Today, I Divorced MY RTi150s ...

Joel McIntosh
Joel McIntosh Posts: 17
edited October 2003 in Speakers
Today I divorced my RTi150s. Oh … I gave them a valiant effort. When my they sucked the life out of my Marantz 7300 (105 watts per channel) A/V receiver and threw the poor thing into protect mode, did I give up on them? No! I stuck by them because my marriage to these babies meant something. I went out and bought them a brand new NAD 218THX stereo amplifier ($1200) that cranked out 225 watts (280 dynamic) of power. The result? The Rti150s turned on me. With their new-found power they started spitting out loose, overblown bass that overwhelmed their mid-range and high-range frequency output. Could I have set them to “small” in my receiver and cut down that bass? Sure, but then wouldn’t that just give me the equivelant of an Rti38 with some extra handicapped bass response? These weren’t the speakers I married at all. So, out they went. As of this afternoon, I am living with two pretty little RTi8s (they even match my Sony 40” Wega HDTV). They were spectacular out of the box. Originally, I expected the speakers to be a bit on the bright side (I’ve always to attracted to the smart ones) and anticipated a break in period before they lost their brightness (my influence, I imagine). However, this was not a problem. While the speakers are not laid-back, they do not seem overly bright. I love these beauties for their crystal clear, precise mid-range and high-range frequencies. Bass with these speakers is clean and tight. Not designed with rich bass in mind, the speakers need a separate subwoofer to fully achieve the lowest bass frequencies. I can happily live with that small weakness. So, gentle readers, this story ends well, and we expect to live happily ever after.
Post edited by Joel McIntosh on
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Comments

  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 51,668
    edited October 2003
    I enjoyed your love story.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."

    President of Club Polk

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  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 29,384
    edited October 2003
    All my points, all my arguing is in that love story. Thank you sir, you solve this lad's preaching for a day! Thank you very much! ;);) -- for even better sound, buy another 2 channel amp, and a pair of RTi6. Stack em, y splitter, etc, sounds great! :D

    Glad to hear you are satisfied!
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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  • mantis
    mantis Posts: 17,312
    edited October 2003
    It's an emotional response.........

    I for one know all about it.It drives my very soul.Passion is what I live for and being as it may.............

    Dan
    Dan
    My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
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  • Airplay355
    Airplay355 Posts: 4,298
    edited October 2003
    i had an sr7200 with rti150s and it only went into protect mode with the volume at -4...how loud did u have that poor thing?
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  • Dr. Spec
    Dr. Spec Posts: 3,780
    edited October 2003
    "Sigh".........another one who learned the hard way.

    If you think the 8's sound good now, wait until you high pass them at 80 Hz with an SVS in the loop.

    The reduction in IMD and THD is rather large after they are high passed and the mid's will open up even more than you ever thought.

    The 8's are again the quintessential speaker in the RT line-up, like the 70's and 800's before them. With a world class sub, they will simply sound the best and be the easiest to drive.
    "What we do in life echoes in eternity"

    Ed Mullen (emullen@svsound.com)
    Director - Technology and Customer Service
    SVS
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  • Joel McIntosh
    Joel McIntosh Posts: 17
    edited October 2003
    You guys raise a couple of good points. To be honest, the 150s rarely threw my Marantz 7300 into “Protect” mode and it did so under strained circumstances. For example, once when I had “Independence Day” (loads of bass) playing pretty loud, another time during the new Solomon Burke CD playing at –2 (a mistake … I accidentally turned the system up when I meant to turn it down), etc. I could have lived with that issue as it didn’t occur very often. My bigger trouble came with the loose bass. I’ve got a particularly challenging room set up that lends itself to boomy bass (I went through three subwoofers and innumerable subwoofer placement tests before getting my sub to sound right). The trouble with the bass coming from the 150s was that I couldn’t correct for the boomy quality with room placement like I could with the sub. I’m pretty limited where my front speakers can be placed. Anyway, all this is to say that with the proper power and a room that is more friendly to bass management, the 150 may well be a very good speaker. It just didn’t work for me and my situation.
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  • Tour2ma
    Tour2ma Posts: 10,177
    edited October 2003
    So.... Love is never having to say you're boomy???
    More later,
    Tour...
    Vox Copuli
    Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Old English Proverb

    "Death doesn't come with a Uhaul." - Dennis Gardner
    "It's easy to get lost in price vs performance vs ego vs illusion." - doro
    "There is a certain entertainment value in ripping the occaisonal (sic) buttmunch..." - TroyD
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