RTA15TL's anything i should know about these type speakers

boston1450

i have these speakers they work properly. the question i have is are they known to have problems i should be looking for. its hooked to a H.K.3470 for now. 100watt reciever. sound is ok. but i think i need a better reciever..

falconcry72

Great Speakers!

boston1450 wrote: »

...are they known to have problems i should be looking for?

Like any 20 year old speakers, the capacitors are probably starting to go. If they sound good, then great, but replacing them with modern ones will make a big difference. There are many threads here about that.

Also, you could replace the tweeters with the modern Polk replacement, the RD0198. That will make a big difference too.

but i think i need a better reciever..

You won't do much better in the world of receivers; what you need, my friend, is separates.


Congrats and enjoy!

Joe08867

I agree with Falconcry, you are pretty maxed out receiver wise. Maybe Pioneer Elite but i would go separates for sure.

Do you have preouts on your AVR? Get a nice B&K, Rotel, Adcom, or Parasound amp used and really hear what those RTA's can do...

boston1450

the polks rta's are hooked to the hk3470. i am looking for a older marantz or sansui. the 3470 doesnt do the job i want anyways. i would love to have a marantz. i saw one last week. it was beautiful. it was banged up and he wanted 300.00 for it. i will wait. if i can get a nicer on for lets say 5-600.00 working properly. as that one didnt. i will buy it. ebay kinda scares me. not sure about ebay. but i want a marantz ir maybe a sansui. as far as speakers go. i am going to upgrade them. just at this point they sound ok. ive wrote down upgrade info and i will be doing that

boston1450

thank you all for feedback. the more i play with this system the more i like it. so for now i will continue to use this reciever. maybe a HK3490 or the newer model down the road. i want a tube unit so i need to save for my sda's. thanx again

F1nut

Forget trying to drive them with a receiver, you'll never hear what they are capable of. You need a big bad a$$ amp.

boston1450

well yes i do. all in due time. as money doesnt grow on trees. lol. thanx

gdb

Just remember this...........clipping is very bad !

boston1450

if your talking about the 200 watt amp to the sda speakers. its not clipping that i know of. amp manuel says 200watts @8 ohm.... 300 @4 ohm. how many watts does the sda need. ive heard 50 watt min. so im thinking 200+ watts should be ok till i can get a better set up. i use my HK 100 watt for the rta speakers. so i dont think theres clipping there. sda dont get used daily like the HK....i know i need some bigger amp but i got other projects being its not my only hobbie. its bike season. and wife n kids kinda come first. its a project in slow mode. lol. thanx

boston1450

maybe i mis understand here. is what your saying is a HK 100 watt reciever will cause the Rta15TL speakers to clip....or is it you think i will get better performance with something with more power. which inturn will produce better quality sound.....so the question i have is. will the 100 watt reciever hurt these speakers. i thought i was told by someone else on cp that it would be fine....scratching my head here

tonyb

You'll be fine as long as you don't push the envelope with it. They will sound better with some power behind them. I think what the others were trying to say is to get a good representation of what the speakers can do, feed them well.

heiney9

boston1450 wrote: »

maybe i mis understand here. is what your saying is a HK 100 watt reciever will cause the Rta15TL speakers to clip....or is it you think i will get better performance with something with more power. which inturn will produce better quality sound.....so the question i have is. will the 100 watt reciever hurt these speakers. i thought i was told by someone else on cp that it would be fine....scratching my head here

It's not the speakers that clip, it's the amplifier section that clips. More power doesn't always equal better sound. You want QUALITY over QUANTITY everytime. Receivers are a compromise component because they need to do a lot of different things all in the same chassis. So a 100w (quality) amp is almost always going to give better results than a receiver. I run my SDA 1C's with a 30wpc amp that plays louder and sounds loads better than the 125wpc amplifer I had previously. But it's a different design and it did cost about 4X as much. Not that cost is always an indicator of quality sound but they seem to have a relationship.

H9

boston1450

great feedback. im spending time doing research. ive only owned these speakers for maybe 6 weeks. being im no electronic wiz i process what i read. i get feedback that differs depending on who comments. so its confussing. especially when your no wiz. lol. thank you very much for everyones comments. thank you for barring with me not knowing also. since i joined this forum. i feel like i am goin in the right direction. i know it doesnt happen overnight. have a great day

skrol

Are the 15's much harder to drive than the 11's? My DRA-835R drives mine effortlessly. I do hope to get an amp one day to see how much I may be missing though.
Stan

F1nut

boston1450 wrote: »

great feedback. im spending time doing research. ive only owned these speakers for maybe 6 weeks. being im no electronic wiz i process what i read. i get feedback that differs depending on who comments. so its confussing. especially when your no wiz. lol. thank you very much for everyones comments. thank you for barring with me not knowing also. since i joined this forum. i feel like i am goin in the right direction. i know it doesnt happen overnight. have a great day

You have a great attitude and want to learn......I applaud you for that. I use to own a pair of those speakers, they take a high current amp to wake them up. So, you've got something to look forward to.


Stan, the short answer is yes.

boston1450

i purchased a mint denon 2801 for 200.00 i hooked the denon amp to it. i have the sda2b hooked to the amp. it sounds very nice. im thinking this will get me by until i can upgrade. if it wont hurt it. im happy.