RTi lust

dougy

Greetings All,

This seems to be a nice forum, so I thought I'd stick my neck out and post.

I have a severe case of lusties for the new RTi's. Mind you I've never heard them (or the current ones), but dang, they sure do look good, and like good values. So how does Polk do it? What gives, 'cause they appear to me to be one of the best audio values out there (and I'm all about value!).

I'm currently using a/d/s/ HT series speakers in a 5.1 set-up, with a pair of Dayton Titanic 10" subs. Listening is probably 75% music / 25% video. The deal is I miss having big ol' towers, having owned B&W and Klipsch most recently. I've heard very good Polks in the distant past (SDA and Monitor models from the 80's and 90's) but I've heard nothing lately as dealers are hard to find and I live in a rural area. So I'm thinking Crutchfield may be my best bet, but I would hate to have to send a pair of A9's back because they didn't far surpass my little sub/sat rig. And my concern there is the relatively low x/o point of 120 Hz that Polk uses on the current big RTi's. I'm no expert, but that seem kinda low. I mean, I cross my ADS speakers over at 150Hz and would probably do it at 200Hz if not for the fact my subs sound better in the rear of my room and the 200Hz crossover makes them stand out too much. Even 150Hz is a bit high on some material, but I would think the RTi-A9's could use a 300-400Hz x/o point with no problem. Many makers cross their woofers and mids higher than that even. Wouldn't the bigger drivers give higher output and lower distortion? Please be kind as I am not trying to provoke arguments, but just trying to understand the reason why some makers, certainly not just Polk, go with low x/o points of 80-150Hz between woofer and midrange, while others may go as high as 400-800Hz. It would seem to me much of the advantage of big three-way towers over stand mount two-ways with separate subs would be the ability to run the woofers higher up in the frequency range without having to worry about sub localizaton.

HBombToo

I have two pair of SDA 2B's and am considering the sale of 1 pair. Both sets I purchased right here on the forum from some great members. I may consider selling a pair to you since you are within driving range of picking them up here in Lee Summit.

Note to TroyD: The pair I'm thinking of are the ones I bought from you and if there is no objection from you then I may move forward if there is interest.

HBomb

tonyb

Polk is all about melting value and performance friend.
No tricks or gimmicks and I dare you to find better customer
service and people to deal with.Grab some wherever you can,
you won't regret it.

janmike

Welcome. I think if you go and listen to some you will be equally impressed with the sound as you are with the appearance. Good luck.

cfrizz

Welcome Doug, you should consider taking Henry (HBomb) up on his offer.

chadjessie@hotm

Welcome! Just starting my polk rti collection. I think you will love them. I have the rti12 towers and they are as great as they look IMO! But as many people mention here they benefit from extra amp power.

dougy

HBombToo wrote:

I have two pair of SDA 2B's and am considering the sale of 1 pair. Both sets I purchased right here on the forum from some great members. I may consider selling a pair to you since you are within driving range of picking them up here in Lee Summit.

Note to TroyD: The pair I'm thinking of are the ones I bought from you and if there is no objection from you then I may move forward if there is interest.

HBomb

HBomb,
Thanks for the offer there, but I think I'd rather go the RTi route so I could get matching center and surrounds eventually if I was so inclined. BTW, where would you recommend auditioning RTi's in the KC area? I phoned a place called Innovative Audio, but I couldn't get it through their heads I was interested in the new RTi's. All they could talk about was the current line.

MrNightly

dougy wrote:

HBomb,
Thanks for the offer there, but I think I'd rather go the RTi route so I could get matching center and surrounds eventually if I was so inclined. BTW, where would you recommend auditioning RTi's in the KC area? I phoned a place called Innovative Audio, but I couldn't get it through their heads I was interested in the new RTi's. All they could talk about was the current line.

Nebraska Furniture Mart sells Polk's. That's where I got my listen on, even though their room isn't exactly favorable for true listening.

dougy

MrNightly wrote:

Nebraska Furniture Mart sells Polk's. That's where I got my listen on, even though their room isn't exactly favorable for true listening.

Thanks! I see on the dealer locator that there is a NFM about 92 miles from me. I'll give them a call and see what they have in the store. I'm so enthused about the RTi-A9 that I would really like to hear the RTi-12 or 8 to find out how the A9 might sound. There probably would not be too much difference...maybe. And who knows? Maybe they'll suck and I won't have to spend the next two months burning with desire!:D

cfrizz

Has the new series even been released yet? Even Polk hasn't updated their site with the new RTI's.

dougy

The new RTi-A series is supposed to be out in May. There is a thread in this forum with pics of them from the CES. They appear to have basically the same driver configurations for the most part, but drivers are alledgedly updated (although they look about the same to me). The most obvious difference is the cabinets, which will have curved sides, and no more shiny stuff on the front panels. Oh well, see for yourself. A picture is worth a thousand words!

JimBRICK

My rti series FXI5's are giant speakers. I cant imagine what the rti12's are size wise

chadjessie@hotm

The rti 12's are huge. I just got mine recently and I was blown away at the size of them. They come up to almost my shoulder and trying to move them around into position is fun by yourself. Still playing around with them to see what they sound the best with. Overall I am very impressed. Put anything that I have had before them to shame. Interested to see what the rtia's will be like.

fireshoes

dougy wrote:

The new RTi-A series is supposed to be out in May. There is a thread in this forum with pics of them from the CES. They appear to have basically the same driver configurations for the most part, but drivers are alledgedly updated (although they look about the same to me). The most obvious difference is the cabinets, which will have curved sides, and no more shiny stuff on the front panels. Oh well, see for yourself. A picture is worth a thousand words!

I'm hearing more like a fall release for the RTiA's now.

dougy

That's not good. Where'd you hear that? Oh well, I guess good things come to those who wait, right?

fireshoes

From the Polk rep at the store I work at...

dougy

Oh well, that OK. I'm in no hurry, because I do like my ADS/Dayton rig, and when I was in KC auditioning speakers last week, I really didn't hear anything that got my juices flowing. I did hear some good speakers though: the Klipsch RF-63 (punchy and clean), the Definitive BP7002 (tremendous bass and three-dimensionality), the Focal Chorus 836V, B&W 604 and 703 and the Energy Veritas 2.3. Of the lot, I thought the Def-Techs were the best for the money, but I just don't care for that sock thing. The B&W 703 and the Focal 836V were really nice with the Focal having a very lush, refined sound, while the B&W had superb clarity and definition. but maybe neither one was worth 3k to me.

So I guess that leaves me waiting for Spring...or Fall, or whenever Polk starts shipping the new RTi's. In the meantime, I do think I'll try to hear the current line. That will probably either stoke the fire more, or else give me one more speaker to cross off my list.