Down to three! HTIB Choices.

[Mellman]

The deals on the R50's are pretty much only at outpost unfortunately. sometimes cherry sometimes black...i agree though I'm anal about the colors matching too. typically I prefer black (matches with more things) But the cherry do look nice

 

[cpals]

Just noticed Outpost has the R300s for $50 each and they're in black... how are these compared to the R50?

 

[cpals]

Updated top post with different center speaker. Thinking about getting a Polk CS1 instead of CSR due to the cherry finish.

 

[Mellman]

well the addage of "you get what you pay for" comes to mind here regarding the center speaker. as I said before some argue the center is one of the most important. for your DVD's it's going to be a huge source of voice. I'd go with the CS1, and the R50's.

The R300's only have a single 6.25" driver. Meh...the R50's have dual 5.25" drivers (i think my #'s are right?) So you will get much better mid range and highs out of them, and your sub will fill in your low range great!

also -- for cables goto monoprice!!!

oh you also mentioned getting rears at a later time -- its totally up to you of course but the nice thing about the R50's is that they can make nice surrounds. So in 1-2 years when you're ready to upgrade to 5.1, you can spend a nice chunk of change on some new mains, maybe a higher line of polk if you're happy with them. And retire the R50's to surround duty. That's the beauty of starting with them now..they'll make good mains but they make great surrounds!

 

[SlickSnake]

I actually prefer the wood finishes on speakers, the lighter the better. My Interludes are all light maple finish. I got tired of the black look on speakers some time ago. They make a room look a bit smaller, and show dust a lot more. I would get cherry over black any day. And usually you also get the best deals on the lighter finishes, dunno why that is, though.

 

[cpals]

Originally posted by: Mellman
well the addage of "you get what you pay for" comes to mind here regarding the center speaker. as I said before some argue the center is one of the most important. for your DVD's it's going to be a huge source of voice. I'd go with the CS1, and the R50's.

The R300's only have a single 6.25" driver. Meh...the R50's have dual 5.25" drivers (i think my #'s are right?) So you will get much better mid range and highs out of them, and your sub will fill in your low range great!

also -- for cables goto monoprice!!!

oh you also mentioned getting rears at a later time -- its totally up to you of course but the nice thing about the R50's is that they can make nice surrounds. So in 1-2 years when you're ready to upgrade to 5.1, you can spend a nice chunk of change on some new mains, maybe a higher line of polk if you're happy with them. And retire the R50's to surround duty. That's the beauty of starting with them now..they'll make good mains but they make great surrounds!

1. Will the CS1 sound fine with the R50s as the mains? Will the center sound to overpowering?

2. Whenever I move the R50s to the rear and get something new for the mains, will the CS1 be good enough to be future proof? I'm willing to spend the extra money on the CS1 as long as I'm not going to be replacing it in a year anyways.

Thanks again. Great information.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: cpals

Originally posted by: Mellman
well the addage of "you get what you pay for" comes to mind here regarding the center speaker. as I said before some argue the center is one of the most important. for your DVD's it's going to be a huge source of voice. I'd go with the CS1, and the R50's.

The R300's only have a single 6.25" driver. Meh...the R50's have dual 5.25" drivers (i think my #'s are right?) So you will get much better mid range and highs out of them, and your sub will fill in your low range great!

also -- for cables goto monoprice!!!

oh you also mentioned getting rears at a later time -- its totally up to you of course but the nice thing about the R50's is that they can make nice surrounds. So in 1-2 years when you're ready to upgrade to 5.1, you can spend a nice chunk of change on some new mains, maybe a higher line of polk if you're happy with them. And retire the R50's to surround duty. That's the beauty of starting with them now..they'll make good mains but they make great surrounds!

1. Will the CS1 sound fine with the R50s as the mains? Will the center sound to overpowering?

2. Whenever I move the R50s to the rear and get something new for the mains, will the CS1 be good enough to be future proof? I'm willing to spend the extra money on the CS1 as long as I'm not going to be replacing it in a year anyways.

Thanks again. Great information.

R50s have 2 6.5" woofers and the R300s have 1 6.5" woofer

I have not heard them, but I'd imagine that bass extension is probably the biggest difference.

You'll be able to level match any of these speakers to they don't overpower one another.

The CS1 is from Polk's Monitor line vs. the R-series but I've heard that people have used it or the CSi25 from the RTi series to match with the R-series with good results as well. When I contacted Polk, they recommended the CSR as the best match to the rest of the R-series, but they others should work as well.

Keep in mind that outpost has the best deals on the R50s / R300s, but it might not have the best prices on the rest of Polk's speakers.

It wouldn't be the end of the world to have mismatched center / fronts, so even if you want to upgrade your fronts later to something else, you could deal with a mismatched center and maybe even put that on the list of things to upgrade later and move the first center to rear duty for a 6.1 setup

 

[Mellman]

+1 on what yoyo said...if you are Willing to spend the extra cash I think the CSi25 would be an awesome choice for long term...but the CS1 is a great speaker as well, and honestly I think you'd be just as happy with it since it seems you're relatively new to the audio scene. If you turn into an audiophile, chalk it up as a learning experience, move the CS1 to a rear center, and get whatever is hot at that point in time

Im all about top quality, but for some people it just doesn't make sense. Some people honestly can't tell the difference between a 1.5" BOSE setup and some quality 2/3-way speakers And that is fine!

 

[cpals]

I don't mean to drag this out forever, but the csi25 on Amazon is only $10 more than the CS1 and CSR. Out of these three, the csi25 is considered better?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: cpals
I don't mean to drag this out forever, but the csi25 on Amazon is only $10 more than the CS1 and CSR. Out of these three, the csi25 is considered better?

Don't worry, this is nowhere near as long as some people's quests.

I spent months researching things, auditioning (even visiting a current owner of the products I was considering) before I chose what speakers I was going to pick as my first big upgrade after my initial weakly researched decision.

As for CS1 vs csi, I'm not sure

I've read good things about the speakers that would match with the csi (RTi), more so than the monitor series (CS1), but I think that's mainly due to the RTi speakers being more popular.

I don't have personal experience with either of them and the LSi series is probably the speakers that I'd be able to guess the closest on what they sound like since they use the same Vifa tweeters that my own AV123 Rockets use.

 

[Mellman]

*takes cover*

Im going to throw a curveball at you...it'd be 2x as much, but i just found the Polk RTi8's on sale at $150/ea + ~15-20 shipping each.

They'd sound even better but they are more expensive. They do come in black.

as to your center question...I can't answer it due to lack of knowledge on the two sorry

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Just to confuse you further, AV123 updated their B-stock deals and now the have some X-CS (center channels) in stock again.

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=26299

Since I don't have experience with the Polk I can't say what kind of difference there would be for sure, but I know they're a lot better than the HTIB type sets you were looking at initially.

I'm using a pair of X-LS in my office system and they're working great there. I used them for a while in my main system too to check them out and they impressed me quite a bit for how much they cost.
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/sp...in/web/Random/X-LS.JPG

With the extension of the "cyber monday" deals, AV123 is giving out 12' lengths of quality speaker wire with each speaker as well. These are b-stock units though that don't come with the 30 day trial.

I bought my own X-LS as b-stock and they were in perfect shape when I got them. AV123 has very good customer service including a forum where the people that actually run the company (including the founder, Mark) respond to questions and issues that come up.

The prices on that page do not include shipping though, so I'm not entirely sure what a system of
XLS pair or SLS pair MTM pair ($149 / $199 / $259) vs. new ($219 / $319 / $449)
+
CS ($99) vs. new ($139)
would cost total shipped.

It's hard to pick out speakers for other people, but beyond the personal sound preference part of things that would be impossible for us to really communicate online without some reference points, the X-series speakers are going to have very positive attributes to them. The build quality and appearance of them are really impressive compared to the usual suspects from regular retail brands.

I admit to being a big AV123 fan after meeting some other owners / prospective owners and having very positive experiences with their customer service.

The X-series has been very well reviewed as a good option in the budget loudspeaker arena. http://www.av123.com/about_news.php
These special b-stock prices take them down pretty significantly from their standard prices that are already considered to be very good value.

There are several companies that have really impressed me with their products and their whole way of doing business and AV123 is one of them. The Polk R-series are a really good value and I think you'd do well picking them, but these sale prices seem to take down the X-series to a point where you might be able to consider them as an alternative.

If nothing else, you at least have some options other than Black or Cherry now

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Mellman
*takes cover*

Im going to throw a curveball at you...it'd be 2x as much, but i just found the Polk RTi8's on sale at $150/ea + ~15-20 shipping each.

They'd sound even better but they are more expensive. They do come in black.

as to your center question...I can't answer it due to lack of knowledge on the two sorry

I think I started throwing my own curveball at about the same time you started writing this one

Too many good deals out there

(Typing posts on my gf's laptop without all my bookmarks takes forever)... (She fell asleep on the couch and I'm not tired yet )

 

[cpals]

I think I'm going to stick with my original plan since I could be here for years trying to find the perfect speakers.

LR - Polk R50
Center - Polk csi25
Sub - Dayton 120
Receiver - Onkyo 605

Whenever I upgrade next I'll get some proper fronts and center and move the current fronts/center to the rear.

 

[cpals]

Do these speakers/receivers come with cables or anything? I guess I never really looked into that. What would I need with the above setup and also to hook up a couple HDMI devices?

Thanks.

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: cpals
Do these speakers/receivers come with cables or anything? I guess I never really looked into that. What would I need with the above setup and also to hook up a couple HDMI devices?

Thanks.

first off... goto monoprice.com for cables

looking at your setup, you'll need:

1 Subwoofer Cable (On monoprice under digital coaxial cable RG6 75Ohm)

3 HDMI Cables
2 for sources -> receiver
1 from receiver to TV

Some speaker wire (the stuff that comes with the onkyo is lacking to say the least)
I would suggest 16 gauge or larger since you're only doing fronts + center at the moment
25 feet will do now, but buying a 100 or 250 foot coil now will last through the movement of speakers to rears and this stuff goes fast (depending on room size). Remember smaller gauge = bigger cable.


Get a decent L/R analog audio cable for hooking your TV into the receiver if it has no digital outputs.

Also I recommend you pick up 14 of these, though its not required. They make life with the Onkyo 605 a bit easier since its post based and not clamp based: http://www.monoprice.com/produ...id=2943&seq=1&format=2


option stuff for later:
Get some Toslink Optical or another couple of RG6 Digital Coax cables for hooking up new digital sources.

Grab a nice component cable to hook your receiver up to the TV in case you add a component + digital audio source and use the receiver as a component switch. (Unless you find the 605's component -> HDMI nice, which I do for like my Wii at 480p)

 

[cpals]

Is the analog L/R audio cable for being able to listen to my OTA HD via the receiver? The TV has coaxial, optical and a red/white/subwoofer output. Best choice would be optical?

So correct me if I'm wrong, but I plug 'everything' into the receiver (audio/video) and the receiver does the sound and then the one hdmi going into the TV does the video? So no matter if I'm playing games or watching directv I stay on the HDMI channel? I guess I will only have to switch between two inputs on the TV (one for watching over the air stuff and the other for the HDMI output from the receiver).

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: cpals
Is the analog L/R audio cable for being able to listen to my OTA HD via the receiver? The TV has coaxial, optical and a red/white/subwoofer output. Best choice would be optical?

Assuming you are using your TV's internal ATSC tuner for OTA HD, then yes thats what the analog L/R cable is for, that way you arent stuck using the TV's speakers for that stuff. However if your TV has optical/coax SPDIF out use that instead for sure (I dunno mine has it, some don't)

Originally posted by: cpals
So correct me if I'm wrong, but I plug 'everything' into the receiver (audio/video) and the receiver does the sound and then the one hdmi going into the TV does the video? So no matter if I'm playing games or watching directv I stay on the HDMI channel? I guess I will only have to switch between two inputs on the TV (one for watching over the air stuff and the other for the HDMI output from the receiver).

Also your exactly right. If for example you hook up your game system via HDMI to the receiver's HDMI 1, your DirectTV to the receiver's HDMI 2 and the output of the receiver to the TV's HDMI 1, then assign on the receiver's game input to HDMI 1 and it's Cable/Sat input to HDMI 2, both of them will appear on the TV's HDMI 1 input port depending on which input your receiver is set to. In this case you will only have 2 inputs needed on the TV itself, HDMI 1 and OTA TV.

Also if you added a Wii or something via component/composite/s-video that is 480i/p or 720p, you can give the receiver's video A/D a try and still only use 2 TV inputs. The Component to HDMI conversion is good for 480i/p->480p and 720p->720p but lacking in the 1080i->720p in my opinion.


For example, my Onkyo 705 + Philips 47in LCD setup is like this:

Onkyo 705 HDMI out -> TV HDMI 1
HD-DVR -> HDMI 1 Receiver (Audio/Video)
Upconverting DVD -> HDMI 2 Receiver (A/V)
HTPC -> 7.1 Analog to receiver, Video goes into HDMI 2 TV pixel for pixel (Since HDMI 1 TV autoscales for video watching)
Xbox 360 -> Optical into Receiver, 1080p component to TV
Wii -> L/R to receiver, 480p component to receiver which sends 480p HDMI to TV.
TV -> Coax SPDIF to receiver

In this case I use HDMI 1 TV for 3 things (wii, dvd, dvr) since the receiver is doing the switching. However the receiver actually has 2 HDMI and 1 Component items plugged in at the moment, but they all appear on HDMI 1 on the TV.

 

[cpals]

Cool, thanks. That helps me understand how I'm going to hook mine up.

 

[cpals]

Argh, one last question. Sorry.

You mention how the component to hdmi conversion... does that mean if you plug in a 1080p component connection it can only get transmitted via hdmi to your TV at 720p? Just trying to figure out why you would plug the xbox straight into the TV.

Also, about the HDMI cables... even if my devices don't support HDMI 1.3 should I get them anyways? Does the 1.3 downscale or whatever to the gen 1 HDMI?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The Onkyo 605 converts non-HDMI sources to a 720p HDMI output. If you started with 1080i / 1080p via component, the Onkyo would scale it down to 720p. Depending on the resolution and scaling capabilities of your TV, this might be a good thing or a bad thing. If for example, your TV's resolution is exactly 1280x720, that might be a good thing if it doesn't do a good job with 1080i / 1080p to 720p conversions. If your TV has a different resolution (1366x768 / 1920x1080 / whatever), then it's probably best to just have the TV take the component signal and do the conversion on its own.

It's only a couple bucks to get the cables that Monoprice tested to 1.3 spec, so I'd say might as well do it (even though it could be that the cables are exactly the same technically). 1.3 cables are basically the same as 1.1/1.2/whatever HDMI cables physically, they just have been tested to meet 1.3 specifications afaik.

 

[krotchy]

Originally posted by: cpals
Argh, one last question. Sorry.

You mention how the component to hdmi conversion... does that mean if you plug in a 1080p component connection it can only get transmitted via hdmi to your TV at 720p? Just trying to figure out why you would plug the xbox straight into the TV.

The 605/705/805 wont convert 1080p component to HDMI. It will pass it through via the component output however. But I figure why bother running the component through a switch if its the only component device I have at 1080p (plus the frigging cable is like a mile long)

The cheapest onkyo that will turn 1080p component into HDMI is the 875. That thing is a beast though and has an HQV processing chip which turns any input (including HDMI) into 1080p HDMI using one of the better scalers on the market. Course its 1500 Dollars when you find a good deal

Sony also has an all outputs to 1080p receiver that is much cheaper, but its other specs are literally a joke.

 

[cpals]

Sweet, just bought all the cables I'll need and more for less than $100 shipped at monoprice. Great deals.

 

[cpals]

Another quick question whenever I get around to setting this stuff up - the Audessey sound configurator thing that comes with the Onkyo, is that only applicable to 5.1 setups or should I still use it for my 3.1 setup?

Thanks.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: cpals
Another quick question whenever I get around to setting this stuff up - the Audessey sound configurator thing that comes with the Onkyo, is that only applicable to 5.1 setups or should I still use it for my 3.1 setup?

Thanks.

You should be able to find your answer in the user guide.