Help with RTi10's

sdcfan18 · February 2009

I love these speakers, I really do. For movies, I am hard pressed to find anything that sounds close to these in their price range. It's music that the 10's really struggle with, although this is news to no one. I've done all the tweeking I can to the system itself, and I still find these to be pretty bright.

Can someone tell me if changing something in the crossovers will help with clarity and brings the harsh highs down a bit? The only thing that scares me about changing the crossovers is that I know nothing about them or how they work. That being said, I'm pretty quick to learn about stuff like this, so I don't see it being a huge issue. I just hear all these wonderful stories about people changing their crossovers and finding a night and day difference. Anyone got any advice?

On a side note, anyone have any views on how the RTi A7 vs RTi10 in terms of movies and music?

Thanks in advance

nooshinjohn · February 2009

nice looking setup.... When I was auditioning speakers before I got my SDA's, I was just not thrilled with anything for two channel listening, and in fact almost stopped listening to audio almost completely. I am not familiar with what upgrades you might be able to make to the rti line but agree that they are a very bright speaker. My SDA's were very bright as well untill I got my Carver amp to drive them. Perhaps the Emotiva is as bright as the Yammy is...

jacob.simpson · February 2009

sdcfan18 wrote: »

I love these speakers, I really do. For movies, I am hard pressed to find anything that sounds close to these in their price range. It's music that the 10's really struggle with, although this is news to no one. I've done all the tweeking I can to the system itself, and I still find these to be pretty bright.

Can someone tell me if changing something in the crossovers will help with clarity and brings the harsh highs down a bit? The only thing that scares me about changing the crossovers is that I know nothing about them or how they work. That being said, I'm pretty quick to learn about stuff like this, so I don't see it being a huge issue. I just hear all these wonderful stories about people changing their crossovers and finding a night and day difference. Anyone got any advice?

On a side note, anyone have any views on how the RTi A7 vs RTi10 in terms of movies and music?

Thanks in advance

I think its to do with all of the AVRs internal filters and dsps, Try pure direct mode, it helps a lot when i listen i enjoy them for the music. Or only while listening to music in 2 channel, use one of the 4 scene buttons to have this set up of running on only 2 channels with all other speakers set as to none.

sdcfan18 · March 2009

UPDATE!

I've bi-amped them with surprising results. Although it didn't bring the highs down, it brought the mid and lows a little higher closing the gap. Might be in the market for an XPA-5 now.

What a wicked hobby this A/V stuff is....:cool:

nooshinjohn · March 2009

sdcfan18 wrote: »

UPDATE!

I've bi-amped them with surprising results. Although it didn't bring the highs down, it brought the mid and lows a little higher closing the gap. Might be in the market for an XPA-5 now.

What a wicked hobby this A/V stuff is....:cool:

plus 1;)

curved · March 2009

Wait until you do the cap mod.

Peter Fleming · March 2009

Quite simply RTi10's are home theatre speakers and they are pretty good for that purpose.

I had the same issue with the brightness, but also with the lack of mid-range, even though I was using a high end 2 channel amplifier and TT.

I looked at having them modified but in the end I sold them. I am very happy with my new B&W's and wish I had upgraded a lot sooner.

NewHTguy · March 2009

I've had similar concerns with my 10's. I find, and I'm not sure this makes sense, that they are less bright when the sub is engaged. Sometimes "pure audio" (no sub) seems to sound better, and sometimes "stereo" (2.1). As a general rule, hard rock and R&B sound better in stereo mode. Having said that, with songs in which the vocals seem to dominate it the 10's can be pretty darn good. Sometimes it sounds like the person is in the room with you. I'm new to this hobby but the brightness seems related to clarity.

Yellowneck · March 2009

I too have noticed the same issue with my RTi10s.

I used the MIC setup before as I was mainly watching movies but have recently started listening to music in 2 channel stereo. I have sinced foregone the mic setup and have all the sound settings to flat, speakers are set to large so they get a full range signal and my receiver set to bi-amp. This has helped out alot to give my setup better separation and to bring the low-end up almost keeping up with the highs.

BjornB17 · March 2009

I had the same issue with my RTi10s.

At first i had a Harman Kardon AVR-140... decent little receiver but nowhere near the power to push them at higher volume levels.

Finally got an Emotiva UPA-7... harshness at higher volumes decreased but still bright.

Then i bi-amped them.... they did indeed sound better to me but the trademark brightness still there. But then i realized i had 300 WPC at my disposal so i changed the bass to +5 db and trebble to -1 db and boy do they sound awesome, even without a sub. I can turn it up louder than i can possibly tollerate and they sounds 100% awesome.

ViperZ · March 2009

Like many people said, you really need to find the right amp for those speakers. I didn't like how my RT speakers sounded with Sony ES receiver (poor highs), Adcom GFA-5400 amp (bright and harsh highs), even with Carver TFM-24 (slightly bright highs). Connecting them to HK Citation amp made a big difference. The highs are very warm now, probably warmer than I actually want them to be, but much better than with Adcom.

treitz3 · March 2009

sdcfan18 wrote: »

Can someone tell me if changing something in the crossovers will help with clarity and brings the harsh highs down a bit?

You can add a resistor inline with the positive terminal to help tame down the tweeter [on each speaker] for 2 channel listening. I would suggest a 1 ohm resistor and adjust+- from there to your liking.

Yellowneck · March 2009

I just bought a used carver av-705x from ebay and am waiting on it's arrival. I am hoping that this amp will help to tame my highs and bring up my low-end. I have yet to decide if I want to use one channel per speaker in my home theatre setup which consists of 2 RTi10s, 2 monitor 60s, and CSi40 or if I want to bi-amp the RTi10s with two of the channels of the amp and use the remaining channel for my cetner. I guess I will have to wait till it come in the mail then time to have some fun.

Yellowneck · March 2009

Does your Yamaha have any kind of speaker setup feature? I am primarily taking about speaker EQ setting. I noticed that on my receiver there is an eq for each speaker in my setup. I am able to adjust the eq settings for each speaker. I dont have much experience with your particular receiver but it wouldn't hurt to check.

BjornB17 · March 2009

Yellowneck wrote: »

I just bought a used carver av-705x from ebay and am waiting on it's arrival. I am hoping that this amp will help to tame my highs and bring up my low-end. I have yet to decide if I want to use one channel per speaker in my home theatre setup which consists of 2 RTi10s, 2 monitor 60s, and CSi40 or if I want to bi-amp the RTi10s with two of the channels of the amp and use the remaining channel for my cetner. I guess I will have to wait till it come in the mail then time to have some fun.

I just got a separate amp (emotiva UPA-7) and after playing with it quite a bit, i recommend using your amp's extra channels to bi-amp your speakers rather than use them for surround speakers. Fortunately i have 7 channels so i was able to bi-amp AND use them for side surrounds (rear surrounds powered by receiver), but the fact is that the surround channels just don't get used enough IMO to give them priority over bi-amping.

Since your front left and right channels are in use ALL the time, i'd recommend bi-amping those so you always get to take advatage of its benefits.

The benefits i noticed with bi-amping is that i basically have limitless headroom (i can play much louder than i can tolerate without ever running out of steam) and I think the sound really did improve.

Yellowneck · March 2009

Thanks for the input. I am more into watching movies which is why I am willing to try the amp in surround mode first. I am just venturing into listening to music. I guess I will see what I like best.

BjornB17 · March 2009

Yellowneck wrote: »

Thanks for the input. I am more into watching movies which is why I am willing to try the amp in surround mode first. I am just venturing into listening to music. I guess I will see what I like best.

Messing around with it and finding what you like best is the best part of the hobby. About 80% of my audio time is watching movies and still arrived at the conclusion i stated above, but of course your tastes will differ. BTW welcome to club polk.

sdcfan18 · March 2009

Yellowneck wrote: »

Does your Yamaha have any kind of speaker setup feature? I am primarily taking about speaker EQ setting. I noticed that on my receiver there is an eq for each speaker in my setup. I am able to adjust the eq settings for each speaker. I dont have much experience with your particular receiver but it wouldn't hurt to check.

Yes it does allow for each speaker to be changed. To be honest, I thought about playing with this, but have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to frequency, so I've left it. Maybe I should look into that a little more...?

pablo_rodz · March 2009

Nice thread going on here. I have RTi10's as fronts also... To me they sond very good, but I can't wait untill my wife lets me buy an amp.
Which amps are considered warm? What kind of wpc should I look for in the amp?

BjornB17 · March 2009

pablo_rodz wrote: »

Nice thread going on here. I have RTi10's as fronts also... To me they sond very good, but I can't wait untill my wife lets me buy an amp.
Which amps are considered warm? What kind of wpc should I look for in the amp?

I got a UPA-7 and it sounds wonderful. I have the RTi10's biamped with it but it's really not necessary.

cnh · March 2009

I've heard a number of people complain about brightness issues with Rti tweeters. Probably nothing a good pre-amp/pro match couldn't solve. Experiment and listen to other's experiences. Personally I find my M70s more forgiving of amps and receivers than the tweeters in the higher model Rti-s more robustly designed version. Even running the M70s on a mid-fi receiver like the Onkyo 805 makes them sound fairly musical and sweet, and they image quite well.

I've always felt that if I were to upgrade I would by-pass both the Rti-A5 and 7s (8s and 10s) and go directly to the Rti-A9s? I think that D'appolito configuration and its crossovers, etc., help better deal with this problem..and of course the bass is wonderful.

cnh

Yellowneck · March 2009

A lot happened this past week and a half. I bought a Carver A-705x which is a 5 channel THX certified amp rated at 125 wrms @ 8ohms all channels driven.

I hooked up each of my four towers to four of the mono outputs on the amp and the last output I used to run my center channel. Watched Tears Of The Sun and it sounded great. Haven't experienced a movie like this in a while. Then I decided to find out what it would sound like in 2 channel audio for listening to music. It sounded alot better than my receiver. So much in so that I decided to Bi-Amp the RTi10s and using the receivers power to drive my surround speakers.

The Bi-Amping made a world of difference. Much more defined bass better seperation and so much clearer and louder(probably because it was clean). This did help to tame down the tweeters considerably. Not as harsh as they were playing off the receiver.

As the audio hobby continues you always want more. Well.....I did not want to use the receiver to power the surrounds and started looking for an amp. I picked up a Carver TFM-15cb locally to me.

Just to see what the RTi10s would sound like with this amp I decided to give it a try. The TFM-15 was to my ears at least 5 times better than Bi-Amping with the other amp. I have the RTi10s Bi-Wired with the TFM-15 and there is a night and day different. Bass is now in the front speakers and the mid's just sing. Stevie Ray Vaughn never sound like this before. All music is now a joy to listen to.

The A-705x is now used to run the center Bi-amped and the t90e's are each using one channel.

If you want to get the best and most out of your RTi10s I highly recommend looking into a good 2 channel amp. Look for at least 100watts RMS per channel the more the merrier. Brands to look for are Carver, Rotel, NAD, Adcom, Hafler, and Acurus just to name a few.

Help with RTi10's

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