Looking to upgrade my Polk RTi A7 towers

Tubed.

 

The thing is, to make a gain in quality over your current preamp/integrated, you need to spend a good bit of money.

With the speakers that you have, it is not worth spending a lot more money as you are just not going to get that much improvement in sound quality.

With solid state like your integrated's preamp section, it is plenty good enough for the speakers that you are driving.

While it doesn't cost a lot of money to make a decent solid state preamp, it does cost a considerable amount of money to make a superior SS preamp.

All of the Polk front main towers that I have had in the system were run completely off of SS gear. The same goes for the rear towers and HT center channel.

I do have my vintage Altec Lansing A7's and they run on an all tube system with a separate tube preamp and various tube power amplifiers.

But I personally don't see any need to run speakers that were designed to run off of SS equipment, with a tube amp or power amplifer.

If you want to experiment with tubes in the audio chain, buy a tube buffer and place it after your integrated's preamp and before your power amp.

 

I meant a tube pre only. For power amp, he already bought the Parasound, which will be great for the RTI's.

 

Amazon is having issues...or I'm having issues with Amazon...its possible I could still cancel the order for the Parasound amp on Amazon, but Audio Advisor says its out of stock. So if I cancel the amp, and sell my integrated, what combination of amp/preamp should I look at for a budget of about $2000 US?

 

Chances are, the Amazon seller was AudioAdvisor to begin with. You can cancel Amazon if it hasn't shipped yet.

 

Yes supplier is Audio Advisor. But should I wait or can I do better with a combo?

 

I cannot advise you on something I haven't heard. I own and like the 2250, and that's why I suggested it. I don't think you can do better than that for $999. I would wait. Although it's strange - Amazon showing 3 in stock right now.

As to preamp - you may want to start a fresh thread for that.

 

I understand. I use a tube preamp on my vintage Altec's.

I don't bother using a tube preamp on any of my Polk speakers.

They were voiced with SS gear and sound perfectly fine with SS gear.

Quality tube gear is a costly investment. It will cost the OP a good deal of money to buy a good tube preamp.

It is simply not worth the investment for the return that he will get.

I love tubes, be they a preamp or a power amp. But I don't think that tubes bring any kind of audiophile magic to just any speakers.

By far, the majority of today's speakers are designed for the consumer, with HT being their primary intended application.

I might add, that I see nothing wrong with this approach. I have always used different HT speakers that I have owned equally for stereo.

The RTi's are fine for stereo. But, keep in mind that the RTiA7's are originally $600 (each), and while they are a terrific bargain for that money. They should not be considered to be a high end speaker.

If you are going to spend a lot of money on high end upstream audio gear, than it behooves you to buy better speakers.

That gaving been said, I was perfectly happy with my RTiA9's for HT and stereo.

I replaced them as a $1,500 retail pair of speakers, with a $4k retail pair of speakers.

Both of which, I bought during one of Polk's past 50% off sales.

I am also not one to believe that a tube front end to a SS power amplifier is the way to a tube sound.

My preferences are a SS preamp coupled with a tube power amp stage, which is what I did prior to bringing in the tube preamp into the system with the Altec's.

 

Opinions differ here. I have it both ways: a tube pre with Parasound power amp, and a Cary SS pre with PrimaLuna power amp. I like the former better, if for dynamics alone.

The Schiit Freya or Saga that were suggested here will be within budget, can be run in both tube and SS mode, and are likely quality products beyond their price points.

 

In terms of B&W I got my first pair when I moved to the UK as a student in in the 90s. It was a pair of 601. I over the years went up the range, 603, 604, and last year 804 and 803s. It is very personal of course but I do like the B&W sound and I find that my older 800s aesthetically integrates well in my lounge, I personally have to compromise with my better half so it does matter lol . I have a 5.1 setup (will not add any more boxes as part of the compromises) initially powered by a Yamaha AV receiver (RX-V3900) rated at 140W per channel. I have these last months switched to external power amps: Parasound A31 for the front channels and a A23+ for the rear. This has dramatically improved what I get out of my speakers. At the end of the day, current drives your speakers and a good power amp will deliver plenty as it is design from the ground up for that. I am starting to investigate a stereo pre-amp with a decent DAC as my next upgrade as I feel the AV receiver is now the weak link. This is so that when listening to Stereo I have the best system driving my speakers I can afford. After that other than upgrading my AV receiver to a better AV processor I do not intend on to upgrade anymore my system. But a power amp is definitely a massive step change/ upgrade!

 

Adding the Parasound NewClassic 2250 v.2 has done wonders for my system, including the Polk RTi A7 speakers. There is so much more coming out of the speakers now. I would still like to upgrade my speakers, but for now, just adding the amp was a great step. Now my debate with myself is whether to replace the integrated with a preamp.

 

I am in the same place, I have no idea how much improvement a pre-amp will do. But, the good news is that a good dealer will demo and I will trust my ears to asses if worthwhile and which to chose.

 

I honestly have no idea if moving from an integrated as the preamp to a dedicated preamp will even make a difference.

 

You see?

 

If you have time and space play with speaker placement, here is a video that can help with placement or there are other guides online as well. This might help while you research and save for your next upgrade. I know some people don't like cables to be brought up but different cables could "color" your sound to help achieve a more pleasing sound. I'm not talking high dollar cables just different cables. Copper can warm the sound and silver more sparkle. At least with the new amp and you feel you want new speakers you will know what differences you are looking for.



As far as the preamp I don't think you will notice enough of a difference to justify before speakers. Get speakers then the preamp. Let us know if any of this helps and how you are liking things!

 

I think it will, but only if you get a good high quality tubed unit. You will then get to hear some of the "tube magic" multiplied by the Parasound's might.

If you do an SS side-step from your current Marantz, the difference is likely to be negligible, if any. In that case, it's cheaper to keep what you have.

I also agree with the previous poster - speakers before preamp, it will have a much bigger sonic impact. Then, when you add a preamp later - you may hear additional subtle nuances.

 

Your preamp is fine. Unless you are prepared to spend a considerable amount of money, I doubt if you are going to see any real improvement.

I use the preamp and DAC on my original Peachtree iNova, that I have been using for many years on my SS system.

When I moved from the RTiA9's to the Polk LSiM707's, I still continued to use the iNova's DAC and preamp section, along with my original Emotiva XPA-2.

Even going from retail $1,500/pr. speakers to retail $4k/pr. speakers, I saw no need to upgrade to a separate preamp.

Now, I do use a separate tube preamp and single ended power amp with my Altec horn theater speakers but that's a different animal altogether.

Still, I will note, that for the Altec all tube system, I still use the iNova as the DAC and preamp for all digital music sources.

I bring them in to the tube preamp, from the line level (not volume controlled) output of the iNova, into the tube preamp input.

In fact, the only thing that goes directly into the tube preamp, is the output of the tube phono preamp.

But, I have a "Y" splitter cable on the phono preamp output, so that it can also go into one of the analog inputs on the Peachtree iNova.

I do this, so that I can also listen to the turntable, through my main SS system and the Polk LSiM707's.

The curious thing is, that I can switch the input selector back and forth between the straight in phono preamp and the iNova (when set on the phono input, instead of the DAC), and everything sounds exactly the same.

There is not even a click through the speakers or a pause as I switch back and forth.

I found this to be interesting because logic would tend to dictate the running the tube preamp straight off the phono preamp, should sound better than the phono preamp running through the Peachtree iNova and then into the tube preamp.

But, you can sit on the sofa, while I switch back and forth, and you can't tell any difference.

I do agree, upgrade your speakers first, then an external preamp.

But, even then, to realize a significant speaker improvement over the RTiA7's, you will need to upgrade your speakers to $2,500 - $4,000 retail speakers.

I might then suggest that you consider obtaining a pair of the LSiM707's or LSiM705's preowned.

You might still be better served, placing all of your upgrade money in speakers, as opposed to spending some of it on speakers and some on upgrading your preamp.

Having both, once you reach a certain point in a SS preamp, you really have to spend some major money on a preamp to improve the sound.

Going to a quality tube preamp, is going to be even more expensive than a better SS preamp.

Unless you come across a really excellent deal on a preamp or speakers, I would hold on to what you have now.

With your recent addition of your new power amp, you now have a really nice system. It will take a relatively large investment to step up from there.

Be happy and enjoy your new system!

 

Okay going to stick with my integrated as a preamp, and now will look to upgrade my speakers next. Might be a few years to build up bonus money funds to really make a difference, probably around $3K US.

 

Answered !

 

Klipsch R-820F specs: power handling: up to 150 watts RMS; my amp puts out 275WPC

 

Fixed !

 

Oh, OK. They were in your shortlist, in your OP :

Nothing beats Klipsch for hard rock and metal in general. Few modern floorstanders are rated for 275 w, not that you're ever going to use more than 100 of them at the same time without going deaf, let alone blowing you speakers, mind you

 

Yeah on my short list before I got my amp

And afraid of blowing up speakers!

 

Missed that part, apologies

 

Too bad. Some of the best-sounding affordable speakers around.