Narasimhan_M
Member
Going back in time, Aug 2015 was when I had my dream fulfilled which was my first home theater setup. I ended up buying Yamaha receiver and POLK TL1600 5.1 Speaker set.
It was a great set watching movies and was also easy on the wallet. As time passed by, the urge to upgrade the setup started growing in me. My first upgrade plan was to replace the Front Speakers with a bookshelf pair.
I decided on POLK S20 and thought of auditioning it. I wrote an email to ProFX and got connected with the Chennai outlet.
An audition was planned on Sunday and S20 was arranged for it. Thumbs up to ProFX here.
And here came the twist to the story.
At the ProFX chennai store, the S20 was a brand new piece. While the S20 was being unboxed, I requested to play some songs on the floor standers. The S50 was already connected and ready to sing. I bought a pen drive with me with few songs and they were played on the S50 in the direct mode (without the sub).
The song I first listened on these speakers was "Annal Mela Panithuli" from VA, and it sounded so awesome. All the musical instruments came alive and it sounded so so nice.
The bass notes, were superb and tight and I was completely bowled over. We continued playing few more songs and each of them felt so fresh and great on these speakers. While was drooling over the sound, the S20 was ready to be auditioned.
We played over the same set of songs, and in my opinion the S20 was no match for the S50 in term of bass reproduction and sheer details. So, was the decision made ?
I had an impression in my mind that my V477 receiver cannot power the floor standers and I was WRONG. The receiver had the capacity to output 80W at 6 Ohms and S50 had a sensitivity of 89db. So doing the math, the receiver should power S50 at 104db (THX Ref Level) at 32W which should not be a problem.
The Profx person too confirmed that V477 can definitely power these speakers. We watched Fast and Furious for few mins on the S50 and it sounded awesome.
The decision was made and I got a very good offer from proFx and the deal was sealed.
Special thanks to Mr Imanuel from Profx for helping me out with my purchase
Here comes my review
The speakers were shipped to my place on Tuesday and installation was just a plug and play. My 7 year kid was super excited with the unboxing and luckily the shipment arrived in the evening.
I ran the YPAO to calibrate the speakers and with my first listening, it was not impressive at all. The speakers definitely missed something and I was hell bent to make it sound better. I manually adjusted the speaker levels to my taste and though the output was good it was not punchy. The bass was too boomy and loose.
Crossover -> Here was the problem. With my earlier speaker set (all satellite), I had the crossover at 120hz. Going through lot of forums, the suggestion was to set it at 80hz and speaker size to "small". It did the MAGIC. Here is a nice article on this subject by audioholics.
www.audioholics.com
I am splitting my listening impressions into 3 Aspects
With Music
The S50 is a speaker definitely worth upgrading from satellite or mediocre bookshelves. I am not an audiophile and this is my review with the basic setup I have
Its a enjoyable floor stander and a value for money proposition as well.
It was a great set watching movies and was also easy on the wallet. As time passed by, the urge to upgrade the setup started growing in me. My first upgrade plan was to replace the Front Speakers with a bookshelf pair.
I decided on POLK S20 and thought of auditioning it. I wrote an email to ProFX and got connected with the Chennai outlet.
An audition was planned on Sunday and S20 was arranged for it. Thumbs up to ProFX here.
And here came the twist to the story.
At the ProFX chennai store, the S20 was a brand new piece. While the S20 was being unboxed, I requested to play some songs on the floor standers. The S50 was already connected and ready to sing. I bought a pen drive with me with few songs and they were played on the S50 in the direct mode (without the sub).
The song I first listened on these speakers was "Annal Mela Panithuli" from VA, and it sounded so awesome. All the musical instruments came alive and it sounded so so nice.
The bass notes, were superb and tight and I was completely bowled over. We continued playing few more songs and each of them felt so fresh and great on these speakers. While was drooling over the sound, the S20 was ready to be auditioned.
We played over the same set of songs, and in my opinion the S20 was no match for the S50 in term of bass reproduction and sheer details. So, was the decision made ?
I had an impression in my mind that my V477 receiver cannot power the floor standers and I was WRONG. The receiver had the capacity to output 80W at 6 Ohms and S50 had a sensitivity of 89db. So doing the math, the receiver should power S50 at 104db (THX Ref Level) at 32W which should not be a problem.
The Profx person too confirmed that V477 can definitely power these speakers. We watched Fast and Furious for few mins on the S50 and it sounded awesome.
The decision was made and I got a very good offer from proFx and the deal was sealed.
Special thanks to Mr Imanuel from Profx for helping me out with my purchase
Here comes my review
The speakers were shipped to my place on Tuesday and installation was just a plug and play. My 7 year kid was super excited with the unboxing and luckily the shipment arrived in the evening.
I ran the YPAO to calibrate the speakers and with my first listening, it was not impressive at all. The speakers definitely missed something and I was hell bent to make it sound better. I manually adjusted the speaker levels to my taste and though the output was good it was not punchy. The bass was too boomy and loose.
Crossover -> Here was the problem. With my earlier speaker set (all satellite), I had the crossover at 120hz. Going through lot of forums, the suggestion was to set it at 80hz and speaker size to "small". It did the MAGIC. Here is a nice article on this subject by audioholics.
AV Receiver Bass Management Basics – Settings Made Simple
This guide is designed to address the numerous questions we've received from new home theater owners on setting up their loudspeakers and AV receiver bass management settings. Get good bass here.
www.audioholics.com
I am splitting my listening impressions into 3 Aspects
With Music
- FLAC and Mp3 -> These sound great in "DIRECT" mode and definitely these speakers shine and show their potential. The highs, mid range and low are detailed very well. At any point, the speakers do not appear to over power or be harsh. Its a very addictive listening exp so far.
- Music Videos -> Like youtube songs which are in 2 channel, here is the trick. Since the crossover is set at 80hz, the center speaker tries to reproduce bass in the dolby pro logic mode. Hitting the "STRAIGHT" button make it play in 2.1 mode and here again the speaker shines.
- Its a terrific experience. The sound stage is very good and the thump produced is nice. V477 powers the speakers very well. The volume level used to be at 65-70 and with S50, its hard to push the volume beyond 60. The climax of "A Quite Place" was too too good.
- In this setting, i was surprised to see the amount of bass produced by the S50. It was almost on par with the POLK 100W sub and these speakers for sure have some good power. But my preference would be the first setting (Small and with sub)
The S50 is a speaker definitely worth upgrading from satellite or mediocre bookshelves. I am not an audiophile and this is my review with the basic setup I have
Its a enjoyable floor stander and a value for money proposition as well.
