SRT System
Comments
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Originally posted by PolkWannabie
I thought the newer RTi12's were nice
Not even on the same planet!Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I guess I expected them to not be THAT different in the mids and highs, but your right. We go to our fair share of shows and concerts and usually get very good seats, which isn't that easy in the NY metro area, but I gotta admit if you close your eyes, you're there. There's still a set out on Audiogon. Anybody with a bunch of loose change, go get 'em, you'll never look back ... Hurry before I decide I want 'em for surrounds.
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Its hard to describe but you know how sometimes when people build up for example movies ect and you go in with high expectations and only come out dissapointed, well in regards to the SRTs it would'nt matter how much they get built up because when they are heard no matter what the expectation they will always continue to amaze, Polkwannabie - the thrill they give you now will never go away, I have had mine for 4 years and I still continue to be amazed, I cannot put in words how much I love losing myself in music for hours on end and then be amazed with a movie. Congrats to you, I'm so happy to hear another SRT owner rave about their speakers.
Brody -
Got the subs hooked up last night ... It's gonna take awhile to get them adjusted exactly how I want them but ...
I was listening to music last night for awhile at Ref Level -15 and they were routinely hitting 98-102 db in the room with just the mains playing. Now what's interesting about that is that although it was loud it was so clear it really didn't seem that loud. But judging by how much stuff was "moving" on the walls it was.
At the moment I have the L & R preamp outs split and going to the amp for the subs. I'll play with it this way for awhile and then experiment with an alternative hookup. -
Originally posted by PolkWannabie
although it was loud it was so clear it really didn't seem that loud.
Always a sign of a good system!Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Hi, "polkwannabie", how did you get on with the SRT's, are they everything you expected, ears ringing perhaps? I love to hear what you decided on as the final setup.
Brody -
Brody,
I'm not sure anything is ever final in this "hobby" is it ? ( LOL ) ...
I currently have the subs wired by splitting the R & L preamp outs but further testing of different hookups for the subs is on hold pending replacement of a couple of woofers that either semi died in transit or weren't in great shape before they left. There is of course no way to know but humpty & dumpty should be back together by next weekend ...
Most listeners probably wouldn't even notice the problem in normal listening mode but it's not that hard to tell with the subs playing solo or when performing low end freq sweeps.
I've played with the satellites ( tops ) a lot and currently have the main arrays bi-amped @ 425 a piece (Stereo & SDA). After playing with bi-amping & bi-wiring the highs, I finally settled on constructing my own jumpers as once you get away from the standard metal flat jumpers you can't tell any real difference between that and something more sophisticated. So that combo along with the amp for the subs is providing ~ 1.7 kw per channel.
Same treatment for the Center ( SRT ) i.e. 425 wpc and custom jumper.
At the moment I'm running the SDA surrounds in the rear bi-amped and some FXi5's on the sides. This is okay for now but I may change something with one or both of those set ups sooner or later. I sort of have my eyes open for something a little larger in the rear i.e. LS90's or what have you.
One of these days I'll get around to pictures but I have no digital camera outside of the capabilities of the video camera which is not all that wonderful for stills. -
sorry to hear about the subs, easily fixed though, I trust your stoked with the sound, the imaging and spread really is amazing ey, do you listen in 'wide' mode on the SDA unit? I guess you will have more of an idea once the subs are back, the box once the back is off is quite easy to access ie remove drivers ect, did you check the glueing of the spider on the sub, as once a bit of it lets go it gives the impression af a faint rattle (blown type sound) at low freq - maybe that was the prob - same as what I had.
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Regarding the woofs ... in some ways it's probably just as well ... once te woofs are replaced the subs should be equivalent to having new ones ...
I had done some frequency sweeps which were surprisingly flat down into the teens even with them being "buzzzy" ...
As far as setting the sound stage width goes, I like being able to set different widths for different types of music as well as being able to adjust the subs remotely. -
The one thing I don't like is that the control units don't have an on/off switch and are also lacking a 12 vdc trigger.
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Current Hookup ...
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Hi, the satalites are what I would have expected, but the subs I am guessing are running through to the SRT controller as well?
Wow, that power of the cinepro and sunfire amps is amazing, I have always wanted to hear the SRTs with more power but NZ just doesnt have the access to that as easily (or cost effective), I would really like to hear what your thoughts are on comparison of the power you are running compared to less if you have heard them with less. How are the subs? are they running yet?
You couldn't tell me of somewhere I may be able to get my hands on a pair of RT800i from the US, I have tried ebay and not had any luck as yet.
Cheers
Brody -
Yes the subs are run through the front controller. They are playable as is but will be better when the drivers are replaced.
I have seen RT800i's on eBay but most folks don't like to ship internationally. What are you going to use them for ?
Here's a pair that sold a week ago ... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14993&item=3091088351&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
If you're real interested in getting a pair and you let me know what your limits are, I could try and snag a pair and ship them for ya. I have no idea what the shipping cost is. -
HOLY COW ... UPS is quoting in the neighborhood of $700 US to ship 100 pounds from the Northeast to Wellington ...
Is that anywhere near what you'd expect ?! -
I saw those on ebay, and he was one of the 'do not ship internationally fraternity'. The shipping cost I expect to be around $300ish and I guess I could get some for about $400-. The freight makes them quite expensive but I am unable to find a pair here, I really like that series of speaker, will use in separate setup to SRTs, I haven't heard a pair for a while but I remember them to sound really good, I ran my RT55i's off the front channel the other day and was quite impressed with them, in comparison to the new polk range I think I prefer the i series better, what do you tink of them, you obviously know your stuff quite well. Thanks for the offer for help, it may just be the only way I can get a pair, I don't really understand the problem with people not wanting to ship internationally, I pay them, arrange to have the speakers either shipped to a depot in the US or picked up from them and what happens after that whether it goes national or international has nothing to do with them. The link you provided, I actually sent 2 emails to the trader explaining that and I got no response at all. Funny thing is I would have paid more for them than what he got, so his loss really.
Thanks so much for the offer, if you do come accross a pair could you let me know, my email is;
brody05@xtra.co.nz
Thankfully
Brody
PS I never turn off my control unit or my amps, (like to keep them warm, plus when metal is warm in our cool country climate and then cools down condensation can build which can cause corrosion) -
Just saw your 2nd response- I can arrange freight this end via surface (sea) $300ish US.
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Where in the NY area would they have to go to hook up with your sea transport ?
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The items go by rail to LA every week, from there shipped to NZ (13 day shipping), in total about 3 weeks to NZ from NY. Cheers
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Brody,
The new drivers for the subs arrived this week and the first chance I had to swap them was today. This of course necessitated doing new frequency sweeps and playing with the sub controls for some time to get them near where they belong. It was worth the effort though as the bass is much tighter and punchier now with relatively flat response down into the middle teensbefor slow roll off.
Tomorrows exercise, new preamp goes online. -
Middle 10's - wow, SRT subs are great ey, not bad for 10" drivers, have you ever heard of someone building their own sub - I am currently in the process of imitating a design of a sub with factory drivers and running them with a Parasound THX amp at 350 watts, not sure what the end result will be but not much to lose, some parts, paint and a crossover unit, can't see there being a problem but time will tell.
I am glad to hear things are going well, it is such a time consuming process with so many little tweaks to find perfection, it sounds as though you have some great testing equipment to help though.
Thanks for the updates.
Brody -
I have nothing beyond a CD with burned 1/12th octave test tones between 10-100 hz and an SPL meter although I've started to investigate other alternatives as I suppose I now have enough dollars into the rig that warrant some better tools although I really don't want to make a career out of testing.
As far as DIY subs goes, there are lots of folks here who have done their own but imho the problem is that there are such great subs available, like this one for example http://www.svsubwoofers.com/subs_pb2_plus.htm for $1200 where if you look at the sum of the basic parts i.e. two of the db12's http://www.svsubwoofers.com/parts.htm @ $275 per plus a 900 watt plate amp @ $300+ ? which puts the cost of the parts once you include the box at more or less the same price as the finished sub. This is hard to overlook. I really wish the SRT subs had 12+" capabilities as there are lots of good choices out there for driver replacements without having to build ones own box. The choices at 10" are much more limited.
This was a freebie fix for the subs which of course made it a no brainer, but the next time I need to be doing far reaching repairs I think I'll be looking at other alternatives.
I attached a plot of the response curve of the subs and satellites at low frequency. Like you I seem to have found that the best x/o seems to be in the 60-70 range. -
PS ... On testing and close inspection of the original drivers that were removed, they had the same problem that you encountered. No tears in the spiders but they all have spots where they need to be reglued. This is good in that once repaired they will provide spares for a long time to come as otherwise they appear to be in great shape. The replacements were manufactured much more recently and appear to have had different manufacturing techinques or adhesives applied in this area i.e. hopefully a result of something that was learned from reported failures.
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Ah, the dreaded glue failure again. I have just finished the sub build, came out great, just like a bought one, the reason why I built although there are many great alternatives is I had an unused amp that was not worth selling but still better than most sub amps - at the end of the day I have ended up with with a sub that performs great for less than $250 US, some time building and painting (used to be a cabinet maker) a box and utilising an amp that although cost $2000- NZ is only worth $500- NZ second hand and sitting around not doing anything. Very happy with end result.
Ended up buying a second pair of RT55i's, there was little available in the 800i department and freight added a large cost into the equasion, I stumbled accross a brand new pair at a store when buying some cable and paid $1000- NZ for them (about $650- US) and I got a PSW 650 to go with them - still a great performer for an older model sub.
Anyway I hope you haven't damaged your ears too much with those SRTs yet.
Regards
Brody -
Ears are still working fine ...
Tell me about the sub(s) you built and how they compare to the SRT Subs ... I've had some thoughts along these lines as well but am holding off for now.
I'm kind of at a lull ( hopefully for awhile ) now that I have the Sunfire preamp in place. It's a truly great component and added dramatically to overall system sound quality. This is the only piece of equipment I've added recently that I bought new albeit at significantly less than retail. It's amazing what can be found used and in great condition and the differences in prices between new and used are substantial ... -
I am a bit unsure about going in to too much detail re building the subs, some might be unhappy with the 'copying' part of the design and I don't want to put any noses out of joint (even though lets say they are no longer made and sold by the manufacturing company), I would be happy to discuss via private email and can say that the end result was identical in performance as the original.
Brody -
I guess I was mostly interested in general details i.e. size and number of woofs, ported/non etc. but if you prefer email me.
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Um OK.
2 x 10" drivers, port is 175 ml (inside diameter) size is 675 ml high and 300ml wide and 500ml deep.
Brody -
LOL ... uhhh ... yeah ... that does sound a tad familiar ...
If you're a capable cabinet maker why not make us some nice cabs that we can throw a couple of these in ... http://www.svsubwoofers.com/parts_woofer_tv12.htm -
Awesome drivers ey.
I did look at them prior to the project I just finished but from what I understand drivers are tuned to the boxes (or box design) or rather the boxes may be built to match the drivers, there is a company here in New Zealand that can do that as I spoke to them in breif before I decided what course to follow. Would SVS supply that kind of information with their drivers?
In regards to building cabinets it would be more economical for you to have some built in the US rather than shipping them from NZ. Also although the build was easy enough I found myself a bit out of practice with a spray gun and although the metallic black finish looks allright to the untrained eye I have certainly done better in the past before I changed careers.
The total material cost was about $250 US (plus drivers) which was for customwood/MDF rather than the cheaper chip/particle board including two pot paint and epoxy glue and there was 23 hrs labour including two undercoats and painting, most of the labour was in hand shaping the base but I'm not sure how cost effective it would be without knowing someone that can do 'mates rates' on the build.
If I can help when the time comes feel free to contact me;
brody05@xtra.co.nz
Brody
