RTi A5 Wiring Requirements

ccfc1986

So reading about the RTiA5 i see that is had 2 sets of posts for cabling. First off, i read the documentation listed herehttp://www.polkaudio.com/polk-university/faq/why-are-there-two-sets-of-terminals-on-my-speakers

Which gave me some useful information - in my situation, how / or can i even connect up both sets of cable connections to my receiver? I am using a Onkyo HT-S6300 - does anyone know if i can even get close to the full potential out of my new speakers with this receiver? Based on some forum posts this should give me enough power (its a small room and I have no intention of blaring the things while watching movies or listening to music).

Can i get some second opinions on how to hook this up based on my receiver and if i need to go the amp route for the LCR.

Thanks again.

VR3

Hey CCFC,

Your receiver should be able to power your speakers fine given the size of your room.

There are many ways to hook up your system.

1) One set of speaker wires, just make sure the lengths are the same on each side. From there you can use the stock jumpers.

2) Remove the stock jumpers and insert short runs of speaker wire, preferably the wire you are using for your main run. There are many people who prefer this as it is considered an upgrade over the brass jumpers. Once you have connected the jumpers, run your speaker wire run back to your receiver like before.

3) Bi-wire cables, this is a speaker wire connection that takes two runs of wire the separates at the speaker end into 4 connections (2 positive, 2 negative) and joins to make one set of connections (1 positive, 1 negative). There in theory should be no advantage to this type of connection over the jumper/single wire run, at the end of the day the connection is joining together to make one connection back to the amplifier.

Also, avoid utilizing both the A and B connections on your amplifier - this will offer you no benefit to your speakers and will not provide anymore volume or sound quality. All you need to do is run the right speaker into the right main output and the left speaker into the left main output.

I hope this helps!

ccfc1986

Thank you so much for the response VR3! Much appreciated!

In the third option, you are talking about basically running speaker cable like the following:

              + ===================== ----------- (+)
                                     ----------- (+)
Receiver                                                                      Speaker
              - ====================== ----------- (-)
                                     ----------- (-)

Is this depiction accurate? So i have two cables going into the receivers -/+, then they split up to be two separate connections into the speaker, assuming something like the above in theory?

Option 1 is basically just plug in a single run of cable to the main stock speaker jumpers, so one set of jumpers would be left unused.. with this option, is there any downside to doing this? Am i leaving part of the speaker unused?

Thank you,

CCFC

tonyb

Short and sweet....leave the jumpers in place and connect a single speaker wire to either the top or bottom set of posts on the back of the speaker. Red is positive, black is negative. Your receiver is fine to drive them, don't worry.

ccfc1986

Thanks for the reply tonyb, much appreciated.

I hooked up my new RTia5's to my system last night, and noticed a HUGE different compared to my HTIB speakers from Onkyo. Very glad i got what I did - and i appreciate the assistance in understanding the wiring with the new setup.

With the 2 sets of posts, is there ever a reason to do the bi-wiring etc? Or using just one set of jumpers should always be enough for these speakers and my receiver? Is there ever a threshold to which you say, 'hey you really ought to be wiring the speakers THIS way' etc?

Sorry for the idiotic questions, but i have got to learn somewhere, and you guys are awesome at answering questions from people like me!

Cheers once again