Polk 80F/X-RT in-ceiling speakers...thoughts?
Does anyone have any experience with these newer speakers?
We currently have TCi80's as our surround speakers, and am thinking of possibly upgrading to these 80F/X's in the future. One of the main reasons is that I would much rather have a magnetic grill than the current "force fit" style. As a tweaker, I'd like to remove the grille on occasion (without destroying it), rotate the entire speaker and/or aim the tweeter differently, and see if any overall imaging/sound improvements could be made. (another plus is the TCi and 80F/X use the same cutout size, so installing this upgrade would literally take ten minutes)
When upgrading from RCi80's to the TCi's about six months ago, I had a SOB'ing time removing the RCi grilles, even with a paper clip. I actually called Polk to complain about this design, and they were understanding enough to send me a pair of replacement grilles for the RCi's. I even made a comment to Polk at that time that magnetic grilles would be a waaay better design. Maybe they actually took my advice...
I see these newer 80F/X's have dual 3/4" tweeters vs the single 1" tweeter in the TCi's/RCi's. Will dual tweeters help to disperse the sound even more, so that it would be more difficult to pinpoint the surround speaker location? Would these even be a noticable upgrade to the TC80i's?
LINK to 80F/X-RT
TIA for your thoughts and comments...
We currently have TCi80's as our surround speakers, and am thinking of possibly upgrading to these 80F/X's in the future. One of the main reasons is that I would much rather have a magnetic grill than the current "force fit" style. As a tweaker, I'd like to remove the grille on occasion (without destroying it), rotate the entire speaker and/or aim the tweeter differently, and see if any overall imaging/sound improvements could be made. (another plus is the TCi and 80F/X use the same cutout size, so installing this upgrade would literally take ten minutes)
When upgrading from RCi80's to the TCi's about six months ago, I had a SOB'ing time removing the RCi grilles, even with a paper clip. I actually called Polk to complain about this design, and they were understanding enough to send me a pair of replacement grilles for the RCi's. I even made a comment to Polk at that time that magnetic grilles would be a waaay better design. Maybe they actually took my advice...
I see these newer 80F/X's have dual 3/4" tweeters vs the single 1" tweeter in the TCi's/RCi's. Will dual tweeters help to disperse the sound even more, so that it would be more difficult to pinpoint the surround speaker location? Would these even be a noticable upgrade to the TC80i's?
LINK to 80F/X-RT
TIA for your thoughts and comments...
Main HT:JVC DLA-RS45135" Elite Screens fixed frame, 1.1 gainMarantz SR7007 (operating as pre-pro)Emotiva XPA-1 x3 (L+C+R), UPA-7 (surrounds)Oppo BDP-103D/BDP-83Toshiba HD-XA2Panamax M5410 Pro x3Polk LSiM707s, LSiC706, 80 F/X-LS, 65-RTSeaton Sound/MCCA MFW "Turbo" + custom Dayton SA1000 sub amp (orig. AV123 MFW-15)Velodyne SMS-1I/Cs: MP 12ga/4-cond (fronts); MP 12ga (surrounds), MP HDMI (all sources), some BJC sprinkled thruoutHarmony EliteSalamander Triple 40 C/B* still need to sell older but mint gear!!
Post edited by mak99 on
Comments
-
Dispersion. I wonder if you can run the tweeters dipole?
-
The only setting/switch I see mentioned is a wall boundary switch. The TCi's have this, along with a tweeter level switch. The TCi's have an aimable single tweeter, whereas I think the 80F/X's dual tweeters are fixed, maybe at a right angle to each other?Main HT:JVC DLA-RS45135" Elite Screens fixed frame, 1.1 gainMarantz SR7007 (operating as pre-pro)Emotiva XPA-1 x3 (L+C+R), UPA-7 (surrounds)Oppo BDP-103D/BDP-83Toshiba HD-XA2Panamax M5410 Pro x3Polk LSiM707s, LSiC706, 80 F/X-LS, 65-RTSeaton Sound/MCCA MFW "Turbo" + custom Dayton SA1000 sub amp (orig. AV123 MFW-15)Velodyne SMS-1I/Cs: MP 12ga/4-cond (fronts); MP 12ga (surrounds), MP HDMI (all sources), some BJC sprinkled thruoutHarmony EliteSalamander Triple 40 C/B* still need to sell older but mint gear!!
-
Looking at the pic of them they look like they are 45degrees of center. So the dispersion would be huge.
