Looking for 2 front speakers

[CRoswell]

Good morning,

Mr. Boylan gave me FANTASTIC advice back in this thread:
http://forum.bigpicturebigsound.com/...ggestions.html

I bought the Onkyo TX-SR607 and Polk 5.1 setup mentioned there. Now I'm looking for a couple Christmas ideas, and I figured 2 front speakers would fill that out nicely. I could order 2 more Polk RM6751s, but in that thread, the Polk Audio M10 Bookshelf Speaker: $69: Save $181: BigPictureBigSound was mentioned and linked. I checked it now and it was back to $130 for the pair.

Are there any current deals going on for similar quality speakers in the < $100 for a pair price range? Bonus points if they have some stands or if you can suggest some stands. Black would be preferred. I wanted to order them through one of your partners as a thank you for all the fantastic advice I received last year. I'm enjoying my Onkyo TX-SR607 with the Polk speakers IMMENSELY. I am very glad I'm not renting. My neighbors would hate me...

Thanks to you Mr. Boylan.

-Croswell

[MrBoylan]

Good morning,

Mr. Boylan gave me FANTASTIC advice back in this thread:
http://forum.bigpicturebigsound.com/...ggestions.html

I bought the Onkyo TX-SR607 and Polk 5.1 setup mentioned there. Now I'm looking for a couple Christmas ideas, and I figured 2 front speakers would fill that out nicely. I could order 2 more Polk RM6751s, but in that thread, the Polk Audio M10 Bookshelf Speaker: $69: Save $181: BigPictureBigSound was mentioned and linked. I checked it now and it was back to $130 for the pair.

Are there any current deals going on for similar quality speakers in the < $100 for a pair price range? Bonus points if they have some stands or if you can suggest some stands. Black would be preferred. I wanted to order them through one of your partners as a thank you for all the fantastic advice I received last year. I'm enjoying my Onkyo TX-SR607 with the Polk speakers IMMENSELY. I am very glad I'm not renting. My neighbors would hate me...

Thanks to you Mr. Boylan.

-Croswell

I'm glad things worked out for you. A new pair of front speakers will definitely help to tweak the sound, improving the dynamic range and giving you a little more substance for those explosions and musical scores. And then you can go 7.1 using the current RM6750 front speakers either for height or rear channel speakers.

But then the little center channel from the RM6750 system might feel slightly out-classed, so why not go a little nuts and get a new center channel too?

The best deals will change from season to season as some vendors will buy out large quantities of speakers toward the end of the model year in order to be able to offer better prices on them. But I would definitely recommend staying with Polk so the voicing of the drivers is close to what you already have. I'd recommend going with the Monitor 30, which Amazon/J&R have for $99.99 right now (in Black only, the cherry version is still over $200):

Polk audio Monitor 30

And to pair it with a beefier Polk center channel speaker, I'd recommend the CS10, which is a TOTAL steal on Amazon right now ($79.99):

Polk Audio CS10

To get that lower price you will need to add it to your cart with "Amazon.com" as the seller - this may appear on the right side of the page. Amazon says it is temporarily out of stock, but they are still offering the price and will charge your card when it is back in stock.

You will still get a performance improvement by upgrading just the front speakers, but because of how much sound comes out of the center, I would definitely recommend upgrading that too, particularly at that price. Don't forget to re-do the speaker calibration once you get the new ones installed, as the cross-over frequency will definitely need to be adjusted. Also, your rear and height channel outputs are probably disabled right now since you are not using them. You will probably need to go into the set-up menu on the receiver to enable either output.

For now, with no PLIIz height-encoded material available yet, a traditional 7.1 implementation (with both side and rear surrounds) will probably give you the best results. Or you could also just stick with a 5.1 system and use the extra speakers in a secondary system.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Regards,

-Chris