New to me RT800i, PSW350, CS400i, and RT25i system

bmwcca1

I answered an ad for help disassembling and recycling an old TV system with speakers and found I knew the owner and she'd had these since new . . . with a large JVC CRT TV and VHS player. The RT25i's were wall mounted as rears. I told her I'd be happy to take the speakers to play with or re-purpose. The system came with a Yamaha HTR-5250 AV Receiver, Sony 5-disc DVD changer, lots of Monster wires and power station. Just got them all out of the truck and into my basement. Took three of us and a dolly to load the TV into her car so she can take it for recyling. My cost was only my time in helping and now I'm not sure what to do with the system but I hated the thought of it being tossed in a Best Buy dumpster.

I'm a large-format 2-channel guy with no previous experience in 5.1. Is this setup worth messing with? Should I donate it? Give it away? Everything appears to be in good shape from a nice home where they've been for probably 20-years, in a non-smoking household. Would they be fun as two 2-channel systems? The AV receiver pre-dates HDMI so it's not likely to be much use for AV today but is it supposedly 100+ WPC. Thanks for having me here and thanks in advance for any suggestions. I've been a JBL guy for over 60-years.

ChrisD06

The RT800i speakers are really good speaker for home theater purposes. The CS400i is my current center and it's beyond incredible sounding. I couldn't comment on the RT25i bookshelves as I don't own a pair nor have ever heard one. I also own the PSW350, chuffing if a problem with it and I doubt you'd like it's home theater performance but it produces very nice bass for musical performance.
The RT800i towers also have some good musical capabilities.
I would keep the system if I was you

rooftop59

bmwcca1 wrote: »

I answered an ad for help disassembling and recycling an old TV system with speakers and found I knew the owner and she'd had these since new . . . with a large JVC CRT TV and VHS player. The RT25i's were wall mounted as rears. I told her I'd be happy to take the speakers to play with or re-purpose. The system came with a Yamaha HTR-5250 AV Receiver, Sony 5-disc DVD changer, lots of Monster wires and power station. Just got them all out of the truck and into my basement. Took three of us and a dolly to load the TV into her car so she can take it for recyling. My cost was only my time in helping and now I'm not sure what to do with the system but I hated the thought of it being tossed in a Best Buy dumpster.

I'm a large-format 2-channel guy with no previous experience in 5.1. Is this setup worth messing with? Should I donate it? Give it away? Everything appears to be in good shape from a nice home where they've been for probably 20-years, in a non-smoking household. Would they be fun as two 2-channel systems? The AV receiver pre-dates HDMI so it's not likely to be much use for AV today but is it supposedly 100+ WPC. Thanks for having me here and thanks in advance for any suggestions. I've been a JBL guy for over 60-years.

Great 5.0 setup! (Give away the receiver and sub imho). One of my fav all time center channel speakers, and the rt25i are still my favorite Polk small bookie from the mid-line. Have a pair hooked up to a Cambridge avr in the bedroom setup now and they are just wonderful sounding for money. Very linear and musical with really nice open midrange. They make great near field office speakers! Never heard the 800is, but I love rt55i which is the 800i with the bottom of the cabinet chopped off to make a very large bookshelf, and those are awesome!

Get a good receiver and sub and you have a really fun HT setup! Nice find and welcome to cp!

bmwcca1

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll get a chance to play with them soon to see what I think. Your opinions are encouraging. I'll determine what they're best at and likely give them to a family member or friend in hopes they can appreciate them and elevate their listening environment. But first I'll check them out. I always enjoy learning something new about different speakers—I own nearly 20-pairs!

I also own over a dozen amps from Crown Studio Reference-II, Crown PS400, DC300A-II, Soundcraftsmen Pro-Power-Four, JBL-Urei 6260, to a few Adcom and Carver power amps. I'm not short on power. My main system speakers are JBL 4345 4-ways with 18-inch woofers (not subs), so I'm not lacking in bass, either!

bmwcca1

Got the RT800i hooked up to the Yamaha. After a false start with a dirty balance control everything was working fine and sounding pretty good. Then I hooked up the RT25i to the "B" outputs and they sounded quite good, too. After a while I had the volume turned way down and heard a bit of distortion in the 25s, but only when played very softly. At first I thought it was only the right speaker fiddled with the switches and knobs on the Yamaha to no avail. Then I opened up the 25i—since I'd found some dead ladybugs inside the speaker grille—and found more inside the cabinet. I figured it couldn't hurt to vacuum them out, but it didn't seem to help, either. So I trotted them across the basement to the test-bench system (Crown PowerLine Three, Soundcraftsmen Pro-Control Four, and a Denon pro CD unit. They sounded fine with some volume but had the same issue at very low levels. Obvious to my ears that it was the woofer. I have to assume they were played too loud as rears in the 5.1 system, unless someone else has an idea.

Anyway, it gave me the chance to compare my previous favorite (cheap) find to the 800i's, but they just weren't able to surpass the soundstage (or even the bass!) of my little DCM TimeFrame 600s. If you've never experienced them, they are a bargain on the used market. A hundred bucks bought mine. Just for good measure I switched to a pair of L7 that were sitting next to the TF600. The L7 is a fantastic speaker with deep bass from a 12-inch side-mounted "sub" and 4-way mains known for it's extraordinary imaging. I could hear things in both the L7 and the TF600 that just just disappeared in the RT800i, or were muffled into background noise. The material was one of the Snarky Puppy live recordings and the sounds of voices in the orchestra was lifelike and well-placed in the L7 and TF600 but if I hadn't just heard them on those I'd never even have noticed them on the Polks.

I can't complain. The Polks were free, after all. The L7s cost me twice what the DCMs cost, and an absolute bargain at that. The Sony CD/DVD actually worked well and the Yamaha will make someone else very happy, I'm sure.

So, let me know if anyone has any suggestions about what I'm experiencing in the RT25i. Not sure there's much point in trying to fix them if it takes new woofers.

Thanks again for any help and for the warm welcome.

JustM1ke

Even if the RT25i woofers are toasted, I would still keep the speakers, they are very sought after. Powerport, Actual xovers, great cabinet, and good drivers. RT25i's are so much better than the current day T15's.