POLK vs PARADIGM -serious, reliable info please

Kamal_G_B · 02-21-2004, 06:24 AM

hi
just got the ONKYO 601 AVR, and had my mind set on the following:
RTi 10's - fronts
CSi 5 - centre
RTi 6's - surrounds (and centre rear)

now going to preview paradigms and dyneaudio next week- anything in particular i should be aware about, any specific range in the same class as polk RTi series?
comments, comparisons, opinions welcome....... soon please!
thanx guys!

ps- still gotta save up for the sub a bit later!

Edward J M · 02-21-2004, 08:37 AM

If you will saving up for a sub later, you might want to reconsider and buy the RTi8's. It has two mid range drivers as opposed to the single mid range in the RTi10, and when both speakers are high passed at 80 Hz to a great sub, I think you'll find the RTi8 has an edge in SQ.

Not sure what your particular room arrangement looks like, but the FXi50 might work better than the RTi6 as a side surround if you can wall mount it.

And a CSi5 as the rear center might work well too - again if you can wall mount it or have shelves available.

I have fx1000's mounted on small shelves at the sides, and two CS245's mounted in the rear on a wrap around shelf.

Ed

Thomas_A · 02-21-2004, 09:42 AM

I agree on the RTi8's... My folks have em and they are quite nice... even witht he free 8"sub polk gave em'. YOu will probably hear quite a bit of difference between all 3 speakers... not necissarily in the same price ranges! Just besure to take some CD's your real familiar with to demo.

good luck.

Matthew_Ba · 02-21-2004, 09:53 AM

one thing to keep in mind on the Dynaudio series (which I like a lot BTW) is that they are mostly 4 ohm which your receiver might have trouble driving. I own an all Dynaudio system using bookshelf speakers and an SVS sub (the smallest one they make) all crossed over at 60Hz and it sounds fantastic for either music or movies.

Having said that, at your price range I would check out the Polk LSi series, in particular the LSi9 which should be about the same price as the towers you are looking at once you get stands and come with a free sub that would hold you over until you could afford a better one. The LSi center channel is only $100US more than the center you mentioned. For surrounds I won't make any recommendations because dipole versus direct radiators is a personal choice (I use direct radiators because I listen to some multi-channel music and cannot put my surrounds on the side walls).

Good luck and in the end the only thing that matters is that you like what you hear. Dynaudio wasn't even on my short list when I started to pick out my current system and through a bit of luck I heard some and fell in love with them.

Kamal_G_B · 02-24-2004, 10:02 AM

ok ok
thanx for the info guys - just forgot to add that i'm a newbie and therefore need a bit of ur info cleared up please-

Edward: what do u mean by "when both speakers are high passed at 80 Hz to a great sub"?

Matthew: i was told that my AVR could drive 4ohm speakers well enuff??

BTW i'm from South Africa- no free sub here, unfortunately- as for my room dimensions, we work with metres - room size is about 4,5m*10m for now- may be moving soon so not rushing into doing a full setup yet- but in the new place gonna be having a dedicated HT room.

thought i'd get the RTi10's cos it would make up for the lack of bass initially without the sub- and read a review from Oct2003 that there was much mid range lacking from the RTi10's compared to the 8's

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GrahamT · 02-24-2004, 10:59 AM

I have Polks and Paradigms and they are both very good speakers but have different sounds. IMO the highs on the polks are smooth where the Digms are more detailed. It depends what you prefer.
The Monitor series from Paradigm is about the same price as the RTI series. Another thing to listen to when you go to the Paradigm dealer is their subs. The Paradigm subs are better than the Polk subs IMO.
Ed means that when you set the speakers to small on the receiver and set the crossover to 80 Hz.

Blaine P · 02-24-2004, 11:17 AM

So how would you compare the Paradigm Atoms and CC-170 to the Polk RTi4 bookshelves and CSi3 center channel? Are these is different classes?

GrahamT · 02-24-2004, 04:39 PM

Yeah, the performance series is in the same price class as the lower end RTis in the US.

cabreau · 02-25-2004, 09:04 AM

I remember two years ago when I was shopping for a home theater system. I went to Circuit City and listened to some Polks, some Bose (didn't know better at the time) and some other speakers. Then I went to the local Paradigm dealer and listened to a 5.1 setup with Atoms, CC-170, and a PDR-10. I left with the Paradigms. At the price point that I was at, the Paradigms easily sounded twice as good to me. It's possible that the CC guys didn't know how to setup the Polks or even calibrate them correctly, so maybe they didn't get a just and fair listening by me, but the Atoms were just so amazing for the price. The Atoms are probably Paradigms best speaker for Price/Performance.

That's just my opinion.

I know that as you get into the >$1000 range with the Paradigms, Boston Acoustics has some towers that easily give the Studio 40's and 60's a run for their money. It really all depends at what price point you are at and what your ears tell you.

Kamal_G_B · 03-01-2004, 11:07 AM

ok- here's the low down- been gone for just over a week but been really busy-
first had a good listen to a paradigm (monitor) setup- not bad , but think they're missing some of the really high highs which were better clarified by the polks- now here's the other thing.....i listened to the polks about 3 months ago, so not sure if i'm giving them unwanted status or not- could it just be that im imagining that they sounded better than the paradigms or not (my new short term goal - to have another polk demo soon soon soon) - at the same time had a look at a LOEWE TV- couldn't be