shawn474
05-29-2008, 01:28 PM
Polk Audio TSi500 Loudspeakers
First of all, I too would like to thank Polk Audio and Mark for giving me the opportunity to demo these BEAUTIFUL speakers in my home. For what it's worth, about 90% of my listening is dedicated to HT and the remainder of the time is for 2 channel (but far from critical) listening. Admittedly, my comparisons for these speakers were based on my current PSB system (satellites) shown in my signature with all of the same equipment in my signature.
Equipment:
Due to the fact that I do not have seperates, I was a little intimdated to run these speakers with "just" my AVR. However, I can tell you that my Sony STR-DA5ES drove these well. The system was calibrated after changing receiver settings to large front, small rears and sub on. I toyed around without a sub and the bass response was impressive, but I prefer the sub. For kicks, I then calibrated setting the front speakers to small, basically to see how much bass was removed and sent to the sub. I obviously preferred the large front settings.
Build quality:
The first thing that I noticed when I pulled these out of the box was how pretty they were. I have never been much of a cherry finish fan, but that changed when I took these out of the box. The fit and finish is immaculate and impressive. The piano gloss top helped blend with my all black components and though they are large (very large) my wife was suprisingly accepting.
Movie viewing experience:
I calibrated according to the specs listed on the spec sheet (tried crossover settings for mains at 40, 60 and 80 and left the remaining speakers alone) and it was off to the races. In the three week time period that I had these, I watched MANY movies (thanks to Netflix). I will spare you the long list of movies, but will give you a taste of the demo's that I did. My three year old daughter (Morgan) had an out of body experience in the Darla scene of Finding Nemo. She had that twinkle in her eye that I saw her fall in love with this hobby as we watched that scene!!!! The dog went running for the bathtub to seek shelter from what she thought was an earthquake. U-571 depth charge scene was equally impressive. The Matrix lobby shooting spree and helicopter scene, the Polk demo disc and Dragonheart are among the other demos that I did and all sounded great and had the neighbors coming over asking what movie was playing each night. As far as "chic flicks" with no action, the musical reproduction was impressive as well. We watched quite a few movies (Juno was on that was enjoyable due to the music - I love that soundtrack) where the action scenes were replaced with dialogue and music and they performed flawlessly. It's amazing how good my system sounded with these- I love the PSB set-up, but I was shocked to see the ranges of sounds that I missed having the smaller speakers. I realize that the floorstanders will always have a fuller range than bookshelfs or satellites, but still surprised. During the depth charge scene, the screws popping and background noises really came to life. The highs, mids and lows were are all detailed and clear. I could not find a hole or flaw in their performance with respect to this.
Music:
Admittedly, I am a novice when it comes to this! I kept the same settings on the AVR, but switched to 2-channel mode. The CD's I listened to are Jack Johnson "sleep through the static", the new Lenny Kravitz, the new Sheryl Crow and the new Counting Crows albums. Maybe it's because I really enjoy all these artists, but it was nothing short of special. Acoustics, bass with drums, EVERYTHING came to life. But where these speakers really showed me something were the DVD concerts that I listened to. Specifically, the Metallica S&M DVD blew me out of the water. Audioslave Live in Cuba and Jeff Tweedy were the others that Ilistened to.
Conclusion:
Polk has done it again. Getting a floorstander of this size to blend into my room (12x18) was great. Having the wife say that they looked great was nothing short of a miracle!!!! Aesthetically, you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking speaker in its price range. And coming from someone who has owned a few (though not nearly as many as some) entry to mid level speakers, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better performing one as well.
*The only thing that I would recommend to Polk is to get more packaging in these for shipment. There is a base styrofoam, a styrofoam cap and a styrofoam halo in the middle. One box arrived completely flawless. The other arrived with a hole in the side and the styrofoam base was crushed (no damage at all, but seems like there could have been potential).
If you guys have any specific questions, please ask and I will answer to the best of my ability. I will have pictures up as soon as I can figure out how to do it!!!!
First of all, I too would like to thank Polk Audio and Mark for giving me the opportunity to demo these BEAUTIFUL speakers in my home. For what it's worth, about 90% of my listening is dedicated to HT and the remainder of the time is for 2 channel (but far from critical) listening. Admittedly, my comparisons for these speakers were based on my current PSB system (satellites) shown in my signature with all of the same equipment in my signature.
Equipment:
Due to the fact that I do not have seperates, I was a little intimdated to run these speakers with "just" my AVR. However, I can tell you that my Sony STR-DA5ES drove these well. The system was calibrated after changing receiver settings to large front, small rears and sub on. I toyed around without a sub and the bass response was impressive, but I prefer the sub. For kicks, I then calibrated setting the front speakers to small, basically to see how much bass was removed and sent to the sub. I obviously preferred the large front settings.
Build quality:
The first thing that I noticed when I pulled these out of the box was how pretty they were. I have never been much of a cherry finish fan, but that changed when I took these out of the box. The fit and finish is immaculate and impressive. The piano gloss top helped blend with my all black components and though they are large (very large) my wife was suprisingly accepting.
Movie viewing experience:
I calibrated according to the specs listed on the spec sheet (tried crossover settings for mains at 40, 60 and 80 and left the remaining speakers alone) and it was off to the races. In the three week time period that I had these, I watched MANY movies (thanks to Netflix). I will spare you the long list of movies, but will give you a taste of the demo's that I did. My three year old daughter (Morgan) had an out of body experience in the Darla scene of Finding Nemo. She had that twinkle in her eye that I saw her fall in love with this hobby as we watched that scene!!!! The dog went running for the bathtub to seek shelter from what she thought was an earthquake. U-571 depth charge scene was equally impressive. The Matrix lobby shooting spree and helicopter scene, the Polk demo disc and Dragonheart are among the other demos that I did and all sounded great and had the neighbors coming over asking what movie was playing each night. As far as "chic flicks" with no action, the musical reproduction was impressive as well. We watched quite a few movies (Juno was on that was enjoyable due to the music - I love that soundtrack) where the action scenes were replaced with dialogue and music and they performed flawlessly. It's amazing how good my system sounded with these- I love the PSB set-up, but I was shocked to see the ranges of sounds that I missed having the smaller speakers. I realize that the floorstanders will always have a fuller range than bookshelfs or satellites, but still surprised. During the depth charge scene, the screws popping and background noises really came to life. The highs, mids and lows were are all detailed and clear. I could not find a hole or flaw in their performance with respect to this.
Music:
Admittedly, I am a novice when it comes to this! I kept the same settings on the AVR, but switched to 2-channel mode. The CD's I listened to are Jack Johnson "sleep through the static", the new Lenny Kravitz, the new Sheryl Crow and the new Counting Crows albums. Maybe it's because I really enjoy all these artists, but it was nothing short of special. Acoustics, bass with drums, EVERYTHING came to life. But where these speakers really showed me something were the DVD concerts that I listened to. Specifically, the Metallica S&M DVD blew me out of the water. Audioslave Live in Cuba and Jeff Tweedy were the others that Ilistened to.
Conclusion:
Polk has done it again. Getting a floorstander of this size to blend into my room (12x18) was great. Having the wife say that they looked great was nothing short of a miracle!!!! Aesthetically, you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking speaker in its price range. And coming from someone who has owned a few (though not nearly as many as some) entry to mid level speakers, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better performing one as well.
*The only thing that I would recommend to Polk is to get more packaging in these for shipment. There is a base styrofoam, a styrofoam cap and a styrofoam halo in the middle. One box arrived completely flawless. The other arrived with a hole in the side and the styrofoam base was crushed (no damage at all, but seems like there could have been potential).
If you guys have any specific questions, please ask and I will answer to the best of my ability. I will have pictures up as soon as I can figure out how to do it!!!!