5.1 Receiver and RTi10

Iammancini

Hey guys i just picked up a pair of RTi10's for a sweet deal. I know they are very power hungry speakers and was wondering if it was possible to remove the plate that connects the terminals at that back and connect two channels, one to each post from my receiver. So i would have the front and rear right channels from my amp going to my right speaker and the same for the left. Im assuming this would deliver twice the power output or am i wrong. Also typically when switching from surround to two channel stereo mode on a receiver, does the amp redistribute the total power to the two channels or would it just be the same? I have a small 5.1 Harman Kardon receiver that does an ok job running the RTi10's but want to know my best option.
Thanks for the help in advance, hope my questions were clear.

wutadumsn23

What you are refering to is more commonly called Bi-Wiring and IMHO will gain you no improvement at all. The power from your AVR comes from the same place for all your channels and doesn't "compensate" for only having two or three channels running. You will get pretty much the same power going to them in either scenario, but if there is any gain it most certainly won't be double the power. Removing the stock metal "jumper" and hooking up another set of speaker wires isn't going to increase much, nervermind double it. If your AVR has pre-outs for adding an external amp, then you can add one and bring those 10's to life. If not, then you will be fine ruinning them with what you have. You can always try it and see for yourself, maybe it make an improvement to your ears, and that is all that matters. Worst case scenario you are out the cost of two runs of speaker wire, which is better than trying something more expensive. Welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

cnh

+1

If that HK has pre-outs and it does if it is a 200 series or higher..then bet a nice power amp of at least 200 watts X 2 into 8 ohms and watch the towers OPEN up!

HKs make a nice pre-amp!

cnh

Iammancini

well im aware of biwiring, but what i was refering to was basically taking 4 channels from my amp and running two to each speaker. Im aware the impedance of the speaker will change when you removed the plate on the back. Is this possible? Sorry for the confusion.
so say if my 5.1 receiver delivers 50 watts per channel and i run two channels two one speaker on seperate terminals, would that essentially be 50 watts to the top terminal and 50 to the bottom terminal in stead of one channel deliver 50 watts to both terminals?

cbruinooge

I have the Harman Kardon 254, and a pair of RTi A9's. I have an external amp being delivered today so I wont be doing this, however for the last couple of weeks I was wondering the same thing you are. What you are talking about is sort of a mix between bi-amping and bi-wiring. When you bi-amp you are literally using 2 amps. You take channel 1 and connect it the the bottom posts, and channel 2 to the top posts (or vise versa). When you bi-wire you tie down both top and bottom posts on the speaker to one channel using 2 different spaeker wires. The idea is that most amps have 2 load outputs. for example: An amp could have a 200 watt output at 8 ohms, or a 300 watt output a 4 ohms. So if you bi-wire you reduce the load to 4 ohms and are now getting 150 watts to the top posts, and 150 watts to the bottom posts. As apposed to not bi-wiring where both post would be sharing 200 watts. Now from what I hear from Polk audio tech support bi-wiring their speakers (I called about the RTi A9's) does not change the ohm load so there would be no real benefit to bi-wiring. What it sounds like you are wanting to do is more like bi-amping but with only one amp. You could maybe call it bi-channeling. Lets say you receiver is putting out 50 watts at 8 ohms. If you connect one channel to the lower posts and leave the plate in place you will be sending your speakers a total of 50 watts. However if you remove the plate and connect one channel to the bottom posts, and another channel to the top posts you will be sending your speakers a total of 100 watts. Now in order to do this correctly you will have to change your receiver to 5 channel stereo, and you wont be able to have 5.1 surround sound. I you do decide to do this and it works fine for music keep in mind that if you change the setting back to 5.1 on your receiver you will be hearing the surround sounds out of the front speakers as well. Hope this helps, and have fun.

concealer404

Iammancini wrote: »

well im aware of biwiring, but what i was refering to was basically taking 4 channels from my amp and running two to each speaker. Im aware the impedance of the speaker will change when you removed the plate on the back. Is this possible? Sorry for the confusion.
so say if my 5.1 receiver delivers 50 watts per channel and i run two channels two one speaker on seperate terminals, would that essentially be 50 watts to the top terminal and 50 to the bottom terminal in stead of one channel deliver 50 watts to both terminals?

The impedence will not change when you remove the plate.

As for your second question... yes and no. Typically a receiver will have one power source that is just split up as needed. I kindof doubt that your Sony will deliver more power in this manner.

Iammancini

Thanks for the help guys, im gonna remove the plate and and "bi channel" them and see if there is a difference. And i have a harman kardon amp not sony

cnh

What model HK is that?

cnh

Iammancini

Its only a 147, but i cant believe the sound that these speakers produce. I could only imagine how much better they would sound with a proper amp. For now ill just keep the volume a little lower