gplracer

I am about to purchase some home theater equipment. I think I am going to get the Onkyo 595. The speakers have me cofused. I listened to some Infinity speakers. I think they were the Ht-s20. I saw them at Curcuit City for $749. They are a 5 piece system with a sub. I also so the Polk 6600. It is a 5 piece system without a sub for $659. There is a $100 off deal if you buy a sub which I would like to do. The velodyne sounded good. The infinity speakers are brighter but the Polk speakers with the velodyne sub have much more punch. I am confused. Also what about this? I have a pair of Polk rt-5's and thought about using them as a rear speakers. I would then buy the the Polk 25i speakers for the front and the matching center channel Polk which I believe is the 245i. I could then add the velodyne sub to those. I have not heard this combitnation yet. They would be bigger speakers. I could replace the rt-5's at a later date with more rt25i's or some larger more expensive Polk speakers and put 25i's on the rear. How would the rt-5's compare to the real small ones in the 5 piece systems? What do you guys think? The reason I am at Curcuit City is the 12 months no interest which is real appealing to me. Thanks for your time.

wiz

If you have to buy from Circuit City then I would probably say the Polks are the best sounding ones of the speakers you listed. However, the best sounding speakers I have ever heard (and what makes up my home theatre) are the PSB speakers. http://www.psbspeakers.com/

You can find the bookshelf models of these (as well as the center) at http://www.soundcity.com/ for a good price, but there's no financing.

Your best bet is to just go and take one of your favorite CD's in there and listen to all the speakers, then pick the one you like the best.

R2112

I would agree with Wiz...

You can get discontinued and blemished, "B" stock PSB speakers at:

http://www.yawaonline.com/psb.html

They are authorized on-line dealers. Their shipping is a bit higher then sound city's though.

If you tell them you saw their ad on www.audioreview.com, they'll give you a better price.

Good luck...

svadas

those "B" stock prices are pretty nice. I'd wager that they just open the boxes and say they are blemished to sell them legally on the net. If you have a preference toward music, or just want something that you'll never feel the need to upgrade, I'd look at those stratus bronze with the c5i center speaker and use your polks for rears. if you could talk them into selling you both for a grand, jump on that. later on you can always ad a good bargain priced sub like the hsu vtf-2 and have a truly awesome system, well except for that snazzy boze 3-2-1 or whatever the heck it's called.