Polk Signature Series Official Discussion

Thanks for the input that is what I am thinking as well just wanted to get some different opinions, thanks, loving the s60 towers though

Think I would try the sub in the back of the room, corner placement, the 2 longer walls.

The surrounds will probably need to be angled downwards a little, best guess 10-15 degrees.

Fairly long distance from the rear wall, would go with the larger speaker.

Front mains, again the larger speaker. Probably want to move them about 2 feet out from the sides of the stand, if room permits and picture is to scale.

You will definitely want to look into surge protection/ power conditioning.
If those are hard wood floors, it will be a nightmare, especially if that's also a leather couch, room treatments will help.

That should start the conversation.

I don't have first hand experience with wireless kits, but they seem reliable.

You don't need to mount speakers to lumber, there are many wall mounts that tilt out there.

There are a lot of companies that deal with power conditioning/surge protection. The price range is huge, couple hundred to thousands of dollars.ersonally have a Panamax MR 4300, but as I've upgraded my system, I'll be upgrading the protection.

Hard surfaces create echoes, for an example. Just means the sound waves are bouncing all over the place, a creating acoustical chaos. Throw 7 speakers into the mix, and now it's really fun. So you need to tame reflections.

Area rugs, fabric covered furniture, and drapes help, a lot. There are also acoustic panels designed to for the purpose. After calming reflections there are nulls, voids, and standing waves. Speaker interaction with the room acoustics affects all of them. Reflections are most noticeable so address them first. Books are written on this stuff, but it all comes down to trial and error, for the most part.

I like your username! Makes me want to go smoke a Fuente short story!

Tried to answer some of your questions in bold below. Disclaimer, my answers are opinionated and not necessarily fact.

Edit: Just re-read your original post and see that you have selected quite a beefy Denon. You could probably get away with using the built in amplification on it.

Cigar_Maverick wrote: »

With your experience

1. S55 or S60 fronts? S55 if you're planning on using the AVR's built in amplification, S60 if you're going for a dedicated external amplifier.
2. S10 or S15 side and rears? S10 is adequate.
3. With the window placement, can I still just mount the side speakers on the wall or will I need a mount that will angle them down? Don't need to angle them down, but carefully consider the height, you don't want to mount them too high.
4. There is about 12 feet from the rear speakers to the listening position. With the doorway in the back or the room, will I need to angle these speakers down? Again angle should not matter, more important would be mounting height. The Audessey automatic calibration will boost them as necessary due to the increased distance to the listening position.
5. Without doing a sub crawl, considering the sub is spatially correct, where would you suggest I set it? Currently, in between the shelves and sub is a furnace grate I don't want to block off. I'd put it directly into the left corner if possible where the bookcase currently is.
6. What other info can I supply? How loudly do you like to watch movies and listen to music?
7. In your opinion, will I be happy? See above. If you like to watch at "reference" levels like what you experience when going to the local movie theather, I would recommend getting an AVR with preouts and running dedicated outboard amplification for each channel.
8. What accessories should I look for? (mounting equipment and such) Should be plenty of universal brackets available on Crutchfield.
9. What else should I be considering as I have no idea what to expect Bringing the front towers away from the wall and allowing them to have some breathing room from the rear wall, and from each other will make them sound better. Try to get the center channel as close to ear level as possible, as arguably it is the most important and heaviest used speaker in a HT environment.

S55 or S60:

mrloren wrote: »

I would go with the S55 and S15 setup, a 7.1 with an AVR is going to be asking a lot from it.

Clipdat wrote: »

S55 if you're planning on using the AVR's built in amplification, S60 if you're going for a dedicated external amplifier.

halo wrote: »

I think that an AVR can handle driving the S60's especially if set to small and the bass is being handled by the sub in the mix.

LOL! OK, I have 2 x for the S55s and one for the S60 with the Denon AVRX4400H (125 watts per channel into 8 ohms (20-20,000 Hz) at 0.05% THD, with 2 channels driven).

I will for sure have a sub. One for now. More if I want later.


Mounting of the side and rear surround speakers:

mrloren wrote: »

Try the speakers without the lumber or add on mount and see how you like it.

Clipdat wrote: »

Don't need to angle them down, but carefully consider the height, you don't want to mount them too high.

halo wrote: »

I don't think you need to angle down any of the surround speakers, I would try them them without angling them first and see how it sounds. You can mess around with angling them later but the speakers should disappear and that's harder to do if they are pointed at your ears by angling them.

OK, I will mount them flush with the wall to begin and see how it goes.

As far as being too high, I don't have a lot of choice with the one side and one rear speaker due to a window and a doorway. Will the "Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room acoustic measurement system" on the Denon AVR-X4400H take care of that?


S15 vs. S10 surrounds:

Clipdat wrote: »

S10 is adequate.

mrloren wrote: »

I would go with the S55 and S15 setup, a 7.1 with an AVR is going to be asking a lot from it.

The S10s should also be fine from 12 feet back in the rear with the adjustments that the "Audyssey system" will make, or should i do S15s in the rear?


Sub Placement:

Clipdat wrote: »

I'd put it directly into the left corner if possible where the bookcase currently is.

That is for sure where it will eventually end up. Behind the couch (where the bookcase COULD go is kind of an office area that does not leave a lot of room for the book case as it stands now.

Clipdat wrote: »

How loudly do you like to watch movies and listen to music?

Tough question as I've never had a really good system before. Depends on if I'm sipping on some good bourbon and have the house to myself! LOL!

Truth is that I'm sure that any of the stuff I get here will perform well. Just want to make sure I choose the correct Fronts and surrounds. At least I don't have any neighbors close enough to complain!

Clipdat wrote: »

If you like to watch at "reference" levels like what you experience when going to the local movie theather, I would recommend getting an AVR with preouts and running dedicated outboard amplification for each channel.

Did your edit above void this comment?

Clipdat wrote: »

Should be plenty of universal brackets available on Crutchfield.

From what I've read here, I'll hold off on any mounting brackets until such time as I deem them necessary (or not).

Clipdat wrote: »

Bringing the front towers away from the wall and allowing them to have some breathing room from the rear wall, and from each other will make them sound better. Try to get the center channel as close to ear level as possible, as arguably it is the most important and heaviest used speaker in a HT environment.

The Center channel will be on top of the entertainment center which is VERY close to "ear level." I can experiment with the towers to see if the towers need to come out of if Halo is right in that the way they are designed will allow me more flexibility.

halo wrote: »

Definitely look into room treatments from GIK acoustics. They'll give you an idea of what you need and will work within your current budget and make suggestions for upgrades in the future. The biggest impact on the sound quality is the way everything interacts with your room.

I pulled up their web site and will do some investigation. I measured the area rugs and mapped them out to show how much area they cover up (See attached). Any specific recommendations from GIK?

mrloren wrote: »

Nice room layout @Cigar_Maverick

Thanks! I've spent a LOT of time on "Sketchup" and measuring things!

Clipdat wrote: »

I like your username! Makes me want to go smoke a Fuente short story!

Strangely enough, that one is on my bucket list. I have many that I like including Alec Bradley & Carlos Torano most recently!

The drawings don't include and of the office furniture in the back of the room.





Thanks all!
Russ

Have to disagree with the rears.

Went from RTI A1's to the A3's as rears, about 6 feet away from MLP, and had a definite improvement. I guess one could argue that Audyssey is that much better than YPAO, but that's my personal experience. I would still go big for rears.

Front firing speakers mounted with tweeters about 7 feet high, 4 feet above ear level would have to be pretty far away not to be tilted. Hope for your wallets sake I'm wrong, but every penny will count if you make the mistake to ask about cables.

Cables are, shall we say, a very sensitive subject and it has been known to take over many discussions.

If you look at the Panamax line, for example, the level of filtration as well as protection increases as you go up the line. When it comes to protecting your electronics can there really be any overkill?

I'm not saying everybody needs to drop $2k or more on circuit protection/power conditioning, but look at the money your spending on gear. You will probably have your TV, AVR, BD player, as well as cable box, gaming consoles, and or whatever else your system consists of. Don't be surprised if you scratch your head and try to figure out how you could possibly have $7-10k worth of electronics setting in your media center some day. That is you have to replace it all because a power surge took it out.

Before I came to this forum, I didn't understand why anybody would spend, even $300 on a power conditioner, until I tried a better one than I had. The sound improvement alone was worth the extra money, at least to my ears.

You also must remember, the people here, or any audio forum for that matter, aren't the normal consumers of audio/video gear.

So your doing rears and sides but no overheads for atmos?

I took my sides off for overhead and would never go back..

I'd go with 5.1 or 7.1 before adding overhead speakers. now if you can swing 7.2.4 you will be amazed.

mrloren wrote: »

....now if you can swing 7.2.4 you will be amazed.

Tell me about it. I had a chance to demo the Seaton Sound ATMOS demo at the 2016 AXPONA show. WOW! ATMOS is pretty cool, especially on a BIG capable system like that.

60'x32'x13' room, 7.4.4 Dolby ATMOS, Dirac Live, 132" screen, 21,200 watts!

https://www.seaton-sound-forum.com/post/axpona-2016-chicagos-westin-ohare-april-15th17th-8049945


As far as normal side surround speakers, I think Dipole speakers are cool for a 5.1, 7.1 system. The old Polk f/X speakers are awesome in this regard, especially the F/X1000! However, it seems these are not recommended for an ATMOS systems.

Anyway, all S10 rears/sides, or S10 sides & S15 rears? Either will be fine so go with the latter if your install can deal with the size difference as the price is not much different.

https://icdn4.digitaltrends.com/image/polk-signature-series-3-640x427-c.jpg?ver=1

http://www.avsforum.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Polk-signature-series-classic-brown-walnut-finish.jpg

OK,
You guys are worse than drug dealers!

This is what I'm going with for the 7.1 portion:

1. Polk Signature S60 American HiFi Home Theater Tower Speaker (Pair, Black)
2. Denon AVRX4300H 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver
3. Polk Audio Signature S10 American HiFi Home Theater Compact Satellite Surround Speaker (Pair) (SIDES)
4. Polk Audio Signature S15 American HiFi Home Theater Compact Bookshelf Speaker (Pair) (REAR)
5. Polk Audio Signature S30 American HiFi Home Theater Center Speaker
6. SVS PB12-NSD Black Ash 12-inch 400 Watt Powered Subwoofer

If I wanted to take advantage of Dolby Atmos, what ceiling speakers would you recommend?

Based on my room layout (and adding to what I'm getting) what would you recommend for speakers and speaker placement in the ceiling? This picture is from the Denon manual. Will the 2 speakers make a difference? Will any of the Polk ceiling speakers fill the bill? Something like the MC80?



Thanks,
Russ

ken brydson wrote: »

Cigar_Maverick wrote: »

OK,
You guys are worse than drug dealers!



Thanks,
Russ

Aayy! Ken! Who's this mook sayin my name here?

mrloren wrote: »

MC/SC 60 or 80 for in-ceiling speakers. they match well with the signatures

I'll have to do a little research as to the differences on the MC/SC series. I'm sure I'll have more questions then!

Will just the 2 x ceiling speakers make a big difference? or would I need more? I'm running up on budget and don't want to waste money.

Good Lord these home theater systems are legalized drugs! LOL!