Hooking up my new Polk RTi10's

mva5580

So I picked up 2 Polk RTi10's last night, and even with just a small taste of them hooked up to my current receiver, I could tell the difference from my Monitor 60's. So I'm already happy with the upgrade, but from everything I've read I could do more to make them sound even better. So here are the things I'm looking for some input on:

- Receiver/pre-out hookups. I'm currently looking at using this as my "primary" receiver:

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio-visual/av-receivers-amps/rx/rx-v663_black__u/?mode=model

I seem to keep hearing about it being a good idea to use the pre-outs on my Front RTi10's, but I guess I need some general education on this. Would I be buying a 2nd receiver which would essentially ONLY do the job of powering those 2 speakers? And if so, what should I be looking for? Am I looking for a receiver similar to above, a different type of amplifier, etc? And what specs should I be looking out for on this component? When I would hook them up, I assume I just take the pre-out cable from the Yamaha into some sort of input on the other component, and the speaker wire goes to the 2nd component rather than the Yamaha?

- Wire hook-ups. I assume I should be using the banana plugs to go from speaker to receiver, yes? And what about bi-wiring? I see some people think it makes a difference, and some don't. And if you bi-wire, how does that work exactly? How are the wires hooked up at the receiver end? It seems like they would clash with each other at the post.

- I have a subwoofer in my setup but from what I've read, the RTi10's are more than capable in terms of music listening. Should I be setting these speakers to "Large" in the receiver setup, and ALWAYS keep them that way, even if I'm watching movies? And if I'm switching back and forth from music to movies, how do I handle the sub? Do I just turn it off, or just adjust some setting in the receiver to tell it not to be utilized for that particular session?

Sorry about the long-winded questions....I just want to be sure that I'm doing things right.

PrazVT

Hey mva5580 - I actually started off with a similar setup: Yamaha RX-V663 + RTi A7s.

About the only word of warning I'd give w/ the 663 is that the 10s will sound a little bright if you're powering them off of the receiver. I don't think that is the case with the new RX-Axxx models but that was my experience. I'm not sure if you'd have that issue once you were powering them with an amplifier ...

... which brings me to the 2nd point. You wouldn't be buying another 'receiver' per say. you'd be buying a 2ch or 5ch power amplifier [Parasound, Rotel, NAD, Adcom, Emotiva, etc.]

You would connect the FR + FL pre-outs on the receiver to the R + L inputs on a power amplifier via RCA cables. Then you'd connect the power amp to the speakers via speaker cables.

If you get a powerful enough power amp, I don't think you need to mess w/ bi-wiring. Keep it simple. You can experiment of course

Anyway I hope starts you off in the right direction...

mva5580

Thank you for the answer, that's great.

So my question would be that when it comse to the amplifier, what "specs" am I looking for? I would have to think that all I would need is a 2ch amp since I would have the other speakers going into my primary receiver, kind of dividing the power between the 2.

mva5580

Ok.......so I have another question.

I just got back from speaking with someone locally here about this whole wattage, power consumption, extra amp, etc concern. He was pretty much of the opinion that, considering my system, a receiver with a rating of around 100w per channel is confidently enough to get what I would want to get out of my speaker setup. So for information sake my system is:

- L/R RTi10's
- Center CS2 (will upgrade this to CSi5 eventually)
- Monitor 30 surrounds
- PSW450 subwoofer

Soooooooooo.......is he in the ballpark or way off? I mean 1) I'm not a person who absolutely blares the volume on my speakers, I just like to have them at a volume that's "enough" for me to hear everything, and 2) my speakers are not in a huge room. I'm ~12'ish ft away from them when I'm sitting down, and that seat location is the back wall of that room. So in this example, do you feel like I *need* an extra amp? How much of a difference does this truly provide? I know a lot of it is subjective, and that's why I'm looking for multiple opinions. I just want to make sure that 1) the gear that I have is properly powering my speakers and will not cause any damage to them, and 2) I'm hearing what the speakers are capable of putting out.

Cmiller

That 100W per channel is not a true 100w,more like 75w or less when driving all your speakers.Your Rti10's need and want alot of power to sound great..I also have Rti10's and i have them running off a Adcom 7500 Amp" its true 150W per channel" pushing my Rti10's and they sound wonderful..What you want is a amp that powers @ least 150W or higher to drive those Rti10's..But you dont "need" a amp,but your not truley getting there full sound with just a receiver..

mva5580

So let's say I have a 7.1 receiver that's rated at 630 watts, or 90 watts/channel (90x7.) Does that mean that if I'm using only 5.1 speakers in this system, that I'm actually getting 126 watts through to those 5 channels? As in, is that unused power from not having the other 2 speakers being hooked up being utilized in the 5 that are?

jbooker82

Also look for an amp that has a high Amperage per channel. Some of the high power Parasound Halo series have been rated at 60+ amps per channel.

mdaudioguy

Cmiller wrote: »

That 100W per channel is not a true 100w,more like 75w or less when driving all your speakers.Your Rti10's need and want alot of power to sound great..I also have Rti10's and i have them running off a Adcom 7500 Amp" its true 150W per channel" pushing my Rti10's and they sound wonderful..What you want is a amp that powers @ least 150W or higher to drive those Rti10's..But you dont "need" a amp,but your not truley getting there full sound with just a receiver..

I think this is spot on. Of course, that's because I also run some of the same gear.

MADGSF

A lot of good information here. As you can tell from my signature I am in favor of an amplifier with those speakers. It's not just about making it louder as I am sure you know you current AVR will play it loud. With an amp you are getting more control of the speaker or a better quality of sound for a given volume and better transient repsonse. Transient response is when a movie goes from being quiet to loud very quickly. The amp will also let you play at loud volumes safely as it most likely will not be driven to clipping or distortion as easily as your AVR.

High Current is important to me and a quality amp generally provides that though some manufacturers don't publish that specification for their amp. I am partial to B&K but there are many good amps out there, don't be afraid to look on the used market.

To answer some of your questions. Don't look at the overall numbers the manufacturer lists. They are usually not what is delivered to all the speakers, they might only provide that to one speaker. If you can find a review that lists the actual measaured wattage you will find it can actually deliver much less than what they list.

I run my speakers as large but if not using an amplifier I would suggest setting them as small with the crossover at 50-80Hz. You should experiment to see what sounds best to you but running them full range takes more power.

As far as using the sub for music again you will need to experiment. I am lucky in that I have a Velodyne SMS-1 with which I can mute my sub. Since I run the RTI10 full ranges this lets me tune on the fly. I am not familiar with that AVR but you may have to manually go into the setup menu and change the configuration each time you wanted to change.

mdaudioguy

mva5580 wrote: »

- I have a subwoofer in my setup but from what I've read, the RTi10's are more than capable in terms of music listening. Should I be setting these speakers to "Large" in the receiver setup, and ALWAYS keep them that way, even if I'm watching movies? And if I'm switching back and forth from music to movies, how do I handle the sub? Do I just turn it off, or just adjust some setting in the receiver to tell it not to be utilized for that particular session?

Sorry about the long-winded questions....I just want to be sure that I'm doing things right.

For HT use, set your mains to small and adjust your crossover based on the capability of your sub. Btw, what brand/model sub do you have?

For the best 2-channel performance using just your mains, enable the Pure Direct mode in your receiver. The sub will automatically be disabled when Direct mode is enabled in 2-channel stereo, per page 77 of your manual.

PrazVT

So let's say I have a 7.1 receiver that's rated at 630 watts, or 90 watts/channel (90x7.) Does that mean that if I'm using only 5.1 speakers in this system, that I'm actually getting 126 watts through to those 5 channels? As in, is that unused power from not having the other 2 speakers being hooked up being utilized in the 5 that are?

Basically there's a loophole in ratings system that allows manufacturers to specify the 2 ch power rating as "x 5" or "x 7". I think if you were looking at higher end receivers like NADs or something else, they would be genuinely putting out **** watts / ch with all channels driven.