aw11sd
vintage seductee
First, thanks to dnewma04 for pointing them out and Njord Noatun for letting me call dibs.
Picked up the pair on Saturday for $30! When I came home I loaded up my Holst Planets CD and first listened to it on my Polk 10Bs, then again through the RTRs. The Polks have always been impressive, but the RTR really blows them away. The RTRs have a simply massive soundstage, incredible detail and clarity, more 'texture' to the brass and strings, seamless, powerful bass, HIGH highs and imaging like I've never heard before. I knew these were good speakers, but oh my, not this good. I can only imagine how they would sound with the optional electrostatic tweeters.
Now, the bad. These are bi-ampable speakers and one one of them is missing the terminal connection for tweeter when bi-amping or main connection when using only one amp (as I am, for now...). The previous owner soldered on some quality looking wire in place and I've simply twisted it together with my wire for now, is this bad? They were owned by an older couple who 'upgraded' to a Bose Lifestyle and the pair was obviously cared for, with everything else as near mint as can be expected.
When listening to a CD I know very well, Francis the Mute by The Mars Volta, there is a part of one song with vocals that were mixed kind of strangely in an intentional way with a loud chorus and a fading refrain that moves to the opposite channel. On the Polks this was always quite audible, but with the RTRs the refrain almost disappears. The rest of the CD sounded like I was hearing it for the first time, with new sounds and detail that I'd never heard the previous twenty or so times I've listened to this album... that makes me think that it's simply down to a more advanced crossover relaying a more realistic image of what's on the recording rather than some problem with the speakers themselves... what do you guys think? Thanks in advance
edit: for those not familiar, 280DRs have four 10" woofers per cab, one downward firing, one forward, and one on either side. Also, two tweeters per side for a total of six per cab. That dust on the bottom is hard to clean without getting too close to the woofer, the only reason it's visible is due to camera flash.
Picked up the pair on Saturday for $30! When I came home I loaded up my Holst Planets CD and first listened to it on my Polk 10Bs, then again through the RTRs. The Polks have always been impressive, but the RTR really blows them away. The RTRs have a simply massive soundstage, incredible detail and clarity, more 'texture' to the brass and strings, seamless, powerful bass, HIGH highs and imaging like I've never heard before. I knew these were good speakers, but oh my, not this good. I can only imagine how they would sound with the optional electrostatic tweeters.
Now, the bad. These are bi-ampable speakers and one one of them is missing the terminal connection for tweeter when bi-amping or main connection when using only one amp (as I am, for now...). The previous owner soldered on some quality looking wire in place and I've simply twisted it together with my wire for now, is this bad? They were owned by an older couple who 'upgraded' to a Bose Lifestyle and the pair was obviously cared for, with everything else as near mint as can be expected.
When listening to a CD I know very well, Francis the Mute by The Mars Volta, there is a part of one song with vocals that were mixed kind of strangely in an intentional way with a loud chorus and a fading refrain that moves to the opposite channel. On the Polks this was always quite audible, but with the RTRs the refrain almost disappears. The rest of the CD sounded like I was hearing it for the first time, with new sounds and detail that I'd never heard the previous twenty or so times I've listened to this album... that makes me think that it's simply down to a more advanced crossover relaying a more realistic image of what's on the recording rather than some problem with the speakers themselves... what do you guys think? Thanks in advance
edit: for those not familiar, 280DRs have four 10" woofers per cab, one downward firing, one forward, and one on either side. Also, two tweeters per side for a total of six per cab. That dust on the bottom is hard to clean without getting too close to the woofer, the only reason it's visible is due to camera flash.
