Calling all Polkies:Official Polk thread - Page 448

I had not considered the A4, as I assumed it would not be timbre-matched to the older series.

So this will match (or get close enough) to the RTi8?

The RTi8 is a nice jump from, say, the Monitor 60?

The A4 will be better matched to the RTi8 than the CS2 would be. The CS2 is from the Monitor line, not the RTi line.

Ideally you would use a CSi6 or CSi3 if you could find one.

I agree, you could also go with the smaller bookshelf speakers like the A3's if you wanted to mount them on the wall.

Either way if your looking to save cash, check this site often: http://stores.ebay.com/Polk-Audio-Direct

Its Polks official refurb store. You not only get a factory refurb product which ALWAYS looks just like new (ask all the happy folks on this forum who bought from that site), but it comes with a warranty as well.

Here is a setup from that site I would go with:

Cherry RTi 8's (equivalent of the A5's I believe): 400
Cherry CSi5 (equivalent of the A6 center now): 225

That site also has the RTi 8's in black as well as a Black RTi A4 center that would save you about 75 bucks, but I would go with the first system since its 100% timbre matched and the finishes will be the same.

The RTi line is a VERY nice step up from the Monitors. Also the RT in RTi stands for Reference Theater..... so they are created with the intented use for HT which is what you want. They also do music much better than the Monitors, but not as good as the LSi's or LSiM's obviously

Then once you have more cash I would upgrade your Onkyo before your surrounds. The Onkyo has enough power to drive those speakers, but you will be shocked how nice they sound hooked to either a Onkyo with more power, or to a dedicated amp. It will make those speakers thump and sound much better.

That said you dont have to upgrade your Onkyo right away as you will still be able to enjoy the better sound they have with your current one. I would simply plan on eventually upgrading your Onkyo to either one with more power or the prefered method of a Onkyo with pre-outs and a dedicated amp if you can.

I'd recommend CSi5 or CSiA6 - both have 6.5" drivers, which would match the RTi8 perfectly.
The CSi3 is smaller, like the CSiA4, uses 5.25" drivers and is okay for tight locations.
I have CSi3 in the family room with RTi6's and wish it were larger.

Thanks everyone - the A4 and RTi8s look like the route I'll take. The CSi5/A6 (even refurbed) pushes my original budget a little further than I wanted.

If I was able to budget an additional $60-$100, would you bother touching the surrounds, or is it even worth it for that price? I don't see much besides the Monitor 30s and M10s in that range...

Keep in mind I have to stick to bookshelves there

I would go with the better fronts of RTi 8's as you mentioned and the CSi5 center.

The bigger center makes a MUCH bigger difference. There are multiple posts about the benefits of moving from something like the RTi A4 to the RTi A6 and the CSi5 is the older version of the A6.

Sounds like your going the RTi route (which is a good decision, get as much speaker as you can afford) but the CS2 is definitely worth the upgrade over the CS1 if you decide differently, and can be had for $100 or less often. I also got my M30's for $80 a pair if you decide to upgrade your surrounds later.

Excellent.

Last question - will my AVR (Onkyo 705) be able to drive all of this without an issue? I've never owned speakers that required enough juice to need a separate amp, but I just want to verify that's not the case here as well. I assume they'll be fine?

Yes, it will not have an issue with the RTi's at all. I simply wanted you to know that these speakers (even ones like the Monitors) respond well to either more wattage or a dedicated amp.

Your Onkyo will run out of juice long before you reach the max wattage of the speakers.

I was simply making the comment about an external amp as many times the wattage rating per channel on a reciever isnt exactly the same in testing (where they may only use 2 speakers) as in real life (where you will connect 5 or more). As such many folks get a dedicated amp because their wattage ratings are with ALL channels driven, not just 2 so you know what your getting.

I was also trying to let you know these would be a set of speakers you can keep for a LONG LONG time and keep upgrading other items (reciever, dedicated amp, blu-ray player, etc) and not feel the need to replace them. Doesnt mean you may not want to move up the chain, but the RTi's are a great speaker line!

I was NOT intending to scare you away from the RTi's. Many folks here have them and run them on a reciever with NO ISSUES AT ALL.

Hah! Except I think my time spent on AVS is directly proportional to my upgrade-itis

Seriously though, thanks for all the help. If I can work the cherry-look into my setup, you've convinced me that the CSi5 would be the way to go (no blacks to be found at a decent price right now).

Thanks again!

No problem. I would also give Polk Customer service a call. See if they might be able to swap out the Cherry CSi5 box for a black one if they happen to have it......

They have always been really nice. Also if you are a member of the Polk Forums (which you should be), you get a 10% discount on speakers & parts. I am not sure if this applies to items on their ebay store, but you could always call and ask.

I second what EndersShadow said. I just set up some RTi A9s and my Onkyo NR3009 is pushing them quite well (140 WPC biamped) so anything smaller than the A9s should be fine with your AVR. When I run "all channel stereo" (truly testing the amplifier) it doesn't even hiccup and my A9s require quite a lot of power...

Looking to see thoughts on moving from a PSW125 to a DSW2000 subwoofer for my system. I know the DSW line is supposed to be more "musical" and obviously from a higher line, but will it really spank the PSW125 given I believe its got less overall cone area? Want to make sure this would be a move up and not a lateral one.

My room is 14 x 22 x 8.

Some pics are below of my layout with my old TV.....

^ Holy crap that's an ugly room! WTH are those stands under your 9's?

If I can get a greenlit sub upgrade from the wife, I'll sell you my outlaw! I can even ship it with. The USB sound card that I promised to get to you, man I'm lazy! Alright, off the cammode and on to the mower!

Are you running you RTi A9's with or without a crossover?

Sorry for asking this so late in the thread because I have been away for a while.

Why did you decide against the RTi A9's?

Also, I'm really enjoying that people here are talking about the RTi A and RTi line of speakers again. I seems like there is a precious few of us that appreciate them or own them. Furthermore, they don't come up on this forum as often as I would think they should.

I have heard a decent amount of speakers over the last few years and I have not been able to really justify a higher or more expensive speaker purchase than my RTi A9's and A7's.

I think I'm starting to chase mag reviews and brand name status because of Up-grade-its! Here in St. Louis, there isn't to many places to hear decent speakers.

Nevertheless, I really love my RTi A's.

I'm cheating. I'm biamping the RTi A9s with the Onkyo NR3009. I would have to say that I am performing electronic crossover to a point in that the Onkyo only sends highs to the high (from the front high L/R channels) and sends the full signal to the lows (front L/R channels).

I know that it's not true active biamping, but I am very satisfied. Running those power hungry monsters off of one channel with the binding posts bridged isn't enough. With my setup, the speakers alone (without any sub) shake the foundation of the house. They'll never hit 30 - 40 Hz, but they rock.

Punkhead (assuming this is the person I think it is from the Polk forum) you know those are LSi 15's .

I think a sub upgrade is probably off the list for now . The wife isnt a fan of more bass.....so if my HK 3490 sells hopefully I can get a better amp for those LSi 15's.... The SMS-1 however is probably a go so maybe I will be able to show you how all that works when you come up this way lol....

My Onkyo 709 will be coming in July.

P.S. just got the TV wallmounted and the LSi F/X's come in tomorrow to get wallmounted on Sunday...

I will post non crappy iPhone pics when its all said and done so you can revel in the awesomness that is my room

What do you mean by "without" a crossover? Are you talking about using an external crossover for active bi-amp?

Ha! I'm found! I found out I'll be heading to Warsaw, I'm not sure how far away that is. Looks like a fly by night op, in Friday out Sunday. We will see. I'd like to see wall mounted pics, I'm sure it looks good.

I considered buying the A9's and keeping my Monitor 70's as surrounds, but as the A9's are known to be power hungry, I would have to buy a new AVR with pre-outs and another external amp (I do have a decent Crown amp but it's only two channel).

Most significant factor is that I'm approaching retirement and really need to simplify my life and my setup. Next step down from the A9's was the A7's which appear to be well liked and are not so power hungry. All this started because I had upgraded my center speaker from CS2 to CS20 and still wasn't pleased, and so had upgraded the center to a CSi5 from eBay. I loved the sound of the CSi5 so much that I decided to stick with the older RTi line. I got RTi10 fronts and RTi8 surrounds for what I would have paid for just a pair of A7's. I'm satisfied with the 10's/8's/5 setup and probably will stay with this setup.

I think a lot of ppl here were like me, and bought into the Monitor line because they are so affordable. But I had previously become accustomed to having high end equipment and after a while I realized the Monitors just weren't satisfying.

Warsaw looks like 2.5 hours north of me. Your call on if you want to stop in if you have time. Polk forum has some crappy wallmountes pics I just took before bed. Will be posting better ones once I get the lsi f/x mounted and cable management done.

I agreed. I have RTiA7 for mains and RT4 for surrounds. I bought Monitor 40 just for test and to add the audyssey dsx and I connect the Monitor 40 as mains and never ever compared with RtiA7s. By the way the Rti4 in which is a single woofer and a tweeter sounds much better than Monitor 40s in which they have two woofers and a tweeter.

Anyways such Monitors 40 sounds very very good and lot much better than those other cheapo speaker like Sony, Panasonic, etc. Paired with a nice sub and will rock. I need a nice center channel. I have CS20 which does not match the RtiA7 at all. Im looking for a slim center channel that match those rtia7. Any ideas?

I run a Pioneer Elite SC-35 with a Adcom amp. The RTi A9s and A7s or setup to run full range which is without a crossover.

I did run the RTi A9's Bi-wired off the SC-35. I only noticed a difference at high volumes in the mid-range frequencies. However, there was more significant improvement in bass response with the separate amp.

I have RTi4's as surrounds with RTi6 mains and CSi3 in the family room for TV and MP3's, and agree they are very nice speakers. In many ways they actually sound better than the RTi6's, but cannot be run full range as I do the 6's (after much experimentation, I've found for TV, running fronts as LARGE seems to sound best).

I also have Monitor 40's in the bedroom and they sound very good there, in that smaller room. For now I'm satisfied with them, which again is primarily TV and light music. Funny... they did not work out as well in family room, which is a slightly larger room. BTW for about five years I was very pleased with a pair of Sony SS-B3000 3-way bookshelf speakers in that room. They performed very well, better than the M40's. Go figure. I tried the floorstanding version with the same driver compliment, but they sounded muddy and gave them to one of my kids.

For your center you may want to try a Csi3... they can be found used on eBay for under $100. A bit smallish and may not keep up with your A7's but match your RTi4's. Has the same tweeter as the rest of the RTi line, which seems to be the most important component.

Thans Rob. What about that Polks VM20 Center Channel Speaker? Can they timbre match the RTiA7s? I like it because they are slim!!

And what about replacing my RTi4 as surrounds with OWM5? I just need surrounds that can be place in different ways and positions as those OwM5 or get the FXiA4??????

I was thinking about that too. Not sure how low volume bass improvement works (when volume=watts). Maybe its the current throughput and/or the available overhead. A future purchase for me is going to be the Emotiva XPA-2 300 WPC. I've heard nothing but good things about them...

Wouldn't do it. Keep the front 3 from the same line, so if you like the VM20 center, get the VM Lefts and Right speakers as well, otherwise go with one of the RTi centers


Surrounds dont need to timbre match necessarily so get whatever works best for you. With that said the RTi line is better than the OWM5's. But use whichever works best for you in this instance.

Personally I would try to get the FXi's if you can make them work.

Here they are. The LSi F/X's come in today and hopefully get hooked up on Sunday (provided I have enough speaker wire to do so)

**Please note I havent done cable management yet on my rack because of all the new additions and moving so the entertainment center will be moving back to be almost flush with the wall and some of the components will be moving around as well.**

Very nice.