Centre Speaker Upgrade to Polk TSX 150C

kurups

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Hi Guys,

I have a Harman Kardon 3650 AVR with the HKTS 60- 5.1Speaker set. Planning to remove the Harman's Centre speaker and replace it with the Polk TSx 150C. The problem with the present system is that it is not "room filling" for a 11ft by 20 ft room although at high volume it is, but do not get a theatre kind of atmosphere. Will this centre speaker upgrade make any sense practically as an upgrade?

The present Harman Centre speakers has 1" tweeter + Dual 3" Mid range speakers with 83db Sensitivity. Polk TSX 150C is with 1" tweeter + Dual 5-1/4 Mid Range with 91DB Sensitivity. This is the only difference i see with specs comparison. Volumetrically also, the Polk speaker is 5 to 6 times bigger than the Harman Center speaker.

Request response from anyone who understands/have experienced the practical output of such a specs.


Rgds
Sreejith
 
Your HKTS 60 system speakers are 86db sensitivity which is decent for satellite speakers and good enough for HT experience...

Did you run any auto calibration set-up (or) did you do it manually ? What surround mode do you use when watching movies ?

Appreciate if you can share your crossover settings in your AVR...
 
Hi Elango,

Let me try explaining my two setups
1) The 5.1 Setup
2) The 7.1 Setup.
Mostly it shall be the 5.1 setup shall be operational. This has the the TV, two speakers on both sides of the TV, the centre speaker and the two rear speakers.....In this position, the room size can be considered as 10 by 12. I am fine with this setup. Pic below:- (TV to sitting is 10ft)


For the 7.1 setup, the sitting positions shifts by 90 degrees. The screen comes down and projector gives the video. Sitting is at the longer edge of the 11 by 20 ft room. (That is sitting to Screen shall be around 20ft). Most speaker positions remains same, only that I rearrange the speaker wires at the AVR side. For example the front left speaker of the 5.1 set up shall now act as the front right of the 7.1 setup. Rear Left speaker of the 5.1 setup becomes front left of the 7.1 setup. Hope u get some idea with the pics given below. It shows the two rear speakers & the PJ in the 7.1 setup.

So in this setup, the centre speaker of 5.1 setup is disconnected and either i have to shift it to for the 7.1 setup centre or buy a new centre speaker...hence looking at Polk TSX 150C. The Harman Centre speaker in the 7.1 setup works, but as i said is not giving a theatre like thurst to the voice during movies when we sit 20ft away.

I have tried auto calibration in the 7.1 setup---not satisfied and then kept manually altering the speaker settings/distance etc....cant say that i got some great results. Surround modes are kept at Auto Select.

Just to correct.... HKTS 60 speakers are rated at 83 db sensitivity (Not 86 db).

Do suggest for the following
1) If I retain the current centre speaker for my 7.1 setup, is there any better surround mode or calibration suggested.
2) What about putting a polk TSX 150C as centre speaker as the centre piece for the 7.1 setup....will it give a noticeable change over the Harman centre speakers in the 7.1 setup. THIS IS MY PRIMARY QUESTION WHICH I WANT ANSWERS FOR.

Thanks for ur reply.

Rgds
Sreejith
 

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Hi Sreejith,

When i googled for your HKTS speaker packgae, i landed with the below link http://www.harmankardon.com/images/media/HKTS_60_PI_EN.pdf , hence said "86db"....

After searching again, i landed up with another link which says http://br.harmankardon.com/tl_files...Q/Owner's Manual - HKTS 60BQ (English EU).pdf "83"db... So you are right....

Have visualised your 5.1 and 7.1 setup.... Here are some pointers

* Fronts should be of equal height, not sure if you have them when you swap/shift between 5.1 -> 7.1
* Ideally left, center & right should be of same family of speakers... Adding Polk Tsx as Center, might dominate other speakers...
* Have one set-up calibrated & tweaked to your liking... Swapping the speaker connections everytime, getting the speaker distance & level calibration right can be tiring and may not yield optimal results...

Kindly refrain using ALL CAPS in your query.. Instead use quotes....:)
 
Hello Sreejith,
Your receiver can easily drive the polk center. Movies will sound very different with the polk center for sure as it can produce that room filling dialogue and most of the movie's audio. But will you like the overall experience? I don't know - because your fronts may not be able to keep up with the center. Center will sound authoritative and the LR which are especially engaged in intense scenes (all hell breaks lose kind of scenes) may find it difficult to match the kind of authoritative sound experience the center delivers.
Why don't you borrow someone's center speaker and test for yourself before buying? There would be FMs close by who might be willing to loan their center channel. You could even ask a dealer to ride with you to your home with a demo speaker (profx b'lore folks are nice guys and they might be willing)
One thing to note here is that HTIBs with small satellite speakers cannot deliver that room filling movie theater like sound, ESPECIALLY in the living room that opens to many other living spaces at home
 
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Thanks Elango and Sash for understanding the setup and ur timely reply. Speaker dominance is a point that i will check and get a demo if possible. I had called the ProFx guys but they refused a home demo. Planning to visit the phoenix city mall @ Bangalore today. lemme try visitng them directly.

@Elango - i had left a provision to change the height of the front left and right in 7.1 set up when i move from 5.1.....but its little cumbersome and not moved those speakers yet, as they are wall mounted and screw fitted. CAPS...Noted :)

Rgds
Sreejith
 
Posting the auto-calibration results. incase you can suggest any manual changes to make the Centre speaker more room filling :). I understand the limitations of the satellite speaker, but I just want to juice out the maximum possible from these satellites. The AVR as I have read is pretty powerful though...

The figures shaded yellow are all straight results from auto-calibration....
 

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If you primary listening position is in the center & measure with tape, the front left & right speakers should be of equi distant....

Your front left is 5 feet more than the front right speaker... So i guezz you listening position is slightly offset by 2 - 3 feet to the right...

Try this...

* Change your center speaker cross over Freq to 100Hz since it is the same speaker as fronts & surrounds...
* Set your front left & right channel of the speaker to +4..
* Set you center channel level to +4 same as fronts (After tweaking listen to it, if there is room for improvement, make it +5.

What surround mode do you use to expand 5.1 -> 7.1 ?
 
Sorry elango....missed to let u know that the data shared was for the 7.1 setup 11 By 20 ft room. My primary setup (5.1 & while watching TV)....is doing fine and am not bothered of that. May be you can re-read my question considering my 7.1 setup.

The front left is offset by 5ft from the front right (In 7.1 setup).....this is because of the height difference, which u had earlier pointed out......this is because I am not rearranging my speakers apart from changing the centre speaker while moving from 5.1 ---> 7.1.
 
Sorry elango....missed to let u know that the data shared was for the 7.1 setup 11 By 20 ft room. My primary setup (5.1 & while watching TV)....is doing fine and am not bothered of that. May be you can re-read my question considering my 7.1 setup.

From the info shared by you, it was evident that it is for a 7.1 set-up.... I wasn't referring to 5.1 set-up...

The front left is offset by 5ft from the front right (In 7.1 setup).....this is because of the height difference, which u had earlier pointed out......this is because I am not rearranging my speakers apart from changing the centre speaker while moving from 5.1 ---> 7.1.

Usually the front Height speakers (left & Right) would be placed 5 feet in height above front speakers.....I think the front left being 5 feet high more than front right is not giving you the desired impact...
 
well,cant say that i got some great results. Surround modes are kept at Auto Select.thanks
o0idsh
 
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