Will my receiver handle two Polk Audio Monitor 70's?

shermanator

West Chester, Pennsylvania.

shermanator

Thanks for the response DSkip.

I think I want to avoid them due to their size, age, and lack of warranty.

I am leaning towards a pair of Energy RC-10's.

Do you have any experience with them?

domflane

The SDA's that DSkip recommended are a pretty nice deal, and don't let age fool you. Polk's vintage speakers have a very devout following, and for very good reason. My old monitor 5's that I paid $50 for on CL were the best speakers I had heard for a long time, that is until I found my RTA15TL's. The old Polks are way more musical than the new one's except maybe the LSi's, IMO. Anyway, you've mentioned two bookshelf models recently. Are you wanting bookies or floorstanders?

shermanator

domflane wrote: »

The SDA's that DSkip recommended are a pretty nice deal, and don't let age fool you. Polk's vintage speakers have a very devout following, and for very good reason. My old monitor 5's that I paid $50 for on CL were the best speakers I had heard for a long time, that is until I found my RTA15TL's. The old Polks are way more musical than the new one's except maybe the LSi's, IMO. Anyway, you've mentioned two bookshelf models recently. Are you wanting bookies or floorstanders?

I'm definitely looking at bookshelves.

I am avoiding floor standers for three main reasons:

1. More susceptible to damage in a weight room, where as bookshelves are hung, mounted etc.

2. I want to be able to move it around; take it to the pool room, set it up in my bed room etc.

3. Price

The Polk RTi4's do an ok job, but when turned up, they become harsh and lose their sound quality. This where I hope spending more on bookshelf speakers will help.

The Energy RC-10 and V-5.1 seem to get great reviews for 2.1 setups or HT set ups.- Those are what I am leaning towards.

PS- I do have a sub.

domflane

The RTi line is known for being on the bright side, but your new Harman is a pretty warm sounding receiver and will do a great job of taming them. Also, at high volumes, you may have been clipping your tweets in the RTi4's depending on what you were using to drive them. This distortion would have caused them to sound scratchy and lose clarity. I've done it twice and have had to replace tweeters twice, it's easier than you think. Again, your new HK is a good solid amp, so it should remedy that problem as well. I still vote for vintage Polks for your speakers, namely Monitor 5's or 7's if you want to save space. You're not going to get the big thumping sound that you mentioned you wanted out of a pair of conventional bookshelf speakers, even with a sub. Bookshelves tend to excell at clarity and accuracy. You were into the M70's before, why the change of heart?

shermanator

domflane wrote: »

The RTi line is known for being on the bright side, but your new Harman is a pretty warm sounding receiver and will do a great job of taming them. Also, at high volumes, you may have been clipping your tweets in the RTi4's depending on what you were using to drive them. This distortion would have caused them to sound scratchy and lose clarity. I've done it twice and have had to replace tweeters twice, it's easier than you think. Again, your new HK is a good solid amp, so it should remedy that problem as well. I still vote for vintage Polks for your speakers, namely Monitor 5's or 7's if you want to save space. You're not going to get the big thumping sound that you mentioned you wanted out of a pair of conventional bookshelf speakers, even with a sub. Bookshelves tend to excell at clarity and accuracy. You were into the M70's before, why the change of heart?

I was in the "want it now" mentality. Taking a step back made me realize they are not practical for my purposes.

Later down the road, I hope to move to floor standers, but at this point, bookies just make more sense.

domflane

That's cool, happens to all of us. How soon do you expect your HK to show up? You might want to give the RTi4's another shot now that you have a much better power source. Unless you have tweeter issues, they should sound an awful lot better.

shermanator

domflane wrote: »

That's cool, happens to all of us. How soon do you expect your HK to show up? You might want to give the RTi4's another shot now that you have a much better power source. Unless you have tweeter issues, they should sound an awful lot better.

I hope to have the unit by next week. When I ordered it, it was "on order".

I'll likely try the Polks on the HK.

Poee7R

I would take either old or current Monitor's over RTi's for music anyday. RTi's really shine in HT, but for music... meh.

With a $300 budget, and you wanting to stick to bookies, look for a used set of Lsi7's, your HK should be fine driving them.

Energy are ok also, but not my bag, and I believe the Lsi's to be the better.

Then later when you get the itch to upgrade, you can climb the ladder on electronics moving onto seperate's or what have you, and listen as the Lsi's sound better and better.

Good luck in your search, dont spin your wheels and make a lateral move, go up instead. :biggrin:


Dave

shermanator

Poee7R wrote: »

I would take either old or current Monitor's over RTi's for music anyday. RTi's really shine in HT, but for music... meh.

With a $300 budget, and you wanting to stick to bookies, look for a used set of Lsi7's, your HK should be fine driving them.

Energy are ok also, but not my bag, and I believe the Lsi's to be the better.

Then later when you get the itch to upgrade, you can climb the ladder on electronics moving onto seperate's or what have you, and listen as the Lsi's sound better and better.

Good luck in your search, dont spin your wheels and make a lateral move, go up instead. :biggrin:


Dave

Where have you seen LSi7's for $300 Dave?

Poee7R

Taking a quick look at ebay and Audiogon, there are brand new 7's from an authorized seller for $399 shipped on ebay. And one ad on Audiogon for a used pair at $350.

You could contact the seller on Audiogon and offer 300 and work out shipping, or squeeze your wallet a bit and just go for the new and shipped for $399 on ebay.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrmoni&1330472779&/Polk-LSi7-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Polk-Audio-Speaker-LSi-7-Speaker-FREE-SHIPPING-1-pair-BRAND-NEW-LSI7-/310351547799?pt=Speakers_Subwoofers&hash=item484264cd97

Either way, if you can stretch it or negotiate well, you would be league's beyond your original intentions and still around the same budget.

Or, you can wait it out a bit and snag a used pair for around $300, which I believe to be their average used price. I picked up a set of Lsi9's for 350 (yes a good snag) so youre right in the ball park.


Dave

shermanator

Looks like i'm going to go with the Energy RC-10's.

They can be had for $270, and get great reviews.

EndersShadow

shermanator wrote: »

Looks like i'm going to go with the Energy RC-10's.

They can be had for $270, and get great reviews.

Good deal, let us know how it all works out!

domflane

Congrats on the new speakers, do us a favor and do an A/B against the RTi's when you get them and let us know what you think.

- Dom

shermanator

domflane wrote: »

Congrats on the new speakers, do us a favor and do an A/B against the RTi's when you get them and let us know what you think.

- Dom

Will do.

shermanator

So, aside from banana plugs and speaker wire, are there any other smaller items that I should consider buying for my 2.1 system?

Or am I good to go?

EndersShadow

shermanator wrote: »

So, aside from banana plugs and speaker wire, are there any other smaller items that I should consider buying for my 2.1 system?

Or am I good to go?

You should be good to go. Once you get it all put together put some pics up and we can tell you if there is anything else you need........

shermanator

Looks like my HK 3490 will be here to today somehow.

What are peoples thoughts on bi-wiring? Is there any increase in sound quality?

I'm trying to determine if I should bi-wire my RTi4's.

EndersShadow

shermanator wrote: »

Looks like my HK 3490 will be here to today somehow.

What are peoples thoughts on bi-wiring? Is there any increase in sound quality?

I'm trying to determine if I should bi-wire my RTi4's.

Eh I have done it, if you have the extra wire its worth a try to see if you can tell a difference. Lots of stuff is subjective and this is one of those....

shermanator

How would I bi-wire with the 3490? As in, what connections would go where(receiver to speaker terminals)?

Here is a pic of the back:

tonyb

Bi wire or bi amp ? Which are you looking to do ? How many speakers you hooking up ?

shermanator

tonyb wrote: »

Bi wire or bi amp ? Which are you looking to do ? How many speakers you hooking up ?

I assumed I would need a separate amp to bi-amp...so I guess bi-wire.

Only running a pair of speakers.

tonyb

In speaker 1 on the back of the receiver, you have posts for the left and the right speaker. Each post should have 2 runs of associated wire. Make sure the jumpers on the backside of the speakers are removed and simply connect positive to both the top and bottom posts and the same for the negative. In case you are wondering how to tell on the wire which is positive, it usually has writeing on it or some form of lettering, thats the positive side.

Im assuming here you don't have cables made for bi-wiring, correct ?

EndersShadow

tonyb wrote: »

Im assuming here you don't have cables made for bi-wiring, correct ?

He bought some Monoprice bulk wire and banana's to make his own cables. Monoprice wires have one of the sections with white lettering. Thats what I used as my negative, but you could make it the positive, doesnt really matter.

drummer86

shermanator wrote: »

The Polk RTi4's do an ok job, but when turned up, they become harsh and lose their sound quality.

Be careful blaming the speakers for this. Earlier you mentioned using mp3s and/or an iPod for your audio source. Playing mp3s at a higher volume can make ANY speakers sound like garbage. Have you hooked up a decent quality cd player to your setup yet? I'd try playing a few cds through your system before passing judgement on your speakers. To really "see" you what you're missing try playing a few tracks on a cd player then play the same tracks on your ipod hooked up via RCA.

shermanator

Hey guys, it's has been a little while.

I now have all my components and cables, and I have just finished bi-wiring my system.

Just to confirm, there is no loss of sound quality when bi-wiring, the argument is whether it's superior to regular wiring?

EndersShadow

shermanator wrote: »

Just to confirm, there is no loss of sound quality when bi-wiring, the argument is whether it's superior to regular wiring?

Correct

Florida_Gator

I have a question about bi-wiring, and this thread seems like a good place to ask it...

If you bi-wire as described in this thread (two wires from the same (speaker 1) positive post on the receiver, then split to the top positive and bottom positive at the speaker, with the speaker's post-banding removed; same for negative), what exactly does this do? Does this "bypass" the speakers' built-in crossovers? If so, isn't a "full band" signal being sent to the speakers' sub/mids *and* tweeter(s)? If so, isn't that bad?

Regardless, how is this providing more power to the speakers?

I've also read about using a DIFFERENT ADDITIONAL set of speaker connections on the receiver to power the front L&R (such as front L&R *plus* surround-back (if you have a 7.1 receiver) to feed the bottom and top (respectively) speaker posts. Is this different than the above method, effectively? Also, same question about crossovers applies.

Thanks all,

Florida_Gator

Never mind.

Did some reading.

Biwiring: don't bother.