Polk Audio RTi A7's

[haulnazz15]

Has anyone heard these in person or have an opinion on them? I am helping my father put together an HT system in the new house they just built. The house has a dedicated media room which is about 23Lx11Wx10H. Since the room is narrow, we are planning 3 rows of 2 HT chairs. Okay, so with the particulars of the room out of the way, what recommendations are there for such a narrow room?

I can't find anywhere to demo the Polks in Tulsa, OK. Circuit City doesn't sell the RTi and above lines, and their staff are incompetant teenagers to boot. In addition, there isn't a lot of room between the walls and the HT chairs to pass through, so would in-wall speakers for the side channels be a horrible compromise? Any other brands that would just blow the Polks away for the same price range (about 1K for the front pair).

The rear two channels/sub can be any size and all speakers will likely be pushed by a Pioneer Elite VSX-92TXH receiver with 130Wx7. I have searched the site a bunch to try to find answers, but no one has much input on these.

 

[mazersteven]

what recommendations are there for such a narrow room?

Acoustic Panels

 

[mazersteven]

Any other brands that would just blow the Polks away for the same price range (about 1K for the front pair).

Speakers sound is so personal. What I like you might not like.

I don't know if these blow the Polk's away. Just another speaker to consider.

Diva by Swans 6.1 Floorstanding
http://www.ozhometheater.com/ozht_prodcat_htspeakers_floorstanding_6.1bc.htm

 

[haulnazz15]

lol, yes well those look good, but where would I even demo a pair like those? I've never heard of the swans, save for a few posts here and there. I realize the sound is personal, but I'm open to opinions.

My father was originally thinking Klipsch RF-82's but he hasn't actually heard them, and is going more off of name reputation. I know the stigma behind them, so we'll spare that discussion. We heard a DefTech CLR 2002 center he liked, but it seemed to overpower the DefTech BP7004 towers that were paired with it (Magnolia Best Buy). I'm sure most of it was due to improper tuning of the A/V receiver they were using, but still the BP7004's didn't seem too impressive to me; not bad, just not impressive.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

How far is this place from you?
http://www.wildwestelectronics.net/

You need to find out what your Dad likes in terms of speakers and the only way to do this is have him listen to as many as you can find

 

[ParadigmDawg]

This maybe the best deal you will run across.
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47029

 

[haulnazz15]

The PO Box for Wild West is in Edmond, OK, which is only an hour and a half away. But I couldn't realy find locations of any physical stores unless I was missing something.

I realize it will be up to his personal preference, but it would be nice to have some starting points, and I honestly had a hard time zoning in on the speakers full sound when listening to them in the middle of a crowded store with people talking and demoing other speakers at the same time. The downside is, my father isn't the type of person to have anyone come in and do an in-home demo of speakers.

This room will primarily be used for movies and the occassional concert DVD (aka chicago, styx, eagles, etc). I know that he isn't looking for a whole stack of electronics to be able to run this thing. The projector, receiver, and blu-ray player will likely be the only thing in the air conditioned equipment room.

 

[mazersteven]

1) Does your father want to go around demoing speakers? Or is he just looking to put a system together from the suggestions of others?

2) Budget for all speakers, sub included.

3) Is this going to be primarily a HT room, or is he into sitting in front of a set of speakers, and listening to music?

4) What are his expectations of this system? Does he want to hear, and feel like he is in the middle of the explosions?

 

[haulnazz15]

1) Does your father want to go around demoing speakers? Or is he just looking to put a system together from the suggestions of others?

2) Budget for all speakers, sub included.

3) Is this going to be primarily a HT room, or is he into sitting in front of a set of speakers, and listening to music?

4) What are his expectations of this system? Does he want to hear, and feel like he is in the middle of the explosions?

1) He would like to go around and demo speakers, but his occupation keeps him out of state usually until the weekend, so many of the better audio places are closed on weekends or appointment only.

2) Budget for speakers for full 7.1 is negotiable, but probably between 3500-4K.

3) Primarily HT, unless it is a new CD, or a dvd of a concert. He listens to lots of music, but primarily while drumming. That is a separate room in the house for the drumset/stereo setup where sound quality isn't quite as important as you can't hear it when drumming, lol.

4) I'm sure he would love as much performance as he can get for the price range. The sub I had been looking was an Outlaw LFM-1 based solely off of reviews and specs.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Maybe it's an ID only store, I dont really know but a phone call would benefit on this one

AccuDT lives up your way somewhere. Help this guy out DT, where are some good HT stores for Sooners?

The PO Box for Wild West is in Edmond, OK, which is only an hour and a half away. But I couldn't realy find locations of any physical stores unless I was missing something.

I realize it will be up to his personal preference, but it would be nice to have some starting points, and I honestly had a hard time zoning in on the speakers full sound when listening to them in the middle of a crowded store with people talking and demoing other speakers at the same time. The downside is, my father isn't the type of person to have anyone come in and do an in-home demo of speakers.

This room will primarily be used for movies and the occassional concert DVD (aka chicago, styx, eagles, etc). I know that he isn't looking for a whole stack of electronics to be able to run this thing. The projector, receiver, and blu-ray player will likely be the only thing in the air conditioned equipment room.

 

[haulnazz15]

Maybe it's an ID only store, I dont really know but a phone call would benefit on this one

AccuDT lives up your way somewhere. Help this guy out DT, where are some good HT stores for Sooners?

Lol, and Sooners we are. If worse comes to worse, it may be worthwhile to try and purchase something from Wild West and return it if it isn't that great.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

This place is an authorized Paradigm dealer. Call them and see what else they carry, maybe it will be a one stop shop.

THE PHONOGRAPH
3939 S. HARVARD STE 201
TULSA, OK
74135
918-747-3210

My pick in speakers are:

B&W
Dynaudio
Paradigm

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I think the best thing to do is to have Best Buy (or Circuit City) order those Polk RTI A7 speakers for you. But check their Return Policy on this! If they give you the usual 30-Day Return Policy, then just try it out and return it if you don't like it. How far is the Best Buy or Circuit City store near you?

Have you checked out Best Buy in Tulsa?
I was told that the Tulsa Best Buy seems to have more selections than the stores in OKC.

How about these Polks from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8828058&st=Polk&lp=21&type=product&cp=1&id=1207956903692

I say go to Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics in Tulsa and listen to all the speakers there.

 

[haulnazz15]

Okay, well since I have a few options on the mains/center and rear surrounds. Does anyone have any suggestions for the side surrounds for the 7.1 system? Remember: narrow room and probably 24" from wall to armrest of the HT chairs, so large wall-mounted speakers won't work. Anyone have suggestions on decent in-walls? I know the con of in-walls regarding the lack of proper cabinet, but we work with what we've got. I know Polk, Klipsch, Swan all have in-wall and narrower bi-pole style speakrs, but didn't know if any of you had experience with them.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I use in-ceilings for my surrounds and in my bedroom and they work well for this. I would check out SpeakerCrafts as my number one pick (they have in-walls).

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Maybe it's an ID only store, I dont really know but a phone call would benefit on this one

AccuDT lives up your way somewhere. Help this guy out DT, where are some good HT stores for Sooners?

Another important point I want to bring up is the fact that ALL of the HT stores I've been to in Oklahoma (OKC - DefTec, Mirage, Klipsch, Polk; Edmond - Paradigm Studio 100s; Norman - B&W 800s) have very bad room acoustics and setup.

All the speakers sound so bad it's not even funny.

So the OP might as well try them out at home and return them to BB or CC if he is not pleased.

Ultimate Electronics have DefTech, Klipsch, Mirage, & Infiniti. However, UE will not let you return items that are Special Orders (not in regular stock items).

 

[allargon]

Another important point I want to bring up is the fact that ALL of the HT stores I've been to in Oklahoma (OKC - DefTec, Mirage, Klipsch, Polk; Edmond - Paradigm Studio 100s; Norman - B&W 800s) have very bad room acoustics and setup.

All the speakers sound so bad it's not even funny.

So the OP might as well try them out at home and return them to BB or CC if he is not pleased.

Ultimate Electronics have DefTech, Klipsch, Mirage, & Infiniti. However, UE will not let you return items that are Special Orders (not in regular stock items).

Noooo kidding... I hated the way B&W in-walls I heard at the Home Theater Store sounded. I feel that way about most Polks at Fry's.

 

[AVRat]

We heard a DefTech CLR 2002 center he liked

If he likes the DT CLR 2002, I’d use three up front, DT UIW-BP/55s for surrounds, and an AV123 MFW-15 for the sub.

Does he already have the screen, is it large enough? If not, perhaps an acoustically transparent screen with three DT RLS II/IIIs behind it would be a practical/feasible option.

 

[haulnazz15]

The BestBuy in Tulsa is where we heard the CLR 2002 center from DefTech. But I honestly couldn't hardly hear the DefTech Bipolar towers at all because the center channel was so loud in comparison when played simultaneously. (My father and I are both musically inclined [drummers] so we are not professionals but can hear tonal differences and timbre discrepencies fairly well) The BestBuy only had one pair of Klipsch hooked up and they were the RF-62's, so not really a good comparison with the larger DT's.

Ultimate doesn't carry Polk anymore, and Circuit City only carries their Monitor series and below, so no RTi's or LSi's. I have only read/heard good things about Paradigm, SVS, and Axiom, but never heard them in person.

The main problem is getting the front 3 to be of same brand, then finding side channels to have a close match to the rest of the group. Getting a 5.1 channel setup of all of the same brand and then adding in two in-walls for the side channels seems like the best bet.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Stop it....you are hurting my ears....

If he likes the DT CLR 2002, I’d use three up front, DT UIW-BP/55s for surrounds, and an AV123 MFW-15 for the sub.

Does he already have the screen, is it large enough? If not, perhaps an acoustically transparent screen with three DT RLS II/IIIs behind it would be a practical/feasible option.