Old Polk / New Polk - "The Generation Gap?"

[hertzlbl]

I recently decided to abandon my "purist" stereophonic roots and take a walk on "the dark side" of 5.1 Home Theater. My first step was an upgrade of my 16 yr old Onkyo Amplifier. I replaced it with a Yamaha RX-V1300 receiver. (100 "Yamaha amps", which are probably equal to about 140 "normal amps" <smile>). Once I fired up the new amp, I was so impressed with the sound that I decided to keep my old (1987) Monitor 10B's and try to build a home theater system around it. I purchased a CSI40 center channel, FXI30 surround channels, and a PSW404 subwoofer to complete my new "home theater" system.

The concern I have is matching the tonal quality of the new and old speakers. When I try to "balance" the surround system using the Yamaha's test setup "tone" (really sounds like static), the L/R front speakers have a noticebly different (much deeper) sound. (I'm not sure if this is normal. The only adjustment that I ever needed to make on my trusty old Onkyo was with the big freak'in knob labeled "VOLUME"! <smile>) The base also sounds a little "disjointed" at times betwen the front channels and the subwoofer, particularly during movie scenes ith low frequency effects. I'm currently running the subwoofer off the Sub-out jack of the amplififer. (Yes, I realize this is not the recommended "Polk Way".)

The question that I have is would I be better off wiring the front speakers off the sub the "Polk Way" and calling the front speakers "small" on the surroundsound setup? My concern is that I don't want to degrade the system's excellent stereo (i.e. music listening) sound for for the sake of 1 or 2 movies a month.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

Ben

[BeginnersLuck]

Welcome to the forums,

I would leave the sub connected to the sub output, and set all of your speakers to small. Then, if applicable, set the crossover on the Yamaha to 80 Hz and set the corssover on the sub to its wide open position. This should eliminate the bass problem. The test tones are going to sound different becasue the tweeters are different.

Try the following to get a better system ballance:
Get a radio shack SPL meter.
Use your center channel as a reference turn up the main volume until your meter reads 75db from you main listening position.
Leave the volume control alone and calibrate the rest of the speakers form the same location.

This will give you the closest match that you can achieve with your current setup.

Good Luck,
-BL

[bignorm]

I have the same Yammy you have....check the manual..(page 55-56 around there). there is a 5 band equalizer setting for the center channel to help you timbre match to your mains

:p

[gacole2000]

I also have a similar Yammy (5590). The cutoff is auto at 90 Hz. Use the sub out jack and the unfiltered LFE input on the sub. Set all speakers to small. I had a similar problem using BA A-100's as my mains. An SPL and the center EQ tweaks helped tremendously. Good luck!

Greg

[Tour2ma]

Hey BL, fast learner you are...

Welcome hertzlbl, old "newbie's" are more than welcome here. No age discrimination here, else I'd been bounced months ago...

You've seen above some of the best examples of the kind of help we can get getting into HT. In exchange we can help the young-uns set up TT's to handle this "new" vinyl music medium they happened upon, e.g., “yes, you do need to boost the TT’s output a bit before feeding it to your AVR, it’s called a phono-pre-amp sonny :D ”… stuff like that…

And we have a good time to boot…