Newb question RE: Dual Binding Posts

Oblivion

Hi everyone! My first post! I've been lurking here for a while while doing some research and I finally picked up a pair of RTi A7 from Polk Direct.

My question is, Does it matter which post I connect my speaker wire to on these towers? Top or Bottom? I know they are bridged(?) already, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't mess them up, or alter the sound in some way.

I currently have them hooked up to the bottom posts, and they sound fine, although my current AVR is ancient, and slightly underpowered for these babys. I'm waiting on my Onkyo 876 sometime in the next month to rectify this problem.

Thanks in advance for any help!

disneyjoe7

Welcome to Polk Forums.

The bottom post are feeding the woofers so yes this is the best post to power up the speaker. I assume that you're using the bridge jumps between the bottom and the top post.

BTW if you have pre amp outputs for the AVR you have now, it maybe best to add an amp to power up the front speakers. Not that the avr Onkyo 876, not that is a bad avr... But if you need more power adding an amp maybe the best update.

danz1906

Welcome to the Club!

treitz3

Just make sure that the binding strap is in place, that everything is in phase and that positive is hooked to positive and negative is to negative. If all is tight? you are good to go.

At that point, the location of the speaker wire does not matter. Welcome to the forum.

wutadumsn23

Looks like I am late to the party but +1 on what has been said so far. As long as the jumpers are installed it doesn't matter which set you have the wires hooked up to. Also as stated if your current AVR has pre-outs you may be best suited getting an external amp instead of the 876. Unless you are looking for a more modern AVR that does the HD sound decoding, then by all means grab the 876 it is a beast. Also, the new 807 is nothing to sneeze at either, and carries a similar price tag of around $1,000. I have an 806 and have enjoyed it for almost a year now. Welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

Oblivion

Thanks for clearing that up for me everyone!

I do plan on eventually adding a power amp to run my RTi A7s in the front, but for now I'm building it out into a 5.0 system by adding an CSi A4 in the center, and probably a pair of Fxi A4s in the back. Like I said, my current AVR is inadequate for this job, so I will be getting the Onkyo 876 in the near term, then adding a subwoofer and power amp to the mix later.

Anyone have any suggestions on a good power amp to run the RTi A7s?

treitz3

Anything with a tube . Got a budget in mind?

Oblivion

Not much more than a few hundred, If that can get me at least 200wpc of good clean power for my RTi A7s. I might be willing to spend a little more.

I admit, I haven't done much research on 2 channel power amps recently, so I'm kinda clueless about performance/price comparisons. Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Retro152

Oblivion wrote: »

Not much more than a few hundred, If that can get me at least 200wpc of good clean power for my RTi A7s. I might be willing to spend a little more.

I admit, I haven't done much research on 2 channel power amps recently, so I'm kinda clueless about performance/price comparisons. Any ideas would be much appreciated!

You will have to hit the used market of course, with that budget in mind. That not being a bad thing at all, great deals can be had. Rotel, Sunfire, Adcom, Nad, Parasound, to name a few. For now, i would try to get my hands on that Onkyo 876 as soon as possible, and save some cash for an amp later. Your current AVR, you describe as "Ancient" could do some serious damage to your speakers, not offering up enough power.





Pat.

quadzilla

I'm going to be the dissenter and say that when I moved the cables to the top posts, I got a bit more clarity and high-end extension. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. The cheap gold-plated brass those jumpers are made from smear the signal a bit. I ended up replacing them with short sections of speaker wire until I started bi-amping.

I like my Mackies, but am in the process of modding them because I find the fans annoying when listening at very low levels. I think I can make them pretty quite for another 20 bucks or so, and a little time/effort. Anyway, you might think about those for your power amp. You can pick up Mackies in good shape off flea-bay for around 2-250 shipped. An FR800 is probably about what you need.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

i have mine set-up so that the wire goes to the bottom half first and then i ran a small section of wire connecting to the top post's, should i remove the brass jumper's?

disneyjoe7

sTiLlLeArNiNg wrote: »

i have mine set-up so that the wire goes to the bottom half first and then i ran a small section of wire connecting to the top post's, should i remove the brass jumper's?

If you added a wire between the top 2 post to the bottom 2 post red to red, black to black you don't need the brass jumpers these should be removed now.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

If you added a wire between the top 2 post to the bottom 2 post red to red, black to black you don't need the brass jumpers these should be removed now.

will do! thank's

Would it alter the sound in any way? i'm assuming yes since there would be less resistance

disneyjoe7

I think you can hear the difference for sure.

ben62670

I like Adcom's or Parasound's in that budget. A watt is not a watt. The Adcom GFA-545 is only rated at 100wpc 8 ohms, and it will spank just about any receiver you find in a store.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

I think you can hear the difference for sure.

OH MAMMA! it's like i got new speaker's!! and i'm just using some rocketfish 16g wire lol

i definately reccomend this (pulling the flat metal connector and running a small jumper) to anyone with dual binding post's on their speaker's

michaeljhsda2

Cool. I'm never going to biamp my 1.2 TL's so I got rid of mine altogether and just combined them on the inside. I'm using the top posts for the interconnect cable.

sTiLlLeArNiNg

^^ WOAH that look's confusing!

here is what i did on my RTiA's + CSiA

disneyjoe7

Amazing what a wire can do

sTiLlLeArNiNg

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

Amazing what a wire can do

tell me about it! it will be interesting to hear the difference when i switch to a better cable altogether later on down the road :cool: as it is right now they sound more "alive" if that make's sense

i think Polk should save themselve's the cash and do away with those jumper's completely and include instruction's on how to do basic wire hook-up

shooter313

This was TRUELY a great thread.:) I am kind of new to this high end stuff, and I never knew about the wire connections as described above. I just assumed that the metal bridges were all that would ever be needed on my polks. First thing in the AM I am going to follow the above suggestions and rewire all of my speakers.
Thank you all VERY MUCH for taking the time to give out this information, it is a GREAT help to people like myself.:D
Shooter313===>>

sTiLlLeArNiNg

N/P shooter! I'm pretty new to this stuff myself and was REAL skeptical at first but it really made a difference!

I'm not shure but i think the jumper bar's add to much resistance and "muffle" the sound

pablo_rodz

sTiLlLeArNiNg wrote: »

tell me about it! it will be interesting to hear the difference when i switch to a better cable altogether later on down the road :cool: as it is right now they sound more "alive" if that make's sense

i think Polk should save themselve's the cash and do away with those jumper's completely and include instruction's on how to do basic wire hook-up

Jump on this amazing deal, 10 gauge Acoustic Research wires. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=109-064 I got it and was amazed by the results. I'm NOT running any amps., just straight to the receiver.
The low's on my RTi 10's came alive! very clear sound compared to the 14 ga. Audio Quest speaker wires I was using.

michaeljhsda2

pablo_rodz wrote: »

jump on this amazing deal, 10 gauge acoustic research wires. http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=109-064 i got it and was amazed by the results. I'm not running any amps., just straight to the receiver.
The low's on my rti 10's came alive! Very clear sound compared to the 14 ga. Audio quest speaker wires i was using.

+1,000,000