Please help me with my purchase!

cactus51403

Hi,

I need some feedback from any owners of Polk's RTi-A5, RTi-A3 and CSi-A4 on performance and sound quality...especially in regards to music listening. I will probably be listening to music 60% of the time...and moves and gaming will take up the other 40%. I know that testing the speakers are key...but sadly no dealers have the RTi-A3/5 locally...so I MUST buy on faith. After researching for about a month, I will be most likely buying the following speaker setups:

Master Bedroom(The dimensions of the room are 14ft x 16ft with 9ft ceilings):
2 x RTi-A5
1 CSi-A4
1 Denon AVR-591(5 x 120 watts)
(I will be using a pre-existing Klipsch sub-12...it's in perfect condition...I couldn't bearing getting rid of it for little or no resale value.)

Living Room(THe dimensions of the room are 18ft x 20 ft with 13 ft ceilings) :
2 x RTi-A3
1 x CSi-A4
1 x PSW-125
(As far as the AVR pushing the RTi-A3's and CSi-A4 in the living room...I will be using a 4 year old Yamaha RX-V661 5.1. It is rated at 90watts per channel.)

I should also mention that I will have to keep the towers in the Bedroom due to having a child. Her mother seems to thing that a book-shelf speaker would be less awful falling over if she were to knock them down...but I might be able to convince her Mom that another set of RTi-A5's are not that much worse. Also the CSi-A6 is much too big for the consoles that I have both 42in. Panasonic plasmas on. But is it that much better?

How does this set up sound? Am I missing anything? Opinions on the RTi-A3/5 series? Thanks!

cnh

WELCOME TO CLUB POLK!

I run a second system in my basement that looks a bit like your LR setup (Pioneer AVR), Polk sub. And I'm pretty happy with it. Would you be better with towers in the LR? Probably, considering the size of that room...my basement is about 10 x 20 x 7 and only 10 x 14 is HT.

[Also the Yamaha probably has more power than the inflated power on the Denon 591? Personally I find Denons a better match for Rti-A series speakers than lower end Yamahas. Yamahas from the 1800 series on up, though, are FINE. I ran my Rtis off a Denon AVR 2807 for a while and that was a great match (BTW that AVR is 110 W x 7 and weighs about 31 lbs--which is quite a bit more than the newer 591 so you can suspect that that unit does not match the power of the higher model/heavier unit?).]

As for the center channel (I run the CSI-3--predecessor to your A4) and it's good in my space. But for your LR, I'd REALLY think about the LARGER center--it is much better for that space. Remember, almost half of your SURROUND info is carried by your center channel speaker! So I'd say--go for it and the towers for the bigger room. Possibly reconsider the Yamaha or listen to some other AVRs with the Rti series, especially the Denon, HKardon, Marantz lines that are generally a little 'warmer' sounding.

cnh