Power Handling,Clarity,soundstage

BIG!

When I got this it was a gift from my wife. She did nt even know what it was! She just went into radio shack & asked a salesman what would be a good christmas gift for a guy who like music/audio equipment. Well anyway I open it up and was impressed with it right away( the Size Weight, Quality). I got mine when Optimus was still them ( B4 they Became Pioneer for a while & now in their recent incarnation of RCA). This speaker is just GREAT All around. It has gold binding post,sturdy build,Great Clear focused sound. It can take Great amounts of power 80 Rms 150 max it states but i,ve driven it with an SAE A1200 power amp for years with my prosseser set to "large" & I,ve only once heard it bottom out when I was watching Black Hawk Down cranked one day & even then I just turned down the level on it 2 db & she tooted along just fine. I now have her hooked up to my pioneer VSX-49 TX & she still sounds great! Funny thing I,ve always used her on the large setting & just to see if I was correct on that the pioneer has a sound calibation system that checks your room & speaker acoustics with a mic & EQ,s the Amp/speakers accordingly. When I let the reciever do its thing it set my center to large also(its test tones determined the speaker can handle low bass fine) & it ommited my sub altogether(most of the speakers in my system can reach pretty low by themselves.)To summerize this I say I havent heard A better center speaker & I ,ve gone to different stores & whatnot to audition some. I,ve also had some on hand to compare( I,m an Audio tech by trade & repair alot of different manufacturers equipment)This speaker has no faults I can hear It sounds great off center, fills the room with clear dialog, & can keep up with the effects of the main speakers as it pans across the soundstage.Its big and thats the only problem it may present to people with shallow depth TV,s(mines is a old Mitsubishi Oak cabinet some 21/2 feet deep)I know it goes for $49 dollars now but its a great speaker at any price!

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Bose center,Polk

Incredible value. Only way to beat sound is to pay > $350. Budget savings and invest in other surround sound components instead of center channel.

None for this price.

Bought RCA PRO-CS550 for $49 at Radio Shack. Beefy looking center channel got my attention. Sound is very good, equal to audophile center channel speaker of around $300. Great value for $49!! Surround sound now can hear movie dialogue clearly and sound is not dominated by main speakers. Able to have put together a smorgasborg of speakers: KLH Mains, Pinnacle PN-6 rears, and JBL subwoofer and get great surround sound on a budget.

Good Bass

The slight bass in both male and female voice made this speaker very annoying.

If the slight bass in voice doesn't bother you, it's very good center speaker.

Voices are smooth, tweeter is wonderful in this speaker

Very large speaker, may not fit on some T.V's

I purchased Optimus X88's for my fronts, and wanted the CS-5 to round out the Monopole tweeter sound in the front. This speaker definitely does the trick. If you can find one, get it! The soundstage that these Optimus speakers provide is fabulous, depth, shimmer, and so much more. If you want value, this is it. I paid $50 for this, and would have paid twice that for a new one at the Shack. Good Luck, and remember, the name doesn't guarantee quality, and vice versa!

Price, Linaeum tweeter

None that I've found, but I've only had it for a day!

Just picked up the CS5-II for $60. Was one of 3 left in the Pheonix area. I haven't really had a chance to use the speaker much yet, but I'm sure I'll be happy with it based on the reviews here, and it should (hopefully) match my LX8s well. The real reason I'm posting is that I wanted to give you Linaeum fans the scoop...Linauem lives on at Radio Shack! They are switching their Optimus product line over to RCA, but they have new RCA speaker models with the Linaeum tweeters. The new center speaker is the RCA CS55. I didn't see the price on it, it looked like they had just unboxed for display. As far as I can tell, it is identical, or almost identical to the CS5-II. They also have the die-cast model with the 5" woofer and the monopole tweeter under the RCA name, didn't get the model # on that though. I didn't see any RCA stuff with the dipole version, but they still have a large stock of the LS5-II, maybe they'll do another dipole version after those all sell out. Just wanted to let everyone in on this, since I was pretty much crushed when I heard that the Optimus line was dead, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn they are bringing the Linaeums over to the RCA line. Spread the word! :-)

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Some cheap KLH P.O.S. center speaker.

Good match for LX5 speakers, although dipole is better than
monopole. Gonna try hooking up the dipole module thats on sale for 19.99.

Colored lower mids/upper bass

I picked up the CS-5II last week for $80.00 out the door.
Couldnt resist the price.
The colorations that I mentioned are a little distracting,
but I am getting used to it. Most apparent on deeper male
and female voices. I purchased four LX-5 speakers right
after they came out. I was testing the Home theatre waters.
Figured I'd spend the big bucks later if I really enjoyed it. ( I DO! ). So I'm talking about an entry level system.
I'm using a Sherwood Pro Logic rcvr. 85 watts across the
front. I do notice the the front to back pans, and vice versa, are better. More detail retrieval. With the four
LX-5's it's really a damn good little system. Can be very seamless. Very good if the soundtrack is good. Say "Geronimo" the more modern version w/ Gene Hackman(Check it out!) Or a Disney Movie. The Sherwood is by no means a High
end amp (Most high end Amps are too bright!!!) My he man
Rig Is Theil, Counterpoint, Cary, Nordost, A very revealing,
Musical, and of the Highest Fidelity. Point is, I know good sound, satisfying sound, and musicality. A tough mix, but do-able with patience and tenacity. For the money The optimus Stuff is going for right now (being replaced with RCA branded "stuff" still the same) It's as good as your going to get for the money. I'm going to go Full tilt boogie
on a home theatre, and this Optimus system will go in the bedroom. I am going to try some poly-fill in the center channel to see if it helps.So look at it like this way
4 LX5's 300.00 plus tax
1 cs-5II 75.00 plus tax
1 R/S passive sub about 100.00 (crosses over high enough to
smooth out the two fronts)
About 500.00 bucks. DUH! For a pretty damn good mif-fi system That's what a mediocre Center channel by one of the "high end" brands sells for.
Remember, if all the speakers in a HT system are as close to the same as possible, it can put a mixed and matched "High End" system to shame.
Ratings are based on Clearance prices!

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optimus pro cs3, paradigm cc-350, Cerwin Vega ht-ctr

bass, clear vocal, good value

none yet

Got it cheap, $30, for a Pro cs5. there is a pro cs5 II now for $75. but for this older model, it serves me well. of course there are many better cc speakers out there. but they cost 5 times or twice more (depend which model you have) than what i pay for this one. their sound is a little better. it handles the wattage very well; eventhough it's rated i believe at 65 watts rms (130 watt max.). my sony receiver puts out 100 watt/channel. i can't complain for what i paid for or even $75 for the newer model. i had a chance to test the cs5II. it definitely sounds better than older one and it's still cheap. i recommend either the cs5 or cs5II.

Absolutely the price and the descent sounds coming from this durable box

Non so far

The center CSPro-LSII are currently at 50% off at Radio Shack. I encourage all to give this one for a listen. Let your ears decide, you do have 30 days to return it. Excellent with my Denon AVR-1700 even better with a my 10inch 120 watt powered subwoofer. I'm quite pleased with the sounds and to even purchase it for $74.99 was a steal.
It has 2-5 1/2" polymer woofers and a linaeum tweeter to enrich the highs. Its worth the 30 day trial.

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Yamaha

Great value.

Crossover. Vinyl covering.

Ok ok. I am not really 'into' home theatre. I have not invested in high end equipment as I have with my stereo, but I figured it was time to enjoy some dolby digital sound tracks while watching my Hollywood video rentals. I looked at various speakers and I found the RCA Pro CS5II to be the best speaker for the buck out their. Oddly enough, I found that it sounds comparable to $300-350 center channels. Enough said. It was on sale for $75 so I purchased it and it performs just fine. I've noticed that it sounds even much better than it already does simply by adding alot more dampening material to reduce the internal standing waves. This makes voices sound much more natural, and also presents a little bit better soundstage. I would have considered additional bracing but it is suprisingly braced very well already. Also, the 1st order crossover is suitable for this Lineaum tweeters, but the fact that they used an eloctrolytic capapcitor for it is not. Spend the $7 and buy a nice polyproplyene unit and highs are very much improved. I also used some closed cell vinyl foam weatherstripping on the speaker terminal plate to reduce air leakage. The gasket they use is not a good seal at all. Now for one gripe that isn't related to performance.....I am very tired of seeing this vinyl covering on everything. The amount of wood veneer needed to cover a small speaker like this would cost me no more than $25, but that's because I have to buy a sheet that could cover 2-3 of them. Actual bulk cost as a manufacturer would buy it is probably around 3 bucks per speaker this size. I would like to put some veneer on myself but it turns out that they have this stuff on the CS5II very securely, normally you can pull this stuff off with your fingers but it looks like this is actually a type of thick vinyl veneer that is very securely attached. Oh well. If you want a good center channel and are not willing to pay $400, get the CS5II and save that money for other things. Paying $300 for a speaker that sounds no better seems a waste unless you simply can not timber match well with the CS5II.

sound quality/ price ratio

has logo on speaker grille (I prefer all black)

I actually have the RCA model. I bought it along with optimus in wall speakers with 6.5" mids and Lineaum tweeters. The over all sound is great. I don't hear extra bass in the vocals, except were it is from a source not mixed for a hi-res system, such as network tv. On dvd sound tracks I was "washed" in a sound field. Needs a sub. The midrange isn't as "easy" as with my martin-logan aeriusi's, but the whole system cost me $300 (inwalls on clearence for 50 ea, center on sale for 100, while the aerius i's are going for about 2200 a pair- I can live with the flaws.

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many