??? CS40i over the CS400i ???

[DaveTheSlave]

Guys... your input is appreciated! To make a long story short, I bought a pair of RT2000i's a year or two ago. At the same time I bought what I thought was a CS400i to match, only I got a CS40i shipped to me. At the time I decided to keep it, thinking I got the newer model for less. Now I am not too impressed with the match to my RT2000i's. Do you think I should trade my CSi40 in for a CS400i, or is it worth the hassle?

[DaveTheSlave]

Sorry for the "CS40i" typo in the Subject...

[dorokusai]

What exactly is bothering you about its performance? I presume you have an HT system, have you calibrated? Name your gear, in order to further help you.

The RT2000i is a nice speaker, the CS400i is the ideal match....specs wise. The actual performance should be pretty damn close to the CSi40, it would most likely be subjective at best.

[DaveTheSlave]

FRONT: RT2000i
CENTER: CSi40
REAR: Pair of Bose bookshelf speakers I had laying around. I do plan on replacing these with some RT35i's.

I am running these with a Harman Kardon AVR 320. They have been calibrated with the AVIA home theatre disk and an SPL meter. One thing to note is that I don't have an external sub. I have just been using the powered subs built in to the RT2000i's.

Receiver is set to:
LEFT/RIGHT : LARGE
CENTER : SMALL
SURROUND : SMALL
SUBWOOFER : SUB L/R+LFE
SUB X-OVER : 60 Hz

I think the most improvement for me right now would be the surround speakers. I haven't read the specs for the two center speakers side by side to look for differences. My main question for you guys was how important is it to keep your speakers in the same family?

[Frank Z]

Most people will agree that using the same family of speakers (aka timbre matched) will provide for a smoother sound field and allow for seamless panning of the sound from both movie soundtracks and multichannel music.

[GZ]

I should trade my CSi40 in for a CS400i, or is it worth the hassle?

That may not be so easy since the CSi40 was a replacement for the CS400i. The only way might be to sell your 40 and buy a 400 on ebay.

[DaveTheSlave]

I know I would have to sell my CSi40 and buy the CS400i in separate transactions. A trade would be a rare situation.

What do you think the right speaker would be to replace my crappy Bose surrounds with? RT25i's or RT35i's?

[ken brydson]

Originally posted by DaveTheSlave

What do you think the right speaker would be to replace my crappy Bose surrounds with? RT25i's or RT35i's?

Either one. Depends on your room size, placement and probably WAF. You might even consider a set of biole/dipole