcapri79 wrote: »

Get yourself a pair of Monitor 70's.

No room on the floor. They'd be nice though. The setup in my room is less than ideal for the way a HT should be setup but it still sounds good to me. I have one of those TV "nooks" which places it angled in the corner of the room. The only place to put my speakers is up on the shelf next to the TV.