WOW! RTI150s

tschep20

Since i saw quite a few people doing some experimenting with their systems i decided to do some myself. I was flipping through my receiver manual when i remembered that i get more watts/ch when i have it strictly on 2 ch stereo. Now i normally get if i had to take a guess, since it's not mentioned in my manual, i get around 80 watts/ch when all are powered. When 2 are i get a RMS of 100, and a dynamic of 115. Then i played the song "Get Low" by lil john. The bass kicked in and i heard the farting noise. Then i realized my sub was still on. So i set my rec to sub off, cranked up the volume to 80 (max 95), and WOW. The bass the 150s were putting out was amazing. Now i understand that this still doesn't even come close to what the 150s are capable of, but at least it gives me an idea what it would be like. I can't wait to upgrade to separates within the year to give these speakers the power they thirst for. It seriously was some of the best sounding music that i have ever heard. But seriously, the bass was better than the sub i have now, which is still a pretty decent sub (not a $100 Sony though ). I put my hand under the power port and the 150s were moving some serious air. I then took chance and started to increase the volume, but my Onkyo rec shut off at 82.

Anyways i justed wanted to share this little event that i had. People who talk trash about these speakers must not have heard them at their full potential. Like i said, i know i didn't either, but i can only imagine if they sound that much better by only adding about 30 more watts, 200-400 watts / ch has to be unbelievable.

bigsexy1

Well, I don't mean to gloat, but I will! I've been telling you all this for about a month or so now. It looks like some of you are starting to see for yourselves and realize what I was talking about, and the 150s are finally begining to get a little love around here more and more each day. You just can't realize what they are capable of in a CC soundroom as it's impossible.

walk

I thought the 70's sounded better in the showroom actually. Better bass, but I don't know how that's possible. The highs were definitely sharper.

But the 150's were on clearance for $257.96 ea, so I walked out with 2 of the last 3 they had in the store $553.32 inc tax.

Too early to tell much yet, but they sound pretty f'in sweet so far. The stereo imaging is SO amazing, listening to music or TV in stereo mode, several times I've had to look down at my remote to make sure I'm not in Surround mode!

I figure I'll give them 30 days, and by then maybe the 70's might be on clearance too (they were $399 ea, wtf?). Although I got to say, they seem like a downgrade from the 150's, which I really like so far...

PhantomOG

walk,
do you have a Fry's near you? it seems like the current selling price for the RTi70's at Fry's is $199 each. I just picked up a pair last weekend. If you don't have one nearby, someone else on here said they had success getting CC to pricematch a non-local Fry's but that would probably take a nice CC manager.

I would love to hear the difference side by side between the two but no one here has the 150's in stock. So all I have was 100's and 70's and the 70's won hands down in my opinion.

walk

Fry's is a good 50-60 minute drive from me.

In the CC showroom here's what I heard. I listened to some action movie scene, and a couple of types of music (guitar folk/rock sort of Dave Matthews style, and some techno). I had the guy turn off the subwoofer, but I doubt he set the reciever properly, it was probably still set to sub = on and who knows what the fronts were set to, large or small...
anyway:

Polk 70s - very bright highs, strong punchy midrange/midbass.
Polk 150's - smoother highs, bass and mid were less punchy.
Alpha 40's - unfocused, hollow/tinny, boring. they have awful plastic cabinets too, felt very cheap

Other than the difference in highs, I don't think you can infer much from this test however. Who knows what the reciever was set to, or how much power it had. I'm sure neither were bi-wired, definitely not bi-amped. Plus we all know that a showroom full of 40 other speaker boxes is not the best place to judge a speaker, especially the bass..

I do think the 70's with those 2 blue midrange-type speakers and the tuned midrange port (never seen anything like that) are going to put out some very nice punchy midrange/midbass. I'm very impressed with those mids. But I think they would lack real good low bass. For HT this probably isn't a big deal, if you set them up properly with a good subwoofer. I like to listen to music in direct stereo mode though, and really have my heart set on 3-way mains, even with a sub.

To be honest, after nearly killing myself getting the 150's up the stairs, I'm likely to keep them, the 70's sure are nice speakers, probably perfect for HT with a good sub, especially if you listen at moderate levels. My sub is kind of weeny though. No doubt the 70s are lighter and probably more suited to a smaller room/apartment.