Sell floorstanders and buy bookshelves?

[Akshit2111]

Hi guys

Please give your valuable inputs.

I have a basic 5.1 Polk Audio setup in my bedroom. (Marantz 6013 avr)(Floorstanders polk audio rti a7 csi a4 elac surrounds) .(xtz 10.17)

Polk audio rti a7s have been discontinued and my father in law ever since he heard them has been a fan and always said whenever you feel the urge to upgrade do consider giving them to me.
I have heard ppl say that one should rather buy bookshelves instead of tower speakers if you have a subwoofer.
Since my knowledge is quite limited i never really utilised my speakers to their full potential(both in audio as well as video)
I have played movies on native amazon/netflix apps on my oled tv or firestick at max, so technically i have never had that full cinematic bluray experience at home.
I am planning to buy nvidea shield to alleviate my experience.

So my question is
1) is giving up on my tower speakers and buying good pair of bookshelves ( looking at polk audio reserve R200) be a good option for me? This is given the fact i never really used my speakers to their full potential.


2) will the overall loudness of my system take a hit as i have heard that tower speakers have higher Spl. My listening distance is approx 16 feet from my mains.

Thanks in advance

 

[Love4sound]

Are you looking for upgrade or looking to change speakers for the sake of giving them to your father in law?

 

[Akshit2111]

Are you looking for upgrade or looking to change speakers for the sake of giving them to your father in law?

Hi navin
I think if i am eyeing for bookshleves which are almost the same price as my towers i am considering it to be an upgrade ,having said that i am not keen on spending much on this upgrade as of now.

 

[Love4sound]

Hi navin
I think if i am eyeing for bookshleves which are almost the same price as my towers i am considering it to be an upgrade ,having said that i am not keen on spending much on this upgrade as of now.

Ok so looking for similar quality in bookshelf speakers. I have heard the Polk RtiA9 and Xtz 95 series towers in the same demo room at Max home theatre Chennai who is also my regular dealer.He has Polk RTI series and signatures series for demo and I have heard them. For me I found the xtz way better in highs and mids. The tonal quality is way better then Polk for me. LCR I recently upgraded to the xtz 95 series bookshelf and center speakers and loving them. You can also look at spirit series. I am suggesting xtz assuming you are a happy 10.17 customer. There are so many other options which you can explore as well.

 

[Akshit2111]

Ok so looking for similar quality in bookshelf speakers. I have heard the Polk RtiA9 and Xtz 95 series towers in the same demo room at Max home theatre Chennai who is also my regular dealer.He has Polk RTI series and signatures series for demo and I have heard them. For me I found the xtz way better in highs and mids. The tonal quality is way better then Polk for me. LCR I recently upgraded to the xtz 95 series bookshelf and center speakers and loving them. You can also look at spirit series. I am suggesting xtz assuming you are a happy 10.17 customer. There are so many other options which you can explore as well.

Polk audio reserve r200 have received rave reviews on global platforms where ppl have been comparing them to b&w 606 s2.
Its a new lineup from polk wherein the features have been carried forward from their legendary series.
Now why i chose polk was coz of their price in india.
They are sold in b&w category abroad but here polk have priced them quite right(imo)(Rs 63000) also ppl have said that they are quite neutral sounding.

 

[Love4sound]

Polk audio reserve r200 have received rave reviews on global platforms where ppl have been comparing them to b&w 606 s2.
Its a new lineup from polk wherein the features have been carried forward from their legendary series.
Now why i chose polk was coz of their price in india.
They are sold in b&w category abroad but here polk have priced them quite right(imo)(Rs 63000) also ppl have said that they are quite neutral sounding.

Ok I have not heard both the B&W 606 and the reverse series. My feed back was on Polk signature and RTIA9 against the XTZ.

 

[Akshit2111]

Ok I have not heard both the B&W 606 and the reverse series. My feed back was on Polk signature and RTIA9 against the XTZ.

How much is xtz lcr? Can you share a link
Also u compared these bookshelves to rti a9 what were your observations comparing bass heavy floorstanders to bookshelves.

 

[Love4sound]

How much is xtz lcr? Can you share a link
Also u compared these bookshelves to rti a9 what were your observations comparing bass heavy floorstanders to bookshelves.

Comparison was not side by side. Once when I visited he had the rtiA9 in his main set up and when I visited another time he had the xtz 95 towers and not the bookshelf. So the audition was tower vs tower. Xtz for me was more refined then the Polk. Since my room is small and cannot accommodate towers I went for the bookshelf from 95 series and extremely happy. You can check out 95 series and spirit series from xtz. Link below for prices.

Speakers – surroundswar

surroundswar.in

 

[Akshit2111]

Comparison was not side by side. Once when I visited he has the rtiA9 in his main set up and when I visited another time he had the xtz 95 towers and not the bookshelf. So the audition was tower vs tower. Xtz for me was more refined then the Polk. Since my room is small and cannot accommodate towers I went for the bookshelf from 95 series and extremely happy. You can check out 95 series and spirit series from xtz. Link below for prices.

Speakers – surroundswar

surroundswar.in

Sure will do.
Also i have seen your earlier posts about blu ray and nvidea shield. I am planning to buy nvidea shield i hope m taking a right decision.
Also wanted to ask if on my oled the signal says loseless does that mean the processing is done at avr level would adding a media player like nvidea help in this scenario.

 

[Love4sound]

You will benefit from shield only if you plan to play Bluray contents through usb or stream them through kodi using a subscription service called real debrid.For OTT alone many said Apple TV is better. If you’re source Is through shield and connected directly to avr all audio processing will be done by Avr.

 

[Akshit2111]

You will benefit from shield only if you plan to play Bluray contents through usb or stream them through kodi using a subscription service called real debrid.For OTT alone many said Apple TV is better. If you’re source Is through shield and connected directly to avr all audio processing will be done by Avr.

Okk... for the time being getting shield should be a good option. I guess streaming through shield w/o any third party app i guess the output should be atleast better than my native tv apps or firestick?

 

[Love4sound]

Okk... for the time being getting shield should be a good option. I guess streaming through shield w/o any third party app i guess the output should be atleast better than my native tv apps or firestick?

Definitely better then firestick but not sure if it will be better then tv apps. I don’t recommend firestick for any one with an avr set up.Upscaling for sure will be better compared to the tv app but a dolby vision,atmos or 4k content on Netflix or prime will most likely be similar. The real benefit will be in an HT where one watches blu ray contents. That’s why I got the shield.

 

[Akshit2111]

Definitely better then firestick but not sure if it will be better then tv apps. I don’t recommend firestick for any one with an avr set up.Upscaling for sure will be better compared to the tv app but a dolby vision,atmos or 4k content on Netflix or prime will most likely be similar. The real benefit will be in an HT where one watches blu ray contents. That’s why I got the shield.

Thank you so much for the help

 

[ankitbhargava]

Sure will do.
Also i have seen your earlier posts about blu ray and nvidea shield. I am planning to buy nvidea shield i hope m taking a right decision.
Also wanted to ask if on my oled the signal says loseless does that mean the processing is done at avr level would adding a media player like nvidea help in this scenario.

your content is primarily streaming OTT or the downloaded files?

 

[Akshit2111]

your content is primarily streaming OTT or the downloaded files?

Though primarily its streaming but everytime i go for a demo these guys put 20 25k speakers and it just sounds sooo good (obviously thru blu ray) that it puts my entire system to shame. I guess streaming wont give us that blu ray like quality but playing blu ray rips thru shield can get me quite close.
If streaming can get us blu ray like quality then nothing like it.

 

[Akshit2111]

Guys some more inputs might be helpful

 

[jbkar]

Since you already have the speakers, don't dispose them in a hurry.

First change the other components as you have planned and see the performance of your existing speakers with your new additions. After that if you feel like changing the towers then go ahead.

But it's always a wise decision to please your FIL to get overall improvement in all sorts of sound quality

 

[Akshit2111]

Since you already have the speakers, don't dispose them in a hurry.

First change the other components as you have planned and see the performance of your existing speakers with your new additions. After that if you feel like changing the towers then go ahead.

But it's always a wise decision to please your FIL to get overall improvement in all sorts of sound quality

Hahahaha.
One more reason of switching the tower speakers was that bookshelves would put less stress on my AVR.

 

[Love4sound]

Hahahaha.
One more reason of switching the tower speakers was that bookshelves would put less stress on my AVR.

You can add a PA for this purpose. I am going the DIY route for a 3 channel PA which is very cost effective.

 

[Akshit2111]

You can add a PA for this purpose. I am going the DIY route for a 3 channel PA which is very cost

Ummmm.. i may not prefer adding a pa as of now. Doesn't cater to my immediate needs as of now.