Polk R10 vs. JBL N24 vs. KLH HT-9930 (1 Viewer)

[Rick_N]

Ok folks need some help. As you can tell I'm on an extreme budget. My question is simple, I'm looking for bang for buck and needing some surrounds to go with my new set of Jensen Floorstanding C7 speakers. The Polks are on sale at Circuit City for 80 for the pair, the JBL's are online for 100 with free shipping, and Best Buy has an open box for 80 on the KLH. Now the KLH has a center speaker in it and would take care of that. Now here is the biggie, I'm not an audiophile for the most part, I just want good but not great sound for now. Moving into a house in the summer and I don't have money for the more expensive things out there. No matter how much I would love to. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike boettner]

if it were me, i'd do this:
stay away from mail order/online, reason being:
every thing i get in the mail is ALWAYS broken!
stay away from klh, even for $80
just leaves you with 1 choice:
get the polks, if and when you do upgrade they will make a good stereo pair for somewhere else in your house. also i think they would sound the best out of your 3 choices.
keep in mind this is my opinion!
good luck and remember to have fun!

 

[Mark F Hall]

The Polk R10's are on sale at Circuit City's website for $39.99 each. I price matched 2 pairs at my local CC and I am putting them in a bedroom system.

Mark

 

[Rick_N]

Thanks for the replys folks. I am leaning toward the Polks. I just want to make sure that there is nothing obvious missing. I think I found a matching center speaker for my Jensens. Does anybody know of a place that sells Jensen online, B&M, etc.? It seems like no one does.

 

[JasonS]

Rick,

I recently purchased the n24's from J and R. They came very quickly, and boxed well. I also recieved and email confirmation, as well as a tracking number quickly. I just thought I'd share my positive experience.

 

[Jon_R]

The Blessed N24s are clearly a forum favorite. I have a pair of R10s and they were my main speakers for quite some time. They are small, can't play extremely loud but give good speaker wire and a good amp can play quite nicely. At least for me, the more I started to critically listen, the better they sounded, as they were new and we just getting broken in. They are pulling surround duty now.

I don't have any pics of my setup, but I do have a diagram of all the equipment in it.

If you honestly compare the construction of the N24, the KLH, and the R10 I think the R10 will come out on top. I know the KLH are cheaply made and the N24 isn't even wood, still they remain the favorite around here.

Holy moly, I just realized something! I have a mint condition cs175 center chan speaker, the perfect sonic match R10 that I a have been meaing to put back on ebay. Fire me an email if you want it and we'll work out a price. Its in perfect shape.

That looks really fake, but I put it on ebay once and got a deadbeat bidder, so I sort of forgot about it until now.

Anyway,

Jon

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Quote:

For more JBL INFO, see my webpage Why you should add JBL N & S Series to your audition list!
NOTE: Because my website is 'free', hosted by GeoCities, if too many HT enthusiasts visit, GeoCities will shut it down for an hour or so because it exceeded the specified 'freebie' Data Transfer Rate. Sorry about that, just bookmark it and visit my site an hour later or when everyone has gone to bed!
Phil

 

[Jon_R]

Well Phil,
I see the world is still revolving.. glad to see that post again.
Yours truly,
Jonny R Dogg

 

[John Fishburn]

was just flipping through the j and r catalog and noticed that it said the n24 is a 6 ohm speaker is this true? if so this would be better for a budget system since it would draw more power out of a less exspensive reciever. correct? where as my n26's are standard 8 ohm. Is there a big difference in the sound of the n24's and the n26's? I have never heard them side by side but i know my n26's sound great!

 

[Phil Iturralde]

CD Music: (Technics SL-MC410 110+1 Mega Changer - SPL no higher than 92 dB Fast SPL peaks)
Is the NSP1 musical? Yes, they are! Brent's review briefly comments how the N24s "out-imaged any other mini I've used in a wall-mount configuration. I didn't think a wall-mounted speaker could image so well. Voices levitated in the air in front of me; the hand percussion in Holly Cole's "Train Song" floated about between the speakers; and I got much more sense of a soundstage than I'm used to getting."
I've confirmed his findings by sampling my favorite and familiar Music CD's by Bob James, David Benoit, Joe Sample and The Rippingtons. Cymbal crashes, rides, attacks were all solid, sharp, & airy (like my son's Zildjian cymbals - Tama Rock set); the Piano & Keyboards were as accurate as my 6' Yamaha Grand & Yamaha Electronic Keyboard; the Violins were smooth, sweet & solidly placed beyond the speakers; Acoustic Guitars sounded like my "1976 (Rosewood side & back) Alvarez" hand made Classical Guitar!; and Brent already commented how great the mids were, but let me add that "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim*" were in my living room when I played the Music CD with the same name! (*great 1967 Digital remastered) DDD Music CD's really shined & the JBL NSP1 didn't disappoint! (Sampled w/Pro-Logic on & off)

Just my .02 cents worth,
Phil

 

[John Fishburn]

JBL rates the N24 & the entire NSP1 set = 8 ohms

Thats what I suspected.........must be a misprint in the j and r catalog.

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

I run 4 Polk R10's (mains + surrounds) with the CS175i center in my living room (which is 12'x18'x8'), and I love the way they sound. Considering the CS175i is now down to $129 at Circuit City, you'd come out at about the same price as the JBL NSP1 set.

I didn't go with the more expensive Polks with the tri-laminate tweeters because I prefer the more mellow sound of the silk dome tweets. The R10's, with a standard 80Hz THX crossover, are outstanding because they extend nicely down to the 50-55Hz range. It's only a slight difference from the 80Hz dropoff of the JBL's, but it does give you a bit more directionality with upper range bass. The JBL's, however, are brighter sounding speakers... so it really just depends on your personal preference. I don't know that you'd be going wrong either way.

In short, if you're buying primarily for home theater, the JBL's may give you a bit more directionality on the high end. If you're buying for a combination of HT and music, the Polks will probably be the more balanced sounding speaker (and still perform quite nicely for HT).

 

[Rick_N]

I appreciate everyone helping out on this as I have just come back from Circuit City with what I felt was a good deal. An open box Kenwood VR-507 for 199.99 missing only the manual and was the display only, as well as a pair of the Polk R10's for 29.99 a piece. Can't beat that I don't think. Those will go with my Jensen floor towers and hopefully, I will be getting the matching Jensen center speaker from ebay. I just had to share what I thought was a good deal. No this sound system won't kill a theater but not being the true audiophile, I think it will work nicely for a home setup. Oh and I do appreciate the offer on the center channel and if I don't get the Jensen then I will probably email you about it. Thanks again for everyones opinion.

 

[Jon_R]

Jeremy
First off I want to say how offended I was at your website. It is complete trash! I was so shocked when I read it that I nearly emulated that fellow in the top left. It really disturbed me.
However, we have very similar tastes in home theater. If you check my equipment list I've got very similar stuff. While reading your post I thought that maybe I wrote it, until I saw it was your name, realized your name isn't my name and thus I must not have written it. Anyway, if you can get a hella good deal on a pair of r40, I say they are worth it.
BTW, I know my center cs245i has a trilam tweet that isn't the same as the rest, but the cs245 is hard to come by and after extensive breakin the tri-lam seems to have settled down enough to make a good match.
Oh, one last thing. Your website rocks. I read the entire thing. You should write more.
Had you going didn't I?
Jon

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

Jon, I wanted to get the R40's for mains, but I had neither the money at the time or the space to put them in (because frankly, my living room is filled with useless crap that no one will let me get rid of). I've got the R10's mounted to the front wall with B-Tech BT-7 mounts, and that works great for me.

I will probably slowly upgrade all my speakers to the newer Polks soon (starting with the center channel), because a girl at work wants to buy mine to replace her Kenwood HTIB speakers. However, I'm ordering a SVS 20-39CS/Samson 700 to replace my Polk PSW-350 in two or three weeks, so that has to come first.

And thanks for the comment on Liquid Meat! I'm going to be updating it in the next week or two, but I'm also working on redesigning it to bring on other comedy writers who are as twisted as I am.