New RTA 12B Owner Checking In

Gotcha

Very nice set of speakers for sure.

I would recommend stands if your ear height isn't at a point midway between the midbass drivers and the tweeters. Those speakers are time aligned so no angling should be necessary if you get the height right. How far apart are the speakers? The old equilateral triangle where the distance from the center of each toed-in speaker to the listener's ear (so baffle is perpendicular to the vector) is the same and equal to the distance between the center of the speaker baffles. That's the starting point. If anything you may want to toe the speakers out from there to broaden the soundstage.

I actually prefer my 7B's pulled considerably out into my room that has a 3 sided cantilevered bay of windows behind the speakers. They are up on vibration isolation stands that put the midbass/tweeter 39"/44" high off the floor. In my room it works for a deep soundstage to have the speakers pulled in from rear wall about 5ft and sound absorbing room treatments over the windows behind the speakers. No WAF involvement and there is no major issue with lack of bass even before I added the Martin Logan Dynamo sub, also on a vibration isolation platform with a bass brace at the top going to a stationary object (prevents any rocking motion). Of course, bass is kick A now.

"Your nightmare has no relevancy to the OP's situation."

LOL. It may or may not. We are talking about different speakers and different rooms. It's called a conversation.

Happy Black Friday

Every room is different and every floor is different. Experiment until you like what you hear the best. Midrange driver sound best on axis and so do tweeters. If they are close together anyway on the speaker baffle, it is not crazy or out of line to line up the ears with the midpoint between the two. That is what I found sounded best for my 7B's but you may feel differently with your RTA 12B's.

What type of floor do you have? What is the size of the room (if you haven't stated)? My experience is too close to walls can give muddier base, but your experience may be different. Usually at audio shows, in small hotel rooms, speakers are not close to the walls, however I was in one room once where the guy had the speakers right in the corners and was raving about how much bass he was getting. Just sounded off and muddy to my ears.

I got my bass to be much tighter and solid by using vibration isolation stands. My floor is wooden over wooden floor joists, room is over a basement. Concrete patio blocks of various sizes can make nice temporary stands to try different speaker heights. Use some anti skid rug backer between the concrete and the floor (small pieces at the corners) and between the speaker and the concrete to prevent damage.

OK I got to thinking that you had moved them inside. I see not. A room of that size is a big bass suck and hard to pressurize. Did you try them inside in office? That would probably be best bet.

In every room I've had my 12Bs I have preferred toe in crossing behind my head a little so not pointed directly at you but a little bit out from that. It's up to you though. The more straight they are the wider the stage and the more toe in the more solid the images are. Find the balance. Every room and speakers are different. My Rosso's sound best with next to no toe.

Chris,
Black tweeter wire goes to negative
White tweeter wire to red dot or positive.
The vintage speaker section shows this.

The signal does a 180° phase shift in the XO so when hooked up in this manner it is brings it back into correct phase.

If you put the black on the same side as it was you're good
Blk neg
Red pos

I do believe this was the only Polk speaker built this way so yea understandable

Chris just to be on the safe side make sure the tab on the Peerless with the red dot connects up to the trace on PCB that has the 27uF capacitors, regardless of wire color.