Rti150 Reviews Anybody ?

jake_angel

I JUST BOUGHT SOME RTI150'S A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO AND TO ME THEY SOUND VERY NICE , BUT THEN AGAIN THEY ARE MY FIRST GOOD SET OF SPEAKERS I HAVE OWNED , AND CANT REALLY COMPARE THEM TO ANYTHING, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT OTHERS THINK OF THIS SPEAKER?
I'M USING A CARVER C1000A RECEIVER TO POWER THESE POWER HUNGRY THINGS ...
THANKS .................

TroyD

The local CC here has them but it's nearly impossible to get a real demo with them. From what I DID hear, I was very impressed. I would say you have a great pair of speakers and if you like them, that's what is important, not what the rest of us think.

Sorry to have gotten off track on your receiver problem, but, IMO it sounds like it is defective.

Welcome to the forum!

Troy

HBombToo

jake let us know, as best as possible, what your take on the speakers are. I'm running 800i's and think that the 150 would be a great upgrade for me next year.

Thanks and looking forward to your comments.

HBomb

stevew14

I have had mine for a month now. I like them a lot. I replaced monitor 10bs that I have been using since around 1986. I send the lowly denon 2802 pre outs to a Carver tfm 35x to power them. I know this is an ongoing issue for some ( rec/power amp), but to me they sound great.! Since I already had the reciever, adding the amp was a budget thing and made a big improvement in the sound. Even if it is a "crappy" Carver. I personally have always liked the sound of my Carver stuff. I guess brand superiority can be argued all day long, but what's the point?

The 150s have plenty of clean, punchy bass in my room with my equipment. No sub needed for 2 channel at all. Vocals sound smooth and very lifelike. I picked up a Dianna Krall disc this weekend that just sounds exquisite. Tony Bennet and KD Lang, Sarah McLaughlin, Mark Knopfler, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell to name but a few have impressed me immensely listening on these speakers. Thomas Dolby, Yes, King Krimson and other somewhat heavy bands sound great as well. These speakers will take high volume material if that's what you like and I have yet to get it loud enough where they start to sound unclear or muddy. I know there are many factors that affect the way things sound in a room and therefore others may completely disagree, but these are definately the best sounding speakers I have ever owned and I look forward to many years of pleasure from them.

I feel the imaging is very good though it took some fiddling with angles and distance etc. , but so did my monitors. I did bi-wire them (homemade) with some Kimber pr-4(I think) that I already had, and I think it made some difference, though it is hard for me to say how much. I figured it couldn't hurt.

These are some of my thoughts so far, though after reading posts here for the last month or so, I'm starting to feel if it ain't Rotel and lsi, it aint worth talking about. Just my humble opinion, but rti 150s definately work for me. I'd be interested to hear others' comments on these speakers as well.

Steve@3dai

I took a little demo at CC while I was there one day, and I must say they have some great midrange/bass response, for sure. That was off a Onkyo amp, but the placement and wire were subpar I am sure.

I do see your point about "I'm starting to feel if it ain't Rotel and LSi, it ain't worth talking about". I really enjoy the RTi line, and if the stock didn't go as high as it did, I would be having the RTi line as well! Keep on listening man, because that's what we buy this stuff for!

phuz

Hey stevew14, glad to hear you are enjoying them.

If the RTi150 had been out when I was shopping, it would have made my decision much much more difficult. I like to listen to a lot of rock and harder metal as well, which does not always fly well with the LSi line. All the Rotel/LSi stuff thats been flying around is mainly just because thats what some of us have. We all like to talk about our own stuff as much as possible, thats why we need more RTi folks to speak up! I really enjoy hearing about the RTi150 and look forward to some real demo time with them. I think I'm going to try and get some for the next Texas Polkster Gathering in the spring. (hint hint Russman et all)

No matter what anyone says carver is good stuff, and with power hungary speakers like the RTi150 - your receiver/amp combo was a good decision. Most of us reasonable folk see no problem or even prefer a receiver with seperate amps - be they carver, rotel, krell, or HK citation. It's all good clean power to feed your speakers a healthy diet.

jake_angel

thanks for all your input guys, i really haven't tested these the way they should be tested, it's hard finding the time when everyone is out of the house so i can turn em up with different kinds of music but when i do i'll let you know,
also the room i have them in isn't very big a 16 by 20 ft
carpeted livingroom with lots of furniture so i guess that would have a big impact on sound ?

rskarvan

I too have a set of CC RT800i's that are "upgradeable" to the RT150. Hmmm.

Things I noticed at CC.
The little hole at the bottom of the mid-range driver is plugged. Not so on my RT800i's. Hmmmm. Weird. I noticed that the old FX1000's had a plugged hole too. I'm just a normal guy - and, normal guys don't like plugs in their holes! <JOKE>

Anyway, my RT800i's were purchased at $600/pr. So, it will take some serious additional coinage to grow them into the RT150 at $1500/pr. Hmmm. Is the additional three mini-woofers at the expense of one mid-range worth $900 - I wonder? Economics.

For mains, I have the infamous signature SRS-SDA 3.1TL's. Ok, maybe their bigger brothers are infamous. But, the 3.1TL can handle 500 watts and sounds damn good. Center is a CS400i. I'm running the RT800i's as rear surrounds. Back surrounds are the RT25i. Sub is the PSW650.

Now, what I might do is move my 61" TV to the front room to unblock my fireplace. In the front room, I'd only want 5.1. So, I could use the RT800i's as mains, and re-erect my stands for the RT25i's as rear surrounds. This is a good enough system. But, I could see that the RT150's would function as much better mains than the RT800i's.

Then, what would I do with my 3.1TL's. Hmmm. If I could get $900 for the pair, I'd likely sell them <ouch>. If not, they are too good to simply give away. My CRS+ would be moved to bedroom duty - me thinks.

Yes, the very existance of the RT150 with an expiring (Mar 03) trade-up on the RT800 has caused me a fair amount of unrest.
Damn that upgrade bug.

Anyway, those big black mono-lithes look deep and sweet.

- Ron

jcaut

Saturday night my wife and I went to Ft. Smith (the nearest city that has any stores to speak of). She went to some bed&bath-type store, so I had some time to kill in the Circuit City next door.

Lucky for me they were moving equipment around in their "demo room"---- No one was paying any attention to me so I took the liberty of moving some stuff around on my own. I got to play with the RTi150's for quite a while. This was the first chance I've had to hear them. (Actually this is the first chance I've had to pay much attention to the RTi line at all). I was fairly impressed with the 150's. I don't like the looks of the RTi's with the grilles on, as well as the older RT. They look cheaper to me-- not as nicely finished. The 150 looks pretty cool without the grille though, with those three small but heavy-duty looking woofers.

They had a HK avr520 driving the speakers through some cheapo 14ga wire, and their electronic switching mechanism. At one point I hooked the 150's directly to the HK, which seemed to improve the sound substantially, most notably in the bass. They seem to give up a little midrange presence to the RTi70, but sounded better than the RTi100 in that regard. There was plenty of bass quantity, and I imagine with proper room placement the depth and impact would be good as well.

As an interesting side note, I still preferred the sound of the RT800i's they had there to the RTi70. The new tweeter sounds a tad too laid-back for my taste. Of course, the 800's are what I'm used to...

And I gotta get in a little Bose-bashing: They had a set of 701's there that I listened to for quite a while. Once my ears "adjusted", they didn't sound bad. They seemed rather efficient and threw a large (though artificial-sounding) soundstage. They also seemed to produce a lot of bass. Then I switched over to the Polk R50's that were sitting beside them----
WOW! What a difference! It was like someone took the cotton balls out of the singer's mouth! The R50's (and even R30's) were superior in every respect except maybe bass quantity and efficiency. I'm still amazed at how many people buy these things.

Other things that impressed me: The Polk RM7200 system they had set up playing Star Wars AOTC sounded really good.
They also had a 12" CT-series Velodyne sub (don't remember the model) set up in the speaker room that would put out some serious thump.

Sorry for the length..
Jason

mangata572

I traded my 4 RT800i and CS400i for 2 RTi150, CSi40 and f/x50. I was not shure if I would like the new setup better (you simply can't get a good demo at CC) however when I got them home-WOW! I don't regret the trade in.

jake_angel

that is good news , what are you using to power them....

mangata572

For now, a h/k AVR320. I want to get the Anthem AVM-20 pre & PVA-7 amp, but currently don't have the $$$. I will probably get the amp first ($1,500) using the 'outs' on the h/k, then add the pre ($3,400) later. Its all in small steps!

HBombToo

Lots of h/k bashing lately but I have been very satisified with my 520. I also went through the upgrade process and am currently using the h/k 520 as a prepro only. The dacs in the h/k are fine for me now and I would also like to upgrade to a higher end pre/pro but for the money spent and the path I took the h/k is doing a fine job. I don't think you will be making a mistake by going with h/k equipment.

HBomb

stevew14

I use a denon 2802 pre out, but will soon be adding a parasound pld 1100 into the mix. The source to direct in on 1100, then on to my carver tfm35x. It is 250 wpc biwired to the 150s and sounds great now. I am hoping for even better wow with the parasound preamp substitution.