RTi8's, RTi6's & Infinity BU-2 Sub

comfortablycurt

Well, I finally made the jump and got some new speaks for my HT setup. I ended up finding a great deal on a pair of RTi8's and a pair of RTi6's, along with an Infinity BU-2 sub. I've got about a week of listening time on them now, so I thought I'd post up my thoughts on them. This may be a long read.;)

My setup is as follows. A Cambridge Audio DVD89 Universal Player as the source and an Onkyo TX-SR606 AVR. I'm running the RTi8's up front with the RTi6's in back. My center channel currently is a Polk Mini Monitor(circa 1992), which is going to be upgraded to a CSi5 in the very near future. The sub is the Infinity BU-2, which has a 12" driver and a 100 watt amp.

I'd been using my Monitor 7A's as front channels with a pair of Goldstar GSE-325 bookshelves, which are somewhat subpar bookshelves with 8" woofers 3" mids and 1.5" cone tweeters, as the surrounds. The center was the Mini Monitor that is still in use, and the sub was a crappy 8" 50 watt Pioneer.

Don't mind the nasty stains on the carpet...lol...I've tried like hell to get them out, and they aren't going anywhere unfortunately...
[URL="[IMG]http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww160/comfortably_curt/PolkAudioMonitor7A014.jpg[/IMG]"][/URL]
[URL="[IMG]http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww160/comfortably_curt/PolkAudioMonitor7A004.jpg[/IMG]"][/URL]


When I got them hooked up, the first thing I tested was the RTi8's in 2 ch. Initially, I was using the Direct mode on my '606, which bypasses all of the unnecessary circuitry.

To start with, the 8's are definitely nowhere near as musical of a speaker as my 7A's are.

It varies from recording to recording, but overall, they are a somewhat bright sounding speaker. My 606 doesn't help in those respects, as it's fairly bright in it's nature as well. Needless to say, the 8's lack somewhat on the low end, due to not having dedicated bass drivers. The midrange is very clear and accurate though for the most part, and is definitely the strong suit of the 8's. There were some recordings where the mid's got a little muddied up though. I noticed this particularly in chord heavy guitar passages. This could possibly be attributed to the two MW's though. Perhaps if they'd been designed in a mid-tweet-mid array it would be clearer sounding. I'd guess that could help tame the harshness of the highs to some extent too.

On some recordings, especially a lot of my Bob Dylan CD's with a lot of harmonica, the highs are very bright, and at some points on the verge of being harsh sounding. Highway 61 Revisited is an excellent example of this. The highs were so loud at some points that it was making my cats get pissed off...lol It was also pissing me off a bit, because I was forced to turn it down. I don't like to turn it down when I'm studying my Bobdylan'ology.;)

For a lot of recordings, the brightness isn't as big of an issue though. On most of my CD's the highs were very detailed, which is a big contrast to the somewhat laid back highs of the Peerless tweets on my M7's.

As I said, the low end is definitely where the 8's lack. I spent a little time getting the Infinity BU-2 dialed in, and did some more 2 ch. listening. Throwing the sub into the mix made these speakers much more pleasurable to listen to. I crossed the 8's and the sub at 80hz. Taking the low end strain off of the 8's really helped to open up the mids even more. A lot of the recordings that had previously sounded somewhat muddy cleared up noticeably. This sub isn't the end all sub, but it's leaps and bounds better than the Pioneer I was using previously. It's blending with the 8's very nicely now that I've got it dialed in.

After I'd spent a few days with the 8's in 2 ch. mode, I decided to give the RTi6's a little bit of time in 2 ch. Surprisingly, the 6's are a bit more pleasurable than the 8's are for 2 ch. listening. The highs seemed to be slightly subdued in comparison, and the mid-range accuracy was very noticeably better. Again this could be contributed to not having the two MW's one above the other. Obviously, as with the 8's, and even more so with the 6's, the low end isn't the strong suit. A sub was even more of a necessity with the 6's. The BU-2 blended very nicely with the 6's though as well.



All of that being said, 2 ch. music isn't why I bought these speakers. I bought these for HT usage, which they excel at. The RTi's are doing a much better job of throwing a surround image than my previous setup. Effects that had previously sounded out of place, and didn't seem to be coming from where they should be, are now perfectly in sync. Transitions from the front to the back of the soundstage are phenomenal.

Side to side transitions across the front stage could be better, but that's due to the Mini Monitor that's pulling center duty. It is matching up surprisingly well, but it has a much more laid back highs than the RTi's. I'm definitely ready to get a CSi5, which will be coming along in the near future.

This BU-2 sub is also leaps and bounds better than the Pioneer I'd been using previously. When there's an explosion on screen, it actually sounds and feels like an explosion, as opposed to someone lighting a match, which is about what I as getting out of the Pio...lol

The definite standout movie so far has been Iron Man. One of the scenes that really impressed me as far as front to back transitions go, is the scene right after Tony Stark escapes from the cave he's been imprisoned in. When he's walking through the desert, and is finally found two helicopters go by one after the other. One on the left side, and one on the right side. The sound from each helicopter was accurate, and exactly where it should have been. It almost made me turn my head to watch the helicopters as they flew past me. Very impressive.

The various scenes where it shows Tony flying in the Iron Man suit were excellent as well, especially the scene with the two F-22 Raptors. The across screen and front-back transitions are very well executed with the RTi's. As I said previously, a CSi5 would help tremendously though. I can't wait to get one to round my setup out.

In conclusion, HT is definitely the RTi's strong suit. They aren't slouches in the music department either, but it isn't where they excel. I could see these being excellent sounding speakers for music depending on what you listen to, especially heavy metal or hard rock. They definitely won't be replacing my M7A's for 2 ch. though.

One thing I got out of these, is a reassurance of how awesome my 7A's are.:D Despite the fact that they're a 30 year old speaker, they still blow away the RTi's for musicality. The RTi's definitely trump the 7's in the HT department though.

One of my next mods is going to be a 2ch. amp for the 7's. It will be hooked up to the Zone 2 outs of my Onk' for the time being, until I get a dedicated pre. I'm looking forward to having the 7's back full time for music, but in the meantime, the RTi's aren't leaving me disappointed. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the RTi's to anybody.



Here's a group shot of all of my Polk speakers, they're starting to amass...lol...I'm up to 4 pairs currently. Hopefully to be added to in the near future.

[URL="[IMG]http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww160/comfortably_curt/PolkAudioMonitor7A009.jpg[/IMG]"][/URL]
[URL="[IMG]http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww160/comfortably_curt/PolkAudioMonitor7A011.jpg[/IMG]"][/URL]

Tim D.

Thanks for the review! I have the 8's in a similar setup and agree that these excel at HT, but not as much at music. I added an SVS PB10 sub which made a HUGE difference, and I am adding a 3 channel Parasound amp (200wpc) for the 8's and CSi5 this week (I have the RTi4's in the back which will still be power by the HK 354 receiver). I am hoping that the added power will open the towers up a little more for 2 channel listening (at least until I can afford to get a dedicated 2ch setup!). You will definetly enjoy the upgrade to the CSi5.