Thinking of upgrading?

bobsauto49

Have the itch!!!!!! I own a set of RT2000i's and am thinking of purchasing a set of Rti12's from Polk, refurbs! I like my Rt2oooi's,however i feel theres a little lacking in the mid-range at higher volume during music,which is the primary use! Anyone have any exp. with both or either? I have read good reviews on the Rti12's,but dont want to shoot myself in the foot! I run my Rt2000i's With a Onkyo TX-SR876! Info apprieciated!!!!!!!!

HTguru1982

Where do these spammers come from? Can't they write a reply that actually has something to with the thread? That way, maybe just maybe, they'll get people to follow their links.

Oh and Mr Smtih(nice spelling), reported.

To the OP, I have the RT1000i's and feel the same way. I believe it's because Polk decided to use a single midrange driver in each speaker. The powered subs are definitely nice and all but what a difference it would've made had they put in a second midrange.

cfrizz

I think you should put an amplifier on those speakers to hear what they are truly capable of.

They are not getting all the power that they need to operate to their full potential which is why they are falling apart at higher volume. However, your receiver does have preouts so adding an amp will be easy.

Look for a 200wpc @ 8ohms 2,3,or 5 channel amp. Brands to look at brand new are Emotiva XPA-5 or an Outlaw Audio amp, these offer good bang for the buck.

If you don't mind used, look on Audiogon for a Parasound, Sunfire, B&K, Rotel, Nad, Adcom.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1310137030&/Rotel-RMB1095-thx-cert.-5chx20
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1309991180&/Outlaw-Audio-755-5-X-200W-Amp
http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?ampsmult&1310432481&/B-K-7270-MkII---Black---7-chan

mantis

bobsauto49 wrote: »

Have the itch!!!!!! I own a set of RT2000i's and am thinking of purchasing a set of Rti12's from Polk, refurbs! I like my Rt2oooi's,however i feel theres a little lacking in the mid-range at higher volume during music,which is the primary use! Anyone have any exp. with both or either? I have read good reviews on the Rti12's,but dont want to shoot myself in the foot! I run my Rt2000i's With a Onkyo TX-SR876! Info apprieciated!!!!!!!!

So many factors to consider before upgrading the speakers.
Can you list your entire system and kind of music you listen to? Also how to you listen? CD's , MP3, etc?
Also take a few pic's of your listening space. Then I can find your weakness and help make your system very balanced.

bobsauto49

Dan,thank you for your interest in helping! I Have followed your post,as u seem to have great knowledge in these matters! My living room is 12x20 with a large hole in the wall to my kitchen! To get you up to date on how I arrived here, I started with an Onkyo TX-SR608 and recently upgraded to the TX-SR876, to get more power to my 2000's. My system consists of the RT2000i's up front, with a CS2 center, with RT400's in the rear. On the reciever speaker configuration I have sub set to No, Fronts automatically set at Full Band(wont let me change them), Center set at 80 hz, surrounds set at Full band, the LFE at 80 hz. I listen to all sorts of music on CD's ranging from early country to alternative/hard rock. Here are the pictures of my living room. Your help is paramount to me! Thanks in advance.

mdaudioguy

bobsauto49 wrote: »

Dan,thank you for your interest in helping! I Have followed your post,as u seem to have great knowledge in these matters! My living room is 12x20 with a large hole in the wall to my kitchen! To get you up to date on how I arrived here, I started with an Onkyo TX-SR608 and recently upgraded to the TX-SR876, to get more power to my 2000's. My system consists of the RT2000i's up front, with a CS2 center, with RT400's in the rear. On the reciever speaker configuration I have sub set to No, Fronts automatically set at Full Band(wont let me change them), Center set at 80 hz, surrounds set at Full band, the LFE at 80 hz. I listen to all sorts of music on CD's ranging from early country to alternative/hard rock. Here are the pictures of my living room. Your help is paramount to me! Thanks in advance.

If you have no sub, there's no reason to set a crossover point for the center. I'm not sure what setting the LFE crossover point does when you don't have a sub... perhaps nothing? You probably can't change the front to anything but Full Band, precisely because you've told the AVR that you don't have a sub. Adding a good sub could allow you to crossover all of your speakers, thereby relieving the stress on your AVR, and perhaps allowing for some enhancement of the midrange.

mdaudioguy

Ok, looking into this a little more closely, I see that your speakers have built-in powered subs, but they're really not terribly capable (Lower -3dB Limit of 32Hz), as compared to a good separate sub (many go down to the 20 Hz range), so I still think you could benefit from a decent sub.

How do you have these speakers wired? Have you tried some of the other connection options, like those on pages 24 or 26 of your manual? http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/manuals/home/RT1000i_2000iManual.pdf
Using one of these options should allow you to turn the LFE/sub option to ON in your AVR's menu, and set crossover points for all of your speakers.

bobsauto49

I hooked them up using the metal straps in place,using only the top post! Option 2 in the manual is very intersting to me,however confusing,whether to use the sub-out on the reciever to the rca in on the speakers/metal strap removed with rca cables,or to use the extra Front L/R preouts/metal straps removed using speaker cables! Most of this stuff is new to me,hence not wanting to experiment and ruin the speakers,without input from someone who knows what there talking about! Thanx for the input/patience!

mdaudioguy

If the jumpers (metal strips) are in place, it doesn't matter whether you use the top or bottom.

Since your AVR has Sub Out, I think option 3 would be the way to go for you. You could run the RCAs as shown, or use a Y-splitter and run from the AVR to each.

bobsauto49

Thanx for the info! Need to buy a y splitter 1st,dont have one! I'm guessing i can put the avr to sub yes,and go from there! Thanx again!