New to forum-Rti8 vs Rti10 listening tests- Stavinsky-Firebird and Sarah Brightman
Hi all,
Great to find this forum! New to forum- OLD to Polk (20 years). I've gone HT-although I love music-classical, rock, jazz equally as much.
I'm in the final stages of choosing Rti 10's over Rti8's. I've had the 8's at home for a week or so. Yesterday I got to Fry's (Fremont CA) and took over the home theater room for 2hrs of serious Rti8 vs Rti10 comparisons-w/wout subwoofers. They were using a near top-of-line HK reciever and HK DVD player (2004 vintage). The Firebird is a wonderful test of a speaker's ability to reproduce a dynamic full orchestra. The Sarah Brightman Andrea Bocelli duet is a great vocals test!
I did all the switching myself- listening to the opening of the Firebird (Stravinsky) and the choral section of Borodin's Prince Igor. Over and over again. The Firebird starts out with a section of upgright bass(es) played with bows. Very deep and sustained. Not much w/out subs! Although the Rti 10's made it audible. Interestingly, the 2 smallest end Polk subs FAILED! They started rattling ferociously. The 505 (12 inch 300 watt) handled it nicely. I did trim the volume to make it sound less like and earthquake and more like music. I've read about this rattling in other posts btw.
On the strings and woodwinds the Rti8 and Rti10 were a close match. Rti10 wins-slight margin. To hear the LOW end the 505 subwoofer was a must. The tympani sounded better with the Rti10/ Psw505 combo than the Rti8/Psw505. But the differences were slight. NOT enough to warrant repacking my home pair and returning them.
The Sarah Brightman/ Andrea Boccelli duet on "Time to say goodbye" was the deal breaker {not anymore]. Rti10's-hands down! [MAYBE NOT!]Much better imaging, fuller voices-just overall better- to my ears the Rti 8's sounded thin-for lack of a better word. [NOTE: Fry's must have reversed the positive/neg on the Rti8] Today, I listened to my Rti8's. The imaging, quality, etc with the Brightman/Bocelli was VERY present. The bowed bass was quite audible-not DEEP but pretty good! The tympani/dynamics- excellent. NOTE 2: The Yamaha Rx v657 is new to me. The front panel "Bass" and Treble" controls on the front somehow overpower the 5 band graphic equalizer available from the on screen menu. I had the Bass cranked down 3 db and the treble UP 3 db. My BAD!!! Also the Stereo "Pure Direct" switch makes a real improvement in smoothness.
I've had Polk Monitor10B's since 1985. Superb bass reproduction! They handle the bowed bass section intro on the Firebird with ease. I like the Rti8's for the highs reproduction.
Today I'm off to listen to the Lsi9's-but I doubt my Yamaha Rx-V657 reciever is a good match-after reading the forum. It does have a 4 ohm speaker selector. It rates at 95 w/ch 20hz to 20 Khz 0.06% THD at 8 ohms, 135 w dynamic power at 8 ohms, 195 watt "dynamic" power at 4 ohms. It also has buzzwords relating to high current capacity in the website description. This is the latest generation of Yamahas-and purportedly is quite an improvement. It is nice that there is a 4 ohm switch- but I'm not reassured with the lack of an RMS rating at 4 ohms.
Cheers!
Great to find this forum! New to forum- OLD to Polk (20 years). I've gone HT-although I love music-classical, rock, jazz equally as much.
I'm in the final stages of choosing Rti 10's over Rti8's. I've had the 8's at home for a week or so. Yesterday I got to Fry's (Fremont CA) and took over the home theater room for 2hrs of serious Rti8 vs Rti10 comparisons-w/wout subwoofers. They were using a near top-of-line HK reciever and HK DVD player (2004 vintage). The Firebird is a wonderful test of a speaker's ability to reproduce a dynamic full orchestra. The Sarah Brightman Andrea Bocelli duet is a great vocals test!
I did all the switching myself- listening to the opening of the Firebird (Stravinsky) and the choral section of Borodin's Prince Igor. Over and over again. The Firebird starts out with a section of upgright bass(es) played with bows. Very deep and sustained. Not much w/out subs! Although the Rti 10's made it audible. Interestingly, the 2 smallest end Polk subs FAILED! They started rattling ferociously. The 505 (12 inch 300 watt) handled it nicely. I did trim the volume to make it sound less like and earthquake and more like music. I've read about this rattling in other posts btw.
On the strings and woodwinds the Rti8 and Rti10 were a close match. Rti10 wins-slight margin. To hear the LOW end the 505 subwoofer was a must. The tympani sounded better with the Rti10/ Psw505 combo than the Rti8/Psw505. But the differences were slight. NOT enough to warrant repacking my home pair and returning them.
The Sarah Brightman/ Andrea Boccelli duet on "Time to say goodbye" was the deal breaker {not anymore]. Rti10's-hands down! [MAYBE NOT!]Much better imaging, fuller voices-just overall better- to my ears the Rti 8's sounded thin-for lack of a better word. [NOTE: Fry's must have reversed the positive/neg on the Rti8] Today, I listened to my Rti8's. The imaging, quality, etc with the Brightman/Bocelli was VERY present. The bowed bass was quite audible-not DEEP but pretty good! The tympani/dynamics- excellent. NOTE 2: The Yamaha Rx v657 is new to me. The front panel "Bass" and Treble" controls on the front somehow overpower the 5 band graphic equalizer available from the on screen menu. I had the Bass cranked down 3 db and the treble UP 3 db. My BAD!!! Also the Stereo "Pure Direct" switch makes a real improvement in smoothness.
I've had Polk Monitor10B's since 1985. Superb bass reproduction! They handle the bowed bass section intro on the Firebird with ease. I like the Rti8's for the highs reproduction.
Today I'm off to listen to the Lsi9's-but I doubt my Yamaha Rx-V657 reciever is a good match-after reading the forum. It does have a 4 ohm speaker selector. It rates at 95 w/ch 20hz to 20 Khz 0.06% THD at 8 ohms, 135 w dynamic power at 8 ohms, 195 watt "dynamic" power at 4 ohms. It also has buzzwords relating to high current capacity in the website description. This is the latest generation of Yamahas-and purportedly is quite an improvement. It is nice that there is a 4 ohm switch- but I'm not reassured with the lack of an RMS rating at 4 ohms.
Cheers!
Post edited by pixels3d on
Comments
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welcome to the forum pixel. Excellent writeup on the 8's and 10's.
Sarah Brightman is great. -
Now that you have gone home and listened to your 8's, do you still think the 10's are winners ?
