Rti38 Home Theater Fronts

outerlymitz · February 2003

I have a quick question. I am running r40's for the main speakers in my home theater. They sound very very good.. Especially after a good quarter inch of polyfill on the inside walls to reduce resonance especially at high volume. I am thinking of replacing these with bookshelfs on stands preferably the rti38's. Do you recoommend bookshelf's for main fronts? I am just curious and would like to hear various input from people. Thanks!

Shizelbs · February 2003

What are you going to do with your R40's if you aren't using them anymore? Also, tell me more about the polyfill.

MxStYlEpOlKmAn · February 2003

I use the 35i's -- very good speakers. IMO

Ceruleance · February 2003

I think you would miss the bass response of the floorstanding speaker. Do you need to switch to book shelves for some reason? If you were gonna use bookshelf mains maybe you could add a smaller dedicated front channel subwoofer hooked up at speaker level. I would get the 38's if you are set on them, and only get a subwoofer later, if you feel like you need it, though.

(I'm a little emphatic about good bass, so maybe you should take my advice with a grain of salt. In my 12x12 room with RT55i's I have a 12 inch 500 watt infinity sub (IL120))
Before I get flamed for being a bass head, the gain level on the infinity is set very low, I like tight bass, not boomy overpowering bass

outerlymitz · February 2003

Thanks for the fast replies so far ppl. Long time lurker first time poster. lol. This is a pretty good group for getting answers. Better then rec.audio.opinion. That group is pretty much like rec.audio.no-opinion.

I am going to bookshelfs becuase primarily the look. I like it on the stands imo it looks pretty trendy, up to date, sleek, modern, the new hotness : ) . It gives the "appearance" of a small footprint. I was going to go rti38 for the front and rear. With the csi40 to house the vocals in the middle.

As for the gentleman that asked about the polyfill. I was not impressed by the enclosure resonance at high volumes with the r40's. Let's face it. With the older R series enclosures they built it on the premise of a small lightweight enclosure. When the words small and lightweight are combined it usually means the enclosure will resonate at high volume. And it did. When playing a SACD at moderate to low levels it sounded wonderful. When playing a SACD at high volume with alot of vocalization I would get a ringing from the enclosure. To alleviate that problem I went down to the local wallmart and got their bag 1/4 thick polyfill for $3 bucks. Now don't get me wrong, Polk actually threw in a sheet fill behind the two drivers but it wasn't adequate for the amount of volume I played music at. With a little bit of glue and patience and wallah, presto, Shazaam!! My r40's transformed in the a whole new speaker. They sounded like rt800i's minus the low range : ) . But that's ok I have a subwoofer to address anything below 80hz.

brasil · February 2003

For the rear channel I would go with the FXI 30 or 50's instead of the RTI 38's.

Stephen Bayley · February 2003

Hi, I have the RTi38s as rears and the RT2000i as front. The RT2000i is effectivly the same configuration as the RTi38, except they have intergrated subwoofers. I have done a/b comparisons between the two and the RTi38s are superior in tonal quality (new tweeter) when the the integrated subwoofers aren't taken into the equation.

Providing you have a subwoofer(s) with the system you should be fine.

However I am starting to form the opinion that a single 6in driver is insufficient for the mains, and twin drivers are necessary for the "loud" parts of music and movies.

Hope this helps.

MxStYlEpOlKmAn · February 2003

Originally posted by Stephen Bayley
Providing you have a subwoofer(s) with the system you should be fine.
However I am starting to form the opinion that a single 6in driver is insufficient for the mains, and twin drivers are necessary for the "loud" parts of music and movies.
Hope this helps.

I agree man, That 6.5 inch driver just dont offer that PUNCH in music or movies. If I could get ahold of a RT55i and I could afford it - man I'd buy it! LOL!

outerlymitz · February 2003

Ok polkheads... I just got my rti38's. Im gonna give them a go and replace the r40's in the front. I will tell you my honest opinion in a later review if anybody is interested.

MxStYlEpOlKmAn · February 2003

Originally posted by outerlymitz
Ok polkheads... I just got my rti38's. Im gonna give them a go and replace the r40's in the front. I will tell you my honest opinion in a later review if anybody is interested.

I am very interested in that reveiw, I wanna hear how people think the 38's sound.

danger boy · February 2003

ok this morning i was listening to some music, Diana Krall, the look of love. anyway. I use both a 1000i and a 800i as my fronts. yeah, yeah, i know it's un-American and so forth. I did it because I needed a bit more umph from the fronts that I wasnt' getting with my the 800i's. anyhoo, the left front is a 1000i and the right is a 800i. Yes I could add a bigger sub than my 350 i currently have.. but i'm saving for a SVS, and i'm not there yet. So this was a cheap solution for the time being.

I moved the balance knob from left to right for a minute with the cd playing at pretty high levels. I noticed the RT1000i's with it's single mid driver had to really pump out some air to keep up.. while the RT800i, and it's twin mid drivers was hardly moving much that I could tell. While this is in no way scientific, the mids on the 800i sounded better.. maybe because with it's twin drivers... has to do less work then the 1000i and it's single driver. At least in this test... the 800 sounded better and smoother in the highs and mids. Sometimes to me, the 800's sound great in the low end.. while other times... they sound really thin.

is there a point to this post. no not really. just a comparison on my part. finally, while I love both the 800's and the 1000i's, i am not satisfied with running two 800s in the fronts. It just lacked some bass.

fireshoes · February 2003

You should definitely have much better highs with the RTi38's, but will lose a little bass. If you have a sub, it will be a definite upgrade. Without it, possibly, depending on your listening preferences.

Stephen Bayley · February 2003

I'm interested in your listening results. The new tweeter in the RTi series is a big improvement over the earlier tri-lam tweeters and silk domes.

While I have been impressed with the bass output of the RTi38s, they need support when presenting movie based material. I think you will appreciate the improved quality of reproduction, and in the longer run this is where the real return is. I suppose this is what subs are for - to support the higher quality front end and add to the experiance.

Rti38 Home Theater Fronts

Comments