RTi Series

silverblur

I was looking at the RTi12 awhile back and Frys had them on sale for $700/pair. Now that the RTi series is obsolete and the replacement is RTiA7/A9, does anyone know when these might be on sale or where to find a deal right now

thanks!

leroyjr1

Try amazon or ebay. Also look at you local craigslist.

Kex

I hope you have a good amplifier or receiver for a speaker that size. All those drivers take a lot of hefty power.

leroyjr1

Look at audiogon there is a pair of rti 12's and rti a9's for sale.

silverblur

Kex wrote: »

I hope you have a good amplifier or receiver for a speaker that size. All those drivers take a lot of hefty power.

I have Onkyo 805 - hopefully that's enough power

Sherardp

silverblur wrote: »

I have Onkyo 805 - hopefully that's enough power

Nope it wont be, it will be enough to hold you over until you can buy a power amp. Most hear will suggest an external power amp.

Kex

silverblur wrote: »

I have Onkyo 805 - hopefully that's enough power

With that receiver, I would suggest not getting anything larger than the RTi8, or RTi A5.

Onkyo rate their receivers two channels driven. At least they are honest about it and state that clearly in their specifications. The true output with five or seven speakers is probably half of the published two channel output, or less (maybe 50w/ch for the 805) in normal use. This is not specific to Onkyo and does not mean that it is not a good receiver BTW: most brands do the same, with some noteworthy exceptions, such as harman/kardon (for the same price range as your Onkyo, they will only claim 50-75w/ch all channels driven simultaneously) or NAD (you would have to pay about $2,000 to get a model claiming about 100w/ch, all channels driven).

http://onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=TX-SR805&class=Receiver&p=s

BjornB17

Check Amazon.com or J&R. J&R just got a new shipment of RTi12's from Polk, and are selling them for $800/pair + shipping. I'd definatley buy a pair if i didn't already have the 10's!!

leroyjr1

I have the Onkyo 805 / RTI A9's and the Onkyo does a decent job with those speakers, but when you add external amp into play it wakes them up. When running in 5 channel stereo I noticed the bass to a dive and sounded flat, but in 2 channel mode it did a better job.


The Onkyo will hold you over until you get a external amp. Also you don't have to spend alot on a amp to make them sound got . A $200 adcom 545II or 555II wll be enough.

mmadden28

What freq do the woofers handle, and how much of that required driving power is actually handled by a sub when running with a crossover at 80Hz? Anybody?

I'm thinking that if you're using a sub, you'll be giving more available power to the 12s, however if you not running a sub, then....

??

Kex

mmadden28 wrote: »

... I'm thinking that if you're using a sub, you'll be giving more available power to the 12s, ...

Probably true, but still probably not enough power available. Remember the RTi10 and RTi12 have subwoofers included, not just midwoofers and tweeters, so they need the power since they do not have their own built in amplifier like a seperate subwoofer would normally do. JMO, but paying extra for big speakers and not being able to get the benefit would be disappointing.

Kex

leroyjr1 wrote: »

... Also you don't have to spend alot on a amp to make them sound got . A $200 adcom 545II or 555II wll be enough.

I'm not convinced by this argument. I tried an entry level Emotiva amp a while back (LPA-1), and was very disappointed to find that, in a blind listening test, using identical pairs of speakers side by side and the same source, I could not notice the improvement of the claimed 125w/ch external amplifier when compared to a 40w/ch harman/kardon. YMMV, but beware of paying hard earned money for entry level amplifiers if you are expecting miracles! (If money comes easy, however, then sure: go ahead and try it for the fun of the game.)

mmadden28

Kex wrote: »

Probably true, but still probably not enough power available. Remember the RTi10 and RTi12 have subwoofers included, not just midwoofers and tweeters, so they need the power since they do not have their own built in amplifier like a seperate subwoofer would normally do. JMO, but paying extra for big speakers and not being able to get the benefit would be disappointing.

They don't have a built-in passive sub, the RTi12's have three 7" woofers. It is rated to go down to 18Hz, but its really 30Hz at -3dB. Sure you're not thinkin about the LSI floorstanders w/ built in subs?

I'm currently running my RTi12s with an Emotiva XPA-5 which is more than enough power, and I've tried them large with no sub and they do not go nearly as low as when using an external sub. Of course its always possible I didn't have it setup right. but I didn't spend too much time on it since I have a sub. I do however sometimes feel like its a wast to have such nice bog speakers but likely only using the upper half of them.

Kex

mmadden28 wrote: »

... the RTi12's have three 7" woofers. It is rated to go down to 18Hz, but its really 30Hz at -3dB. ...

Sorry, I made a typing error, I meant woofers, but the point I made remains valid in that the receiver will be driving woofers, not just midwoofers and tweeters like the RTi8.

There are plenty of threads where owners struggle to get their RTi10 or 12 to perform like they would expect. You yourself chose to use an external amplifier. New buyers should be aware of the challenge when they are going to use a receiver like the Onkyo 805 for speakers such as these. After that, the it's up to them to decide what they expect in terms of performance and what they want to do to achieve that goal.

leroyjr1

Kex wrote: »

I'm not convinced by this argument. I tried an entry level Emotiva amp a while back (LPA-1), and was very disappointed to find that, in a blind listening test, using identical pairs of speakers side by side and the same source, I could not notice the improvement of the claimed 125w/ch external amplifier when compared to a 40w/ch harman/kardon. YMMV, but beware of paying hard earned money for entry level amplifiers if you are expecting miracles! (If money comes easy, however, then sure: go ahead and try it for the fun of the game.)

The Adcom 545 is probably the best bang for buck amp out there. It ran my RTI A9's without any problems and only rated at 100 watts. When comparing a amp vs receiver you will notice a bigger difference when listening mid to high levels. Listening at low levels you probably will not notice any difference.
When running My 9's with my 805 it sounded great a low to mid level but when you cranked it thats when you could tell the difference in SQ.

Kex

leroyjr1 wrote: »

... When comparing a amp vs receiver you will notice a bigger difference when listening mid to high levels. Listening at low levels you probably will not notice any difference. ...

Sorry, but I'm still not convinced! I know all the arguments for and against, including that one, and can list them all to you from now until Christmas, but my experience with the LPA-1 demonstrated that not all amplifiers are necessarily equal, nor are they necessarily better than all receivers, since all receivers are not created equal either! YMMV.

curved

Kex wrote: »

Sorry, but I'm still not convinced! I know all the arguments for and against, including that one, and can list them all to you from now until Christmas, but my experience with the LPA-1 demonstrated that not all amplifiers are necessarily equal, nor are they necessarily better than all receivers, since all receivers are not created equal either! YMMV.

You're not serious.....are you?? If you can't hear the difference between the two that you had a blind test with, you probably never will.....

With my RTi8's, it was an insane difference!! Night and day.....

Kex

curved wrote: »

You're not serious.....are you?? If you can't hear the difference between the two that you had a blind test with, you probably never will.....

With my RTi8's, it was an insane difference!! Night and day.....

Very serious. What were you comparing exactly and how did you do it? Here are the results from my test:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showpost.php?p=769578&postcount=153

To be fair, others have had a better experience, so this unfavorable (for the Emotiva LPA-1) result could be due to the limitations of these speakers, or the source used, or other things entirely. Still, a night and day experience it certainly was not and few others have gone to the trouble of a true blind test rather than trusting to judgements that have been influenced by all the hype surrounding Emotiva.

Buyer beware nonetheless. People pontificate about external amplification all the time (I have done so myself before this test was concluded), but perceptions are subjective and that can influence an unbiased result. I had my doubts and didn't want to make a wrong choice, so I did the blind test. I was as surprised by the result as anyone. The truth about external amplification probably still holds, but again, not all amplifiers are made equal and not all are necessarily better than a good receiver.

The only way to be sure is to do like I did: buy the amplifier and, if you don't like it, sell it at a reasonable loss, or eat the shipping costs back to Emotiva. Otherwise, find a store where you can listen to both (Emotiva only sell direct, so that will not be an option) and pay store pricing, or find a Polk user where you can listen for free (bring a good bottle of wine or something).

leroyjr1

Silverblur

Keep your eyes on polk direct ebay store they have good deals from time to time on
RTI A7's and RTI A5's if either may be a option. Sorry about getting off topic about amps and everything.

All three rtia 5,7,9's all sound good and will be a good choice. There is some rti 10's on ebay right now.

silverblur

Thanks for all the replies!

Summaries of the posts:
805 is does not have enough to power rti12....so I will go with rti10/rtiA7 and a sub

My applications (in order of importance) are
1. Karaoke 2. Music 3. HT.
So the midrange from rti10/A7 will be great
I need recommendation for center and in-ceiling for surrounds

treitz3

I have a pair of black RTi10's I'm wanting to unload at a very reasonable price. Where do you live?

mmadden28

silverblur wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies!

Summaries of the posts:
805 is does not have enough to power rti12....so I will go with rti10/rtiA7 and a sub

My applications (in order of importance) are
1. Karaoke 2. Music 3. HT.
So the midrange from rti10/A7 will be great
I need recommendation for center and in-ceiling for surrounds

...or RTi12/RTiA9 (or anything for that matter) with an Onk 805 and an external amp.
Actually when using an external amp(a quality capable one), the power capabilities of the AVR is irrelevant, the only thing it does then is function as a Preamp/Processor, so use of an external amp can be applied to any AVR in this sense.

Center-
CSi5/CSiA6