RT3000p Speaker Level Hookup Question?

rlochte

I am looking at the pdf of the owners manual for the RT3000p speaker system. In relation to hooking up the speakers using high (speaker) level inputs, it states:

"Connect speaker wires from your amp or
receiver to either set of the high level inputs
on the subwoofers as shown in Figure 4.
Make sure the flat metal connecting straps
are tightly secured to both sets of
binding posts."

If you look at the diagram (figure 4), there is only one set of high level inputs on the back of the sub (the bottom set). The other set (top set) is for "high level output". Also, the diagram does not show the connecting metal straps on the posts on the back of the sub module; they are only shown on the satellite module.

The only connecting straps that came with my rt3000p's are for the satellites. I did not get any for the subs. My question is: are the instructions/diagram wrong?....ir, are no straps installed/necessary for the base module; also, are there infact only one set of high level inputs on the back of the sub (the bottom set)?

Thank you so much for any help with this. I want to make sure I am connecting these speakers correctly.

Skynut

I think you are right.
The sub has a high level input and an output. The output will go up to the top satalite speaker. If you have the jumper plates on the satalite you can hook up to either pair of binding posts on the satalite.

This is the way to make them full range.

If you want to hook up the lfe then you do not hook up the high level on the sub.

Skynut

Welcome to Club Polk also.

rlochte

Thanks for the reply, Skynut. The strange thing is, I just got off the phone with Polk customer service/technical support. He told me that I should have connection straps for the subwoofer modules as well as straps for the satellites. I told him that I never had any for the subs, only the satellites. Plus, why would I need the straps if one set of highlevel posts are input and the other set of posts are outputs as labeled physically on the back of the sub and according to the documentation (here is the pdf file and I am referring to page 12: http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/manuals/home/RT3000pManual.pdf
)

Plus, why are they not shown in the diagram (again they are only shown on the satellites)?

Does anyone else out there have any insight to help clear this discrepancy?

rlochte

Skynut, I see you have the rt3000p's. Did you get flat metal connection straps for your base modules?

Thanks again for the quick response.

rlochte

Anybody out there with rt3000p speakers: did the flat metal connect straps come with the subs or just the satellites?

Skynut

I bought mine used and they did not have straps on the bottom when I got them.
Perhaps they were supposed to. Maybe inside the speaker there is no conection from the bottom binding post and the top?
I assumed there was.
I will probably be hooking mine up this way tonight so I guess I will find out.

marker

They are for the satellites ONLY!

On the sub one is an input from the amp while the top one is an output to the sats.

rlochte

THANKS MARKER AND SKYNUT! Marker, what you said is exactly what I thought. I have 4 rt3000p towers I bought brand new. I never ( do not remember ) ever having the metal binding straps for the subs (again, like you said, only the sats). Historically, I hooked the subs up with line level connections. Now for two of them, I want to do all speaker level. I looked at the documentation and that is when I got confused. ALso, please read the response I got from customer service today:

"Hello,
Thanks for using the Forum. All of our self-powered speakers use a fairly similar system of providing the incoming signal. You can use either a speaker level input or a line level input. In the case of the RT3000p with a speaker level input you would leave the binding post jumper plates in position (if you don't have them you can use a short length of your favorite speaker wire) and make the connection to the lower set of binding posts. Then since you need to provide the same speaker level signal to the upper satellite speakers you can use the supplied length of speaker wire to connect to the upper set of binding posts to the satellite speaker's lower set of binding posts. Then the binding post jumper plates transfer this signal to the upper set on this speaker. The illustration, on page 14, was meant as a simplified drawing showing the speaker wire path. If there weren't any binding post jumper plates the audio signal would stop at the lower set of binding posts and not travel upward to the satellite speakers. If you didn't want to use the binding post jumper plates or the short piece of speaker wire you could use the "stacking" type of banana plugs. You could place the incoming speaker level signal to the lower set of binding posts, then using a second banana plug place the supplied length of speaker into the back of the first banana plug. This accomplishes the necessary parallel connections.
Regards, Ken

Now I am really confused! Any explanations? Thanks again for the help.

Skynut

Last night I hooked mine up this way.
I bi-wired the sat and made a jumper out of 10g speaker wire and ran it to the input on the sub.
No jumper on the sub and nothing connected to the output binding post on the sub.
The sound incredible this way.
We watched entrapment witch is not the best soundtrack and the improvement was obvious.
Of course my new SVS didn't hurt but I definitely heard a noticible improvement on my left and right channels.

rafarmer1

great info, thanks