What receiver/amp is best for the rti 150's?

jim_r

Originally posted by scornful
Now having the mains set to "large" with "no sub" selected means the mains will receive the full signal including the sub frequencies.

Fine. That's what I said.

So then the issue becomes will the LFE harm the speakers set to LARGE over time. I am just saying that over at Outlaw Audio they say it will and Polk's tech support said it's best to send the LFE to a subwoofer instead of you main speakers. That's all. No reason to get uptight.

scornful

Sorry I didnt mean to sound "uptight".

It depends on your setup. If your mains can handle deeper bass that falls into the LFE range you will NEVER have any problems sending them that signal. It just might not sound as smooth and detailed as a good dedicated sub. Think about what people ran before HT with a dedicated sub became common. Or for that matter how about guys that still run 2 channel high end stuff w/o a sub. Also remember that most people dont spend thousands of dollars on an HT setup. Personally I hate the HTIB concept but it does have mass appeal. I wouldnt suggest sending a full range signal (especially high powered) to a small satellite. I think this is more of what they are cautioning people about.

And yes, they are right.... it is "best" to send the LFE signal to a dedicated sub. Now if you spent $10k on a pair of SRT's I dont think this really applies to you.

faster100

The speakers that are set to large get lfe period. if you throw a sub in the mix, it shares the bass with any and all speakers set to large. sub off front mains on large and the rest to small.. the mains will get all the bass that they can produce. The rti150's can more then handle all the LFE and bass of a system. I have owned them and they produce alot of bass for 6 small woofers. Don't worry about them not handleing it, until you get to extreme volume and heavy bass which they may not even play anyways when the cutoff is like 30 hz or something like that. Live and learn on what to power them with, Not many people on the board even have the 150's and those who do are in much of the dark as anyone else about powering them, I can say i shut down my receiver and external amp.. with them, however we have some people say the receiver never shut down.. apples/oranges.. he said he said, No one here had extended experiance with these speakers, however we have a handful of people who can help determine what "they should" require.. by hearing others problems and reading spec sheets..

Terrax

Good point faster, very good. Now, the question of the thread is what Rec/amp is best? I would say that if you are planning to buy a receiver and amp, that you look for the ones that are designed to deliver power into low ohm ranges. What has been pointed out in this thread is that the 150's can and do dip into the 4 and I would venture to say the 2 ohm range at times. My Yamaha 3300 has an external ohm selector and seems to have no problems with providing high current power. It has a very robust power supply which is roughly half of its total 48 lb weight. But I still wouldn't want it powering the full range signal to the 150's so I would really suggest an external amp to power the woofers regardless, one that is stable into low ohm ranges. That is if you want the best out of these speakers.

Hope this helps,
Terry

scornful

Thanks for correcting me there Faster. Now I have a question for you guys. I'm currently running a Denon 3802 on these. I'm looking to buy a stereo amp to drive the woofers, while driving the uppers off the receiver as I've seen suggested. Will bi-amping the 150's (removing the bus bar) lower the impedance of the uppers to say 4ohms? I'm not sure my Denon will like it very much if it does.....

jim_r

Originally posted by faster100
The speakers that are set to large get lfe period. if you throw a sub in the mix, it shares the bass with any and all speakers set to large.

faster, I am specifically talking about the .1 LFE channel in a 5.1 soundtrack. That is NOT sent to anything other than the subwoofer when a subwoofer is used.

Originally posted by faster100
Don't worry about them not handleing it, until you get to extreme volume and heavy bass which they may not even play anyways when the cutoff is like 30 hz or something like that.

There is no cutoff, faster. Here is what Ken Swager had to say about this in May of this year when I asked him about that:

"They don't have any kind of high pass filtering, they will try and play any sound, high or low, that is given to them. If you enjoy action/adventure movies at relatively high volumes, then a separate sub-woofer would be a good idea.
Regards, Ken, Polk"

Originally posted by scornful
Think about what people ran before HT with a dedicated sub became common. Or for that matter how about guys that still run 2 channel high end stuff w/o a sub.

2-channel stereo does not have a .1 LFE track, scornful.

scornful

You are correct Jim. 2 channel does NOT have an LFE track. Let me put it another way. What EXACTLY is the LFE track?

jim_r

Originally posted by scornful
You are correct Jim. 2 channel does NOT have an LFE track. Let me put it another way. What EXACTLY is the LFE track?

In a 5.1 soundtrack the .1 (or 6th) track is referred to as the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) track. Here is a more extensive article on it:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_2/feature-article-misunderstood-lfe-channel-april-2000.html

scornful

I throw in the towel....