gold connector used when not bi-amping

krabby5

I just purchased a pair of Rt800i's recently and in the pic he sent that showed the model number, I noticed that there was only one gold connector out of 4...

Since, I won't be bi-amping, what else can I use to bypass? (I will only be using the top pair of speaker terminals for each speaker)

adam2434

You can use a short section of speaker wire to connect them. Just strip about 3/8" from each end of a 4-5" piece and insert it into the holes that goes through the posts and tighten. Then you can use banana plugs for the wire coming from your amp.

I like to use Craig Pro Gold on all my bare wire connections (well, really all my connections) to slow the oxidation of the bare copper.

If you don't want to go the wire route, you can order some new straps from Polk.

krabby5

hmmm..

DO I have this right?

I connect the wires from the receiver (banana plugs) into the top two terminals.....

for the bottom terminals, all I do is get a 5" piece of speaker wire and put one end into the left terminal and the other into the right terminal?

that's it?

adam2434

Use one piece of wire to connect the top and bottom black/negative posts and one piece to connect the top and bottom red/positive posts - so you'll need 4 pieces total to do both speakers.

Put the wire into the holes that go through the posts, not the holes on top of the posts. Tighten down hard, then come back a little while later and tighten some more.

Then run speaker wire from your receiver to the speakers and use banana plugs on the speaker end of these wires. Insert the banana plugs into the holes on the tops of the upper set of posts (It really shouldn't matter whether you use the upper or lower set since they are connected by your wire pieces). Make sure you maintain polarity from your receiver - positive on receiver to positive on speaker, same with negative.

adam2434

After reading what you said again - No, No, No - do not connect pos and neg together with a piece of wire - that will cause a short.

As I said in my earlier post, you need to connect neg-neg and pos-pos with the wire sections.

krabby5

adam2434 wrote:

After reading what you said again - No, No, No - do not connect pos and neg together with a piece of wire - that will cause a short.

As I said in my earlier post, you need to connect neg-neg and pos-pos with the wire sections.

I get it now...but the RT800i's don't have holes on top...weird considering my CS400i does

Ill just go to Ultimate Electronics or wherever and ask for a speaker bridge/jumper

adam2434

krabby5 wrote:

I get it now...but the RT800i's don't have holes on top...weird considering my CS400i does

Ill just go to Ultimate Electronics or wherever and ask for a speaker bridge/jumper

Huh, that's strange, didn't know that. Sometimes binding posts have little caps in the holes that you need to pry out with a small screw driver.

You can also buy the jumpers from Polk. That would ensure that they fit.

If you're in a real hurry and don't want to wait on shipping for the jumpers, another option would be to use gold plated spades on the wire sections. Then, insert the speaker wire from your receiver into the holes that go through the posts. You can get inexpensive gold plated spades at Radio Shack.

One final quick option, if your wire is thin enough, would be to use the holes through the posts for the jumper wire sections and the wires from you receiver. Might be tough to get 2 sets of wire into those holes though.

krabby5

What if I were to insert the wires from the receiver through the bottom terminals...once through, I could put a connector on the bare wire and insert that into the top terminals...

So, in effect, I would be stripping a larger piece of insulate off...about 2-3 inches, so it could reach both terminals....so the bottom terminals would have bare wires running through them and once through those holes, I would put a connector on the end of the bare wire to insert into the top terminals..

sounds good?

adam2434

I think, technically, that should work because you're still linking the upper and lower posts together.

With your proposed approach, there is no need to use connectors - just run the wire through the holes in both sets of binding posts in, although that may be tricky to accomplish.

Also, make sure you don't cut through the wire when you tighten the lower posts - you'd lose the connection to the upper set of posts.

I would consider your approach a temporary solution, until you buy or make jumpers. That much stripped wire will give you a lot of wire oxidation and a long section of stripped wire could increase the possibility of a short if the wires got cut by tightening the binding posts too much.

adam2434

And of course, make sure your receiver is off when you're making speaker connections.

krabby5

krabby5 wrote:

I get it now...but the RT800i's don't have holes on top...weird considering my CS400i does

my bad....you were correct Adam...I just had to pry off the top of the terminal..great news

now I can just use banana plugs for all 4

thanks for your help

adam2434

You're welcome.

You sure are going down the upgrade path nicely here recently - new fronts, new sub, now looking at a HK receiver.

A couple of weeks ago you scoffed at these same recos. You're going to be real happy when you're fully upgraded and set-up.