Questions about my RTA 11TL's

[brodiem]

Like the title says, I have a pair of RTA 11TL's and I've got a few questions hopefully someone can answer. First of all, I just put a new amp on these speakers - an Outlaw 750 (165WPC@8oh, 250WPC@4oh) being driven by a Rotel preamp. Whether it was coincidence, happened previously, or whatever, one of my drivers seems to have a bad VC (it's scratching on the pole piece, so I'm just going to assume I played them too loud and buckled the VC?).

So, this leads me to a few questions:

1. Should I be using a xover (high pass) on these speakers? Or does the internal xover already filter the low freqs from the midrange drivers?

2. I've read on other posts that the MW6510 is no longer available and that the 6503 is the replacement. Is there much of a sonic difference on the 6503 and will it be fine running with a 6510 and 6503 in the same cabinet?

3. How do others find these speakers do in the low frequency area? I found it really lacking which is one of the reasons that I put a bigger amp on it, and I'm still not finding a lot of depth to them. It could very well be room acoustics, but thought I would ask this question to others. Maybe they are just a naturally flat speaker?

I'm really not sure how I could have driven these too hard given their power handling specs, and I'm not driving any distortion into them or anything, which is why I thought maybe I need to be crossing them.

Thanks

[avguytx]

I'm not an owner of the RTA series but I can at least take a stab at a couple of the questions.

1. Typically, no tower, bookshelf, or otherwise has a high pass crossover to limit the bass response on a "full range" speaker. Now, if you were using them in a Home Theater application and there was bass management turned on, I could see it happening. Otherwise, it's just a 2-way crossover on them.

2. I think that's true that the 6510's aren't available anymore but you might call Polk customer service and they can tell you for exact. You can always search on Ebay for a spare driver as they come up from time to time.

3. I know my smaller Monitor 10B's have a nice amount of bass when run on my Carver M-1.0t @ 200wpc. I don't find them lacking in that department. Have you checked each of the mid/woofers to see if one might have an open coil besides the one you already checked? I've heard of the magnets shifting on the frame on occasion especially when shipped.

Room placement as I'm sure you know has a lot to do with their performance but remembering back, the 11T's sounded quite nice all the way around. I would imagine that owners of the RTA series will chime in and can give better information. Good luck and welcome to the Forum!

[F1nut]

Polk is coming out with new 6510's, so if you can wait I'd do so as the 6503 will sound different.

[brodiem]

Polk is coming out with new 6510's, so if you can wait I'd do so as the 6503 will sound different.

Thanks, I just called them and they told me they should be available in about a month.



Have you checked each of the mid/woofers to see if one might have an open coil besides the one you already checked?

All of the drivers are playing, including the one with the bad VC (it's just scraping on the pole piece and/or magnet). I'll probably try some things with the room...there isn't really much in the way of any objects that would absorb/deaden sound (gym room) so I may try putting some deadening material on the walls.


Are others high passing their RTAs (or similar) or are they generally ok running full range? Hadn't planned on making it a 2.1 system but maybe I'll need to