Polk CSI a6 center channel quiet dialogue problem

clusion
clusion Posts: 3
edited January 2014 in Troubleshooting
Hey Guys,

I am new here, and splurged this Christmas on an all new Polk setup. Big upgrade from a $500 home theater in a box! I got Polk RTI A9's floorstanding speakers, CSi a6 center, RTI a3 bookshelfs, and an onkyo 818 receiver.

Anyways, I am having this issue which is absolutely driving me crazy. The audio coming out of my center channel speaker sounds very nasal, muffled, and quiet in most processing modes. This happens on Blu Ray movies and sattelite inputs(i am currently running HDMI but have tried optical to see if it would make a difference it didn't). This also happens while watching TV. About 50% of the shows I watch on TV have this issue. Any movies on TV wherein Dolby digital is utilized about half the time its just nasally and to damn quiet. If i use all-channels stereo with no processing the center shines and sounds amazing. Commercials the center sounds amazing. 50% of the channels on sattelite the center sound fine. All of my blu ray movies it sounds nasaly/muffled.

I ran audyssey to let it calibrate a few times and this has not improved it much. I currently have my floor-standing set to large and they are crossed at 40hz, my center is crossed at 150hz. My center is about 7 feeet away from where I am sitting (smaller room). The auddsey has set my floorstanding speakers at -4, -5 db, and my center to +5.5db. I have bumped it up to +12db just to be able to hear dialogue although it sounds hollow on most movies. The center is ear level about 3" from the back wall. I am going to try moving it farther from the wall and re running auddsey.

Anyways I am looking for suggestions. I have maybe 30 hours of playing time so far on my center, but honestly can't enjoy blu ray movies. I have played with Dynamic EQ to help different db settings dolby volume, played with all settings on my sattelite out, and blu ray player. I assume this has to be a problem with either the center, or the receiver. I am getting close to the 30 day ownership mark on my components and everything was purchased on amazon so if i need to try swapping something out i need to make a decision quickly. BTW I love home audio, am a little inexperienced but am reading and and learning. Thanks for any help/comments.

-Neil
Polk Rti A9 Floorstanding Speakers
Polk CSI a6 Center Channel
Polk Rti a3 Book Shelf Speakers
Polk PSW 111 Subwoofer
Onkyo TX-NR818 Receiver
Post edited by clusion on

Comments

  • rpf65
    rpf65 Posts: 2,127
    edited January 2013
    I would probably re-check the center connections before anything else. I would also suggest changing the A9's to small, and resetting cross over to 80 Hz. They are taking up a lot of power right now.
  • gfong
    gfong Posts: 1,079
    edited January 2013
    good info above, I would also hook the center speaker up to one of your left or right front speakers and see how it sounds. Of course dont crank it up to nose bleed level but you should be able to judge if it is speaker or settings or connections! Switch to stereo mode while watching tv so that the voices come out of the left/right channels when you do swap the center to try it.
    As rpf65 mentioned, check connections first!
  • teekay0007
    teekay0007 Posts: 2,289
    edited January 2013
    Why do you have your center crossed at 150 Hz? That's an awesome center and from most that I know who own it have it crossed at 60-80 Hz.
  • PolkieMan
    PolkieMan Posts: 2,446
    edited January 2013
    Welcome!
    Yea I got an A6 also, teekay0007 is right, this is a full range speaker, but like gfong said check it out on like the left channel in pure audio mode *i have an 808*. You know that the drivers are all working? Take an empty paper towel roll and listen to each one this is especially a good way to check the tweeter.
    teekay0007 wrote: »
    Why do you have your center crossed at 150 Hz? That's an awesome center and from most that I know who own it have it crossed at 60-80 Hz.
    POLK SDA 2.3 TLS BOUGHT NEW IN 1990, Gimpod/Sonic Caps/Mills RDO-198
    POLK CSI-A6 POLK MONITOR 70'S ONKYO TX NR-808 SONY CDP-333ES
    PIONEER PL-510A SONY BDP S5100
    POLK SDA 1C BOUGHT USED 2011,Gimpod/Sonic Caps/Mills RDO-194
    ONKYO HT RC-360 SONY BDP S590 TECHNICS SL BD-1
  • clusion
    clusion Posts: 3
    edited January 2013
    It works!!! YAY!!! Night and day difference. After playing it around and wiring it to the left and watching the speaker i noticed I was getting audio from the tweeter but none of the woofers on the center were moving. I played around with the gold post and all of a sudden the woofers came to life and the center evened out. It appears to be that little gold connector between the four binding posts wasen't making a clean connection. I dont know if that makes sense or not but a little tightening tweaking with the post and the center has come to live. Can't wait to re-run audyssey when the house quites down and watch a blu ray! Thanks everyone for the help time to enjoy this great stereo!!

    -Neil
    Polk Rti A9 Floorstanding Speakers
    Polk CSI a6 Center Channel
    Polk Rti a3 Book Shelf Speakers
    Polk PSW 111 Subwoofer
    Onkyo TX-NR818 Receiver
  • teekay0007
    teekay0007 Posts: 2,289
    edited January 2013
    clusion wrote: »
    It works!!! YAY!!! Night and day difference. After playing it around and wiring it to the left and watching the speaker i noticed I was getting audio from the tweeter but none of the woofers on the center were moving. I played around with the gold post and all of a sudden the woofers came to life and the center evened out. It appears to be that little gold connector between the four binding posts wasen't making a clean connection. I dont know if that makes sense or not but a little tightening tweaking with the post and the center has come to live. Can't wait to re-run audyssey when the house quites down and watch a blu ray! Thanks everyone for the help time to enjoy this great stereo!!

    -Neil

    Neil, now what you want to do is get rid of those gold connectors. They're garbage. Replace them with good, heavy guage speaker cable jumpers. The cable jumpers will give you a much better electrical connection.
  • cowtrimmer
    cowtrimmer Posts: 201
    edited January 2013
    Does anyone make any aftermarket jumpers ? Or maybe Polk would sell the ones they use on the LSiM series.
  • tommyt21
    tommyt21 Posts: 685
    edited January 2013
    cowtrimmer wrote: »
    Does anyone make any aftermarket jumpers ? Or maybe Polk would sell the ones they use on the LSiM series.
    Just use a short piece of speaker wire
    Living Room
    Fronts: RTi A7's
    Center: Csi A6 VR3 "Fortress Plus"
    Front Heights: Rti A1
    Surrounds: Rti A3
    Sub: HSU VTF-2 MK4 Damn this is a good SUB
    Pioneer Pioneer Elite: SC-35-> Emotiva XPA-3
    TV: Lg LW6500 55" Passive 3D
    Blu-Ray Panasonic BD 210
    XboX 360 Slim/Kinect

    Acoustimac red suede panels
  • math wizard
    math wizard Posts: 106
    edited January 2013
    Ditto above. You can easily and cheaply make your own.
    Processor - Emotiva UMC-200
    Pre-Amp (2 Ch) - Emotiva USP-1
    DSP Minidsp nanoAVR DL
    DAC (2 Ch) - Emotiva XDA-2
    Amp (Fronts) - Emotiva XPA-2
    Amp (Center/Surrounds) - Emotiva XPA-3
    CD - Emotiva ERC-1
    Fronts - Polk Audio RTi 12
    Center - Polk Audio CSi5
    Rears - Polk Audio RTiA1
    Sub - Epik Knight
    Sub EQ - Velodyne SMS-1
    Monitor - Sony XBR65X850C
    Blu-Ray - OPPO BDP-203
    Network Media Player - Chromecast Ultra
    Power Conditioner - APC H15
    Power Conditioner - Emotiva CMX-2
    PVR - DirecTV C61k
    Remote - Harmony Touch w/Hub
  • DRoemelt
    DRoemelt Posts: 2
    edited December 2013
    So I'm in the middle of moving - twice actually.

    All the wiring / unwiring lead me to consider changes to my system config - and potentially address the 'muddled voice issues' I've periodically experienced with my CSi A6's.

    So I discovered this thread - and after reading through it - began to wonder if my receiver is insufficient to handle -

    2 x RTi A9
    1 x Csi A6
    4 x RC 65i - as surrounds

    I'm using a Pioneer Elite VSX-50 - which is rated at 550 watts ( 90 x 7 ) per prioneers website - which is odd because 90 x 7 = 630

    I would welcome anyones suggestions on just how much wattage I need. As part of my research I jump over to a major jungle retailers website and was read just how power hungry these speakers are. . .

    Not to bore anyone, but i was even considering 'a not x but z' v o x to handle surround stuff (video content) during this first move, and wiring up the A9's for exclusively audio - but clearly, long term, I'd just like to maximize the performance of the system.

    This 'zvox-box' does a great job at speaking clarity - if i can get my A9's and A6 to perform at their best, i sure would be a happier camper
  • chumlie
    chumlie Posts: 8,658
    edited December 2013
    You need more power up front. That vsx-50 is not enough to drive all those speakers. Your going to need a better receiver with pre-outs to hook up a high current amp to drive the A9's.
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,704
    edited December 2013
    chumlie wrote: »
    You need more power up front. That vsx-50 is not enough to drive all those speakers. Your going to need a better receiver with pre-outs to hook up a high current amp to drive the A9's.

    Agreed. There isn't an AVR made that can drive the A9's properly. Furthermore, your current AVR isn't putting out anywhere near 90 wpc when driving 7 channels. The Pioneer Elite SC series do a much better job at putting out their rated wpc with all channels driven, but even those will not drive the A9's properly.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • markdeloura
    markdeloura Posts: 1
    edited January 2014
    Thank you all for the comments on this scenario - was very similar to my configuration, and pulling the default plate on my A6 to put a speaker cable jumper across the posts solved the problem.
  • I just got a Polk Audio center speaker and I'm using a Onkyo TX NR686 7.2 Channel AV Network Receiver, with 165 W/Ch per Channel, when I hooked it up and run a sound test on it, when it gets to the center speaker, my receiver shuts down... Don't know what's going on
  • It's Polk Audio A6