RTi28 vs. RT15

[anonymouse]

I am not an audiophile and fairly new to Polk. I'm having problems with my new RTi28s.

Some history... my original setup consisted of Yamaha NS-A637 fronts (8" woofers, 3 way), NS-AC142 center and NS-A327 rears and a Sony 60W sub driven by a Pioneer VSX-D411 .

I was happy as a pig in slop thinking I had a pretty kick ass system till on a whim I bought a pair of Polk R15's for 80 bucks when they went on sale recently at CircuitCity.

I had low expectations when I brought them home - they were smaller and less expensive than what I had paid for my Yamaha's, but when I hooked them up I was simply blown away by the sound. These little speakers were reproducing sounds I had not heard at all with my Yamaha's. The bass was better which I found hard to believe given their size in comparison to the 8" Yamaha drivers and the mids were super smooth and clear.

Problem is my center channel did not match at all, and CC did not have any centers on sale. Off to eBay I went. Now hooked like a crackhead on Polk, I promptly purchased a used CS225 center and a pair of RTi28s. I thought I would use the RTi28s for the fronts, the CS225 for the center and the R15s for the rears.

Problem is - the RTi28s sound terrible. They sound worse to me than the Yamaha's and much worse than the R15s. Much less bass, the mids are muffled and the higs are also very bright.

The RTi28s cost me a lot more than the R15s and are billed as a higher end speaker. Am I doing something wrong?

I love the R15 and the CS225 is solid and seems to match pretty well with the R15s (at least much better than the old Yamaha center).

Has anybody else had a similar experience between the R series and the RTi series? Or do I just have a dud set of RTi28s? I purchased them off eBay and they look new and genuine (including drivers and all), but I'm not so sure given their performance.

[VR3]

I agree with you on the RTi28......

Go on Ebay, check out the RT5, RT35i, RT25i, RT7, RT55i, RT3, RTi4, ETC

But, the RTi28 should outperform the R15.......and I mean more than outperform.....

I dont particularly like the RTi28, or RTi38......

but they should beat their lower line

The RT25i, and RT35i, RTi4, RTi6 are MUCH better speakers. The RT3, RT5, RT7 are awesome as well.

[Frank Z]

Have you played with the placement at all? Tell us a bit more about your configuration.

[anonymouse]

I have these in my living room cum dining room which does not give me any fexibility to play around with the placement. Both fronts are close to walls, but not in corners. I tried moving them away from the wall a couple of inches, did not make much of a difference.

I too thought that the RTi28 would be far superior to the R15, but with the way they are performing I wish I could return em. Unfortunately with eBay I do not have that luxury :-(

By the way the rest of my config is:
Pioneer VSXD411
Polk CS225 Center
Yamaha NSA327 rears
Sony 60W sub
and trying to decide between these Polk R15s and RTi28s

Thanks for your prompt help

[F1nut]

"hooked like a crackhead on Polk"

Gold Jerry Gold





Now, on to your problem.

You may be experiencing system synergy problems, that is for whatever reason the Pioneer and the RTi28's don't match well. You can always put them back on eBay or the Flea Market here and find something else.

[anonymouse]

Alright, after some tweaking I decided to attenuate treble in stereo mode by 2dB, and turn on Loudness and they now sound tolerable.

If I turn off loudness, they sound bad again. But the treble attenuation definitely took the brightness away.

I do not feel I should need to change the frequency curve of the receiver though to get this to sound good.

Any additional ideas?

[Frank Z]

I gotta go with F1, perhaps the Pioneer and RTi combo isn't your cup of tea. A Yamaha receiver might be the ticket, I feel that tey're a bit warmer sounding than the pioneer. You might consider loading the Rti's in the minivan and taking them around town to audition a few different receivers.

Finding the right combo for your tastes can be a daunting task but it can be done. Don't get discouraged.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Originally posted by anonymouse
I do not feel I should need to change the frequency curve of the receiver though to get this to sound good.

Ah, you should see some of the things people do to make their systems sound good...

I agree with F1 and Frank, maybe they just don't match to your liking. There's a very good chance that someone else could hear the setup and absolutely love, everyone's different...so you just gotta find what works for you...

You'll have no problem unloading those 28s here or on Ebay though...if you decide that's what you want to do...