RtiA9 in replacment to my Monitor 70

Ghistos

Hi all,

I just received my new Onkyo TX-NR3008 and I plugged my Monitor 70 (4 of them) in it. I have a room of 30' X 15'.

I'm not in love with the Monitor 70. The mid-range is not very good, the tweeter a bit weak IMHO so, I think it's time to change.

Right now I have two choices in mind and one of them is the RTia9.

Is there someone who can help me. Is the RTi is better and more powerful than the Monitor 70 ?

tonyb

Better in everyway possible. Go for it.

nguyendot

Yes it's better. Your receiver is pretty high end. Your speakers are entry level. Time to match up....

Also did you run the auto calibration? There are a lot of people who love the Monitor 70's.

halo71

No break in time? Everything set up correctly?

Ghistos

I tried the Audyssey Calibration right after plugged in everything in my new Onkyo.
Everything was Ok but, 2-3 days after a Rock Band 3 party with 3 singers, my monitors 70 became very flat. A lot of bass and nothing in the mid upper range.

Don't know if I pushed my speaker to hard but, I'm not able to calibrate them again.

cnh

Your room may be too big even for that Onkyo with M70s? I run mine in a smaller room 11.5 x 25...where the M70s are pretty close to the side walls and form a perfect triangle, toed in, with the sweet spot--also off an Onkyo and things sound fine?

But, yes, the Rti-A9s will be a Big step up for you. You may find, though, that you need an external power amp to hear their FULL potential. The Onkyo will serve you well, in that case, as a pre/pro.

cnh

ChrisPCritter

How the HE double hackey sticks do I post a new thread on here?!!

cnh

Click New posts. Go to bottom RIGHT button...select forum home. Click on the appropriate category...like 2 channel. You will then see a button on the upper left that says "START NEW THREAD"!


cnh

Ghistos

The monitor 70 is entry level ? Where's the RTia9 ? Mid or high level ?

The second choice I have is the Energy RC-70

cnh

Polk has 3 series. The Monitor and newer TSI...entry level. The M70s are the flagship there (TSI-500s).

RtiA series is really the HT line and mid-level.

And the LSI are Polk's best...but engineered more specifically to be 'musical' though they're also a good HT speaker if you have tons of external power.

The Rti-A9s can put out as much or more sound as any current Polk speaker if 'properly' amplified.

cnh

tonyb

Ghistos wrote: »

I tried the Audyssey Calibration right after plugged in everything in my new Onkyo.
Everything was Ok but, 2-3 days after a Rock Band 3 party with 3 singers, my monitors 70 became very flat. A lot of bass and nothing in the mid upper range.

Don't know if I pushed my speaker to hard but, I'm not able to calibrate them again.

You may have fried them. Best to keep the volume dial below the 12 o'clock position in the future. Just sayin' is all.

Lietuvis91

I have found that for HT my monitors are all i will ever need, because with a good sub I really don't feel like anything is missing. But for quality music listening, I do have to agree with the OP that even when amped, the m70s do lack in the mid range for some reason. Bass and highs are good, but somehow mids seem a bit weak... maybe I too have something missconfigured?!

Overall, I am pretty happy with the m70s though. They put on quiet a show!

winterwinter307

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

I have found that for HT my monitors are all i will ever need, because with a good sub I really don't feel like anything is missing. But for quality music listening, I do have to agree with the OP that even when amped, the m70s do lack in the mid range for some reason. Bass and highs are good, but somehow mids seem a bit weak... maybe I too have something missconfigured?!

Overall, I am pretty happy with the m70s though. They put on quiet a show!

m70s is an amazing product.

Topper

I've personally A/Bed the TSi and RTi series and the difference is huuuge !! The TSi is a wonderful bang for the buck range but the RTi is huge improvement across the board !!

IRLRaceFan

tonyb wrote: »

You may have fried them. Best to keep the volume dial below the 12 o'clock position in the future. Just sayin' is all.

He may be very right about this - that they could be "fried".
I blew a tweeter on mine soon after I got them, using a 20yr old Kenwood receiver.
(Polk has an awesome customer service department, BTW - gave me a good lesson on amplification & how not enough can be a very bad thing)

After that I picked up a Denon with pre-outs and a set of 200W amps (Emo) - big improvement in sound quality and volume.
Yes, the volume part. Have I mentioned yet that my girlfriend LOVES volume?? Lot's of volume...
One night when I was at school, she cranked my system, which also has HER Bose 901's running with a 350W Carver amp, for approx. 3hrs! I guess Alan Parsons & Rush were really sounding good that night... She finally turned everything off about 1/2hr before I got home and all of my amps, plus my receiver were still very warm to the touch (I really don't know how the cops didn't get called :eek: ).
So the next time I went to play my '70's the were flat...just like Ghistos described.

I called Polk, thinking I just needed tweeters. Not sure who I talked to, but he told me to pull out my cross-overs & look for any signs of overheating. I did and sure enough there were COOKED! Since this was obvious abuse, Polk didn't warranty the parts (tweeters & x-overs); but they did give me a bit of a break on the cost and were very helpful.
BTW, he also warned me about re-adjusting the individual speaker levels after running the Audyssey calibration. I believe his point had to do with keeping all of them around the same level and not having them much above zero (or nominal), to keep from having one (or all) get into distortion when the volume is turned up (there's probably a better way to explain this)

My daughter help me with the rebuild, which turned out to be a great father-daughter experience and the speakers sound great again.
Now maybe I'll look at getting some Cerwin-Vega's to plug in when I'm not home .

Outfitter03

Did you take any pictures of the fried crossovers? What components were discolored? That must have been one heck of a jam session. From your post the 6 1/2 inch drivers came through this intact which is good to know.

IRLRaceFan

Outfitter03 wrote: »

Did you take any pictures of the fried crossovers? What components were discolored? That must have been one heck of a jam session. From your post the 6 1/2 inch drivers came through this intact which is good to know.

The drivers seem fine and yeah, I'm sure it sounded great...for a while...
This is probably going to p!ss some people here off...but I'm really surprised at how well the 901's sound, compared to my '70's.
Keep in mind that this is in the basement of a condo, with the sets of speakers set up across from each other at opposite ends of our ping-pong table. We found that the 901's actually sound better (for the area we have to put them in) facing backwards... Without amplification they sound like $h!t (really horrible). But with either of my amps they have a "warmer" sound than the '70's (I think some might describe the difference as more musical), although the '70's have more detail (aka brighter??). The 901's can also play much louder without getting into distortion, than the '70's (at least in this configuration). So I’m guessing that my girlfriend never heard the '70's begging for mercy, so to speak, and thus were driven to such an extreme point of destruction.

Here are some pics:

Ghistos

What I do not understand is How can a fried my Monitor 70. They are supposed to handle 200 Watt minimum and my amp send only 140 W by channel!

Does the RTiA9 will do the same thing ?

They are supposed to be able to handle 500W!!!

cnh

Distortion and clipping are the culprits not the speaker's power rating.

Example, you can fry a speaker that's rated 500 watts with a 30 watt/channel AVR by clipping it...running it to distortion levels.

And you can power an M70 with an amp that has 300 watts/channel RMS and not have any problem at all. Of course it's unlikely you will ever use 300 watts!

Good clean power is what you need. And the Onkyo has that. But it can still clip and blow a tweeter if you run it near reference levels...especially on M70s.

Another issue is giving the M70 the proper break-in period. The tweeter will blow more easily in a new M-series than in one that has been broken in properly. Read the reviews on this speaker and see how 'many' people have done that.

The M70 tweeter is not as robust as the Rti-A series so one has to take a bit of care.

Hope this helps.

cnh

mystik610

Ghistos wrote: »

What I do not understand is How can a fried my Monitor 70. They are supposed to handle 200 Watt minimum and my amp send only 140 W by channel!

Does the RTiA9 will do the same thing ?

They are supposed to be able to handle 500W!!!

It's certainly possible. The WPC ratings for most receivers are overrated...particularly Onkyo.

How high were you setting the volume on your receiver? Speakers don't fry when you feed them too much power...they fry when you feed them distortion from an amp that is being pushed too hard and clipping.

The monitor 70's are fairly efficient for a full-range speaker, but they are still full-range speakers and are quite power hungry. If you have them set to 'large' they will be tasked the play the same low frequencies that a dedicated sub-woofer will. Think about that, and think of how much many watts even a low quality dedicated sub-woofer amp pushes.

Sherardp

I'll second what CNH and Mystik passed on. Bottom line you need good solid power. Most AVR's are overrated, also you have to consider the power ratings with all channels driven. Rock Band is a great game to jam your system to, however I would invest in some good amplification. I drive my RTi12s with 525 wpc, so I know they get great power.

mdaudioguy

IRLRaceFan wrote: »

My daughter help me with the rebuild, which turned out to be a great father-daughter experience and the speakers sound great again.

A little off-topic, but congrats getting your daughter involved in this project. Too many girls out there that have never picked up a screwdriver or taken anything apart like that. I know, not all of them have an interest, but I think that's cool that she assisted. This from a dad whose daughter wanted a set of tools for Christmas when she was 8!

IRLRaceFan

mdaudioguy wrote: »

A little off-topic, but congrats getting your daughter involved in this project. Too many girls out there that have never picked up a screwdriver or taken anything apart like that. I know, not all of them have an interest, but I think that's cool that she assisted. This from a dad whose daughter wanted a set of tools for Christmas when she was 8!

Thanks
Now she wants try building a pair with one of those kits you can buy online.
Should be fun!

Ghistos

Well Thanks to all for your answers.

With that in mind, I just bought online at FuturShop one pair of RTia9 for 699$. The black one because the cherries are at 999$ each !!!

Upstatemax

The RTi A9's should be awesome, but just keep in mind what you learned here and keep the sound level in check to what your equipment can handle.

:cool:

Ghistos

After reading all your messages, one thing I never think about before is maybe the need to buy an amp to give a chance to my Onkyo 3008.

What is a realistic budget for a good amp ?

nguyendot

tonyb wrote: »

You may have fried them. Best to keep the volume dial below the 12 o'clock position in the future. Just sayin' is all.

The onkyo's have a digital volume control - there is no "12 o'clock" position.

BeRad

Ghistos wrote: »

Well Thanks to all for your answers.

With that in mind, I just bought online at FuturShop one pair of RTia9 for 699$. The black one because the cherries are at 999$ each !!!

I got in on that sale too. Did you have problems last night with the servers not keeping up? I sure as hell did. Ended up giving up for a while and trying again at midnight.

Ghistos

Haha, Yes, I was there at 18h00 to be in the virtual line-up and at 20h00 exactly when the "doors open" I entered my infos, credit card, gift card and then BANG... Server too Busy... I tried and tried and finally was able too send my commanf at 21h45...

cfrizz

Ghistos wrote: »

What I do not understand is How can a fried my Monitor 70. They are supposed to handle 200 Watt minimum and my amp send only 140 W by channel!

Does the RTiA9 will do the same thing ?

They are supposed to be able to handle 500W!!!

Welcome to Club Polk Ghistos. You may have fried your speakers because regardless of what watts your receiver says it's pushing, it really is NOT doing so. So as you increased the volume on your receiver, it struggled to deliver, overstressed itself & blew up your speakers. It should have gone into protect mode first.

If you look at how they specify it, you will see that it is at 1kz with one speaker, we all know that this is NOT how we operate our speakers in real life.

What I would suggest is after you have repaired your speakers, start looking to get a 200wpc @ 8ohms amplifier, whether its a 2-7 channel amp. What your speakers need is good clean power that a receiver cannot give it.

The more power you feed your speakers, the better they will sound and with the stress taken off of the receiver so that it can concentrate on doing the proccessing.

For used, look on Audiogon for Sunfire, Rotel, B & K, Outlaw, Adcom, Nad, Parasound.

For brand new look at Emotiva & Outlaw.

You just might be surprised how good your speakers will then sound which will negate you wanting to get new speakers. And even if you did get new speakers, you would still need seperate amplification to get the full potential out of them.

Ghistos

What do you think about the Emotiva XPA-3 who generate 200W/ channel. It's a 3 channel power amp.

With my center, right and left plugged to it, I cannot believe that the others will not have enough power from my Onkyo NX3008!!!