2 Channel on the Cheap

MillerLiteScott

Welcome A...818.

I also own a pair of RTA 11t's with the new tweeters and I really like these speakers. They have been displaced by a pair of SDA's but the 11's are not going anywhere.

Stick around they is a lot to be learned from many of these guys.

And yes it is an awesome looking speaker in a manageable size. You get a lot for a small foot print. Long live the PR's.

My 11t's the large part of a little 2 channel system that I have $275.00 invested. Which includes cost of speakers, small donation to George Grands kids cause, RDO tweeter upgrades, Accurian amp deal of the century and a vintage JVC cd player. My wife even made a comment today on how good it sounded in my garage.

Scott

TroyD

wow...blast from the past....

Welcome to the Forum....

BDT

RuSsMaN

I thought I was having this pre?

TroyD

with all the money in the world, there is no need for option.

tonyb

Akhenaten818 wrote: »

Hello Polk people. I have read about the Polk RTA 11t's for a while now, and heard ao many distictive applause and sneers that I feel I need to speak my piece about this speaker. I have had the Magnepan MMG, the Paradigm 9semk3 and the highly reviewed 5semk3 and the 7se mk3, the Infinity Kappa 8.1 and various Pinnacle speakers. As you can see, I love to listen and try them out.

I must say, that while all the sepakers mentioned above are really good speakers, there can be something wrong found with all of them. The Infinity Kappa 8.1 were the most expensive speakers but the worst built in my opinion. I had to track down rattles, buzzes, a fawlty circuitbreakers for the tweeters that made the tweeter pop at low volumes. Once that was all fixed, they were great, but the tight bass was so tight it was less than life.

The Pinnacles were great for the price paid. I always wanted to change the look of them though. PN8+ was a bit lean on the bass. Very clean though.

That Paradigms were impressive. Solid. The 7se were bigger sounding than the 9semk3 but both had subdued midrange and the praised 5semk3 had a desert dry sound in the tweeter--all three speakers had the same tweeter but this sounded worst on the 5's.

The Magnepan MMG, wow. But needs oodles of power to wake them up. Distant though, to me, and that is what people love about them I guess. Lots of depth, not enough forward to me. Too sentive in room placement for my real world.

The lone survivor is the RTA 11t. I have the Stereophile review on these by JA, who was peeved that he had to buy the speakers and Polk didn't volunteer a pair for review, as I understand it. Who cares. Pshycho-acoustics... What I love about the RTA 11t's is that they aren't "dry" in the highs, not overly lean in the bass and look awesome. The best imaging I had of all these speakers. I think they do everything well. I removed the bass, and put Dayton chrome spikes where the screwholes were. SL2000 is a kind of analytical tweeter not all that different from the Infinity's. For the fun of it I am going to try the new upgrade tweeter and see how I like them, which will take about 3-6 months before I really know. If they degrade the imaging, I will go back to the SL2000.

I have sold all my speakers but still have the RTA 11t, and the RTA 8t, one of which is being used as a center channel speaker, its mate is storage. I am using the sweet Yamaha RXV-657 home theater receiver which I switch to driect pure audio when listening to music only on the 11t's.

I have never had an ideal listening room. My place is a small house with a 16 x 20ft loft, with a stairwell in the middle and lots of wierd angles in the ceiling. I sit and listen to music of all kinds from Mozart to new age to rock and never at levels that can be heard away from the house on my 75 x 85 lot on the coast of Oregon. When listening to the music and forgetting about the speakers, the Polk 11t's are a satisfying speaker.

Thanks, and hope you enjoyed this post.

Akhenaten818

Now thats an excellent first post,welcome!!

steveinaz

Once again, another argument based on opinion. I'll take a set of RTA-11T to anything (sans Lsi series) that Polk has put out in the last 15 years.

You buy what sounds good to you; not for pats on the back from your fellow "audiophiles."

Weaver, your system looks real good.

JimBRICK

ok no one beats my cheap system

pioneer elite integrated amp 125 (bought in FM)
Nakamichi cd player 30 bucks (neighbour)
Yamaha turntable (Karma gift from local audioguy) this thing looked new out of box
Mirage sm-1 speakers 30 bucks (local guy) told by mirage in email this was first speaker they produced

MillerLiteScott

I just noticed this thread was started @ 5 years ago.

George Grand

Life is suck.

cfrizz

Welcome Akhenaten818!

Enjoy your RTA-11T's. I still enjoy my 17 yr old RTA-8T's.

schwarcw

Welcome to the Club Polk Forums Akhenaten818! I highly recommedn that you get the replacement tweeters for the SL2000. These new softdome tweeters (RDO-194) are much smoother on the high end, not "analytical" as the SL2000's. Glad to hear you like the RTA-11's and welcome!:)

George Grand

No Jim, I don't beat your cheap system, I stomp it.

How about these 3 pieces for $2.00?

NAD Receiver
Yamaha CD player
B & O Turntable

All in working order, all purchased from the same seller, at the same time.

I could add any number of speakers that I purchased in perfect working order for less than $10.

How about a Marantz "Esotec" pre-amp and power amp. Both in the original boxes with all paperwork and not so much as a speck of dust, let alone a scratch? Those set me back $5 for the pair.

You're way out of your league friend.

ben62670

Aaron wrote: »

Don't waste your time with the RTA-11T's.

Aaron

I have RTA 15's, and they are great speakers all around. I have had a few SDA's, and the RTA's sounded great. I have not heard the RTA11's, but I can't imagine them not sounding great. I would love to have a set to try out. I would not hesitate recommending them even without hearing them. Dual passives, MW6510's. Upgrade the tweets, and I would bet that they would be a great speaker.

http://www.polksda.com/pdfs/RTA_TL_Sales_Brochure.pdf

W WALDECKER

George Grand wrote: »

No Jim, I don't beat your cheap system, I stomp it.

How about these 3 pieces for $2.00?

NAD Receiver
Yamaha CD player
B & O Turntable

All in working order, all purchased from the same seller, at the same time.

I could add any number of speakers that I purchased in perfect working order for less than $10.

How about a Marantz "Esotec" pre-amp and power amp. Both in the original boxes with all paperwork and not so much as a speck of dust, let alone a scratch? Those set me back $5 for the pair.

You're way out of your league friend.

I would have to agree George

tonyb

Holy crap G.G.....and I thought Early was cheap.
You must be one helluva sweet talker pal.

avguytx

That beats my deal of Monitor 10B's, Carver C-1 and M-1.0t for $20! Bravo George! Gotta love them deals!

tonyb

You guys are the masters at hunting up cheap gear. Hell,I couldn't go out and steal it for that cheap.

George Grand

No way the crown goes north or south of our borders.

How about the Carver power amps (M-500t) I got for the price of shipping? The NAD preamps too. The NAD 50wpc power amp that was left on my desk? The Fisher 500c tube receiver in immaculate condition that found its way to the Magic Desktop for freeb? The brand new in the box Carver TFM-35 that cost me $125? Same with a Carver C-11 pre for $119?

You greenish there yet Mr. Brick? Never make a statement that's going to get WAY stomped on.

Early's a good guy with a good ear, but compared to moi, he spends money like it's going out of style.

Carver Amazing Plat Mk.IV's delivered directly from the Carver factory to my home, 17 years ago, for $1,156?


And to a least have something to do with the original thread, I've had 4 pair of RTA11t down through the years. I thought they sounded pretty good for the money. BRAND New, the first pair cost me $290 in 1989, and the second pair, also brand new in the boxes, cost me $272 a couple days later. If they had more, I would've gone back and got those too. Like our new boy 818 up there, I got my first issue of Stereofool the day after I bought the first pair of 11t's. Guess what got the **** beat out of it in that issue? Yup. I think the last sentence of that **** JA's review was, "How Matt Polk plans on being competitive at the $1k price point with these is beyond me." A few issues later they rave about a pair of $5k mini-monitors, but only if you buy two $5k subs to go with them. Right then and there baby, right then and there.

JimBRICK

George Grand wrote: »

No way the crown goes north or south of our borders.

How about the Carver power amps (M-500t) I got for the price of shipping? The NAD preamps too. The NAD 50wpc power amp that was left on my desk? The Fisher 500c tube receiver in immaculate condition that found its way to the Magic Desktop for freeb? The brand new in the box Carver TFM-35 that cost me $125? Same with a Carver C-11 pre for $119?

You greenish there yet Mr. Brick? Never make a statement that's going to get WAY stomped on.

Early's a good guy with a good ear, but compared to moi, he spends money like it's going out of style.

Carver Amazing Plat Mk.IV's delivered directly from the Carver factory to my home, 17 years ago, for $1,156?


And to a least have something to do with the original thread, I've had 4 pair of RTA11t down through the years. I thought they sounded pretty good for the money. BRAND New, the first pair cost me $290 in 1989, and the second pair, also brand new in the boxes, cost me $272 a couple days later. If they had more, I would've gone back and got those too. Like our new boy 818 up there, I got my first issue of Stereofool the day after I bought the first pair of 11t's. Guess what got the **** beat out of it in that issue? Yup. I think the last sentence of that **** JA's review was, "How Matt Polk plans on being competitive at the $1k price point with these is beyond me." A few issues later they rave about a pair of $5k mini-monitors, but only if you buy two $5k subs to go with them. Right then and there baby, right then and there.

As I pass you a downer

George Grand

Goslings with ice Junior.

cfrizz

I just love it when you are in rare form!!!:D

AndyGwis

Agreed, solid rant(s), George.

Reminds me of the thread where I asked if I got a good deal on my first amp (a B&K ST202 off ebay) and your response was "yeah, if you think paying $2 a watt for a 20 year old amp is a good deal."

This rant makes that comment sound like a compliment.

George Grand

The Rodney Dangerfield of the Polk Forum I am rapidly finding out is what I is.

Andy, thanks for not taking offense early on I guess.

Sistuh, rare form about 10 times a day, just not always about audio.

RuSsMaN

Why does anyone sell anything, other than a pet rock, dirty undercrackers, or a can of pop for $2?

How does that even happen?

George Grand

1. Cause they're as dumb as a stick?
2. When they asked for $4 they got hit in the mouth with a Louisville Slugger?

Couple wild guesses.

Don't go off misinformed. It was all three for $2. About $.66 each. I'm just glad the guy had change for a five so that I didn't get ripped off.

daveyg2

Great "cheap" 2 ch system is:

B&W 805
Conrad Johnson PV-12
Citation 7.1 amp
Cardas Cross Cables.

This is bliss for those that can spend about 3grand total. Wouldnt recommend garbage here.