Price Paid:  $80.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
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.)

Strengths:
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.

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

Price Paid:  $175.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
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.

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

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

Similar Products Used:
Technics center channel (came free with receiver purchase)

Price Paid:  $99.00 from J&R music world

Summary:
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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Strengths:
Very well made, good sound, nice price.

Weaknesses:
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.

Similar Products Used:
techniques and pioneer

Price Paid:  $140.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
Nice looking, good mids and highs.

Weaknesses:
lacks full sound that you usualy get from Polk Audio.

Similar Products Used:
JBL

Price Paid:  $150.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I was looking for an inexpensive center channel that sounded pretty goood while I save up to purchase a B&W speaker system. The clarity I get from this speaker was good, not outstanding, but really good for the price. It does lack some bass response, but that can be made up for with a subwoofer. I have this speaker hooked up to the following system:

Pioneer VSX-D608 DD/DTS Receiver
Toshiba SD-3006 DVD Player
Sony WEGA 32FS12 32 inch flat screen TV
Panasonic 4520 HI-FI VCR
Bose Interaudio 4000 loudspeakers
Yamaha YST-SW77 Subwoofer
Polk RTi-15 for surround
Pioneer PD-F1007 301 CD Changer
Pioneer PD-R555W CD Recorder
Denon DR-M555 Single Cassette Player
Harman Kardon TC-1000 Take Control LCD Remote

Strengths:
Clear mids and highs. Has binding posts at this price.

Weaknesses:
Limited bass response, but to be expected at this price. Binding posts do not accept banana plugs

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha, Bose