Need reccomendations for replacement of Polk CS1 center channel

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Great info! Thanks for the tips. Heck I only did the 'natural' setting as well so far on the auto set-up, not sure what the flat or the third choice will sound like.
So I need to pick up a disc to calibrate and a spl meter if possible.(radioshack?)
Please keep it coming!
I noticed that my receiver would not do the on screen display to my t.v., is it an HDMI issue?

 

[Adam]

Greg makes a great point. Those auto set-up routines will often set all of the speakers to "large." However, if you have a good sub, you'll want to set them all to "small" and have the bass go through your sub. You may want your front speakers set to "large", but I doubt that you'll want any of the others set that way.

According to your manual:

"The OSD signal is not output at the VCR OUT, DVR OUT and HDMI MONITOR OUT jacks and is not recorded."

So, you're correct - if you just have an HDMI cable going to your TV, then you won't see the OSD. You'd need to have another non-HDMI video connection to use the OSD.

The SPL meters at Radio Shack are quite popular. I have one myself, and it seems to work great.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

So I'll go through it all and hook up component or rca's to get the OSD. First auto on all three choices and then manual from there. This is kinda fun.
That 'large' setting would explain the blowfishness sound of the front three now.

 

[Adam]

This is kinda fun.

Ahhh, another one crosses over to the dark side.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

I'll post my results after I'm done.
Thanks for the help.

 

[avaserfi]

asaferi....great idea on the speaker swap, i'll try that. Thanks for the help.
If the surround doesn't do it for me, what is it that I should be looking for in a replacement for less harsh? A speaker with two tweeters? A speaker with a really good single tweeter?


Adam....wow, that's a microphone? Thanks for the help. I'll try that huge owners thread again and I will go through my manual this evening. Do you have any recc.'s on speaker?

If you don't like the bookshelf then I would honestly see if you can test out the CS2 by Polk. If I were you I would try to stay within company to keep timbre the same (although there will be some variance as it seems the CS2 uses different drivers).

Don't get caught up in the number of drivers of any type. As Adam said go out and check out some speakers and see if you like them.

One thing I just realized should have been mentioned earlier are your room acoustics. An absorbent panel behind your seating area might help with the harshness of the center. Spending money on new treatments might be a better investment than new speakers...Whats your room like?

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Absorbent panel? Other "treatments"?
Please elaborate as I'm lost on these.

 

[avaserfi]

Absorbent panel? Other "treatments"?
Please elaborate as I'm lost on these.

Acoustic treatments can do a variety of things, but the basic idea is by changing the properties of your room they will give you a better sound. Many times harshness is caused by reflections off of surfaces then into your ears. This can be stopped by having something on your wall to absorb the sound waves and stop them from being reflected.

This is just one example of problems caused by rooms, which have as much effect on sound quality as speakers themselves and in some cases more! They can tighten your sounds, give you a cleaner sound, flatten frequency response, make dialog more clear etc...It just depends on your room size/placement of seating and speakers as well as what the room is made of.

This is a great primer on acoustics: http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

edit: Here is a quick way to test the harshness of the center vs room acoustics. It might not be the best but it should work. Take a very heavy quilt (the heavier the better) and hang it up behind your seating area and listen to the center and see if it is as harsh. The quilt should absorb some of the higher range frequencies which might make them sound quieter (you will need to re-cal with an spl or your mic), but at the same time should take away some of the harshness. Remember though, I am taking a guess that the proper placement for the absorption is behind the seating area without seeing what your room looks like as that seems the most likely area in most rooms I have seen, but yours could be very different.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Dont forget that YPAO sets the crossover and size where "we" dont like it. After you run YPAO go back to the manual set-up and set your crossover 60-90hz (just a good starting place, Adam or Andrew can throw in the detail if you need them) and then set all your speakers to small.

I just went through the manual set-up and the only equalizer controls I found only let me change the decible level of certain Hz, like 100, 300, 1k, 3k, etc.?

 

[Adam]

I just went through the manual set-up and the only equalizer controls I found only let me change the decible level of certain Hz, like 100, 300, 1k, 3k, etc.?

I believe that Greg was talking about having the speakers set to "small" or "large", in addition to the cross-over frequency used to send sound to your subwoofer.

A good starting point (if you have a good subwoofer) is to set all of the speakers to "small" and set the cross-over frequency to 80Hz. If you can't find where to do that in the manual, let me know, and I'll find it for you. Like I mentioned before, you might like the sound better if you set the front speakers to "large", but most of the time people set them to "small."

Regarding those equalizer controls, you can change those if you want. I stuck with the values set up by the auto set-up, but that's just because I didn't have a way to really set them up any more correctly myself.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Adam...as pitiful as it is, I can't find it in the manual about either of those, the large and small or the crossover to sub.
My current sub is a Boston acoustics XB6 12"-200w. It is being replaced by a ED A2-300. I set it's crossover to about 90hz. It's gain is anywhere from 50% to 80% depending on what I'm watching and how loud I want it.

 

[Adam]

Not pitiful at all, my friend.

It's pretty far into the manual, actually. I'm in luck because I have an electronic copy and can search for it. Go to page 72 for the start of the section on the "Sound Menu", and the discussion of "large" versus "small" speaker settings are on the next page. The crossover is discussed on page 74.

Because you're setting the crossover in the receiver, I suggest setting the crossover on the sub itself (using the dial on the sub) to the highest frequency that it has. If it has a "crossover disable" switch (or something similar), you could use that instead. The idea is that the receiver is sending the proper frequencies to the sub, so you don't want the sub to start filtering the signal even more.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

That makes sense. I'll read 72-74 and try it out and then report back.
Adam, your help has been awesome, thank you!

 

[Adam]

Always happy to help when I can!

Yeah, give it a spin and let us know the outcome. Setting up a system like yours for the first time can be a challenge, no question. I remember when I set up my first surround sound receiver (also a Yamaha, BTW) with my first set of real speakers. It took me a while to feel confident that I was understanding all of the terms correctly.

 

[dorokusai]

I don't think you could have received any better help then from these guys. Thanks go out to Adam & Asaserfi

The CS1 is voiced to the Monitor series but there would be nothing wrong with utilizing a CS2. My suggestion is to follow what these folks mentioned, get calibrated and re-evaluate. If you have the same condition, then we'll get more in depth.

Mark
Polk Audio CS

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

Adam....I can't set this up right. I have a component video and audio going from receiver to T.V. and an hdmi from cable box to receiver. what am I doing wrong? I hope I don't have to hook the cable box to the receiver with component as well as that would mean I would have to buy another set.

 

[Adam]

Adam....I can't set this up right. I have a component video and audio going from receiver to T.V. and an hdmi from cable box to receiver. what am I doing wrong? I hope I don't have to hook the cable box to the receiver with component as well as that would mean I would have to buy another set.

Eagles, check out page 17 of the manual for a diagram that describes the video connection options for your receiver, which I'm about to try to describe.

Your receiver cannot convert an HDMI input into any other type of video output --> so, HMDI IN has to go to HDMI OUT. Don't feel bad about it not downconverting HDMI to component. I don't know of any receiver that can do that.

Also, your receiver cannot upconvert to HMDI --> so, COMPONENT IN cannot be sent out as HDMI. HOWEVER, it can upconvert either s-video or composite video to component. So, here are two options that you might want to consider:

1) If you have an s-video output on your cable box and an s-video cable, you could hook it up with that for now. S-video won't carry a high-definition signal, though, as far as I know.

2) Hook up the component video from the cable box to the receiver using any three RCA cables that you have around - preferably video cables. You don't need special component video cables. They are just three cables with RCA connectors that are together - they are not special. The difference between video cables and audio cables is that video cables have more shielding, that's all. You can get them for not much money, and I (and others here) will be happy to throw out suggestions. Monoprice.com is a good place to pick up inexpensive cables.

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

What about local pick-up? Radio shack? BB? CC?
All I could find is two component video set-ups and only 'one' audio cable set-up....must have lost my other. So I need just an rca audio set-up which should be cheap you're right. I'll go now as I'd like to get this done today to decide if I need to look into new speakers or not.
By the way thanks again Adam. Your responses are super quick and greatly appreciated. i'm going to owe you one after all of this.
I also have a digital optical audio cable if that matters.

 

[Adam]

Local pick-up is always an option, no doubt. All three places that you mentioned are good, and other places carry those cables - I know that Target and Home Depot carry them.

What all are you connecting (it's probably listed earlier, but I'm lazy this morning )? You might be able to swing it with what you have.

You don't need to connect audio from the receiver to the TV, as you'll be playing sound through the receiver. However, if you also want to play sound through the TV (which is not my preference), there's nothing wrong with connecting it that way.

That optical cable might come in handy. Does your cable box have an optical output?

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

O.K., so I completely disconnected my HD-DVR cable box from the whole set-up. Then I connected straight from receiver to t.v. with component and rca audio.
So, I am on the OSD in the 'Sound menu' but I cannot change anything but the front L&R speakers. I can't figure out how to get to them to change them from large to small like I just did with the L&R's.