Which pair of speakers to go with current home theater set up?

defreak

I have a Onkyo HT-S7409 home theater system, the receiver is a TX-NR609, 7.1 system, but it only came with 5.1 speakers. I am looking to get a pair of speakers to complete the 7.1, I'm assuming the best option is to use the new speakers as the front pair, and move the current front pair to be the back pair.

I know little to nothing about home audio, I purchased the current system after doing some research and reading reviews and stuff, from what I gathered I have a good starter system that's relatively inexpensive (was on sale for $400), so I'm looking for speakers that are equivalent in quality and price.

I narrowed it down to these 3, but I have questions about them.

Polk Audio T15 - $100
Polk Audio TSI100 - $220, I don't understand why this pair is double the price of the one above.
Klipsch KB-15 - $250, not sure if the system I have will fully utilize this pair's potential.

I don't mind paying over $200 for a pair of speakers, as long as my system can utilize them fully, and the difference in quality is worth it.

Any help is appreciated.

Donovan Puppyfucker

The first pair will do the job just fine.
The TSI100s are just a nicer set of the first speakers - thicker cabinet, better quality tweeter and driver.
There's no point buying the Klipsch set unless you listen to them all in the store and decide you like the sound of them $150 more than the Polks. Your receiver can drive all of them quite nicely, and the increased sensitivity of the Klipsch units will probably mean they sound clearer and more "descriptive", but there's the chance if they sound really great, then once you install them you'll want to replace the rest of your speakers, too...

honkymcgoo

I have that exact pair of Polk T15s, being run by a Harman Kardon AVR 230, and they sound incredible. The nice thing about Polks is that if you decide to add other speakers to them, all polks are sound matched within their series.

For reference I'm using my setup in a medium sized living room.

defreak

Thanks for the feedback, I'll be getting the T15s then.

One more question, assuming I'm replacing the rest of the speakers slowly over time, should I replace the center before replacing the surrounds and rears? I'm guessing this Polk CS10 is equivalent to the T15s, Amazon has them for $110.

honkymcgoo

In my opinion the front and center speakers are what you wanna go with first. Since they still handle the vast majority of sound. Especially where dialogue is concerned.

The rears and surrounds are pretty much just there to handle sound effects and add ambiance, although there are times when some dialogue will be coming from one of them. But that's pretty rare and you can still hear it out of the front and center.

So short answer, yes. Replace the center first. And the CS10 is basically the equivalent and would fit best with those T15s. It's also always on sale which is nice, I saw it for $90 on newegg the other day.

Burtletoy

Also, don't buy any of those speakers at Best Buy.

I have a pair of the Polk TSi100 that I got from amazon last august for $130 after shipping and tax, keep an eye on sites like this if you want to save a ton of money (or get way better speakers!) - Slickdeals.net


Also; this center is slightly better and slightly cheaper (found from that slickdeals like above).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=Yq4Y7FH1EeKhVUKlSFOw_Q0_ud6N3_0_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&Item=N82E16882290212&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na

defreak

I totally forgot to check newegg, now I'm probably going to go with a pair of Monitor30s and a CS1 center, the CS2 is just a tad too big for what I have room for, and it'll save some money, and the driver size is the same as the Monitor30s.

Thanks for all the help.

Burtletoy

I also got a pair of monitor 70s from a slickdeals link

I think it was 180 for both.

Which is, like, less than buying one at retail.