Calling all Polkies:Official Polk thread - Page 484

I can only imagine the initial impression. Those 12's need a bit more than most receivers provide.

I'm glad to see more people are using pro amps for HT use. Good to see your enjoying them. I had the same grin

Yep, no need to purchase expensive new amps or get an old Carver for $200-300 and then at the minimum recap it. Even the XLS 1500 would make those RTi sing.

I think most people get into this game, as I did after so many years away from component systems, and then realize that there are still many options out there for stereo amplifiers and good quality components that won't break the bank.

I am, God willing, getting ready to go into escrow on a home and will have my hands full for quite some time. I am contemplating wiring the garage, back patio (both very easy and quick) and the upstairs loft (again not too difficult). I have to build a patio cover first, among other things, but am very excited to be close to having my own place to wire up and improve. The past 23 years have been either renting or living in base housing...

One question I have for you Polkies with bipole/dipole surrounds: can I move the surround left/right channels to the back wall and aim them forward??? Or am I going to have to mount the right surround on a bracket from the ceiling (not an ideal speaker to have hanging if you know what I mean). I am probably limited to the WAF and was curious if anyone had their left/right surrounds aiming forward behind the listening area???

Download the FXi PDF doc from the Polk website. It has diagrams of both side wall and back wall mounting with approximate proportions. See page 3 http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/manual/RTiCSi3_5_FXi3_5_MNVin.pdf

Good luck with your new place. After thirty years in our house, we are going thru just the opposite and moving into a retirement condo.

Glad to see the silence broken and Polkies talking once again!

Bi-pole Di-pole speakers are meant to be used either way. You see most folks using them as side surrounds nowadays in 7.1 systems, but you can do exactly what your talking about.

Personally I have my LSi F/X on either side of my main LP and keep debating lobbying the wife to let me go 7.1 since I totally have the perfect room for it.

My theater set up in my living room is polk monitor 60s in the front, the cs1 center, and two rm7s for the rear. The receiver is a Denon avr790. From a tone test, all 5 speakers sound the same. But when watching a movie, I rarely hear anything coming from the rears. Due to the size differential of the speakers, should I overcompensate on set up to make the rears significantly louder? I dont want to risk blowing out the speakers, and I dont necessarily want to fight a lost cause if the power difference makes it a losing battle. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I really appreciate the responses folks. I am going to have to see just what the audio dynamics are. Like I was saying, the F/Xi A6s aren't a small speaker and mounting from the ceiling probably won't be aesthetically pleasing...

I too have the Denon 790 and its Audyssey does a good job of setting speaker levels. However you can adjust your rear levels up by 2 or 3 db using the "ch level" button (the small round one just below the mute button) to see if that brings them out sufficiently. Otherwise you probably shouldn't push them much further. Perhaps your program source does not have rear channel material. How do they sound if you use "5-CH stereo" mode?


It would be a shame to have "the perfect room" and not be able to use it to its full potential.

BTW how's the Sega working out for you?

Haven't had much time to even try it out yet . I did have to re-organize my rack to make some space for it so hopefully this weekend I can make time to play it. I have a store near me I will be stopping by tomorrow to check out if they have any games

Audyssey does a great job of eq'ing the system but I have noticed that the reference is off. Go get the db meter from radio shack, the one with c weighting. Do the test tone channel level set up that has the pink noise. Set all speakers to 75db. That is what fixed my issue. Audyssey tries to calculate for optimum seating positions but the rears it sets too low in my house due to lack of audio treatments. I imagine the same thing with you. When I did this my system came alive. It was like listening to it again for the first time.

Thanks- when I ran Audyssey, I got the following levels:
Front:(L&R) -4.5db
Center: -6.5db
R Surr: -0.5db
L Surr: -1.5db

Does this sound right given my set up? Can you give me more insight on a db reader? Sorry for the noob question here, but what do I do with it specifically? What am I setting at 75 dbs?

Thanks!
Mark

Your Audyssey results do look realistic. What it indicates is that your surround speakers are more efficient than your front speakers. That is, it set your RM7's closer to zero, and reduced the amount of power going to your front speakers (larger negative numbers for the M60's and CS1).

I also saw your post in the 790 thread. I'm not sure what's going on that you cannot hear the RM7's, but please realize that they are very small speakers and unable to reproduce anything below 120Hz (no bass at all). You haven't mentioned anything about a sub, but be aware that the Denon will try to send any low frequency material intended for the surround channels either to the sub (if you have one) or to the M60 mains if you don't.... and the M60's don't have much bass themselves. If you have a sub then make sure the RM7's are set as SMALL and if you do not then check that the M60's are set as LARGE.

Thanks Rob- I do have a sub (crossover at 80Hz) and both fronts and rears are set to SMALL. Audyssey had the SUB readout at -9.5db. After running Audyssey, I noticed a significant difference in the performance of the rears. I will run it again and turn the sub down to see if I can improve the sub to closer to 0. Thanks again!

Your sub should be crossed over at 120Hz in order to accommodate the small surrounds. The xover knob on your sub (if there is one) should be set all the way up, to the highest frequency, so that the AVR has full control of the xover frequency. On the Denon, the "LPF for LFE" should also be set at 120 and the sub mode should be set to "LFE+MAINS". In the speaker manual setup screen the xover should say "Advanced". You may set the M60's and center to 80Hz but the surrounds should be set to 120 or possibly even higher. If there are still issues then perhaps Batpig or JDsmoothie can help you in the 790 thread.

Hi all, I'm in the market for a 5.0 system (already have a sub in mind) for a large (25x40) space and I'm on a budget. I was thinking basing a system off either the TSi500 or RTiA7s. What are your thoughts?

The crossover knob on your sub should be turned all the way up to let the receiver take care of the crossover.. The volume knob should be half way at 12 o'clock ..

Go with the rti a7's. The tsi is a monitor 70 with the port moved to the bottom. The rti's have a better crossover network and a cleaner better tweeter. The cabinet looks a bunch better as well. I have monitor 60's and wish I would have bought the rti series.

Do you think they will have enough oomph to fill that large space or should I be looking for something else entirely?

I agree with rob but you need to run a db meter now that audyssey has been set, to adjust the channel levels all equally to 75 db at the optimum seating position. This is as per any audyssey set up guide. The main one was batpigs write up. That really opened it up for me. Audyssey gets the eq setup side spot on but due to room acoustics and other variables, audyssey only gets close to setting the reference level perfect. Using the test tone feature and the db meter really drove it home. Rears came alive.

I would agree you should go with RTi's rather than Tsi's or Monitors, but the A7's may be a bit weak if you intend to fill that large of a space. They would be okay if your listening area will be, say, one end of the room. I have RtiA7's in a fairly large room, 14x24, and they do a very good job. You might be happier in the long run with A9's and a discrete amp. NewEgg occasionally puts the RtiA9's on sale for $499 - most recently in early August. It's always on a weekend, so you might want to keep checking the website every weekend.

Yeah, the listening area is a little less than half the 40' length. Most of the space is behind me and I only sit about 15' from the front wall. So its not like I'm 40' from the speakers... but it is a large space.

I would most definitely get a9's over a7's also. More bang for the buck.

+1 on the A9's

Just make sure you also buy the CSi A6 (center channel speaker) to match the RTi A series.

What is a good crossover point for the A9 towers, a6 center, and the A4 surround when I run Audyssey it set everything to 40 hz is that correct? Or should I raise the crossover. Also, I have a SVS PB12 plus sub. Any input would be appreciated!!!

IMO unless you're running a larger amp with at least a true 150 watts/channel or more I would raise the crossover to the THX recommended 80hz. The A9s will consume a LOT of power crossed at 40hz.

Ok thanks man I'll cross everything at 80 hz!

So, it would be a budget stretch to go with the A9s to start with and I definitely wasn't planning on going with a dedicated amp. I've been down this path before. I'm trying to maintain more of a family room environment, not a high-end, dedicated home theater. Assuming I go with something like a Denon 2313ci which is what I'm considering, would I be better off with the A7s since I'm not getting an amp? OR could I get the A9s and if I got the right mid to high end receiver, I could bi-amp them? It looks like the Denon 2313 will do that which would give about 200 watts. I know receiver watts don't = 75lb amp watts 1 for 1 but would that work?

The A9s suck a lot of power to drive low freqs with those triple 7" drivers so 80 Hz is probably best if you don't have a dedicated amp.
The CSiA6 has smaller drivers and a half power point (lower -3dB) at 55 Hz.
The F/Xi A6 has the same size drivers as the CSi and also a half power point (lower -3dB) at 55 Hz.

The surrounds and center do not draw as much power so lowering them to 60Hz probably won't hurt. THX recommends all speakers at 80Hz, but then again, THX is for consumers with small speakers too!!! If you have big full speakers, you can go lower. Test the settings at the lower 60Hz and see if you can hear a difference and/or see a drop in volume or bass response.

The A9's pretty much require an external amp. The main advantage of A9's in a larger room is that more drivers will move more air. The fact that most say the A9's would require an expensive amp is why I went with the A7's in the first place. If you start with A7's and an AVR you can certainly upgrade later.

I have A7's and running them on a Denon AVR (originally a 90wpc AVR-790 but recently upgraded to the 3312ci). The AVR drives the A7's very well, especially since I have the A7 mains crossed over at 40Hz. It does sound better that way to me, but everyone will have their own setting that they feel works best for their needs.