Dilemma in choosing between speakers.....

[Demosthenes9]

Greetings. First time posting here as I just found the site after I fell into a deal on a nice Polk setup.

I tried searching the forum for this info but couldn't find anything "on point".



Currently I have 2 RTi8's as fronts, 2 Monitor 30's as rears, a CS5 as a Center and a PSW404 sub.

AVR is an Onkyo TX-SR606.

Room is approximately 14 x 24.

Usage would mainly be for watching BluRays,. TV, and HTPC with music being less of a focus.

Problem: The RTi8's don't really fit the room or my current setup as they are just so freaking big.

Would I lose much by switching to the RTi A3's in the front ?

If I do that, should I just go ahead and switch to A3's in the rear as well ?

Presuming I do both, do I need to switch to a different center channel or sub ?

(If you haven't guessed, I am totally clueless about all of this audio stuff. The only reason my current setup is "matched" is because I bought it as a package deal from someone locally who apparently knew what they were doing.)

Appreciate any advice that you all would care to give.

Thanks,

-Demo

[ben62670]

First welcome to Club Polk. Second with the sub you have I wouldn't suggest going to a smaller speaker up front. The Crossover point should be set to 60-80hz on the fronts. The rears actually don't match, and the RTi3's would be a good choice for the rears. If you did go RTi3 front, and rear you would definitely want a better sub. That really is a pretty big room. Even if you kept the RTi8's a new sub would be in order. I hope this helps.
Ben

[curved]

It seems like you are kind of going in two different directions. Personally I would get the following setup if your constricted with space...

Fronts - RTiA3
Rears - FXi (one of them)
Center - CSiA6
Sub - probably bigger as Ben stated (or add another one)

Just out of curiousity.....how do you not have the room for RTi8's in a 14x24 room???? It would sound a lot better if you kept those as your fronts.

[Demosthenes9]

It seems like you are kind of going in two different directions. Personally I would get the following setup if your constricted with space...

Fronts - RTiA3
Rears - FXi (one of them)
Center - CSiA6
Sub - probably bigger as Ben stated (or add another one)

Just out of curiousity.....how do you not have the room for RTi8's in a 14x24 room???? It would sound a lot better if you kept those as your fronts.

Thanks for the reply (thanks to you as well ben62670 :)

As to having "room", it's mainly aesthetics. The AV setup is against a wall and framed in by a window on one side and a french door on the other.

With the way things are situated, the front of the speakers are 6 feet away from the front of the couch. Overall, they just seem huge and out of place.

Also, I am changing up my mounts. Currently, my Plasma is on a floating stand but I just picked up a nice wide "lowboy" stand for my peripherals and will be wall mounting the Plasma.

If I kept the RTI8's, they would have to sit on each side of the stand and one speaker would split a window sill and the other would be right up to a door opening.

Rightly or wrongly, I just kind of decided that smaller bookshelf type speakers would look much better with my particular setup.

As to the direction that I am going, yeah, it's somewhat schizophrenic. I had a garbage speaker system and was going to try and do things piece by piece but then I stumbled into an awesome deal on the speakers that I listed (not sure if we can talk about price here, but I got all 6 speakers for under $500)

It's an awesome setup (for me anyways), but then I thought about just flipping the set and going to something that sounds just as (or almost as good) but with a smaller foot print.

I have someone locally who is interested in all or some of my current set and I just haven't figured out which way to go.

Keep everything except for the RTi8's and replace them with A3's ? Get rid of the 30's and replace them with ???? (A3 or FXi?) ? Replace the CSi5 and sub as well ?

For watching movies, are the RTi8's serious overkill ? Will A3's provide a very nice, full and rich sound ?

Or, would I be sacrificing a lot switching to A3's (or some other bookshelf for fronts ?)

[ben62670]

RTi8's are not serious over kill. In a big room like that I would say they are marginal. The floor space they take up is minimal, and you want your tweeters at near ear level. Putting speakers on a wall really sucks some of the life out of them.
Ben

[curved]

I can understand how you would have a difficult time with the room, windows, etc.

Fronts - sounds like the RTi3 will be fine for your needs

Center - Keep your CSi5 - didn't realize that you had that when you said CS5 - that will be perfect.

Rears - FXi's

Sub - you can always add another sub down the road if you are not happy with that one.

FYI - keep in mind what Ben said about speaker spacing. Look in your manual for your RTi8's at the diagram about speaker placement.

[Demosthenes9]

RTi8's are not serious over kill. In a big room like that I would say they are marginal. The floor space they take up is minimal, and you want your tweeters at near ear level. Putting speakers on a wall really sucks some of the life out of them.
Ben

Ben,

Thanks for the reply and for the warning about wall mounting. Rears are on stands and RTi8's are on the floor. If I go to A3's in front, they would either sit on the TV stand (with the dampening stuff under them) or go on separate stands as well.

I can understand how you would have a difficult time with the room, windows, etc.

Fronts - sounds like the RTi3 will be fine for your needs

Center - Keep your CSi5 - didn't realize that you had that when you said CS5 - that will be perfect.

Rears - FXi's

Sub - you can always add another sub down the road if you are not happy with that one.

FYI - keep in mind what Ben said about speaker spacing. Look in your manual for your RTi8's at the diagram about speaker placement.

Curved,

Thanks again to you also. Yeah, I made a mistake in my first post. Center is a CSi5 which I will keep or maybe trade up to a CSi6 if I can find one for a really good price.

As to FXi rears, does it matter whether they are A series or not ?

Also, would it be terrible to have RTi A3's as rears (good prices on them on the Bay. :)

[Demosthenes9]

Ben and Curved,

Would like to thank you once again. Decided to go ahead and get two pairs of RTi A3's and a pair of FXiA4's. Will do some testing (auditioning?) of various configurations using existing center and sub.

-RTI8 fronts with A3 rears
-RTI8 fronts with A4 rears
-A3 fronts and rears.
-A3 fronts with A4 rears.

Will see what sounds "best" as well as what is more than acceptable and aesthetically pleasing as well.


Thanks again for giving me a direction to go.

[sdschwendener]

I wish i could PM Demosthenes9 but I do not have enough posts to do so. Tell me how they turn out?

[Erik Tracy]

Ben and Curved,

Would like to thank you once again. Decided to go ahead and get two pairs of RTi A3's and a pair of FXiA4's. Will do some testing (auditioning?) of various configurations using existing center and sub.

-RTI8 fronts with A3 rears
-RTI8 fronts with A4 rears
-A3 fronts and rears.
-A3 fronts with A4 rears.

Will see what sounds "best" as well as what is more than acceptable and aesthetically pleasing as well.


Thanks again for giving me a direction to go.

Keep us posted on how things turn out - I'd really like to hear your opinion of the A3's - for movies and for music!

Good luck!

[Demosthenes9]

I wish i could PM Demosthenes9 but I do not have enough posts to do so. Tell me how they turn out?

Keep us posted on how things turn out - I'd really like to hear your opinion of the A3's - for movies and for music!

Good luck!

I must warn you now, I am a "layman" at best and don't know much of anything about audio, but, for what it's worth, I will follow up with a post detailing my findings.

I have 2 sets of RTI A3's and a set of FXI A4's on the way.

[curved]

The only differences in the RTi line that start with a A:
-Polks newest version in RTI line
-curved cabinet - help imaging a little better
-Polk and some forum members say that they are not quite as bright (smoothened out a little bit on top and transitions)

Let me know if you have any questions with mounting, wiring, etc