Why do people think RTi12/9's are bad for 2 channel music???

organ

naturallight wrote: »

I have no understanding why people say the RTi12 or RTi9 is a nasty speaker for music and is too bright and brittle for 2 channel music. I put the RTi12 up against My original SDA1C's.....they don't sound the same of course..but there not bright or brittle as compared to the SDA's in fact since the SDA's still have the SL2000....the 12's come across as LESS bright.

These are not bad speakers by any stretch, they have no problem at all putting out bass and there sound stage is nothing to say it's junk. It's very wide and sounds fine.

It's NOT SDA stuff butt..there is no speaker that can do that...and may be an acquired taste.



The only problem i can see..is if you power them with junk, and feed them with a not so good media.

I use a Onkyo M 504 power amp, a Jolida tube cd player and a Adcom pre....I don't find that these speakers are bad at all.

They may be a tad mid rangegy if there is such a word....but for sure are not overly bright or brittle.....at least if you use the right Equipment on them.

Nothing wrong with RT series for music. I love my RT 5 and 1000p. I still keep both my RT's and LSi. For 2ch, I prefer the RT speakers with a tube amp over my LSi9 with SS. The most important thing is you're happy with them and no one can change that.

-Stanley-

Well the LSi's aren't the best sounding speakers I've ever owned but for the price they are winners. If I didn't like them they would be back in their boxes and waiting for UPS to pick them up. One great thing about amazon is their return policy.

Thorton

I've just upgraded from the A7's to the A9's. For me, I believe it's what kind of music you listen to, what sound you like and how much do you want to spend when buying new. I personally like the more forward sound. Before I purchased "New" Polks, I did go and listen to various brands at the very few brick and mortar shops in my area. There were very few that pleased me up to 1.5x the price of the A9's. When buying new speakers at this price point I'd pick the A9's over anything else I listened to hands down. If I had to do it again, I would still pick new A9's.

deronb1

The RTi 12s / A9s are not "bad" for 2 ch listening, but I think many here have owned older Polk models (SDA, RTA, Monitor) for many years. Comparing the two musically, most would say that the older Polks do an overall better job. I kept my RTA 8Ts over RTi12, because IMO, they just sounded better for music.

doctor r

Reported

Lan077

The RTI line are great sounding speakers just a little bright. With a good preamp you can probably tame them better. I know "listening fatigue" is something of a myth, but does apply to these speakers for pure music listening.

4xoddic

I can relate to "listening fatigue" on 2-channel with my RTia9s powered by a Pioneer SC-07 (140 WPC). They were much more enjoyable with Blu-ray (Jeff Beck Live @ Ronnie Scott's) via the SC-07 -> 4 RTia9s, CSi6 & FXia6s.

Adding A QSC GX7 (725 W, 8 ohms / 1 kHz both channels driven) really made the L&R RTia9s AOK for 2 channel listening (mostly ALAC via AppleTV). From 14', I can tolerate the GX7's fan noise between tracks, but I do have a quieter fan to install.

organ

4xoddic wrote: »

Adding A QSC GX7 (725 W, 8 ohms / 1 kHz both channels driven) really made the L&R RTia9s AOK for 2 channel listening (mostly ALAC via AppleTV). From 14', I can tolerate the GX7's fan noise between tracks, but I do have a quieter fan to install.

Holy smokes! That's a powerful amp. Glad you're enjoying it. I still haven't had a chance to try a pro amp at home. I plan to try this one day using actual cinema speakers. They rent out a theater near my workplace to play xbox or whatever. I plan to rent it for a few hours one day and bring my cdp and demo some 2ch music through their system.

4xoddic

Your tunes via theater sound = match made in Heaven . . . . or Woodstock.

I worked in theaters (1969 - 74). 1970 @ The Boulevard, Wichita, KS, we showed Woodstock for weeks on end. One of my favs = Ten Years After I'm Going Home. 4-track stereo. The "elderly" manager (to a 17YO) would often go up to the proj booth & have the projectionist crank the volume on Santana's Soul Sacrifice. The Blu-ray here at home is no comparison.

organ

Ha ha. That must have been awesome. Those huge horns can certainly rock out. The cinema sound is huge and effortless which is great for someone looking for a big, powerful sound. There are a lot of people running Altec Voice of the Theatre at home with great results. I still haven't heard a Klipsch system in a theater. All the good ones here use JBL for some reason, but they still sound fantastic.
The closest I've gotten at home was from a pair of Klipsch La Scala.

Pastorfuzz

Hello people. I know I'm a week late on this thread.
A friend of mine just bought 4 of the RTI-12's and he said the same thing that most of the posts are saying.
No good for music. He has a pioneer 120x7 receiver. I listened to it and it sounds ok to me.
I brought my old school Marantz 2330b receiver(130x2) to his house and hooked his RTI-12's to it.
HOLY S#&T! What a difference!. These things rock now.
So in our opinion, Old school power makes a big difference in the way these things sound.
Now he wants my Marantz, but that ain't happenin'.

erniejade

Depends ln how he had the pioneer set up? I find using the built in sound processor on mine for music on my rti12 make them sound bad. If I have the memory bank clear from using any of the built in processing, they sound quite good on my pioneer for 2 channel. I also used the back 2 chanels of the pioneer and bi amped my rti 12.

So to answer your question, it depends on how your friend has his pioneer set up.

Drenis

Because they just are.

htrdln

i really enjoy my lsi25

62caddy

Pastorfuzz wrote: »

Hello people. I know I'm a week late on this thread.
A friend of mine just bought 4 of the RTI-12's and he said the same thing that most of the posts are saying.
No good for music. He has a pioneer 120x7 receiver. I listened to it and it sounds ok to me.
I brought my old school Marantz 2330b receiver(130x2) to his house and hooked his RTI-12's to it.
HOLY S#&T! What a difference!. These things rock now.
So in our opinion, Old school power makes a big difference in the way these things sound.
Now he wants my Marantz, but that ain't happenin'.

Interesting experiment.

FWIW- I've found the RTi A9 excellent for music. Choice of electronics seems to have significant impact on the end result with the RTi12/A9, however. Calling them a "bad" choice for music is vastly oversimplistic in my view.