Polk-Audio-RTiA7-Floorstanding-Tower-Loudspeaker

arnie798

I am considering to purchase a pair of RTiA7's for my home entertainment system. It consists of a center speaker, a amplified sub woofer, 2 in the wall rear speakers, and 2 very old Advent New Horizon front speakers. My AV receiver is a Yamaha RX-A760.

Everything that I read about these speakers is that they will not sound good unless you have a lot of power. We mainly use this to watch DVD movies. I think my system sounds okay but I thought it would really sound good with these new RTiA7's replacing my ancient Advents.

Please give me your input I know there are a lot of factors to consider, I am 70 years old and when a good movie is playing I like to crank it up and feel the action.

Thanks
Arnie

F1nut

The A7's aren't that hard to drive, it's the A9's.

ken brydson

What center do you have? Important to timbre match your front 3...

arnie798

ken brydson wrote: »

What center do you have? Important to timbre match your front 3...

Acoustic Research AR2C Center Channel
You lost me on "timbre match"

F1nut

It means the speakers should voice matched, which means you should replace your current center with the CSi A6 for a seamless front sound stage.

cfrizz

Basically it means that your front left, right and center speaker should all be from the same company and series. So the matching center speaker for the RTiA would be the CSiA 4 or CsiA 6. Then the sound would be matched across the entire front.

Now maybe your ears are sharp enough to be able to tell the difference between your
Acoustic Research AR2C Center Channel, and the RTiA7s, or maybe not. I would start out with just the A7s with your center channel and see if you like it. If not, then you can get the matching center channel.

None of my speakers match since it was put together and upgraded over years and I knew nothing about timbre matching, and I think my system sounds great.

What most will agree on is get the largest center that you can since it carries the bulk of your movies.

Welcome to Club Polk.

arnie798

I want to thank everybody helping me with my situation. I fully understand the meaning timbre. Makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The only thing that I am still in question about is the power my amp has. With the speakers having the sensitivity they have shouldn't my amp be ok?

tonyb

Arnie,
Your receiver is fine to drive the A7's. Will they sound better with a separate amp ? Sure they would, most any speaker will, but as you are now, you'll be fine.

Get yourself a better center channel and a better subwoofer, and your 70 years may lose 10 or so.

gp4jesus

Put the CSi A6 at the top of your list.

Follow that w/a stout powered sub - advice available here in spades.

However if you happen across anyone of several 2/3 channel amps along the way, jump on it. You won't regret that detour in your journey.

Enjoy. Tony

jwb0007

Congrats, Arnie. On being 70 and still interested in excellent sound and upgrading, and looking forward to new and great things (am 70 also, soon 71). It is exciting, and provides untold hours of wonderful enjoyment.

As you seem satisfied with the answers you've received, may I piggyback on a couple of the comments?

To my question: agreeing with the premise that the Yamaha RX-A760 at 90 wpc will do a fine job on the A7 fronts (without an amp), what about the repeated advice that the A9s "need" a separate amplifier to sound good and "open up"? I have a Yamaha RX-A2030 (140 wpc).

I used the AVR solo and loved the sound w/ my RTi12 fronts, RTi6 surrounds, and CSiA6 center, plus sub Outlaw LFM-1EX. But, I listened to the advice of a (more) knowledgeable friend, and to the opinions of many who post on various forums, and bought a used Yamaha M-65 amp (170 wpc for the fronts). And I absolutely LOVE the sound/results. And I think I can notice some respectable, worthwhile improvement in the sound.

So, w/ 50 more wpc for my receiver, should that not be sufficient to fully and properly power the front RTi12 speakers? Full disclosure, I normally listen about 35 to 30 db below reference, and only rarely listen below 25db below reference, and my listening area has a LOT of cubic footage.

I recognize that experiences and opinions vary widely, and I welcome them all. And especially those that address the specific power ratios of AVR/wpc/speaker sensitivity/room size.

Thank, all.

cfrizz

Hi Jim,

My personal belief is that all speakers regardless of how "easy" they are to drive benefit from separate amplification.

I have had over the years a 50wpc Rotel amp, 110wpc Denon receiver, 205wpc Parasound amp and finally a 405wpc Sunfire amp in that order power my "easy" to power RTA-8T speakers.

I didn't hear what they were fully capable of until I hooked them up to the Parasound. To this day, it was the best improvement I made to my system. I will never have just a receiver driving any of my speakers, I will always have a separate amp of no less than 200wpc minimum.

Receivers, while they may power the speakers, are simply not capable of powering them to their full potential, (with the possible exception of 2 channel application) which I think is what everyone would want to accomplish. The more speakers you add to the receiver the less power all the speakers get.

I always recommend starting with a 200wpc amp @ 8ohms. This seems to be the point where just about everyone can hear a clear and distinct improvement in what they are hearing.

There is better separation of instruments & clarity across the board, more authoritative bass, and outstanding vocals.

This is the true benefit of having a powerful amp, and you get it no matter where the volume knob sits.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

jwb0007

Hi, Frizz,

Beautiful dog, BTW.

Appreciate your answer. Does that approach apply also to "moderate"/"normal" listening levels, in addition to louder and more power-intensive uses?

Thanks.

Jim

EDIT: I see you answered my question in your 2nd-last sentence!

gp4jesus

I regret I've have NOT experienced AVR-driven RTi A series towers. I've always had dedicated, robust power for mine. However...

If you have a robust sub* doing ALL the systems "heavy lifting," then you might get by w/out a separate amp. YMMV depending upon your space, acoustics of same, open versus closed floor plan, preferred listening levels, & program material.
* like JWB0007

Me, I believe I've achieved commercial** theatre** "level**" that's listenable*. That is I can watch "The Dark Knight Rises" w/out having to anticipate gun* fire. When I saw it in the theatre, I had to stick my fingers in my ears*, not because it was loud**, though it was, but it hurt*, BAD*!
** my kids complain "too loud" sometimes

Enjoy your journey. Tony