RTI A9 with NAD T765

olikoli

Hi Everyone,

I have done SOOOO much reading and I am blue in my face at this point
Here is the story.

I had a Denon receiver (entry level) when I bought a pair of RTi A9s (they were a great deal).
I used to work in Future Shop many moons ago, and I remembered that I loved the way Polk sounded. So when I saw the deal (3 years ago), I just bought them without thinking.

The sound was great at low levels with Denon, and I really enjoyed the warm sound on it. The problem was that it had no power. Literally would have no lows at higher volumes.

I then got a used NAD T765 (120 W in stereo), and speakers sound much better although a bit on the "bright" side. I am pretty happy with the way it sounds, but I cant stop but wandering....

How much better the sound would be with dedicated 2ch amp.
Also is anyone using NAD t765 and RTi A9s, and what are your thoughts?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Tony M

The NAD is probably neutral. the speakers bright.

Doesn't that receiver have a treble control?

olikoli

Yes it does. I do tune it down a bit, and it does sound better. I still feel that I may be missing warmth.
Almost as if the mid-bass is missing...
So I guess it could be that Denon was "coloured" where NAD is Neutral.

Anyone else using NAD with their Polks?

Tony M

I've been using NAD with most everything for years. I also have Yamaha, Pioneer Elite, Rotel and Onkyo receivers that get the job done for me. They all have tone controls if I need to use them. I don't use NAD tone controls much. Neutral settings sound great with Polks and other speakers I have most of the time.

I'm not young anymore and my ears might not hear what others can hear either. I might be easy to please audio wise.

I CAN hear distortion quite easily and will do something about it quickly too.

But if the speakers need bass, I turn a dial to increase it. Now it might be for one radio station, one CD. I will quickly adjust my equalizer on my old JVC receiver when a song starts and plays for a bit.

Some speakers need bass while others don't.

Some people get stereos that don't have adjustments.

It's all about your ears of course. If it doesn't make you want to move a foot, leg or make your head bob, maybe something does have to change to improve what you hear.

olikoli

Such a great reply! I truly appreciate it. It really doesn't have to be more difficult than that!

Kex

The T-765 is rated for 2Ω (360W). Very few receivers are capable of 2Ω. It also weighs 50lbs.

You “might” notice a difference with an external amplifier, but with those speakers, rated at 8Ω and 90dB efficiency (therefore relatively easy to drive), it’s not necessarily so.

Check the manual of the NAD. I believe you can create listening “profiles” with different stored settings, and then switch at will according to what you are listening to.

Also check that those speakers are set to “large” in settings and that the listening mode is correct according to what else is connected (subwoofer, center channel, surround speakers...).

olikoli

Thank you @Kex. This is very reassuring. I know that T765 is a very capable receiver, and never had an issue running the speakers.
Soundstage is very good, clarity is incredible. I will have set up couple of profiles (they call it AV presets), and they are very easy to recall.

I just did a lot of reading on this forum, and nearly everyone states that external amp is necessary. This is the main reason why I keep second-guessing.

tonyb

If you want to realize the best perfomance from those speakers, then yes, a separate 2 channel amp is necessary. If you like it a tad more on the warm side, Parasound amps work well, especially the HCA series. B&k amps work well also.

olikoli

tonyb wrote: »

If you want to realize the best perfomance from those speakers, then yes, a separate 2 channel amp is necessary. If you like it a tad more on the warm side, Parasound amps work well, especially the HCA series. B&k amps work well also.

@tonyb Thanks for this. What would you say would be "increased performance" in comparing to what I have now?
In other words, what is it that I am missing by not having a dedicated amp?

tonyb

More dynamics, a cleaner and clearer sound , better bass performance. Basically every aspect of the speakers sound improves.

The A9's need a good hunk of current to sound their best, receivers can't provide that but good amps can. What have you got to lose ? You don't like it re sell the amp for what you paid. The brands I mentioned are about 400 bucks on the used markets. You'd need 2 RCA cables also to hook up the amp. Signal cable analog 2 is a decent cable, audioquest cables, bluejeans cables, Douglas connection cables, of which he is a member here.

olikoli

Thank you @tonyb