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Entering the HT market... speaker recommendations?

A

acole1

Golden Member
I currently use a Logitech z5500 system for my HT needs. It was originally used for my PC before I moved out, now it is used as my HT system. Obviously there is room for an upgrade....

This last week, with some guidance from a friend, I got some deals on a Pioneer VSX-921-K receiver and then did some research and got a Polk PSW505 sub. I am now stuck on speaker selection.

WAF (wife acceptance factor) is an important deciding factor... (the price of marrying an interior designer), and while I don't have a firm set $$ limit, I would (obviously) like a good system for my $$. An example of my price range might be my selection of receiver, sub, and the speakers I have been considering (mentioned below).

The room size (a rough estimate) is 25x20 (open to the dining room on the left) and the ceiling vaults up to 14' in the back. There is also a "shelf" about 2' deep and 2' tall along the back wall at the top, already wired for rear speakers. (Kind of hard to describe.)

I have been considering the Polk RM95 or RM85 sets, but also playing with the idea of getting a Polk CSR or CS10 center with R150's for the front and maybe R8's in the back?

Your help would be appreciated. I haven't looked at many other brands, although I am open for suggestions, and I'm interested in auditioning some Polk and other brands at local B&M's (any recommendations?).

Thanks!
 
While you say you dont have a firm price I would recommend at least setting a ceiling. It's real easy to spend a lot of money really fast on speakers 😛

To be honest I am not sure the polk sub will do well in a space that size. It will obviously sound better than your existing setup but I can't help but feel that a HSU or BIC sub would do better. (Or even more options is you up your sub budget)

I would check and see if there are any home theater specialty or audio specialty stores where you can demo speakers. It's next to impossible to get a good auditioning experience in big box stores.

I know Polk and Klipsch are generally recommended but I would compare them to others (B&W, Monitor, PSB, Paradigm etc). You'll find those specialty places generally have a couple of brands to listen to and then you'll have a better idea what sounds good to your ears! (For example I don't really like the sound of Klpsch speakers - at all. Polks are ok. But I LOVE my PSB speakers)

That said - I am sure you will be happy with a set of polks just that you might be MORE happy with something else
 
Thanks, that was helpful! I'll find some specialty stores where I can do some auditioning this weekend.
 
acole1 said:
Thanks, that was helpful! I'll find some specialty stores where I can do some auditioning this weekend.
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention you might want to bring your own music. It will make it easier to compare across stores if you have the same music to listen to.

I have no idea if this will be helpful but this kind of explains my findings for some music that I used. Granted it was comparing the differences between listening modes but I would imagine it would help with speaker selection to (I only post it because it took a couple of times going back and forth between songs before I was more easily able to pick out the differences)

Now - the big problem I ran into was deciding between PLII, THX PLII and THX Neo6 (I didn't really like the regular Neo6)**. At first I was running through some of my favorite songs and thought the THX Neo6 was the clear choice. Then I listened to Christmas Cannon Rock by the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Towards the middle the female vocals sounded crisp and clear - until the guitar joined in. I immediately lost the distinction between the two. I was shocked. I switched back to PLII and it sounded immensely better.

**While typing this I decided THX PLII was out. It ALWAYS fell in second or third place in the tests. I would rather have some excellent songs and some disappointments than a 'Meh' across the board

I searched through my catalogue for a couple of other high quality cd rips with strong female vocals that were in front of some potentially intense music. In Dash Berlin/Emma Hewitt's Waiting and Nightwish's Sleeping Sun THX Neo suffered from a lack of distinction with the female vocals when the rest of the music track got more intense (But not to the level of CCR)

So I tried a variety of music testing the difference between the two listening modes.

Gemini - Blue was another surprise. Throughout the various songs the THX Neo6 has a slight edge in bass reproduction. Oh boy did that change in Blue. I thought the Neo6 was doing ok until I switched to PLII and a quiet 'Oh' escaped my lips. The mid and low level bass was impressive - much more pronounced than the THX Neo6

Now - you would think everything would be puppies, cake, unicorns and rainbows now as I could just go with PLII. Well, hold your horses there mister. When I listened to Primetime - Make a Miracle (DJ Realest Edit) and Megara vs DJ Lee - Chaos the highs were very harsh on PLII. It was slightly uncomfortable to listen to. This repeated through a couple of other songs with very high sounds - they all tended to be a bit harsh (But not as bad as the two I mentioned).

Then I listened to Daft Punk's Fall (From the Tron ST). The highs were more prominent but the bass was lacking with PLII. THX Neo was a clear winner for this song. Same thing for Marylin Manson's This is the new shit

Within this mess there were also some songs that were notable for their lack of notability. While TSO's Christmas Cannon Rock very clearly favored PLII their more recently released Carmina Burana and Toccata Carpimus Noctem showed no real distinction between the listening modes. (THX Neo has a slight edge but there was no where near the difference that other songs had)
Click to expand...

I am by no means an expert on it but if you wanted some more songs to look at there are a lot of great threads over on AVS forum about it

I quickly found this thread about some recommendations people use:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1360175


Anyway - best of luck with your auditioning! I've always enjoyed that part
 
Check out my thread, right below this one. There's a lot of good advice. My room is smaller thank yours, but I got a polk system, with an Onkyo AVR for $800, normally costing $2100. I went to Best Buy to listen to many different speakers, but I can't comment on h ow the Polks would compare to the high end speakers. Unless you are an audiophile, I bet something similar to my setup would be fine for an "entry" level setup. What entry level means is a different story for individuals.
 
z1ggy said:
Unless you are an audiophile, I bet something similar to my setup would be fine for an "entry" level setup. What entry level means is a different story for individuals.
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Yes, but there are so many amazing options out there! 😛 It really depends on how much you want to spend and how often you are going to use it. Nothing necessarily wrong with Polk speakers and they will be better than what he has I am just a firm believer in trying out other speakers in advance - even if they are the more expensive ones. I would find it hard to go back to using my original HT speakers for everything*

Disclaimer: I started with some basic Boston Acoustic floor standing speakers as my 'entry level' setup and 5.5 years after I bought those I built a home theater in my basement and filled it with a lot of very expensive equipment and speakers. I have never been so happy to have a sickness ^_^
 
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Exterous said:
Yes, but there are so many amazing options out there! 😛 It really depends on how much you want to spend and how often you are going to use it. Nothing necessarily wrong with Polk speakers and they will be better than what he has I am just a firm believer in trying out other speakers in advance - even if they are the more expensive ones. I would find it hard to go back to using my original HT speakers for everything*
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Especially since a really decent idea of the OP's maximum price hasn't been clarified. If he can possible afford it, I would suggest looking at Aperion Audio for his mains, center, and surrounds. They are a really good internet direct speaker manufacturer. They make OK subs but you can get much better subs for the prices they charge. But their regular speakers are awesome and they have a decent range of price points. Best of all, they have a 30 day trial period where they pay shipping both ways. You can hardly go wrong with that solution (as long as the prices work for you).

I have a home theater that is 18x26x8. Totally closed off. I have a Hsu VTF-15H sub which rocks the house. It is truly overkill but I love it (and, amazingly, my wife doesn't mind having a 150lb steamer trunk-like sub in the room). The rest of the set is Aperion: two Verus Forte towers for the front R and L, a Verus Grand Center (a ridiculous spluge - I probably should have stayed with the Forte center), and Verus Forte satellites for the surrounds. All driven by a Denon 2112ci AVR. I couldn't be happier.
 
You have quite a big room for satellite speakers like Polk RM95. I suggest to use fullsize bookshelf speakers for L/R fronts. Piano black polish might do it for the WAF. 🙂
 
Thanks for the help everyone! This last weekend I went to a local HT store (good listening environment) and to Frys (huge selection to try out). I took my own music on my iPod and tried a couple different styles of music to see how they sounded.

At the HT store they had a very small and high priced selection, but they had a pair of Klipsch KB-61's that I fell in love with. Of course at $550 for the pair (not to mention another $550 for a matching center), these were way out of my price range.

At Frys I was able to compare the Klipsch KB-61's 51's and 41's to the Polk TSi100's and TSi200's. The TSi100's were out right away -- they sounded fairly bad IMO. The TSi200's weren't too bad, but they were huge! The Klipsch KB-51's sounded worse than the TSi200's, and were out of my price range, but surprisingly the Klipsch KB-41's sounded great (like small KB-61's), and were 1\4 the size of the TSi200's. They don't have quite the range or "full" sound of the TSi200 series, but I liked them. I also compared the matching centers and the Klipsch KC-42 sounded better than either the CS10 or CS20 from Polk. The downside to the KB-41's is they only go down to 85Hz where as the TSi200's go down to 60 I think it was, but I'm OK sacrificing that for the clearer sound.

The other day I went ahead and ordered the Klipsch set from Amazon (the bookshelves were cheaper than Frys) and they will be coming in the next couple days. If I remember, I'll post my reaction after I get them set up.
 
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