My review of the Polk RTi A1

[efernand1]

Hi,

For Denon & Pioneer it's movies...but some are not happy with the 1200 performance.

The Pioneer LX series is awesome but can't tweak it further once setup is completed to get refinement.

Yamaha is supposedly on the brighter side - 50-50 for both. Till late 2003 the avrs were good, now I find them lackin muscle.

Simple logic which works for me is that for music if you are able to hear all genres very clearly with punch, that avr and speakers can't fail for movies or gaming.

 

[drkrack]

^i have a sub so the real low bass is taken care of by it. the avr was a marantz but its now dead atm so i may be changing to denon.

by punch i mean the wharfedales are slightly mild. they're great for instrumental music, vocals, classical etc even rock sounds good but pop, r&b not so much. even movies seem to lack that oomph. i think one can categorize their sound as kind of british ie stiff upper lip.

did you find that to be the case with the diamonds? when you switched from it did you hear any other speakers before finalising on the polks

ofc i will try & get a demo but you know how things are here. you may hear one avr-speaker combo in one place & a different one in another. besides listening to differnet brands/models back to back you start to get confused. i've found that the general opinion amongst us users tend to be correct & leaving a little room for slight differences in tastes they pretty much concur. so its good to get opinions of others esp those that have lived with a setup & actually used it in their homes

I listened to many speakers before finalising on Polks, Klipsh floor standing was the one which I liked a lot , but way out of my budget (>1.2Lakh) 2 yrs ago. All premium speakers above 50k have certain standard capabilities , decision is mostly subjective at that stage ; you can't go horribly wrong with any branded premium set of speakers in my opinion.

I auditioned newer Wharfs, Polk all series, Kef , Ceruvin Wega, Mission, Jamo 5.1, Mordant short, MA etc Unfortunately I don't remember Model numbers now. Yes I completely agree, Wharfs and MA are mostly sound british. Polks impressed with good sound detailing and faithful reproduction of sound. Klipsh will surely be my next upgrade, whenever finances permit.

Tip: if you can't find most of the combination Demos , Check Olx etc, and talk to the owners ; surprisingly most of them will oblige for a demo even though you clarify that you may not be interested in buying. This demo at homes is much realistic than professionally designed, acoustically caliberated studio demo rooms offered by many dealers in my honest opinion.

Always take someone along for such demos, whose opinions matter for you , spouse or a close friend etc that helps a lot.

 

[sriram_shol]

How does Polk RTi A1 sound with Yamaha AVRs? I am curious to know since in my setup Yamaha sounds brighter with Mission speakers but with ELAC being European, they are strongly warm.

I like the more brighter sound but ELAC sounds very much warm for me (The highs are kind of buried always) in my Yamaha AVR.

 

[sriram_shol]

How does Polk RTi A1 sound with Yamaha AVRs? I am curious to know since in my setup Yamaha sounds brighter with Mission speakers but with ELAC being European, they are strongly warm.

I like the more brighter sound but ELAC sounds very much warm for me (The highs are kind of buried always) in my Yamaha AVR.

I got a chance for an audition at Profx yesterday. RTi A1 sounds brighter with Yamaha. For those who like more shrill, this combo goes well.

 

[sunilkm]

During my AVR purchase I had an audition of Yamaha 577 with Polk TSX speaker setup in Profx. It was a brighter combo.

 

[sriram_shol]

During my AVR purchase I had an audition of Yamaha 577 with Polk TSX speaker setup in Profx. It was a brighter combo.

I was showcased using RX-V583 connected to RTi A1 & CSi A4 for a 5.1 setup which I was specific about in the demo.

I took some of my BDs and played them to see how the highs are performed in A1. They are considerably slim as compared to A3 but they are mighty! Same with CSi A4 as compared to its big brother A6. Plenty of power and punch.