TV & Home Theater

[Powwers16]

A  few months back, I bought the Denon home theater system "DHT-591BA".  A couple of days ago, i was in a local best buy and noticed that they some Polk Audio TSi300 speakers on sale.  I bought them and took them home and immediately hooked them up and used the Audessey mic to recalibrate everything.  After calibrating, the speakers sounded amazing, but i felt as though the center speaker sounded a little bit softer than usual.  I may just be paranoid and may just be looking for problems but i do feel that dialogue is a little bit harder to hear than it use to be.  I don't know a whole bunch about speaker and receiver matching but i know enough to understand that its optimal to have 8 ohms speakers with an 8 ohms receiver.  I even talked best buy worker (he really seemed to know his stuff when it comes tosurround sound) and he said that the Denon AVR-591 receiver that came with the home theater that i bought should be more than capable of powering these speakers and could even power much bigger ones.  Can someone please tell me if my receiver is actually capable of powering these speakers, and if they are, what i can do.  

Heres the receiver =     http://usa.denon.com/documentmaster/us/avr-591_lit517.pdf

Heres the speakers =  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Polk+Audio+-+Dual+5-1/4%22+2-Way+Floor+Speakers+(Each)+-+Black/8825453.p...

[NickJ_86]

Yes this receiver is capable of powering the TSI300 floorstanding speakers.  More than capable, it can do up to 110W per channel and the TSI300 doesn't need nearly that much.  If the dialogue is harder to hear, then it is most likely that the EQ that is currently set for the speakers is not giving enough to the center channel speaker.  Try going into the receiver menu and change the surround mode, for starters.

[DarkWingDUCK]

First of all, the Denon 591 should be powerful enough for these speakers, but make no mistake, it does NOT do 110w per channel.  That number is rated upon peak power, not RMS.  But that is besides the point.

Sometimes Audyssey tends to set the center a little lower than necessary.  Bump it up manually a few notches and enjoy.  Just make sure your center channel doesnt overwhelm the other speakers.

[NickJ_86]

...which is why I said 'up to', implying peak.  RMS wasn't listed for the unit and often isn't on product packaging.

[mstng87gt Trusted Contributor]

What Center channel is being used?  Is it the CS10?  If not your front sound stage could be to blame. All 3 speakers should be the same brand and model or similiar model.  Also if you have a sub the Front towers should be set to small.  Make sure to set the freq for the center to 120 hz or atleast 100hz and the rears as well.  That may help.  Run the calibration again depending on what the above info is.  Also remember the speakers are breaking in and will sound different as they break in.  Run the calibration again in a month and then 3 months. 

[Powwers16]

I still have my Boston Accoustic center channel and it does seem to fit well with the TSi300's but it just seems a bit softer. I do have a sub but why would I need to set the front speakers to small? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of buying speakers with this kind of range?

[mstng87gt Trusted Contributor]

You should let your sub handle all freq. below 120hz.   For a better understanding as I suck and explaining these things do a google search for Batpig.  It is a real legit website.  His site has a lot of good info that will really help you set up the Denon receiver. 

As for your center channel you say now that they sound good together but if you had a matching center channel to the polk you would probably say something completely different.  And Boston Acoustic are very good speakers, better than the polk depending on model number.  But you mixing apples and oranges.  It may be a  speaker but its not the same.

[JoeB4ever]

Receiver wattage is the most over rated feature on receivers. Most receivers now have around 110 watts per channel and is more than enough for the average person. I've connected these same speakers to receivers with almost identical specs and they sounded great. More than powerful enough to annoy your neighbors.

I love Denon receivers because I find them very user friendly. You should be able to go through the speakers settings and turn up the decibals on the center speaker. Also make sure that it's processing dolby digtal properly and not doing some type of simulated surround sound.

[Powwers16]

Ok so I have the Polk Audio CS10 center speaker as well as the TSi300 fronts.  When i ran my audessey, it set the front crossovers to "full range" and the front to "40hz".  I went in and set the fronts to "small" and changed their crossover to "80hz" and set the center crossover to "100hz".  Is this ok or should i bump the crossovers down a little bit further?

[mstng87gt Trusted Contributor]

Set the center to 120hz and you can do the same for your fronts.  The only time you would change your fronts to something lower is if you have the fronts with the sub.  That really shouldn't be neccessary unless your sub is too small for your room or not in the right area of the room.  Did you notice a difference at all with center channel?