Rti A9's arrived today!

gfong

Got them delivered today! The A9's are quite a bit larger than the Rti A7's that I have.
I am going to give them the night to chill out, as they have been on the Purolator truck since yesterday and it has been rather chilly here in SW Ontario.
I also ordered a Emotiva XPA-3; it shipped from the factory today!

The XPA-3 will run my three fronts and my Sony ES5400 can handle the surrounds.

I was thinking of using my RTi A7's for rears but I think that it could be overkill so I will stay with my FXi A4's

Will give my impressions once all is hooked up.

Thanks for the information on the amp, I found a lot of great information by searching other threads. Thanks again, Greg

leroyjr1

Congratulations!!!!!

Make sure you post some pictures.

jimmydep

Nice.......don't forget, those need alittle time to break-in.

danz1906

Congrats-The A7s in the rear would be nice

DJaxx

gfong wrote: »

Got them delivered today! The A9's are quite a bit larger than the Rti A7's that I have.
I am going to give them the night to chill out, as they have been on the Purolator truck since yesterday and it has been rather chilly here in SW Ontario.
I also ordered a Emotiva XPA-3; it shipped from the factory today!

The XPA-3 will run my three fronts and my Sony ES5400 can handle the surrounds.

I was thinking of using my RTi A7's for rears but I think that it could be overkill so I will stay with my FXi A4's

Will give my impressions once all is hooked up.

Thanks for the information on the amp, I found a lot of great information by searching other threads. Thanks again, Greg

Got mine today also.....set them up and boy are they nice. Will take a bit to break them in, but the wait will be worth it.

Paired with the new CSiA6 I picked up on boxing, day my front soundstage is set for some time!

BeRad

You guys are lucky. Mine just shipped out today! God I hate Future Shop SO MUCH!

I didn't even want to buy anything there, but the price was just too good. Ahh well. I guess I have to wait till next week.

gfong

Thanks for the info, I will give them time to break in and will post some pics of the setup. Weekend Project!

I am not getting rid of my 7's, so I may try them in the back to see what they sound like.
I really like multi-channel SACD, so putting them in the back may open that up a bit more.

Also looking forward to hearing what the Emotiva amp does to my set-up. I am very tempted to try it out on the A7's just to see if it makes them sing more. I know a lot of people on the site mention that an amp can make a world of difference and I am in a position to experiment.

Hope the people that ordered the Rti A9's from FS get them soon! I think we were the fortunate few that got in the sale at the right time!

B Run

gfong wrote: »

Also looking forward to hearing what the Emotiva amp does to my set-up. I am very tempted to try it out on the A7's just to see if it makes them sing more. I know a lot of people on the site mention that an amp can make a world of difference and I am in a position to experiment.

You should try the amp on your A7's just for an idea of how much of an improvement it made alone vs how much better the new speakers sound. Congrats man you've got a sick setup going on.

gfong

Swapped out my Rti A7's for the Rti A9's on the weekend. What a difference in sound! The 9's seem more open and clearer. Sony STR-DA5400ES amp doing the work and is doing a nice job with the 9's.

Opinion:
SACD multi channel sounds more pronounced and more concert like, tough to put in words, but it seems like the sound got wider and fuller and bigger.
Home Theater: Bit more bass and fuller sound. Highs were on par with the 7's. 7's were really good for HT.
Phono: fuller sound, more detailed, great mids from the 9's.

I will be adding the 3 channel amp sometime this week and will post opinions on that upgrade. Pics to follow.

This site has RTi A9's coming out of the wood work lately! lol

dorokusai

Sounds like a few happy campers in this thread. Post some pics of your setups when you get them complete and tied with your amps. Enjoy!

MCCOBRA

gfong wrote: »

Swapped out my Rti A7's for the Rti A9's on the weekend. What a difference in sound! The 9's seem more open and clearer. Sony STR-DA5400ES amp doing the work and is doing a nice job with the 9's.


Thats awesome!!! cant wait to to get mine in. shipping out tomorrow. was hoping the A9's would sound better than the A7's.

BeRad

I have one of my A9's so far. Yup, that's right... just one. Looks like the other won't arrive for a few days. Futureshop must have had an issue at their warehouse; no doubt due to incompetent employees.

Pinktulip7

RTi A9 excellent Speakers..

gfong

From my initial post: I also ordered a Emotiva XPA-3; it shipped from the factory today!

I ordered it on the 30th of December, it was on sale for $529.00 USD. Jan 1st, sale over and price increase for 2011, the amp is now $699.00 USD!

Got lucky on that one!

ahmed

yep, emotiva just raised the msrp for the xpa5 / xpa 3 to $899 / $699. Quite a difference from the holiday sale prices.

gfong

Got everything hooked up today, tested out a few different combinations with different speakers and settings.

Set up the Emotiva 3 channel amp and tried it with SACD, Blu-ray and phono. I feel that the amp is very neutral. The front stage gained some volume, clarity and overall a bigger/wider sound is heard.
The highs or the crispness of the Sony AVR seemed to be toned down a bit with blu-ray and Multi channel SACD. For example the opening scene in Master in Commander, you here a lot of wood splintering and ripping apart. It seems that the sound has been turned up overall but that snapping /cracking sound has been dumbed down a bit and not as sharp as just running it through the AVR.

Phono is great, AVR does not stuggle any more at higher volumes. Very pleased with the combination that I am running now.

Polk RTI A9's have made a great first impression and the amp seems to have opened them up some with added clarity to boot!

Next I put the RTi A7's on the rear channels. I found them a little overwhelming compared to the FXi A4's. When playing SACD the 7's were very nice and you could really hear them behind you. Blu-Ray movie the FxiA4's seemed to spread the sound around a little better. (I had run RTiA3's for rears before and I found them a little too directional for my taste) I think that is exactly what is happening with the 7's as well. Personel choice I guess! I like knowing I have a rear channel but I do not want it to take over.

Next I tried the RTi A7's up front with the Emotiva amp connected to them. For the last year the 7's were my front stage along with the CSi A6. Wow, an amp is a nice upgrade for anyone running 7's. They really woke up on phono and SACD and Blu-Ray sounded great as well. My splinttering wood (lol) demo was almost back to what I was use to it sounding like, but the amp does take a little of the highs away.

My advice for anyone contemplating RTi A9's or RTi A 7's; the 9's are more dynamic and fuller sounding then the 7's. The mids and lows of the 9's really stand out when comparing the two.
The 7's highs are really sweet sounding for home theather and with the addition of an amp they really wake up and belt the sound out.
If I was just setting up a home theater, I would get the 7's over the 9's and then purchase an amp.
If it was a multi system like mine, multi channel SACD, Home Theater and phono player on the same system, I would go with the 9's over the 7's and then get an amp to help them get to the next level.

One last thing to note, I am glad that I had banana plugs on the wires with all the switching around I did today!

Here are a few pics:





Gotta show my fave gals and my two rides! lol

Sherardp

Very nice rig bro.

cfrizz

Nice system, enjoy.

danz1906

Nice system-Sweet Diana poster!!!

Ron Temple

danz1906 wrote: »

Nice system-Sweet Diana poster!!!

I thought that was Michael Jackson :eek:

danz1906

Ron Temple wrote: »

I thought that was Michael Jackson :eek:

That's a good-1!

gfong

Thanks a lot all, always something to upgrade next though eh! Turntable upgrade will be a late 2011 project along with picking up some decent inter-connects.

Thanks again!

I have a quite few pics that I still need to put up. doing the room n a music theme of course. Got Terri to sign that one for me when I saw her in Jackson, Michigan.

I am going for a country wall, fave chic artist wall and a punk rock wall. Wait til you all see the Punk rock corner! lol

Tour2ma

gfong,

Nice experimenting and write up...

May your sound be as big as your pictures... Enjoy.

BeRad wrote: »

I have one of my A9's so far. Yup, that's right... just one. Looks like the other won't arrive for a few days. Futureshop must have had an issue at their warehouse; no doubt due to incompetent employees.

Whaaaaa... Welcome to the wonderful world of Mono... Hope the laggard has arrived.

Lietuvis91

So now you have 2 A9s with healthy power... Tell me about the mids and bass that these speakers put out with your amplification. Best I can tell you don't have a sub, do you feel you need a sub or are the speakers doing a good enough job in the mid and bass department?

gfong

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

So now you have 2 A9s with healthy power... Tell me about the mids and bass that these speakers put out with your amplification. Best I can tell you don't have a sub, do you feel you need a sub or are the speakers doing a good enough job in the mid and bass department?

Hi, I do have a SVS PB12-NSD sub but I do not use it for music.

The 9's do have terrific mid range sound. Very full sounding, not hollow or shallow. I can not find a thing wrong with them. As they break in I am sure they will sound a little different, but right out of the box they sound great.

About the bass; it is tight and not booming or sloppy. It does not snap you back in your seat and break windows, but it does get your attention. The best way I could describe the sound would be tight and punchy.
I was playing some late 80's pop/jazz from Basia's 2nd LP, "London Warsaw New York" and they handled the music well. The album has some pop songs, some ballads and some jazzy stuff, so it does hit a lot of different ranges.

To sum up, I can still see how these can be classified as a home theather speaker and not a "hold on to your beer cause its gonna bounce right off the table" type.

Very refined, tight sounding, full midrange, with enough on top not to sound thin or overly bright. The amp opened them up and the clarity on higher volumes is outstanding.
Hope this helps!

Lietuvis91

gfong wrote: »

The best way I could describe the sound would be tight and punchy.

I like the sound of that! I am debating trying something different in my 2 ch system where I currently have my m70s (which I personally think are doing a fantastic job, btw!) The only thing I was considering is adding a sub to this setup, but what I am after is not the explosive supper low end boom, but rather tight and punchy mids/lows, and i HATE boominess (makes my head hurt!), which is why I'm hesitant on getting a sub. So it sounds like these puppies may get me that extra I am craving :biggrin:

gfong wrote: »

Hope this helps!

Indeed....

owensbx

gfong,

First off, nice review. Second, I'm setting up a home theater system and debating between the 7's and 9's. It sounds like you recommend the 7's over the 9's for a new setup. My listening area is 17x20 but it opens up to the kitchen which makes it 20X30 overall with 9 ft walls and a cathedral ceiling that tops out at 13ft.

Would you still recommend the 7's? Or would the 9's be a better choice given the size of the room? My preference is 85%-90% movies, 10%-15% music.

I can get the 7's from Newegg for $350 and the 9's from Futureshop for $600.

Thanks!

gfong

owensbx wrote: »

gfong,

First off, nice review. Second, I'm setting up a home theater system and debating between the 7's and 9's. It sounds like you recommend the 7's over the 9's for a new setup. My listening area is 17x20 but it opens up to the kitchen which makes it 20X30 overall with 9 ft walls and a cathedral ceiling that tops out at 13ft.

Would you still recommend the 7's? Or would the 9's be a better choice given the size of the room? My preference is 85%-90% movies, 10%-15% music.

I can get the 7's from Newegg for $350 and the 9's from Futureshop for $600.

Thanks!

Hi, for most home theater uses I would recommend the 7's and a good sub. For your room size and the amount of height that you have, you may want to look at the 9's and a good sub.
Are you or do you have a sub woofer? Do you or are you thinking of getting an external amp?

Before I got my amp this week, the 7's worked great for home theater with my Sony ES amp that I have running them. (Sony rated 120 w per channel, real world test said somewhere around 60 to 65 wats per when running 5 channels continuous)

I can safely say I did not need an amp for home theather. I was running them in 5.1 with a really good sub (SVS). I had the 7's crossed over at 80 and set to "small speaker," so the sub did the heavy work. The sound was amazing and very crystal clear. Had a few people over on the 25th and they were amazed at how the 7's worked. Yes the SVS pounded the room but they also commented on how clear and nautral the movies sounded.

The 9's are nice for home theater but IMO are not required unless you are doing music.
There really is a major difference between the 7's and 9's as it relates to music. I can not understate that. If you plan to listen to some form of analog music, I would go with the 9's and pass on the 7's.

Good luch with your choices and if you can get out and try to listen to some. I can only state how I hear things and I would not want to steer you the wrong way.

Pinktulip7

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

So now you have 2 A9s with healthy power... Tell me about the mids and bass that these speakers put out with your amplification. Best I can tell you don't have a sub, do you feel you need a sub or are the speakers doing a good enough job in the mid and bass department?

U don't need a Sub if u r using external Amp(Decent)