Need info on RTA 12b

TennMan

I'm going to look at a pair of RTA 12Bs. Are they good speakers... say compared to monitor 10Bs?

Can anyone tell me what the correct drivers and tweeters should be for these speakers. I want to check to see if they have they original parts. Any other information on what to check would be appreciated. I'm not familiar with the RTA 12bs so any info at all would be helpful.

brgman

12B's if working properly blow 10's off the grid.no comparison IMHO.

soundfreak1

Do a search on them here as there are more threads on them than you could read in a week.and yes they are so far above the 10's as to be.... Well no contest. Ive had the 10's 12b's , 12c's and many other monitor series as well amd tjey are head and sholders above the rest of the monitor series. They had several diff. Drivers amd tweets depending on tje production year. So do your reading. There is so much info here on those. Good luck on tje hunt.

TennMan

Thanks for the info. The photos he sent looks like they have the peerless tweets mounted on top of the cabinets instead of inside. I know they are different from SDAs but the seller said they had to a left and right speaker. Anything at all in common with SDAs as far as imaging or sound?

TennMan

Darn search function can't find RTA 12B.

TennMan

I'm actually wanting a pair of SDA 2Bs but I thought these might be nice to have until I find a nice pair.

BottomFeeder

How much is the seller wanting for them? They're great speakers, & if in good condition, could command anywhere from $200 - @300. IMHO

soundfreak1

Have only had my ears on one pair of sda's they were 2a's and i liked tje 12c's better but thats just me. Tje rta's do have the tweets on top in open air and the are right/left cabinets. As far as imiaging goes tjey are fantastic, but from ive read not better than sda's just diff.the higher end sda's (above the 2a's amyway) are suppose to be better? Cant say i never jave heard them. All i can say is if you get your ears on them. ( 12b's or c's ) you will buy them.

soundfreak1

One other thing is ( dont know what u will be driving them with) but the rta's do love power and lots of it
Clean highcurrent power and they will sit up and sing.

drumminman

I have both RTA 12C's and SDA 2.3TL's, both with multiple mods, including all new film caps and resistors.

The 12C's are truly great speakers with fantastic imaging both front to back and side to side, smooth from the bottom of the frequency range to the top. The RTA 12's were the top speakers in the monitor line in their day and in 1983 or 84 won the Grand Prix Audio Design award for speakers IIRC. But, the SDA's are in a different league, and they should be as they cost new more than twice as much.

The fact that the B's you're going to look at have a L and R speaker means that they are one of the later iterations. If the sides are mixed up the imaging collapses and they sound muddy - been there, done that!

As someone above said, Polk did a mix of drivers with some C's and B's having the same drivers/Xovers. They are definitely worth owning.

One thing to know is they have two crossovers per speaker: one attached to the inside of the binding post cup, and one on top of the cabinet attached to the tweeter. Replacing the caps and resistors will take these to an even higher level, but it ain't cheap. Having said that, I can't imagine ever selling mine, they're that good.

Oh, and +1 on lots of high current power. They can be driven with modestly powered amps, but they're transformed with lots of current, almost like they become different speakers.

Good luck and post pics if you can.

soundfreak1

"What he said" (drumminman) lol i found about the left/right thing by accident,had them wrong and thought they sucked. Later by accident was moving them back out of the closet and on to a higjcurrent SS amp and got them in the right possition and WOW ia all i can say! When u give them thier head ( power) they are quite impressive.one day i will find the right pair of 2,3's or up and im sure tje c's will yeild but i will never sell them as for now they are my favorite's.

TennMan

Thanks again for the info. I will be going around noon to see them take a listen. I'll let you know what I find out about them.

TennMan

Well, I can now say I've heard a pair of RTA 12Bs.

They were in great condition cosmetically but when I listened for a few minutes it was obvious that one speaker didn't sound right. When I brought it to the attention of the seller he didn't deny it. He said he must have gotten use to it because he didn't really notice it until I pointed it out.

It sounded like the sound coming from one speaker was unclear at times, even at normal levels, (we never even got around to cranking it up) and there were slight pops and clicks sometimes. I thought it might have been the tweeter bad so he agreed to allow me to disconnect the tweeter and have another listen to them. The same slurred speech sound was still there so the tweeter wasn't the problem. I suspect the problem was a cap or resistor going bad and I told him that. I read here on the forum that rebuilding the x-overs on the RTA 12s can get expensive so accordingly I made an offer on the speakers. He wouldn't accept it but he didn't really reject it either. He said he wanted to think about it and would get back to me. We will see where it goes from here.