I like Polk's quality of product. It is very well built. If you can still find one, and your budget is tight, it is a good center.

Not sonically expansive enough. But I really didn't expect it to be for the price.

I bought this as a replacement to the inexpensive Yamaha center channel I had originally purchased for my surround sound system. I had upgraded my receiver to the Yamaha V620 and I wanted to upgrade my speakers too. I bought the Polk Audio 25i's for new surrounds (I have a pair of venerable Boston Acoustic A150's as my mains)and I thought the CS175i might be a good addition too. Let's just say, I am going to upgrade in the near future. It wasn't a step backward, but it wasn't more than a half step forward either. I am thinking Athena next. (Got a pair of the AS-B1 bookshelf speakers recently and I am really impressed.)

Excellent Value

None

This review is for Polks' CS175 center channel. This is Polks cheapest center channel at 179.00 list with a street price from 100-150. I previously tried the Infinity CC-1 which was a decent little speaker, attractive styling, and pretty good sound but I found the Infinty speaker to be lacking overall. In the same price range is the CS175 and for a bit more, the CS245. As you can see from the reviews here, the CS245 is a well regarded speaker, and deservedly so. but I would not overlook the CS175. It has similar sonic characteristics, has the same appearance and dimensions as the CS245 with grill on (2 in less deep)and can be found for 100 dollars. At that price, I firmly believe the CS175 is the best value on the market. Dialog is very crisp, yet the speaker has greater range and a richer sound than any other center I've heard at its price. If you want a great center channel speaker and only want to spend about a 100 bucks, this is the one to get.

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Infinity CC-1

good price, excellent sound overall for a mid range speaker and for the price!

none. if you are looking for more bass or high range out then get surround speakers and a sub-woofer.

Overall, for the price these have been great so far. They have a good clean sound and for the price, you really cant beat it!
Like I said, if you want more highs or bass then get surrounds and a sub-woofer, after all thats what they are for and the whole idea of a surround system.
Also with the TV acting as a center, if your TV is pretty good, then you have more than enough center sound with the both combined.

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AR center

Nice looking, good mids and highs.

lacks full sound that you usualy get from Polk Audio.

This is a nice speaker with reasonably good sound for the price. The volcals come in clean, but at loud volumes the clarity seems to fade. I advise people to get the model cs-245 or higher.

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JBL

Clean open midrange, crisp high, relatively small size

limited low end range but with that price...

If your budget is limited and you want the best, IMHO of course, possible sound for under $150, this is the center to buy.

Hooked up to a Yamaha RX V496 it sounds superb. Vocals and effects sound clear and wide. There's not much bass though, so I routed the bass to my RT15 but since those are bookshelf the bass never gets really low. I used this with a pair of R10 as surround (an excellent performer in its own right) and soundwise it blended well. Notice that all these speakers use Polks black tweeter, not the tri laminate ones.

This center only use one driver for midrange/woofer, so if you walk in front of the TV, the sound can be localized to one side, but from listening posistion the sound appears wide as it should and help expand the soundstage. Also this one is relatively small, so I can fit it on top of my 27 Panasonic and doesn't look too big (although my wife have another opinion)

I haven't pushed this speaker very hard , but at loud listening level it maintains its composure real well.

I bought this open box from CC, and Polk has been nice enough to send me the 4 rubber feet by mail for FREE! So I expect excellent service from them during the life of this speaker as well.

Overall, a very good buy performance and value wise. I'm giving it 5 stars for performance. I know you can buy a much-much worse center for this price (or any price). Another solid effort by Polk Audio.

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Yamaha, Cerwin Vega

Good mid to highs. Size and build quality. Rubber foot pegs are a plus.

Not that I particularly want lows from a center channel but there are none here.

I suppose I've become somewhat brand loyal to Polk. I now have R15i's up front with a C175i in the center and have recently purchased some R10's for surround. I feel they are best in their class of bookshelves' at a reasonable, although sometimes slightly higher price. This center was worth 150.00 though and I get the feeling it will last a long while. It matches well with most small speakers. I'm looking forward to adding a sub - probably an Audiosource 10. Until then, I'm waiting to open my DTS copy of Saving Private Ryan so that I can scare people out of my living room.

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JBL n-center, Cerwin Vega (whatever their low end one was) Both of these are very nice too but it came down to matching with what I already had. The Polk did the best job of that.

Great Highs, Great Price

Lows

Great addition if you have decent low end speakers in the front with a sub-woofer. For the price, you can't find better highs, and the lows can be taken care of with other speakers. Polk Audio is an awesome brand. Also, I think the 175 (with one woofer) sounds better than the 275 (with 2 woofers), this may be b/c of the two woofers drowning out the one tweeter. Just my opinion though, listen for yourself.

Matched with my Polk Audio Fronts

Not a good speaker for the price, Lacks fullness,

I bought this speaker last evening and will be taking it back today for a refund. I will take the loss of the fifteen percent restocking fee to get most of my money back. I was disappointed at the tinny sound and lack of fullness, given the cost of it. I like Polk speakers, but this is not one of their winners.

Quality sound compared to any TV speaker or off-brand.

Not as accurate or balanced as I'd like, I just didn't want to spend more.

I went with Polk because I had such a good experience with their R10 bookshelf/surround monitors. They sounded nice in the Circuit City demo room even though I new they wouldn't provide very much bass. What I discovered at home was their subpar performance at low volume. That's probably a tough task, even for a quality center channel... You could do much worse.

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Technics center channel (came free with receiver purchase)

Very well made, good sound, nice price.

sounded rather restrained and dry untill i reversed the phase {red to black, black to red}, now the sound is more open and highs are sweeter.

very nice speaker once i hooked it up out of phase. Don't really know why this made such a difference but it did. For 99 dollars You really can't go wrong. I auditioned some speakers in the 300 dollar range that wasn't as good. this one is a nice size also. Fits in my entertainment center pefectly.
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techniques and pioneer