Polk vs. Sony Speakers?

Question

Right now I have a pair of Polk Rti 4 bookshelf speakers along with a polk psw303 subwoofer. I'm looking to create a 5.1 surround sound system.

Polk Csi A4 (Center)

vs.

Sony SS-CN5000 Dual 5.25 (Center)

I was also looking at the Sony SS-B3000 bookshelf speakers for a possible replacement for the Rti4 as the front speakers. I would then move the Rti4s to the rear

I think I'm going to buy a Onkyo 605 or 705 receiver to power the whole system.

Any opinions??

Answer 1

This really isn't a question you should be asking!  Polk all the way.  Sony has never made good audio products.  Like all big companies, they base their product on the bottom line, not the quality of sound.  Companies that focus solely on audio products produce superior sonic goods.

Polk does psychoacoustic research to determine which speaker designs best recreate music and other sounds.  They use better materials.

For the last part of the question about receivers, get the Onkyo 605 unless you want to wait for the 606 to come out soon.  I personally have the 805 and love everything about it except the height and weight!! It's huge and doesn't fit on any shelving I currently have :(

Comparison:  605/705 both have DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD onboard decoding (which is nice if you have a Toshiba HD-A35 HD-DVD player or Panasonic DMPBD30K Bluray Player which can output bitstream audio to your receiver).

605 =  90W RMS

705 = 100W RMS

Both = .08% THD

605 = HDMI 2-in 1-out

705 = HDMI 3-in 1-out

605 = 2 Fiber Optics (Toslink) inputs

705 = 3 Fiber Optics (Toslink) inputs

705, like the 805, is quite a bit heavier and larger than the 605, so space needs to be big and VERY OPEN.  These receivers run hot because they have high-current amplifiers that consume lots of power.

High-current vs. low-current is like considering 12-volt car battery to 8-AA batteries; both = 12 volts but one has the higher current output to start your car!  Which one do you want driving your nice new speakers? (hint, high current massively increased performance on my old Bose 201 series III speakers.  My 805 absolutely blows my mind while connected to my KEF KHT3005s!).

Oh yea, and I'm actually a big fan of the Polk CS2 center if you have space for it.  It's very clean and powerful.