RT-12 Heritage?

phoneisbusy · August 2002

Hi there,

Just discovered Club Polk and found the banter here very entertaining and informative!

I picked up a pair of RT-12s years ago as part of my starter home theatre. Its quite an eclectic collection but Im happy with the sound. Im now in the position to add/replace pieces of the HT and would like to know where the RT-12s fit into Polks line back then. Were they considered entry level, mid, top of the line (doubtful from the frequent pairing of SDA and drool in the flea market board)?

I guess Im just wondering if my money would be best spent on upgrading the receiver (Pioneer) centre channel (Yamaha), the subwoofer (generic), the rear surrounds (Celestion) or the RT12s? I doubt my budget will ever allow me to splurge on top end equipment so bear that in mind before you involve me in bidding for SDAs on eBay

Thanks

Dave

TroyD · August 2002

My personal opinion is that the RT-12's are a great speaker to build an HT around. If you like 'em, keep 'em. That's my philosophy. By the time the RT line came out, SDA was no longer in production, so it's sort of apples and oranges.

What's the layout on the rest of your rig?

BDT

nascarmann · August 2002

It's hard to say what to do.....There is NOTHING wrong with your RT-12's. I would stay with them as my front's and replace the center and rears. There is a Polk CS300 center on ebay $112 shipped. Get a pair of R10's for surronds....$39.95 each CC this week. Take a listen and decide if you want to spend more.... :cool:

Aaron · August 2002

You might find my review of the newer RT800 vs. the RT12 interesting (click here). My feeling is that you won't be gaining that much by upgrading to a new model unless you're thinking of moving to the LSi line. However, to do that you're going to want to upgrade your receiver to a high end one or else get seaparates. I would take Nascarmann's advice and look into upgrading the rest of your speakers (center, surround, and sub).

Aaron

yoeddy · August 2002

I LOVE my RT12's....although they are used as surrounds now, but if you really want to upgrade, just upgrade the tweeters to the 'silver' ones from the black domes. Night and day difference.

mantis · August 2002

I'm into the rt 12's they where nice.I lusted after the rt16's for awhile..but no luck back then o well life goes on.

phoneisbusy · August 2002

Thanks for the comments guys. They've reaffirmed my opinions of the RT12s.

nascarmann - damn! That's a hell of a deal for R10's! Too bad it converts to a gazillion Canadian pesos up here.

I'm pretty happy with the Celestion 5's as surrounds though but thanks for the heads up. As an aside, any recommendations for DVD's that'll really give the surrounds a workout. I swear they're getting flabby just sitting back there...

Aaron, your review would imply that using a subwoofer and the crossover in my receiver would improve the bass? I've noticed an improvement when I added the subwoofer to the system. Still playing around with the positioning and crossover frequencies though.

I'm leaning towards upgrading the centre (donated Yamaha natural sound model yada - yada) with the CSi30 or CSi40.
Unless, ... the CS300 is significantly better to justify the price and effort?

Thanks again.

Dave

btw. How did I get labeled a 'Polkie'?

Aaron · August 2002

Aaron, your review would imply that using a subwoofer and the crossover in my receiver would improve the bass? I've noticed an improvement when I added the subwoofer to the system. Still playing around with the positioning and crossover frequencies though.

No, not really, unless your receiver has a variable crossover for your main speakers (does anyone do this?). You could improve the bass extension with a subwoofer, though. If you really wanted to go nuts you could make a high pass filter (sometimes called a "bass blocker") for your RT12's that would cut out the bass below 60Hz. or so. Then fill from 60Hz. down with a subwoofer. This would probably help significantly, though you'd probably have to spend an awful lot of time blending them together and experimenting with the high pass filter cutoff frequency. I'm sure this isn't worth the effort, but it would be a fun experiment.

Aaron

tortfsr24 · August 2002

Dave:

I too hold a weakness for RT-12s. They were my first taste of Polk Audio and I have been hooked ever since. Much debate has ensued in this forum concerning the changing of the tweeters to the trilaminates used in the newer versions, albeit a derivative version of those used in the RT800i series.

I chose to upgrade my tweeters and have been extremely happy with the results. Although I have recently added RT800i's for my fronts (due to a can't pass up deal), when I was running Rt-12s with my 1000p center and LS/FX surrounds, the sound was seamless. Although older, I feel that the RT-12s are still very easily integrated with newer polk speakers and are a solid choice to build your system around. (I don't know if this holds true with the LSi series for I have no personal experience with them). As Aarons review showed, the differences in the RT-12s and newer 800 series are subtle.

I still use two pairs of RT-12s as my rear surrounds and they sound excellent with the rest of my polk set-up. Further, if you ask me, the build quality of the RT-12s are better than the RT800i's.

IMO, keep your RT-12s and put your money towards better components and completing your HT speaker arrangement. Once finished, try switching out the tweeters. You'll still come out ahead of the game money wise.

Have fun,

Brent

RT-12 Heritage?

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