Sound of older RTXXXi's vs current RTi's?

adam2434

I did some searching on this, but didn't find much.

Anyone have a feel for the sound of the older RTXXXi series (ex. RT35i) vs. the current RTiXX series (ex. RTi6)?

I've never had a chance to listen much to the current series. I'm curious about this because you hear a lot of comments like "not very good with music", "geared towards HT", "bright", etc. regarding the current series. If they're comparable sonically to the older RTXXXi series, I would think they should be pretty good with music, just maybe not as good as the LSi series...maybe that's the distinction folks are making.

To me, it doesn't make sense that Polk would make speakers designed to sound good for HT at the expense of music - seems against Polk's mission statement. I can understand good/better/best performance and construction as you go up in series and price point.

I have a special fondness for the RTXXXi series...the trilams, blue drivers, raised bezels. I put a couple systems together for friends and own a few from the series myself, so I'm very familiar with this series (and would love to snag some local 55i, 600i, or 800i. for posterity). This series was always high on my reco list at its price point.

As the resident audio-video guy for friends and family, I'm trying to get a sense of whether the current series would be as solid of a reco at its price point for a 50:50 music and HT system. My gut tells me yes, but I don't have any real first hand experience with them.

jdhdiggs

I liked the older versions better. The RT800i instead of the RTi70.

Sid did some comparison's and came to a similar conclusion IIRC

marker

jdhdiggs wrote: »

I liked the older versions better. The RT800i instead of the RTi70.

Ditto!

dougr

have not listened to the newer or recent vintage in a decent setup before (power, placement, etc.), but I can attest that the original RT series sounds pretty nice in its own right having just set up my 'new' RT16s this morning... even with crushed bases, they sound quite nice

treitz3

I liked the upper end of the sound from RT800's that I had. When I upgraded to the RTi10's, the upper end was waaaaay to bright for HT and music. Especially music.

When the RTi10's hit, I noticed a more pronounced midrange, a definite improvement on midbass punch and a slightly better bottom end.

The RT800's had a "softer" to the ears tweeter [less "detailed"], but it never got annoying and brassy (tinty) like the RTi10's.

Older series to me. The upper end is what makes or breaks a speaker the most to me. Quality of reproduction.

adam2434 wrote:

To me, it doesn't make sense that Polk would make speakers designed to sound good for HT at the expense of music

Eye to eye, brother.

VR3

I would say the very first 2 or 3 RT series were the best.

From there with the RTixxx it was a decline, then they kicked it back to a parallel status with the originals with the last line...

disneyjoe7

My thinking was that the Tri-lam tweeter in the RTxxxi series which my RT800i have are tinner sounding over the RTi150 which I also own with the Silk tweeter.