Hi, I have recently purchased a new home threatre system comprising of the following components:
Onkyo 601E Receiver Polk Rti8 Floorstanding Speakers Polk Csi3 Fronts Polk Rti4 Surrounds Polk PSW404 Sub
When I listened to the speakers in the dealer's show room, I did comment on the fact that they did sound a little "harsh", especially in the high frequencies. The dealer assured me that this would pass as the speakers were run-in (apparently the demo-speakers had only been set up a few days earlier).
Anyhow, I've now owned the system for just over a month and the harshness on the front-speakers is still there, plus I have noticed an annoying hiss on vocals especially on "th" and "s" sounds. For example: "sure", would sound a little like "ssssure".
My questions: 1) Since I have probably put less than 20 hours through the speakers, should I give them more time to run in (assuming that that will cure the problem) 2) Could there be other reasons for the distortion and, if so, how can I fix it?
What you are describing sounds like vocal sibilance. Your speakers do need several more hours of break-in time and I would also suggest you turn the treble on your receiver down and see if that will help a bit. Onkyo/Polk is generally a good combination so give it some time or if you can trade the 601 for the 701. The 701 is a pretty mellow receiver and is on sale now all over the place for $599 or less.
if the breakin doesn't do it. your room acoustics could help also.
if you a lot of hard/reflecting surfaces the speakers will sound brighter.
if you have rugs/carpeting/soft couches and chairs more things of that nature help to tame reflections and make the speakers smoother/more mellow.
wall rugs in the room help quite a bit also.
a last resort type of thing could be if your speakers are biwireable putting somewhere around a 2ohm padding resistor on the tweeter input should do it.
thats what they do when they build speakers and the tweeter has to much output for the rest of the system.their will be a padding resistor on the tweeter.
Marcus, under NO CIRCUMSTANSES should you add a resistor to your brand new speakers. First, it will instantly void the factory warranty. Second, your betting you know more about crossover design than Matthew Polk does, not a bet you'd win. Kegger is right though, that's precisely what many many speaker designers do, and thats one reason there are sooooo many terrible speakers on the market. If the speakers sounded harsh in the dealers showroom and they sound harsh in your listening room, i'd say they are probably harsh. Might be fine for some folks, but your ears can hear the harshness, meaning they are NOT fine for you. Might be from the volume your driving them to. Do they sound harsh at lower volumes? If no, you probably need a bigger amp, as you may be driving the amp to clipping. If yes, take the speakers back and swap them for something smoother. My $.02