Polk Audio RTi A7

BottomFeeder

Anybody got a listen on to these?

Whaddya think?

obieone

Any review of the new 'RTi A' line would be nice

AudioFilet

I have just bought a set of RTi A3's. They will be waiting for me when I get back from Asia Jan 18. They will be put to the test. I have a set of LSi9's & a set of RTi 6's to compare them to & will post my observations here.

BottomFeeder

Fantastic! I look forward to reading your reviews upon your return.

Thanks!

Yashu

Aren't the changes only cosmetic?

BottomFeeder

I know that that's what Danger Boy is thinking, but so far, no one's seemed to know for sure.

Let us know if you find out!

Yashu

I hope the changes are more than just cosmetic. It would be nice to have a slightly sweeter top end. That was the only real flaw in the RTi series, a bit too bright.

prashanth957

I heard the new RTiA7 y'day for 2 hrs.OVERALL NOT MANY DIFFERENCES BUT SLIGHTLY BETTER.the cabinet has a nice curved shape.nice legs in place of spikes.finish looks more richer n much better than rti10.the salesman told me tht the midrange is better .i cudnt say as it was a fresh peice n was driven by a 70 watt denon pma-1500.but the treble was very sweet n clear,not at all harsh.the rear port also has a better machined part .i even saw movies with the stereo setup n i didnt miss anythin.-the dialogues,thunder,action e'thin was present.

I'M BUYIN THESE FOR SURE.BUT PLS SUGGEST ME A BETTER stereo AMP.AM CONSIDERING NAD C372-150watts X 2; ROTEL RA 06-70watts X 2.or any other samp which wud drive these speakers to their full potential.

polkseller

I sell polkaudio speakers, Energy and many others.

When the A7 arrived, I felt they were in a completely different league than the RTI10 they replace.

Ask me any questions on them. Did many extensive testing with many brand of receivers, except poweramps. Side by side to the rti10, the A7 shines.

Better bass definition and power, better soundstage, better midrance to high coherence, better lower mid to lows coherence. Highs are well balanced and not bright like the A5. Nicer looking too. Good job polk.

The only RTI A serie product that I felt cabinets were lesser quality than the RTI line is the RTI A3, small resonance occur on this medium size curved cabinet as opposed to the RTI 6.

prashanth957

Hello polkseller
Thanx 4 the nice review.As u've tested the speakers with many receivers, can u suggest the best stereo amp for rtia7? i'll be usin it primarily for music.
my room size is nt very big-16 ft x 12ft
My 1st choice is NAd C372.

dorokusai

polkseller wrote: »

The only RTI A serie product that I felt cabinets were lesser quality than the RTI line is the RTI A3, small resonance occur on this medium size curved cabinet as opposed to the RTI 6.

I agree with this comment as they are a bit resonant out of the box. They would probably benefit from a piece of black hole or similar loudspeaker treatment to tame that issue.

Diversion

I listened to the RTiA7s for a good while.. They were bi-wired hooked up to a Yamaha 3800 (140watts) and they sounded just as good to me as the stores $5000 a piece Martin Logans.. They are a phenominal deal and provide EXCELLENT seperation in music.

I picked up a pair after hearing them! I will report back with results in my home.

polkseller

Hi Prashanth,

I'm sorry to say I'm not able to refer you to a good power amp mainly because I only sell a/v receivers in my store, but I think the A7 need at least 130 watts of good quality receiver power to perform like they should. Sure, getting a nice 200-300 watt power amp will really give you the best performance at low volume (high amp rating)

I think that the Nad should be a good choice for the A7 mainly because of the good power (150watts) it deliver. But I'm not a fan of NAD newer amps, I prefer the old stuff from this company, I think it sound better/richer wider/fatter. But I've only listened to newer low power amps and entry-level integrated..

Other choice you have is cambridge A640, acurus dia-100 and the yamaha RX-797 (small integrated nad killer)

The best is to go listen to them and choose one that exceed 130 watts in stereo with good reserve and damping factor.

THe A7 performs very well with pioneer vsx-1017 and up, All elite receiver ( bi-amp or not): VEry good large soundstage, excellent imaging,well balanced, amazing control over all tonality at all volume. Good bass, great mids, good retreival of small details. My preferred choice. PLUS: Very musical breathtaking sound. Solid 0 db performance, no sweat, no distortion. PHASE control, many advanced audio options.

Denon 2808: Excellent deep and large/high soundstage, very good imaging, BIgbig bass, better microdynamics than the pioneer but sound more acoustic/analytical (less musical). Very good retrieval of small details. More harmonics on the highs (resonance). Overall a good choice depending of your taste. PLUS: Very neutral, it open up the Polk highs resonance and it is very easy on the ears. NEG: power comes like a dirt bike..

Yamaha 6190: Very toneful even at low dbs, less detailed than the 2 others. Fat sounding may give you the impression of quality sound at first, ok soundstage, good imaging, ok microdynamics, natural sound. Distort before -3 -4db (dont know why, might be speaker wire..).
Plus: In stereo, this receiver is a REAL KILLER, amazing sound and power comparable to power amps.

Its A very good amp but I dont think it's a good match for the A7 near hi-fi sound. Didnt try to bi-amp with this amp.

Hope this help everybody. Diversion, you should carefully listen to your yamaha with the polk and also try the pioneer or Elite before keeping the yamaha forever. For the price you paid, you can Get a nice Elite amp that really are gems to keep. They are tuned at AIR Studios and THX certified, they are nice peices of equipment.

only my 2 cents, but as an audio/video expert, I have no choice to advise you to try the Elite brand.

BottomFeeder

Thanks very much for the review, polkseller. What is the price of the A7?

And what about the RTi 9?

Anyone else out there get to listen to these babies?

Thanks

Fongolio

My review is posted on the main product page with the RTiA7 info. My name there is Kelvin F. I have had the speakers about a month now and they are pretty much broken in and sound fantastic. I found the previous RTi series had very bright highs. These do not. Still clear and clean but not harsh like I found the RTi10's. The high end sounds a lot like my beloved RTi70's which have been moved to surround duty. And as I wrote in my review with the RTiA7's up front they integrate with my CSi40 center seamlessly. These are are running on a single Pioneer Elite VSX52TX surround receiver. The rated output is 110 WRMS. I very rarely crank things really loud and they play at low volume superbly. My biggest concern before bringing them home was the low sensitivity rating (89dB) which means they need a strong amp to power them loud. For my purposes the Elite works very well. On the occasions when I do crank them up the neighbor bangs on the wall long before distortion is heard. Oh ya and the other great thing about these is that my sub is used only for the very low end. I have it set to crossover at 80hz while the RTiA7's are set to full range. Very very good low end on these. Not too boomy. All around a very balanced speaker that is worth a lot more than the suggested retail in my opinion. And that leads to my final comments: these speakers were already on sale at Future Shop (in Canada eh!) and then there was a friends and family promotion that took another 20% off so I got them for $713.00 canadian plus tax for a pair!!! Unbelievable price for the best sub $5000.00 speakers I've ever heard. Buy them now. You'll love them.

polkseller

very good buy fongolio !!

You bought them under cost !!! Family sale gives you a rebate on product already on sale..

I agree those speakers are amazing, way better than the rti10 in my opinion.

Did not listened to the A9, seems nice but the A7 are soooo great that I dont care for the moment, plus the A9 needs a lot of power to shine so driving them with a receiver will not give them good sound..

I hope theres no cabinet resonance on the A9 like the A3...\\\

I Demoed the A7 without a subwoofer all the time !!!!! AMAZING

Diversion

Reporting back with after having my RTiA7s + Yamaha 3800 receiver.. I am still amazed by the quality and clarity these speakers have to offer.. It seems like my right speaker sounds brighter than the left though, but it could be my imagination.. or a speaker wire problem. Otherwise, i'm in love with the sound.

BottomFeeder

Thanks for getting back & for the review on the A7's.

Sounds like they're worth a listen!

1fastz28

howdy all, new here

i am kinda new to the whole audio world, i sold tv's at circuit city, and now i sell tv's and home theatre at a small local place. my knowledge of speakers is very limited but from what i've heard of the towers we carry, klipsch, energy, polk, the new a7's have impressed me so much i ordered a pair for myself. i had planned on buying the store demo speaker rti 10's but once we go the new 7's in and i compared them to the old ones, its a truely night and day difference. the 10's sound like they are underwater compared to the 7s, i can't even imagine what the 9's sound like, unfortunately we don't carry them. i think they sound better than the energy rc 70's that we carry and much better than even the klipsch rf82's. at work we push the speakers with a pioneer vsx92txh and it really does a nice job pushing them, i'm a huge newbie with speakers so i dont know that much about speakers, i just know that they sound better than anything else i've heard, and so much so that i bought a pair of them and will be firing up my dads old receiver.

McLoki

Diversion wrote: »

It seems like my right speaker sounds brighter than the left though, but it could be my imagination.. or a speaker wire problem.

Typically in situations like this I would blame the room or placement. i.e., wall open on one side and sliding glass door on the other (causing reflections) or something like that. Look at the room and try to think of what would absorb sound and what would reflect it. Do you have more absorbing things on the left or more reflecting things on the right?

It is usually something simple like that rather than a wire or speaker problem. (you could also swap the left and right speakers and see if the brightness stays with the speaker or location....)

Michael

wallstreet

Here's an excerpt of the review I'm working on for the A5's,
If you like the Polk sound, the A5’s faithfully reproduce the sound I grown accustom to over the years. Clear distinct highs, faithful midrange, and surprising good bass from the most diminutive of the speaker line. These speakers aren’t bottom dwellers by any means. But they dig deep enough to provide respectable 2 channel listening pleasure.

broncsrule21@

I listened to the a9s and ....wow! Very nice. My question is are they too power hungry for my Denon 3808ci? Would I be better off with the a7s? Any opinions would be welcome..

dorokusai

The Denon will run either one just fine.

markmarc

Im hoping to have a pair of RTiA3 arrive for review in the next week:D

MADGSF

Not that this applies to the thread topic but I feel like throwing in my .02 cents. I am currently demoing the A5 and have them in place of the RTi-10s listed in my sig.

I have had them for about 3 weeks and while they don't go as low as my RTi-10s here is what I have noticed. Compared with the last version the cabinet is much, much better looking. Separation is noticably better and the highers are ever so slightly laid back. This was the biggest thing I noticed as my RTi-10 can be bright at the right volume with certain music.

This makes me really want to try the A9 or A7 as I have plenty of power to drive them. Maybe we can get a DFW demo ring going on the A9s, hint hint Russ, is this thing on?

Fongolio

I hooked up my RTiA7's to a Carver HR-772 that I got at a pawn shop for $80.00 and the already very impressive speakers were made totally awesome. I had doubted the 20Hz bottom end claim until now on these babies. Deep deep bass, smooth midrange and extremely articulate but not bright highs. I'm also using a Yamaha turntable (Dual CS606 classic is on the way) with vinyl. I was impressed with the RTiA7's from the moment I heard them but had no idea they were this good. I still love my Pioneer Elite VSX-52TX for surround (dvda, sacd, home theatre) but this just shows that with the right equipment these speakers are exceptional. That old Carver receiver is a gem as well. Still looking for a remote for it too.

maximillian

So how would RTi A5 or A7's compare to an LSi9? Anyone compared them?

polkseller

I'm really trying to find this information... I might buy both of them..and write back.

dorokusai

Fongolio - That's awesome, thanks for posting! Try and stop by the product pages and post your review there as well. Got any pics?

Maximillian - The LSi series is what it is for a reason.....Polk's showcase series. It's a much more accurate and warm loudspeaker compared to the RTi series. I prefer the LSi7 overall.

I've had the RTiA3, RTiA5 and RTiA9 in house and under demo. The overall performance is improved, mainly due to the cabinet redesign with less resonance and coloration. It still anchors the RTi line as a perfect choice for home theater. If it was drastically different, it wouldn't fit in the lineup as well....to me at least.

wallstreet

MADGSF wrote: »

...

This makes me really want to try the A9 or A7 as I have plenty of power to drive them. Maybe we can get a DFW demo ring going on the A9s, hint hint Russ, is this thing on?

That's kind of how I was left feeling. The A5's are a great speaker which means the A9's are probably a fantastic speaker.

meirco11

i have the polkaudio a few days.they looks great in cerry finish but dont sound so great.
i use them to 2 ch. music and they working with a NAD amp (c372). untill now the sound is kinda poor.........break in thing??.....mmmmm i realy hope that is true.all the break in theory.