Rti series bad in music?

[KrazyMofo24]

Setup:
Rti10's
Csi5
Fxi5
Rti4
h/k 335.
How well do the Rti10's mainly fair in music compared to most speakers in the same price range? I have listened to several different speakers, but all were in lower end range. I was able to afford these because I got a discount at Fry's. Reading through the forums when compared to the lsi's they are only good in movies. Movies i'm completly satisfied however I feel music could sound better. Right now the speakers are bunched up in a small room which I know affects the sound but it doesn't seem it should for just 2-channel music. Can adding a good amp improve the mids any? And is the Rti series a good choice for listening to music 85% of the time compared to other speakers in the same price range?

[dale 442]

Power, power, power.

I'm a big fan of HK but the 10's need more if you want them to really come alive. See my RTi 4's with Carver review in this forum.

Enjoy

[KrazyMofo24]

A 2-channel amp is what I'm saving for, if the Rti10's can sound as good as the Martin Logan's Clarity's I heard at Magnolia with their $1,500 amp, well atleast come close I'll be happy.

[Demiurge]

The LSi line is the best for music, but the RTi should do you fine for now. I do agree that you need to feed them lots of juice if you want the puppies to sing.

[dale 442]

I'm not sure if they can do that, only you will be able to make that call. Keep saving, I do believe you will get what you are after using a good powerful amp to run the 10's up front through the HK.

[F1nut]

IMO from the ones I heard, they were designed for HT, not music. The top end is too bright.

[mmcgehee]

IMO from the ones I heard, they were designed for HT, not music. The top end is too bright.

I would be inclined to agree, while music doesn't sound bad it obvious these speakers weren't designed for music.

[keith allen]

I also agree,I changed my preamp,and cd player,and also did an upgrade on the cd player,and it help the harsh highs...somewhat.

[Willow]

I would not say they are bad, as they are not bad speakers, not at all. it may not be their forte.

[n2pool]

IMO from the ones I heard, they were designed for HT, not music. The top end is too bright.

i totally agree

[KrazyMofo24]

I knew I should have gotten the Lsi's when I had the chance...my issue at the time was cost, mainly the cost of a good amp for the Lsi's. I will probably keep my Rti system, buy a good amp see if it helps if not i'll start saving for a pair good towers.

[bertram]

Your RTi system is great, but primarily for what it was designed for... HT. LSi speakers are much better for music (due in large part to the high-end tweeters) but in my experience too laid back for HT. I used to have an all-LSi HT system but found movies sounded somewhat lifeless and, more importantly, the dialog hard to understand. I then moved the LSis to a multichannel music system, where they sound great, and got the RTis for HT. I think I won't be upgrading for many years.

[PolkThug]

Almost any speaker could be considered "bad for music". It just depends on your personal experiences and perspective.

[Shizelbs]

I personally don't care for the Rtis in music one bit, but I have yet to use proper amplification on them as well. They are great in HT though.

[Zero]

The RTi's, on tube power, can become compotent for music listening. However, for their retail and used price - you can find much better out there for stereo listening purposes.

[KrazyMofo24]

Any suggestions under $1,000?

[Midnite Mick]

I think to expect the Rti10's to come even close to the ML Clarity's is overly optimistic. Whole different type of speaker as well as price class.

Mike

[KrazyMofo24]

When I was listening to the Clarity's I was comparing them to the Lsi15's before I made my decision to go with the 10's. I know the Clarity's are over twice the price since rti's are geared towards HT. Anyone have recommendations for a pair thats great in music, mids most importantly under a grand price range?

[reeltrouble1]

Since my esteemed colleague's missed your question, when compared to other speakers in the SAME price range the RTi are better for music than say the others, of course this is subjective opinion, however, I am right.

Just build two system and get it over with, you will be broke but happy and you can hang out here for free.

get some, lets see, manley amps, mono blocks, for power, then a nice player with discreet circuitry for redbook and SACD, say something by Musical Fidelity or other such comparable product, then a nice Pre with extended bandwith, maybe a BAT, and OH, definetly a TT to get your old school on, a nice VPI, Rega or such, and then a phono pre, I like the Acoustech I have for that, then of course wire a solid rack and your done!!! see simple of course you still need to buy the speakers cuz the RTi will no longer be getting it done for you.

Oh yea, if you have wife, you have to buy her something too so add the cost of that in.

RT1

[PolkThug]

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/products/lsi9/

[Lowell_M]

I am quite happy with my RTi's and H/K for music, but have read that the H/K is a warmer sounding AVR than others, so maybe it takes some of the harshness out of the RTi's. Of course...my experience is a little limited since I haven't heard a very wide variety of other systems.

Try the amp and see how you like the sound. If your still don't like your RTi10's for music, you still should see an amazing improvement in sound for HT. Build from there with LSi's in a 2-channel system.

[aaharvel]

I am quite happy with my RTi's and H/K for music, but have read that the H/K is a warmer sounding AVR than others, so maybe it takes some of the harshness out of the RTi's.

My AVR coupled with the 2.1 takes my otherwise bright-sounding speakers into a territory of neutral/warm, even in 2ch. It's all about proper matching - exposing strengths of one piece while offsetting weaknesses of another. Overall, if done right, the 4 and 10 imo are the best in the RTi line, though not on the same level as anything LSi. To my ears, the older Rti's/Tri-lams were awful for everything short of HT.

[KrazyMofo24]

Went over to Magnolia today after work only audio shop near me. I thought the Boston Acoustics VR3 sounded great it was powered on a Denon receiver. Well it took me awhile just to pay for the system I have now and got it under a grand($600 speakers $350 receiver) thats the sad part. Well I want to buy a good amp first, then save for either the Lsi15's or another pair in $2,000 range. To save me the trouble of having to buy another amp whats the price range should I look at for a good amp that'll power the 10's and be good enough for better speakers later?

[reeltrouble1]

Well dont know why you would not want the Manley mono blocks, but then the Parasound JC-1 blocks are nice, how much do you want to spend on these amps? Do you have to worry about a WAF??? Do you want only new or is used a consideration? Otherwise your going to get the usual long list of suspects, all high current which is what you really need.

RT1

[wallstreet]

I use my RTi6's exclusively for music and you know what, they sound great. This talk about good for HT bad for music is baloney. A speaker either has a flat response curve or it doesn't. The flatter the better. If you don't like speakers for music I don't see how you could like them for HT.

[F1nut]

Bright/detailed speakers are better for HT, not so good for music, IMO and a flat response curve alone does not make a speaker good.

[bertram]

I have the RTi6s, as well as the LSi9s, and you know what, the LSi9s are much better sounding for music. The RTi6s, in comparison, sound overly bright and edgy. Maybe the folks at Polk knew what they were doing when they upgraded the tweeters in the LSi series to the ring radiators?

However, as we are all accustomed to aggressive, bright sound in movie theaters, maybe this is the paradigm Polk followed when designing the RTi line. I think the RTis sound "natural," or at least consistent with the movie theater experience, when reproducing movie material, but unnatural when reproducing music.


I use my RTi6's exclusively for music and you know what, they sound great. This talk about good for HT bad for music is baloney. A speaker either has a flat response curve or it doesn't. The flatter the better. If you don't like speakers for music I don't see how you could like them for HT.

[wallstreet]

I have the RTi6s, as well as the LSi9s, and you know what, the LSi9s are much better sounding for music. The RTi6s, in comparison, sound overly bright and edgy. Maybe the folks at Polk knew what they were doing when they upgraded the tweeters in the LSi series to the ring radiators?

However, as we are all accustomed to aggressive, bright sound in movie theaters, maybe this is the paradigm Polk followed when designing the RTi line. I think the RTis sound "natural," or at least consistent with the movie theater experience, when reproducing movie material, but unnatural when reproducing music.

You can't compare LSi's with RTi's. They're not in the same league. That's like comparing SVS 20-39 to polks 10" subwoofer. Yea, they're both subwoofers, but that's about where the similarity ends.

[wallstreet]

Bright/detailed speakers are better for HT, not so good for music, IMO and a flat response curve alone does not make a speaker good.

IMO, natural sounding speakers are better than bright sounding speakers, regardless of use. And true, I am simplifying what makes a good speaker good for the purposes of brevity.

[F1nut]

IMO, natural sounding speakers are better than bright sounding speakers, regardless of use. And true, I am simplifying what makes a good speaker good for the purposes of brevity.

I agree 100%. It would seem that Polk and other speaker companies are designing bright speakers aimed mainly at HT users. Perhaps to compensate for the short comings of entry level AVR's. However, I can certainly respect that you enjoy them for music.

Got ya! :)

[reeltrouble1]

I guess it depends on your defintion of bright. Which is oft times used around here as something that is a bad thing. I dont think bright is bad, just like I dont think warm sounding is bad, harsh bright is bad on the upper end, and muddy warm is bad on the lower end, so the RTi tend towards the bright side and the LSi to the warm, Kapish??????

So since movies are comprised primarily of Dialogue and noises with music used as a backdrop RTi series does well with that software. I used RT for music for a while, its not that they sound bad, there are just speakers that sound better for music, afterall, RT is short for Reference Theater.

That is it.

RT1

[disneyjoe7]

Rti bad for music I say not. I enjoy my RTi150 over my old Rt800i speakers for music. Rti have a soft dome tweeter the RT speaker have a tri-lam tweeter, the Tri-lam is listening fatiguing the RTi tweeter is not. May not be the best speaker for music, but not a bad speaker either.

[steveinaz]

The million dollar question is, how do they sound to you on music? Asking opinions on speakers is like asking opinons on salad dressing---waaay too many flavors, taste.

Speakers are where the rubber meets the road, they shape the tonal character of your systems sound---toss the opinions, throw away the spec sheets, and use personal preference to select speakers. Some people like hot treble, some don't. Some like lumpy bass, some don't...see where I'm going with this?

[disneyjoe7]

^^^ dido

[KrazyMofo24]

I did some minor adjustments in speaker placement turned the treble down. Also tried several type of music out, Country, and Folk actually sounded decent, didnt think classical music sounded as good with the 10's. With most rock songs and techno, is where they sounded too bright but obviously theirs more highs in this genre. I'm happier with them now then I was last week I haven't tried out switching cables, right now im using these thick black sheilded monster cables that I got from my friend he said they were worth a $100 at best buy awhile back.

Most of my music consists of CD's and MP3's I haven't tried any HD-audio or DVD-audio other than music played in DVD movies.

Also on my H/K 335 when its on Stereo it displays Surround Off and DSP does anyone know a way to turn off the DSP?

[steveinaz]

Leave your bass and treble "flat." You're at a level now where it's time to get rid of tone controls. They're evil.

[KrazyMofo24]

That is true with me the midrange is the most important to me...thats what i'm going to focus on when selecting on a new pair of speakers.

[bigsexy1]

Rti bad for music I say not. I enjoy my RTi150 over my old Rt800i speakers for music. Rti have a soft dome tweeter the RT speaker have a tri-lam tweeter, the Tri-lam is listening fatiguing the RTi tweeter is not. May not be the best speaker for music, but not a bad speaker either.

Bingo! The tweeter in that series with the 150s, 70s, etc. was much calmer and laid back than the trilams or the newer vifas to my ears too.

DJ7, what amps you have on those 150s?

[KrazyMofo24]

Well how hard/expensive is it to change the tweeter and would that be a better solution then just buying new speakers?

[disneyjoe7]

Bingo! The tweeter in that series with the 150s, 70s, etc. was much calmer and laid back than the trilams or the newer vifas to my ears too.

DJ7, what amps you have on those 150s?


Thanks, the amps driving them are Parasound Halo A23's bridged mono. With an Onkyo 898 as pre / pro.

BTW need to work on a signature ;)

[dale 442]

Leave your bass and treble "flat." You're at a level now where it's time to get rid of tone controls. They're evil.

Oh yeah, first thing you need to learn is to UNlearn things that you have done in the past. Such as, where you bass and treble is set at. Zero is where they need to be.

You need to learn how higher end audio should be listened to.

In my case, I took my preamp (Carver) out of the loop and run my CD player directly to the power amp. My CD has aa "Variable audio out" (Volume control) thereby there is NO coloration of the sound, at least from the pre amp. And thus, NOOOO bass or treble controls. Once you do lose the NEED for these you will understand higher end audio.

Let it be played the way the people produced the sound originally.

Enjoy!

[dale 442]

Oh yeah, first thing you need to learn is to UNlearn things that you have done in the past. Such as, where the bass and treble is set at. Zero is where they need to be.

You need to learn how higher end audio should be listened to.

In my case, I took my preamp (Carver) out of the loop and run my CD player directly to the power amp. My CD has aa "Variable audio out" (Volume control) thereby there is NO coloration of the sound at least from the pre amp. And thus, I have NOOOO bass or treble controls. Once you do lose the NEED for these you will understand higher end audio.

Let it be played the way the people produced the sound originally.

Enjoy!

[KrazyMofo24]

Well I have been listening to it flat ever since I had these speakers until last nite just turned the treble down a bit, because a few people here recommended it. I'll turn it back to 0 going to try some room adjustments, I think having too much clutter and not enough space in this room is degrading the SQ quite a bit.

[dale 442]

Do they honestly sound bright (too much treble) to you????

OR, not enough bass compared with the treble??

HK is, in my experience very flat. What are your ears hearing today??


Dale

[KrazyMofo24]

I love the bass, mainly I wish the midrange was better, and yes the speakers are a little too bright.

[dale 442]

Sorry for the apparent double post. Hmmm. Not sure how that happened.

Dale

[dale 442]

So, we have now estabished that you have no issues with the bass of this system. Correct?

Are you listening in two channel mode without the center channel or with it?

Dale

[Mike Reeter]

When I was listening to the Clarity's I was comparing them to the Lsi15's before I made my decision to go with the 10's. I know the Clarity's are over twice the price since rti's are geared towards HT. Anyone have recommendations for a pair thats great in music, mids most importantly under a grand price range?

Keep your RTi set-up for HT,pick up a pair of used SDA's and and decent amp,cdp and preamp.

I recently purchased a pair of SDA 1C's for 500.
I think for music,they can't be beat in that price range.