# RTi-A7 Roll-Off



## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

HTS Forum Members,

If this question has been addressed before, I'm sorry.

I think the +/-3db roll-off of the Polk RTi-A7 is at 35 Hz. The roll-off of my subwoofers is rated down to 20 Hz. Therefore, would setting the AVR crossover to 40 Hz make good sense, or might you set it higher? My audio taste favors mostly music. Thank you (and sorry for the repetition).


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

mdalehts said:


> HTS Forum Members,
> 
> If this question has been addressed before, I'm sorry.
> 
> I think the +/-3db roll-off of the Polk RTi-A7 is at 35 Hz. The roll-off of my subwoofers is rated down to 20 Hz. Therefore, would setting the AVR crossover to 40 Hz make good sense, or might you set it higher? My audio taste favors mostly music. Thank you (and sorry for the repetition).


I personally wouldn't set it any lower than 60hz. let your subs do the heavy lifting for lfe under 80-60 hz..


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## cr136124 (Apr 23, 2012)

Yeah, you really don't need to set your crossover that low. You have a really nice subwoofer, so let your SVS to take care of the heavy lifting by handling the LFE in your system.

To give you an idea, I have the RTi A9's and I did set the crossover to 80Hz. Yes, as per the specifications the A9's can go as low as 18Hz. You, will have a better performance setting the crossover a bit higher. Try it at 60Hz and then 80Hz and you will have better results.

Of course, everything is preference and you can select the crossover that produce the better sound for "you".

My two cents!


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

I agree with the others, set the crossover higher.
My crossover is set at 80Hz and the sub is level matched to the speakers, you can't even tell where the crossover occurs.
With dual SB-12's you should have a fantastic transition between the speakers and the subs.


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## The Mutant (Jun 29, 2013)

Mike Edwards said:


> I personally wouldn't set it any lower than 60hz. let your subs do the heavy lifting for lfe under 80-60 hz..


I own the entire rti series and my xover is set at 45hz and I'm using 2 subs. Honestly this is about personal taste.dont get me wrong I've done 60hz-80hz and I find 45hz to work for me. So lets put it this way(the starting point is 80hz)then your ears will guid u


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

The Mutant said:


> I own the entire rti series and my xover is set at 45hz and I'm using 2 subs. Honestly this is about personal taste.dont get me wrong I've done 60hz-80hz and I find 45hz to work for me. So lets put it this way(the starting point is 80hz)then your ears will guid u


Good post, yes 80Hz is simply the most recommended starting point.


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## The Mutant (Jun 29, 2013)

I also think you must setup the subwoofer Freq of your avr to bypass if not try setting it to the highest point


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

Thank you. I'm currently satisfied with a 60 Hz crossover. I feel that the 80 Hz crossover produces excessive bass and boominess with loss of clarity. Also, with respect to roll-off...

I've experiemented countless times (ad nauseum) with the large/small setting for the main speakers, and I usually find the large setting generates deeper/richer vocals. So I've kept it there. I realize this is contrary to most sound advice, but I'm not finding a downside: my amp doesn't get hot (unless played painfully loud for an extended period) and I don't experience problems with excessive bass, phase control, standing waves, etc. The mains and subs seem to work harmoniously despite their overlap.


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## The Mutant (Jun 29, 2013)

mdalehts said:


> Thank you. I'm currently satisfied with a 60 Hz crossover. I feel that the 80 Hz crossover produces excessive bass and boominess with loss of clarity. Also, with respect to roll-off...
> 
> I've experiemented countless times (ad nauseum) with the large/small setting for the main speakers, and I usually find the large setting generates deeper/richer vocals. So I've kept it there. I realize this is contrary to most sound advice, but I'm not finding a downside: my amp doesn't get hot (unless played painfully loud for an extended period) and I don't experience problems with excessive bass, phase control, standing waves, etc. The mains and subs seem to work harmoniously despite their overlap.


Are those RTI's new ? Reason for asking Is/if your speakers are new they have to be broken in. Then ul re configure the xover freq


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

Thank you. They're not new, about 1.5 years old. Yes, I agree their performance has seemed to improve with time. However, I'm not really sure whether their improved performance is the result of "breaking-in" or I've gradually learned to optimize their performance via receiver settings and the addition of an external amp, or both.


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

My speakers are similar to yours, mains roll-off around 27 Hz ±3 dB, sub 18 Hz ±3 dB, and after a lot of experimenting I have found that, like you, 60 Hz crossover works best for me. And since I added a couple of amps I have my mains set to large as well.


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

Thank you for your concurrence!


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## The Mutant (Jun 29, 2013)

mdalehts said:


> Thank you. They're not new, about 1.5 years old. Yes, I agree their performance has seemed to improve with time. However, I'm not really sure whether their improved performance is the result of "breaking-in" or I've gradually learned to optimize their performance via receiver settings and the addition of an external amp, or both.


Using an external amp is a good call and I'm loving my RTI's even without a use of a sub.


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

For these speakers, the Yamaha parametric optimizer (YPAO) tends to boost the low-end of the frequency range and attenuate the high-end. Even so, the resulting sound seemed harsh to my ears, so I further attenuated the high-end curve by about 2 dB, and that has "softened" the response to a more comfortable level.


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

Recently read elsewhere (2 yeard-old thread) that the subwoofer crossover "should" be set one octave above the -3db rolloff of the mains. Anyone heard of this before, and would you agree? The RTIi-A7s rolloff at about 35hz, according to Polk; therrefore, the subwoofer "should" be set at the nearest octave according to this advice, which would be either 60Hz or 80 hz on my AVR. I've listened to the crossover setting at 40/60/80Hz many many times, and right now I'm enjoying them at 40Hz because the bass response seems to be clearer and less boomy. Also, the subs seem to provide a louder and lower response when their phase is set in "reverse" on the AVR relative to the mains even though they're located right next to the mains and equidistant to the listening position. I don't think reversed polarity is causing the 180 degree out-of-phase issue because I was careful to correctly connect the mains to the external amp's outputs. Could I be overlooking something or doing something wroing? Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thank you.


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## the_rookie (Sep 30, 2008)

I think for your instance the A7 should be at least 40hz, 50-60 would be best. I have the older A9 and use 40hz. It seems pretty happy there. I'm not under using but not over using the band. Wish i could do Full range+double bass to extract "the most" out of there potential. But oh well they sound amazing. Good choice on A7's


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## mdalehts (Mar 22, 2013)

I love the A7s. They're beautiful and sound great when played loudly (in excess of -15db) with the external amp. For music, they provide enough detailed bass to render my subwoofers nearly useless in my 3200 sf family room with open floor plan. For HT, they're great performers - especially with the subwoofers. They produce good imaging and breadth of stage.

However, after 2.5 years, I'm still trying to get them to 'sound great' at low/moderate levels. At these levels, they seem to lack depth, nuance, and presence. My AVR's parametric equalizer does a good job at compensating for their slightly excessive brightness. But their performance at low/moderate levels still does not provide the amount of subtle detail that I'm craving.

After much testing, they seem to sound smoother and more robust when set to 'large' and the subwoofers set to 'reverse' on the AVR - even though the A7s and subwoofers are located next to each other and equidistant from the listening position. With the subwoofer crossover now set to 40Hz, their is presumably about a 5Hz overlap among the A7s and subwoofers. This small overlap seems to have reduced some of the phase issues that were troubling my system.


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