Polk Audio TSi100 & TSi200- Loudspeaker - Demo

[jimbo1421]

The speakers are going out today for David G. and Jim L.....David you're getting TSi200's.

I'll amend the thread to reflect a pair of TSi100 and TSi200 later.

The TSI100 pair arrived safely today and they are hooked up in my office system in place of the Monitor 7As. The TSI100s are not as bright as the M7s and of course the bass doesn't reach down as low. Still they are very nice. At some point I will borrow the PSW10 from my SurroundBar setup and see how that combo works.

Jim

[dorokusai]

Let them break in a bit Jim. You're the first one.

[Serendipity]

Is it too late to get in on this demo?

[nma931]

The subject of a very excellent

Do you fit this group in polk audio for system 5.0 ??


front : polk TSi 200
center : polk cs 10
surrond : polk TSi 100

A/V : onkyo 607

In the future I will add:

polk TSi 400 and polk PSW110

The system becomes 7.1

note: i use for see movies and PS3 and TV

[jimbo1421]

I just posted my review but here it is as well. I am ready for mailing labels for the next reviewer.

Jim

For the past two weeks I have been testing a pair of TSi100s in both my office rig and my main two channel system. Right out of the box I was initially disappointed that the connectors did not appear to accept banana plugs, but later, reading the manual, I learned that the little caps on the hex head screws are removable to expose the banana receptacles.

That issue solved I set them up in my office flanking my dual monitors. They are about 42 inches apart and 24 inches from my ears. I use an old 70 wpc Yamaha RX-V496 AVR (with all effects off) connected to my G5 PowerMac with an optical cable, thus using the DAC in the AVR. In my office I mainly listen to internet radio and my own iTunes collection. At first the speakers had an unpleasant resonance with the desktop that they sat on. I solved this temporarily by putting a couple layers of bubble wrap padding under them. In this close-in configuration the TSi100s deliver clear highs and a good bit of bass. There is a real sweetness to violins and clarinets that is often difficult to reproduce. I am easily able to distinguish between the sound quality of Apple Lossless compression and the inferior lower bit rate MP3s. (I will have to re-rip a bunch of CDs.) At the low volume levels that I normally set in my office these little Polks are a real pleasure and easily outperform the OWM5s that I tested a few months ago.

Next, I set the speakers up in place of my Monitor 10s in my main two channel set up, in an 8 foot equilateral triangle with the sweet spot. They were driven with a Parasound HCA-1000A with an Akai AP-206 turntable as the source. At 125 wpc the HCA-1000A is definitely overkill for the TSi100s, but I was careful not to overdo it on the volume. The first thing I noticed about this setup was that the bass notes, which sounded fine at a lower volume level in my office became boomy in the larger setting of my living room. So in order to tune in the bass better I borrowed a Polk PSW10 subwoofer from my SurroundBar rig and hooked it up with speaker level inputs passing through to the TSi100s. After some experimenting, 90Hz seemed to be the best crossover point. I could then adjust the volume on the subwoofer to an optimum level for best bass response without boominess. Over several listening sessions I was consistently impressed with the size of the sound from these little speakers. My living room is 13' x 19'. I could have them as loud as I wished (not house shaking, but still plenty loud) without distortion. Having been relieved of the bass frequencies by the subwoofer, these speakers put out a sweet, clear sound that I found very pleasing for jazz and classical music.

[dorokusai]

I'm on a road trip from Wyoming to Maryland in a vintage ElCamino my old man is donating to me....starting Saturday....so nothing is going to happen until I return folks. Sorry. Be back in touch when I return Polkies.

[mole']

can i get added to the list for these?

[dorokusai]

Sure, when you read what you need to send me in the original post.

[dorokusai]

Xj4094dg & Jimbo you ready?

[Knucklehead]

I wouldnt mind being in on this Mark if thats possible.

Can I jump in on this Mark?

[jimbo1421]

Xj4094dg & Jimbo you ready?

Yup.

[dorokusai]

Can I jump in on this Mark?

Yes, I'll add you. Sorry.

[xj4094dg]

Xj4094dg & Jimbo you ready?

Ready!

Mark,

I thought I sent a PM about a month ago. Anyway, please send me a label and I'll ship them right out.

Thank you very much.

David.

[dorokusai]

Labels have been sent to Jimbo1421 for Drmosh. I need some information from XJ(David) in order to get the TSi200 down the road. I have everything but your email David.

[jimbo1421]

The TSi100s are on their way to Drmosh.

Jim

[dorokusai]

TY Jimbo!

[drmosh]

Yow,

What a surprise, hahah I actually didn't want to test the TSi100s since the 500s were gone but surprise when Fedex dropped these off, so I guess I'll give them a go for a few days, I'll post up my review.

[rooftop59]

Well, I was also surprised to see the TSi200s sitting on my porch, as from the list I figured it would be months before I saw these. Unfortunately I was gone all day until 8 at night, but they were untouched. Have them hooked up in my office right now listening to some Brad Melhdau (sans sub). So far I like what I am hearing. I will also try them out in the main rig at home and of course leave a full review as promised.

Can I recommend that we give guys a heads up either in this thread or via pm when speakers are being sent to them? I would have been rather upset if someone walked off with these speakers and I didn't even know they were there...
Peace,
Paul

[rooftop59]

Well I see that it says ACTIVE by my name in the list...and I think that this was there several days ago. So I guess I should have known these were coming my way...

[Knucklehead]

Labels have been sent to Jimbo1421 for Drmosh. I need some information from XJ(David) in order to get the TSi200 down the road. I have everything but your email David.

Sent you a PM..Thanks.

[dorokusai]

Well I see that it says ACTIVE by my name in the list...and I think that this was there several days ago. So I guess I should have known these were coming my way...

Like I've said previously, I use these lists on CP for some loose tracking of who and what. The real time stuff is beside my computer in my files.

If it says ACTIVE beside your name and you don't have the product yet, don't freak out, it's just my way of printing labels from the other side of the screen.

[rooftop59]

Hey Doro, didn't mean anything by that last comment. Thanks so much for doing this, and I am really enjoying listening to these speakers. I will let you know when I am ready for a shipping label.
Peace,
Paul

[dorokusai]

I know you didn't Paul, just getting it out there that I use it as a tool.

Mark

[rooftop59]

Mark,

PM sent.

Paul

[drmosh]

Just waiting for labels on the TSI 100, didn't really get a chance to test them out, crunched for time, but I really wanted to test the TSI 500s... so as soon as the labels get here it's off to the next person!

[Serendipity]

If it's not too late, I would like to be in on this also.

Thanks!

[drmosh]

My review has been posted up on the TSi 100 section, here it is:

STRENGTHS:
Excellent build quality, accurate highs. Great for HT use.


WEAKNESSES:
Not enough punch for hard rock/metal.


REVIEW:
I got these to test from the Polk forum demos. I was surprised to see these sitting on my doorstep one morning and brought them in, letting them sit for a couple weeks before I actually had some time to break them out. The finish on these speakers are better than on my Monitor 70s for sure, overall build is quite excellent and very upscale.

On to listening... I popped in some Diana Krall, the first thing you notice is that these have fair bass response from such a small speaker, they do have a port in the back. I set my Pioneer Elite to DIRECT which means no processing, just some EQ. Jazz sounds perfectly fine on these things. Second I popped in some metal/hard rock... the first thing some people might say with music with a lot of cymbals is that these are kind of tinny, I would say they are more "accurate" at higher frequencies... not quite as "flat". If I wanted to keep these speakers I would probably double amp them with the Monitor 70s to get more of a high frequency punch. For hard rock/metal these obviously don't have the punch or dynamic range compared to larger speakers like the Monitor 70s.

Watching movies and TV these are pretty spot on since they're designed mostly for this purpose, general HT use. Pair these things with a subwoofer and you have a pretty nice HT setup.

here's a pic on top of my monitor 70s

[dorokusai]

Labels sent to Rooftop & DrMosh for Mole' & Slinger182.

[mrbofus]

I would love to try these as well. I have been considering a set of Bookshelve speakers
I will sent PM/
Thanks,
Greg

[Disc Jockey]

I'll add my name to the list too if I can. I'm off all current demo lists now, I think. Plus, there would be a certain symmetry to mrbofus shipping these to me since I just sent the IHT to him :)