New to Polk

SonOfThunder

Greetings to all. I just got a new Pioneer 919 AVR and figured it was time to upgrade my speakers. I've talked to a couple people who have the Tsi400 with the same avr and they suggested I look to polk. I don't have the budget for the Tsi series but I was looking at the following:

Monitor 60s L,R
CS2 C
Monitor 40 for surround

My Room is about 13' x 22' with 7ft ceilings. A couple questions now:
First anyone with the Pioneer think I'll be OK with this, if the other fellows are OK with Tsi400 and 300s, I thought I should be OK?

Would you guys recommend going with the CS2 or 1, is one timbre matched with the 60s specifically?

I'm upgrading from Bose 301 up front and 201 in the back, so I'm hoping this will be a drastic upgrade, you think?

Lastly, should I go after the 40s for the surround or 30, not sure if the 40s would be overkill. I'm not real happy with my 201 currently and they matched sizewise with the 30, so I wanted a little more from the back and was leaning towards the 40.

Thank You all for your help, and I hope to come over to the Polk side soon!

thsmith

Welcome to Club Polk.

danz1906

Welcome to the Club!

daboyz

For rears,I would go bigger if you can. The bigger speaker will improve the rear sound stage. I am not familiar with the monitor series sound but have you considered used or even refurbed Rti's from Polk Direct on the bay.

SonOfThunder

daboyz wrote: »

For rears,I would go bigger if you can. The bigger speaker will improve the rear sound stage. I am not familiar with the monitor series sound but have you considered used or even refurbed Rti's from Polk Direct on the bay.

I wasn't aware of Polk Direct? I'm not sure about used or refurb, is it reliable?

packetjones

the monitors you are looking at are very similar to the TSI series. The TSI's are the newer version of themonitors with a nicer cabinet. If you like the 400's the then monitor 60's will be about the same.

I would also recommend the larger rears so yo uwill not always wonder if you should have got them and the price is not really that much more. look to newegg.com as well as polk direct for good deals on the monitor series.

Good luck and welcome to the club.

-edit-

I have purchased numerous things there and they look brand new. They also have a warranty directly form polk so there is no problems if they have any issues. Check them out. go to where to buy at the top of the page and official ebay store.

SonOfThunder

when you guys say bigger, how big do you think. The 40s look to be about the same as the next step up (50) except the 50 are floor standing. they both have Woofer: 2 - 5-1/4" and Tweeter: 1 - 1". My setup currently has my surrounds on swingable stands mounted to the wall behind the couch, it's going to be tough I think to get towers on the rears as 2 kids under 3 right now won't help. I thought the 40s would be a decent choice, not sure how much of a difference they would be with the 50 (bookshelf vs tower)? Ive been looking at newegg and the prices are really great right now.

vc69

I think the 40's will be fine given your constraints and mounting options. I use 50's for rears and have been very pleased.
I would consider going to 70's for fronts. They have a wider footprint and may offer a bit more stability as well as improved bass response.

A CS2 is also recommended. The center channel handles more than just dialog and any system will benefit from a large center speaker if your setup allows. The CS2 is a rather large speaker so take that into consideration.
Also, with youngsters around, take care with the floor standers so nobody gets hurt.

rallyshark

Welcome to Club Polk!
I think you would be very happy with the 40s for the rears. Either way, you should be happy with the improvement over the Bose. The CS1 or 2 would work well for you. I second the suggestion of going to the Polk Direct ebay store. You can bid with confidence. Everything I've purchased from there has been absolutely flawless, and many others here will attest to that as well:) They also have awesome customer service. You can score some pretty kick **** deals there, and Newegg would be my second choice. Good luck and let us know what you end up with!
Donny

SonOfThunder

vc69 wrote: »

I think the 40's will be fine given your constraints and mounting options. I use 50's for rears and have been very pleased.
I would consider going to 70's for fronts. They have a wider footprint and may offer a bit more stability as well as improved bass response.

Thanks, I initially looked at the 70s, but my avr doesn't have preouts and I didn't want to get something too large in case it couldn't handle it all that well. I also have a subwoofer in good shape, so I figured I could compromise with the 60s. I noticed how big the cs2 was, what a monster, I'll be getting a stand with that. My bose201 rears currently have a 6 1/2 woofer with a 2" tweeter and the monitor 40s have 2 - 5-1/4 woofers with 1"tweeter. I'm hoping that should be a big improvement?

SonOfThunder

rallyshark wrote: »

I second the suggestion of going to the Polk Direct ebay store. You can bid with confidence. Everything I've purchased from there has been absolutely flawless, and many others here will attest to that as well:) They also have awesome customer service. You can score some pretty kick **** deals there, and Newegg would be my second choice. Good luck and let us know what you end up with!
Donny

I never would have considered used speakers, but I just checked it out, and their are some great deals. I suppose the dilemma I'm in is taking advantage of the newegg monitor specials now or investing in a used higher line down the road...

vc69

I doubt the 70's will require any more "work" from your AVR than the 60's. Either would benefit from more power. I was thinking in terms of stability as well as frequency response. I have heard good things about the Polk Ebay store (Polk direct). I purchased my 50's from newegg before I knew about it. Buy from Polk Direct with confidence.
In my opinion, just moving to the Polks will make a world of difference. The only thing I own with Bose written on it is a relatively cheap and little used pair of headphones.

SonOfThunder

vc69 wrote: »

I doubt the 70's will require and more from our AVR than the 60's. Either would benefit from more power. I was thinking in terms of stability as well as frequency response.
In my opinion, just moving to the Polks will make a world of difference.
The only thing I own with Bose written on it is a relatively cheap and little used pair of headphones.

The 70s are adding another $150 to my budget (wife already not happy about idea of upgrading). I pieced together 2-60s/cs2/2-40s for about $450 with the newegg specials, to me, that sounds like an awesome deal that will be hard to beat (why doesn't the wife see it like this?)

rallyshark

SonOfThunder wrote: »

I never would have considered used speakers, but I just checked it out, and their are some great deals. I suppose the dilemma I'm in is taking advantage of the newegg monitor specials now or investing in a used higher line down the road...

Keep in mind the "used" speakers come with a 2 year warranty from Polk, and they appear new, and not used at all from my experience:) Like I said, you should have no worries when buying from polk direct. Happy Shopping!

vc69

I understand budget constraints. Welcome to the club!

SonOfThunder

Not a big fan of budgets when it comes to Home Theater, there is always something bigger and better! I'm an impulse buyer, i'd love the idea of piecing together system of rti's over time, I'm just not sure if I could handle it. To tell you the truth, I was checking out the specs for the rtis and I'm not sure my AVR could handle it. I went from an old sony avr to the pioneer, and it made my bose sound a lot better (and I know bose don't get a good rep, but i've had them as gifts for a while now, so I can't really complain), I couldn't even imagine the sound difference coming to more quality like Polk.

Davidb0123

The wife was pissed about speakers sitting around the living room so I packed up the two yr old sony's. My room is not speaker friendly so i purchased 5 tc80i's. Used them for front, center & rear. Had to place the fronts directly over the TV & rear directly over the couch. all 5 are 12"s away from wall's. Absolutely sounds great. A friend purchased a complete system from tweeter who is now out of bussiness. he paid over $200.00 each for the tc60i's. i found the TC80i's for $125.00 each on line.

dorokusai

You could concentrate on your front stage(L/C/R), go with the speakers you really want and use the Bose for surrounds until you save up more money. I'd rather make the right moves and compromise than get everything out of the gate and immediately be thinking of an upgrade....again.

mystik610

A bigger speaker for the rear channels isn't really necessary, as rear channel material rarely dips low enough to warrant the larger drivers. The Monitor 30's should be fine for the rears....I'd go with a CS2 though!

SonOfThunder

mystik610 wrote: »

A bigger speaker for the rear channels isn't really necessary, as rear channel material rarely dips low enough to warrant the larger drivers. The Monitor 30's should be fine for the rears....I'd go with a CS2 though!

The difference between the 30 and 40 is $20 for the pair, so I figured why not go for the 40s. In terms of sound quality, would it actually hurt to get the 40s because it's going to take more to drive them? Like I said earlier, I'm not happy with my bose 201 surrounds right now, and they are similar in size to the polk 30s. Thanks for everyones help, and Happy Thanksgiving!

warlocks1

Listen to Doro. I have spent way to much money on rears throughout my life and always ask "why"?. The Bose will be fine. Buy the best front speakers you can afford.

mystik610

SonOfThunder wrote: »

The difference between the 30 and 40 is $20 for the pair, so I figured why not go for the 40s. In terms of sound quality, would it actually hurt to get the 40s because it's going to take more to drive them? Like I said earlier, I'm not happy with my bose 201 surrounds right now, and they are similar in size to the polk 30s. Thanks for everyones help, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Both speakers have an 89 db efficiency, so the 40's are just as easy to drive as the 30's. There really are no downsides to getting the 40's. Unless size is an issue, I'd probably take the 40's for 20 bucks more too.

LandShark

Go with the Monitor 70's on Ebay Direct. Polk has the best support staff in the business. If anything goes wrong they will make it right. The 70's are awesome for HT and the CS2 is a must! The surrounds are interchangeable IMO until you're able to get bigger 40's. JMO

SonOfThunder

LandShark wrote: »

Go with the Monitor 70's on Ebay Direct. Polk has the best support staff in the business. If anything goes wrong they will make it right. The 70's are awesome for HT and the CS2 is a must! The surrounds are interchangeable IMO until you're able to get bigger 40's. JMO

I think that is my new plan. I'm going to keep an eye out for 70s on polk direct and definately pick up the cs2 and I'll worry about the 40s in rear last. Thanks for the reassurance that my pioneer avr will power the 70s with no problem, I think that was my biggest concern. I don't know much about avr powering speakers, and it seemed to me from some of the reviews that I should have an amp to power them.

vc69

dorokusai wrote: »

You could concentrate on your front stage(L/C/R), go with the speakers you really want and use the Bose for surrounds until you save up more money. I'd rather make the right moves and compromise than get everything out of the gate and immediately be thinking of an upgrade....again.

+1

The front stage is critical to a good experience. I ran for quite awhile with some cheapie pioneer 2-way bookshelf speakers for rears and was quite satisfied.

Also my 90 watt AVR does a good job of powering my L/C/R speakers. I think your AVR will be fine unless you intend to listen at high volume.