Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am a consumer electronics professional and have been in the business for 20 years now. I say this just to add some context for this review and to let readers know that I'm far pickier than most users.
Given how much of a movie comes from the center channel, it is arguably the most important speaker in any home theater system. Before this I had a high-end Infinity with dual 5.25" mid/woofs, but found it to lack depth. The clarity and openness were great, but I wanted to feel the menacing timbre in Darth Vader's voice and get the full impact of a baritone singing voice, which I felt was missing.
They say that your center should be the same type of speaker as your fronts, but putting a tower on your TV is a bit excessive, even for me. So I did the next-best thing.
The CSi5 is an imposing speaker with dual 6.5" woofers, a sizable ported cabinet, and a clean but not shrill tweeter. The subdued highs of the tweeter were actually what made it such a good match for my Phase Tech front speakers.
Well, while I definitely got the depth I was after, and the highs are wonderfully mellow, the problem is that the speaker lacks the openness of the Infinity. I thought the thick and dense cabinet would solve this problem, which I've heard in other Polk speakers of lower quality, but it didn't. The sound is very localized and often sounds like it's coming from a box, which, of course, it is.
I've always liked, if not always respected, Polk speakers, and actually had a pair of the old Monitor 10B speakers. They were boomy and a little too sparkly, but they had a pleasing sound and were more open than today's models. They started messing with the two-way design they used in all of their speakers--all the way up to their monstrous SDA SRS1.2s--and wound up kicking themselves in the butt.
It's a good speaker, but to a guy that values open sound above so many other aspects of sound quality, this is a tough pill.
-Doug
Click Here to see more reviews about: Polk Audio CSi5 High Performance Center Channel Speaker (Single, Black)
Center channel speakers easily carry the 50% or more of center channel info delivered in multi-channel sources for home theatre systems. The Polk Audio CSI A5 Center Channel Speaker has an upside-down aimable cabinet to give you placement flexibility and finer sound-tailoring for your high performance home theater system. It is also timbre-matched to fit into any Polk Audio home theater or multi-channel music system for a more realistic and seamless surround sound environment. The CSi A5 features the latest generation of Dynamic Balance polymer composite drivers for smooth wide-range response with low distortion as well as a 1-inch silk/polymer dome tweeter to deliver better sound detail. Ventingthrough the rear panel Power Port and the front panel ARC port vastly reduces chuffing or port noise. It provides deeper, more powerful, lower distortion bass than other conventional ported or sealed designs can offer. All-MDF construction creates an acoustically inert cabinet. You are assured classic Polk performance in a design that speaks to today's high-end home décor. True performance art.
