Upgrading surrounds from R15 to Rti38 - worth it?

dbaldus

I've been considering purchasing a pair of Rti38s to replace my rear surrounds (R15s) in the 5.1 setup listed in my signature for quite some time, but now that I have some time to do some research I'm going to decide once and for all.

I spend about 75% of my time watching movies or playing videogames (PS3 or 360) so I am using the surrounds quite a bit. The other 25% is spent listening to music, some of which has recently been including SACDs or DVD-Audio discs, so I'm getting a little bit more use out of the surrounds there as well.

So what do you guys think? Has anyone been in this situation? If so, what did you notice as a difference? Any opinions would be much appreciated!

dbaldus

No one has any opinions on this?

Surely someone out there has to have upgraded from an R series to an Rti series for their surrounds that could share their experience here?

devani

i don't have RTi or R series but surrounds don't carry much weight compared to R, L, and C...
I also have harman 445 and honestly gained more SQ by changing fronts to LSi15 than rears.

schwarcw

The R15 ar not a great timbre match for the RTi70's, try the FXi3 or 4. Even the RTi4 will sound pretty dan good. A lot depends on your room acoustics and listening needs. The FXi will pretty much disappear since the diffuse sound of the dipole cloaks the location of the speaker. The RTi4 may be a bit more directional, but some folks like the full spectrum sound and they do have a nice bass thump. Give them a listen at you Polk dealer or try to arrange for an in home demo to see how they sound in your acoustic environment.

Besides the RTi38's are awful big to use as surrounds. How big is your room?

Welcome to our nightmare!:)

itzfritz

I have a pair of rti38s that I use for my fronts/mains (+ a psw12 sub). All I can say is that they are serious a**-kicking speakers. If you can handle that kind of power behind your ears, go for it.
I would warn you against horror-genre games though (like Resident Evil), because you might actually scare yourself to death when the sudden piercing scream of a zombie comes out of an rti38 that's behind you.

I use r30s for my rears and I find that they are a good match for the rti38 fronts because they provide less of a full-spectrum sound, more suitable for the (relatively) ambient noise that you'd expect from rear speakers.
That is unless you are listening to your music on surround (which always seemed weird to me personally), in which case you might want to match up for fronts and rears.

Good luck.

ckhirnigs113

I'd love to get some Rti38's for my surround setup. I believe they have the same drivers as my Rti70 mains ans Csi40 center. I'd love to have a pair of these. Are they hard to find these days?

kuntasensei

dbaldus, I'm running a similar system to yours. RTi70 mains, CSi40 center, SVS 20-39CS+/Buttkicker combo for the sub, but I'm running 4 RTi28s for my surrounds. I used to run a pair of R10s in a 5.1 setup, and the step up to the RTi28s was a definite improvement. The 38s might be a bit much for surround usage... but in my experience, there's no such thing as overkill when it comes to audio. Hell, I'd kill to get a set of FXi50s for my rear wall.

Like you, I'm playing a lot of Xbox 360 games, which use the surrounds significantly more than most movies do. You're gonna like the added presence in the surrounds.