RTA 8TL's ... and a free drill!

Zentish

Today, on a whim, I stopped in at a cash-advance pawn shop near my house. I'd visited a different one a few weeks ago and noticed some interesting audio gear.

As I wandered around the tiny store I spotted a familiar faux wood-grain finish way back in the corner behind some cheap-and-flashy plastic towers that appeared to have LED's and an inverted mirror-ball next to the tweeters. I slid the plastic junkers out of the way and saw a pair of pristine RTA 8TL's hidden and gathering dust in the corner of the store.

The label read "Nakamichi Receiver" $179. I called the clerk over and pointed out that these were neither Nakamichis or worth $179. He was very polite as I explained that while I was interested in them, those particular speakers were worth $100 at the most. He took some pictures and went behind the counter to do some research while I examined them for flaws. They were clean with a decent finish (a few scratches, stains, and one lose badge was all), the MW's seemed to pass the push test. He came back and said that I could have the pair for $100. They let me test them in the store and the drivers all sounded intact so I agreed to the deal.

While he was writing me up he said "bonus for you today, a free drill, the deal just keeps getting better!" I asked if it worked - he plugged it in and it did indeed seem to work so I said "okay" - hey I'm a guy, what kind of guy turns down free power tools?

So today I came home with a new pair of 8TL's and a new drill!

F1nut

Good deal, they look in nice shape.

BKphoto

tools, speakers....all you needed was a cheeseburger for the trifecta...

deronb1

Not sure where you came up with the $100.00 at the most price. Maybe thats all you were willing to pay? If working as should, they are worth well more than a hundo. The drivers alone are worth more than that. Congrats and nice score!

amb426amb1

Looks like another great pawn score. Now were all waiting for your review.

cfrizz

Congrats those look to be in great shape!

boston1450

Congrats on your pawn shop find. 8's are a great speaker. Perfect size & they can be driven easily with lots of different gear & sound great. Enjoy

Zentish

Thanks everyone!

My research showed that a good price for 8T's was around $100, and 8TL's for a bit more, like $120-$150. I figured I'd start off at $100 since theur label said $179 and we'd meet somewhere in the middle. From the ease of haggling over the price, I got the feeling that the 8TL's had been sitting in the shop a while taking up space and they just wanted them gone. The clerk told me that the label said "Nakamichi" because the speakers had been bought with a receiver but they threw it away because it wasn't worth anything. I was able to pay for these with my poker winnings from Friday night, so no impact on the home bills either!

I've been working through a bout of "upgrade fever" for the last few months. I love my 5B's (one owner) don't get me wrong, but hey, I'm a bit of a 'phile and newer/bigger/better is something we're always after. When I auditioned replacements at the various stores nothing appealed to me until I got into the $1500-plus-a-pair prince range and those seemed only a small upgrade to my ears for a big chunk of change.

On advice from this forum I started hunting all the local thrifts, local ebay, and CL for either an M7 or RTA8T. I've been really tempted by some local listings for a few 10A's and even an 11T, but my HT room is only an 11x13 foot bedroom and those are just too big for the room - physically and musically. Factoring the "WAF" and they were just non-starters - the placement of the 11T's would have left us watching the LCD down between them like a canyon. The "WAF" of these is still a question - she saw me unload them from the car and her eyebrows went up "those are huge!" she said, "Who are they for?". Uh-oh I thought.

I'm going to try to get them into the HT room today, wish me luck!

Zentish

I put the new 8TL's to work today! Wired them in, re-ran my Audyssey setup, tweaked it a little and then tested them out for HT with Star Trek on Blu Ray and ran some Music through them in PURE mode. I tend to use one of my first CD's, one of the original DDD rated releases: Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms track "Money for Nothing". I've always found that quiet intro that builds with high-hats and drums to peak with the screaming guitar riff to be a great speaker test for my musical tastes.

My impressions are that the 8TL's definitely have an edge over my M5B's: The highs are smoother, the mid-range is a bit more clear, and the lows are, well... lower. For pure music the imaging is better. The 8TL's felt much more immersive in both music and home theater. The soundstage opened up and I felt like I was sitting with the band right in front of me and I could pick out the different instruments much better than I've been able to do with my M5B's.

My wife is still a bit skeptical. While the 8TL's don't overpower the room they do stand out more than the 5's since they're right on either side of the LCD panel and the Monitors were a bit further towards the corners of the room. I think she's OK with them, after we watched Hunger Games: Catching Fire today my wife and daughter were if not impressed, at least accepting of the new additions.

I'm very happy with the purchase and consider these a good upgrade - success! I've upgraded from 29 year-old speakers to 24 year-old speakers. Now I need to find a good place for the M5's to live. There are a few corners in the living room I can hide them in for Zone 2 to replace the M4a's that live there now. We'll see...

I'll let these settle in a little before I decide if I want to replace the x-over caps and resistors. They were looking a little in-need when I popped one out. One of the film caps had some staining on it.

zingo

Congrats! I thought pawn shops were a lost cause these days, but good for you!

Truls-rohk

zingo wrote: »

Congrats! I thought pawn shops were a lost cause these days, but good for you!

Yeah, pawn shops around here price things at about 50-75% of new value and don't like to haggle.

Zentish

Frankly, I was surprised they were so quick and easy to haggle with. It was one of these new-fangled pawn-x-change loan stores call "cash America pawn". I think the merch is not their primary business, but I don't frequent pawn shops very much so don't really know.

Libertyc

Nice drill

Zentish

kevintomb wrote: »

Good deal~! They look good, but are those screws on the woofers the original ones or not?

I removed the x-over and those screws seem the same as what I saw on the drivers. How do I tell if they're original?

OldmanSRS

"You never know what's going to walk through that door"

oldrocker

Nice find. Most pawn shops in this area are NOT buyer friendly.

Zentish

Libertyc wrote: »

Nice drill

So far, I think I like the 8TL's better than the drill!

DaveHo

kevintomb wrote: »

Good deal~! They look good, but are those screws on the woofers the original ones or not?

Nothing looks out of place to me.

Mystery

Nice drill!

Zentish

Thanks, I haven't had a chance to play with the drill - I've been too busy with the speakers.

One of the badge post clips was loose. Today I found a replacement at Lowes and it installed nice and easy. The grills are in great shape and the new additions are working out nicely. They've turned out to have a little lower WAF than I'd hoped, but she's getting used to them.

boston1450

WAF !!! Does that mean SDA's are out of the question ?

Zentish

boston1450 wrote: »

WAF !!! Does that mean SDA's are out of the question ?

If I found a pair of SDA CRS locally for a good price then I'd have to give them a shot. Anything bigger won't fit in e room and those would probably be worth going to the mat for the quality sound.

cfrizz

What cracks me up is that his wife thinks that they are so big, when in reality if she saw the size of all of Polks current floorstanders she would see that they are tiny in comparison! ROTFLOL!

skrol

My wife always thought that my RTA11TL's were big but she doesn't seem to mind the LSi15's. They are quit a bit taller but look narrower. With the wood panels on the sides, they are about the same width but more pleasing to the eye I guess.

Zentish

The subtleties of the WAF attribute are tricky. She's getting used to them and I'm enjoying the sound more and more. The Difference between the 8TL and my M5B's is getting more noticeable the more I listen to them. Today we were enjoying Game of Thrones -season 2 and they were great!