RTi A7 to replace current HT setup.

bigredaggie

Hi all. I'm about this close to pulling the trigger on a pair of RTi A7 towers and a CSi A6 center. Looking for some positive reinforcement before I do so. I have a large living room that spills into an open concept kitchen and dining area and my current HT setup isn't really creating the room filling sound I'm looking for.

For those willing to deep dive, here is the thread I started at avsforums asking for advice:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speakers/1571834-orb-replacement-suggestions.html

For the rest:

5.1ch setup using Orb Audio speakers. 2 Orbs for left, 2 for right, and 4 for the center channel. Single orb for left rear and right rear. Crossed over at 150hz with a SVS SB-12 Plus sub. Driving with Onkyo 806 receiver (130W/ch peak). 90% of listening is home theater. Looking for room filling, immersive sound without necessarily having to run at very high volume, as I don't get to much with young kids in the house.

Main question on the Polks is, will I be at all happy pushing them with my Onkyo? And if I'm unwilling to spring for a dedicated high power amp would I be better off going with something more efficient from Klipsch/etc?

rpf65

Your Onkyo will drive the a7's, but an amp will make them sound much better. I went and demoed the a7's, powered with an avr, as well as the a5's and a9's. I personally liked the a 5's more so than the others. So I went with those. Lacking in bass, but mid-range sounded better. You have a good sub, bass is covered. May want to give the 5's a listen, but you should be alright with the 7's, as long as you're careful with the volume knob.

bigredaggie

rpf65 wrote: »

Your Onkyo will drive the a7's, but an amp will make them sound much better. I went and demoed the a7's, powered with an avr, as well as the a5's and a9's. I personally liked the a 5's more so than the others. So I went with those. Lacking in bass, but mid-range sounded better. You have a good sub, bass is covered. May want to give the 5's a listen, but you should be alright with the 7's, as long as you're careful with the volume knob.

You know that's not the first time I've heard that, that the enhanced mid range offered by the A5 won out over the better low end in the A7. That's reverting back to a question I've been struggling with. I understand the existence of different size drivers and the roles they play in recreating the freq spectrum, but there seems to be a large deviation in what the different manufacturers put in their towers, with some like Klipsch offering a reference line that has a model offered for virtually each diameter driver. Besides cost, how does one decide what driver sizes need to be in their towers? In the avsforum thread above, I had responses telling me that due to the large size of my room, I effectively needed to move more air, and hence the rf-82s with their larger drivers would likely fare better than the rf-52s I was eyeing.

Hence my selection of the A7 since it seemed to at least have drivers to cover all the bases. With that said, there is a pair of A5s on craigslist I have been eyeing...

Jyveturkey

I took a look at your thread on avs. Saw the picture. That really isn't very home theater friendly is it? I think you'd benefit greatly from a set of floor slanders. You'd be able to spread them out to get that more full sound stage you're looking for.

I just recently picked up a pair a9s and an a6 off cl and though I'm running off avr power I love em. I know they'd benefit from an amp and I do plan on getting one I'm still happy with the sound I get from the avr alone.

Don't be afraid of jumping on the a5s you're eyeing on cl. The fact that you'll probably be crossing them over at 80hz should greatly reduce the difference in bass response between the 5s 7s and 9s. Depending on you're setup to the left and right of your listening position, they can always be moved to surround duty. That's my plan eventually. Getting a pair of 5s or 7s for surround.

Though more difficult in your situation, another option for a wider sound stage would be the front wide channels in a 7.1. I currently run a3s as wide channels and a pair of monitor 40s as surrounds. The a3s definitely widen up the front stage dramatically. In your position maybe something mounted to the ceiling angled in and down? I tried the surround back channels and didn't get as much immersion as I'd have liked. Once I went wide I'll never go back. Again I have the space to pull this off.

rpf65

I don't design speakers, so I have no idea how an engineer designs a speaker. I prefer some speakers over others because they sound better to my ears. Then of course there is the cost of some of them. Probably not hard to get a great HT set-up for $100K, but that's a bit more than I can personally afford. So like others, I try to get the best sound possible within a reasonable price range.

I personally thought the A5's slightly out preformed the A7's when I listened to them at that particular store with that particular AVR powering them. I'm sure the reason is simply because the A7's needed more power than they were getting, and the A5's were happy.

Will your AVR be able to drive the A7's? Probably.

Will you be happy with that set-up? Maybe, We all hear differently.

Will your AVR drive the A7's to the absolute limit of what they are capable of producing? No, but then again you may not notice it.

Keep in mind your mains are direct firing. You only need to pressurize the air between you and them for higher freqs. The lower freqs need the complete room pressurized. That is the subs job. Low freqs are non directional, and that is the reason the whole room needs to be pressurized.

For instance, I sit about 12 feet or so from my mains. I need to pressurize the air between me and those speakers to hear them. The room they sit in, plus the rooms with no doors is about 6400 cubic feet, so I need to pressurize quite a bit more air for good bass response. Biggest problem with HT is bass response.

Which is why subs can get really expensive. On a 5.1 set-up a good sub can easily cost as much, or more, than all other speakers combined. Is it worth it? Depends on the individual. I personally wouldn't worry about how many drivers are in the cabinet, or the specs, or for that matter anybody elses opinion on how they sound. I would listen to different speakers and base the decision on what I liked.

Of course that is what everybody on this forum will tell you. Listen before you buy, or at least be able to return them if you don't like them.

gudnoyez

I have the A5's and was told the same thing that they have better midrange than the A7's I was told to get the A5's or A9's and take advantage of the two midrange drivers, not having the funds for the A9's at the time I chose the A5s. With that Onkyo the A5's will be fine if you decide to get an external amp and have the money get the A9s. I got a Onkyo TX-NR838 and will put a Adcom 5503 in the mix, my A5's and CSIA6 will have plenty of power, but I have a felling now with enough power the A9's will be on my wish list. Keep us updated.

bigredaggie

rpf65 wrote: »

I personally thought the A5's slightly out preformed the A7's when I listened to them at that particular store with that particular AVR powering them. I'm sure the reason is simply because the A7's needed more power than they were getting, and the A5's were happy.

Of course that is what everybody on this forum will tell you. Listen before you buy, or at least be able to return them if you don't like them.

That's along the same lines of what I was thinking. I briefly switched over to the A5's at Frys and thought they did seem a little clearer than the A7s but was wondering if it was the AVR that was driving them and that the A5s were just easier to please with a given amount of power. Think that's one of the things driving my level of doubt about picking up something with higher sensitivity.

I agree I need to demo more speakers before buying, ideally in a place with a controlled environment.

bigredaggie

If anybody is interested in the room layout/size here is a top down view (pdf), as well as some pics from several years ago. Note the TV is now a Samsung PN64D7000 wall mounted and the windows have moderate curtains on them. Still a lot of hard surfaces almost everywhere you look and over 7000 cu/ft of air to pressurize.

tonyb

If you plan on still using the SVS sub, then low end shouldn't be a concern of yours. However, in order to avoid the sound maybe sounding too thin because you do have a large space there that will suck it all up, the bigger the floorstander the better imho.

Sound waves reflect off walls, you have no back wall to your listening position so the sound leaves the room making it kinda flat and lifeless, yes ? Have you given any thought to in-ceiling speakers ? They project sound downward rather than out and may be more beneficial to keeping the sound in that room. Unless of course you want to fill both rooms with sound, then grab the biggest floorstanders you can afford. Don't be afraid to buy used either, the A9's would work well in that room but you'd need an amp to drive them.

Klipsch would be a better choice if you don't want to spring for an amp, but the sound signature is a stretch away from the polk sound so get your ears on some first. Also those small orbs are wife friendly, but in a room that big, kinda useless. Take some consideration into surround speakers too, placement, and whether or not the wife will have you sleeping on the couch.

The in-ceilings may be better to please her, and keep the sound more local to that room.

bigredaggie

tonyb wrote: »

Sound waves reflect off walls, you have no back wall to your listening position so the sound leaves the room making it kinda flat and lifeless, yes ? Have you given any thought to in-ceiling speakers ? They project sound downward rather than out and may be more beneficial to keeping the sound in that room. Unless of course you want to fill both rooms with sound, then grab the biggest floorstanders you can afford. Don't be afraid to buy used either, the A9's would work well in that room but you'd need an amp to drive them.

The in-ceilings may be better to please her, and keep the sound more local to that room.

Ceiling mount was my initial plan, even with the orbs, but has proven too difficult. That's tile separating the carpeted area and the right wall, and it's engineered flooring in the ceiling for the upper floor with no access. Going straight up the wall behind the plasma I ran into some serious cross bracing/obstructions for the staircase behind the wall. This was my plan for all speaker locations initially, ceiling mounted out of sight with proper separation. I was even going to go so far as to pull back the carpet and plywood flooring upstairs to get access, but when I couldn't snake speaker wiring up that vertical wall it pretty much crushed those plans. As a result I'm only running 5.1 ch instead of 7.1 with the rear channel wiring routed under the carpet around the fireplace then splitting out and running under the sectional for my right rear. Not ideal. I've been reading about 7 ch wide setups, where the rear channel ate pulled to the front and used out wide past the towers or even up high like a movie theater. I wonder if this would help the "assault from the front" that I think I'm going to end up with.