Rt800 Upgrades

nikolas812

Are there any upgrades for these speakers? I have a B&K st-140 amp and B&K avp3090 preamp. The RT800's are extremly bright if you ask me, but I think it probally has a lot to do with my preamp that doesn't even have bass or treble controls. I have read some posts about upgrading crossovers or tweeters but have no idea what to buy or where to get it. I plan on upgrading my preamp as soon as possible but would still like to upgrade the RT's if possible. I just love these speakers and they seem to be the only thing audio wise that I really hold on to. Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Dennis Gardner

Try a different preamp, but know that B&K has never been on the bright side. I think that you are simply experiencing the voicing that Polk chose for its RT lineup for years. It does fall on the brighter side of the spectrum to cut through at lower volume levels with the dialog in theater use. Today's line still suffers this fate. A tad bright for music though.

danger boy

also look at your room acoustics.. i have carpet in my home theater room.. and my 800i's are not bright at all.. if anything a bit laid back.. I think without something like furniture or carpet the highs can become to bright with nearly any speaker.

what interconnects are you using.. that will either help tame things or do just the opposite.. increase the brightness.. it's all just sometimes a matter of trial and error unfortunately to get things right.

nikolas812

The detail in movies at lower to mid level volume is quite amazing. But you were right on in the music department, it is very bright a higher levels. I am also using all blue jeans audio interconnects and speaker wire. I just got my first allison krauss cd and I was quite amazed. Her voice when listening at levels I would prefer will just about make you ears bleed. It's kind of hard to explain though its not a shrill bad sound like from a low powered receiver with the treble turned up. It seems extremly clean but ear peircing. It's a sound I have never heard untill I got into seperates. It almost seems like if I could turn the bass up on my preamp it would even out, and sound great. As for the room it is my bed room with a water bed and carpet.

nikolas812

Should I go with a better newer B&K pre or something in the tube department

Oh I almost forgot I am using a yamaha cd dvd player for my source. I thought this might also be my problem. The model number is dv-s5770. It was cheap and would play sacd's other than that it takes for ever to load any type of disc and makes a funny noise when playing. I'm also getting a hum out of the digital out on the yamaha, I just don't use the digital out anymore.

Doc99

I believe the RT800s uses the Tri-laminate metal tweeter. I had a pair of RT400s that used the Silk polymer tweeter, and found I prefered this tweeter to the other one, as it was very neutral, and no matter how much I turned it up, they never got bright or harsh. I think the Tri-laminate tweeter is more detailed, but brighter. I tried changing preamps, Cd players, cables, but it the end, it was the tweeter that made the difference.