I found this set on the bay
3 way Kit EM-i12 Kit made using RTi12 Major Components
3 way Kit EM-i12 Kit made using RTi12 Major Components | eBay
US $249.00
Seems like a great deal?
WO
3 way Kit EM-i12 Kit made using RTi12 Major Components
3 way Kit EM-i12 Kit made using RTi12 Major Components | eBay
US $249.00
Seems like a great deal?
WO
Ok , the price is right BUT it's for ONE set !!!
In fact at first glance ...there was a tweeter missing ...too many woofers ...
For 250 $ you'd get 3 woofers, 2 mids and one tweeter , most plastic and all shielded ....
And ,oh yes , the necessary crossover 
Did I succeed in dragging you down ???
In fact at first glance ...there was a tweeter missing ...too many woofers ...
For 250 $ you'd get 3 woofers, 2 mids and one tweeter , most plastic and all shielded ....
And ,oh yes , the necessary crossover Did I succeed in dragging you down ???
Each cabinet holds three woofers, two mids, a silk dome Polk tweeter and a Bi-Ampable Cerwin Vega three way crossover.
Again you get enough components to fill a pair of the EM-i12 speakers.
What you get....
6 each of the Polk RD7225-1 - 7" woofer
4 each of the Polk RD0514-1/2 Mid woofer
2 each of the Polk SL5501 Polymer Dome tweeter
2 each Bi-Ampable Cerwin Vega 3 way crossover
Included is a basic design drawing of the
EM-i12 style cabinet.
Again you get enough components to fill a pair of the EM-i12 speakers.
What you get....
6 each of the Polk RD7225-1 - 7" woofer
4 each of the Polk RD0514-1/2 Mid woofer
2 each of the Polk SL5501 Polymer Dome tweeter
2 each Bi-Ampable Cerwin Vega 3 way crossover
Included is a basic design drawing of the
EM-i12 style cabinet.
A little bit of feedback..
You get three woofers, because that is how Polk designed the RTi12, the woofers are 2.7 ohms each, when wired in series you get the 8 ohm load required to work properly with the crossover.
As for the crossover, it may not be the best in the world, but it isn't junk either, it is a main stream tried and tested blue collar 12 db crossover.
The problem here is you have people speaking off the top of their heads without any real knowledge or thought, or basic research to give proper answers.
Bottom line on these kits, if they sound like crap, they are not listed or sold. The cabinets are built, the system put together and listened to before they are sold in kit form. If you want to spend some time, building a good set of speakers with quality Polk Components. If you want to spend $250.00 on enough components to build your own set of Polk RTi12 style of speakers, then this is a good kit for you. The design is pretty straight forward and easy to build
The best answer I have for your question is, of the people who have bought this kit, everyone has loved it, many have come back and bought a second set of components to build another set of speakers.
There isn't anything that I kit, that I would not put in my house, there isn't any kit that I sell that I wouldn't offer to a friend. If it sounds crappy, I don't sell it, I will not offer it in a kit fashion. If I don't like the way it sounds, why should you? And yes I have more of these kits in my house than my wife wants. Every time she turns around there is another set of speakers being tested.
You get three woofers, because that is how Polk designed the RTi12, the woofers are 2.7 ohms each, when wired in series you get the 8 ohm load required to work properly with the crossover.
As for the crossover, it may not be the best in the world, but it isn't junk either, it is a main stream tried and tested blue collar 12 db crossover.
The problem here is you have people speaking off the top of their heads without any real knowledge or thought, or basic research to give proper answers.
Bottom line on these kits, if they sound like crap, they are not listed or sold. The cabinets are built, the system put together and listened to before they are sold in kit form. If you want to spend some time, building a good set of speakers with quality Polk Components. If you want to spend $250.00 on enough components to build your own set of Polk RTi12 style of speakers, then this is a good kit for you. The design is pretty straight forward and easy to build
The best answer I have for your question is, of the people who have bought this kit, everyone has loved it, many have come back and bought a second set of components to build another set of speakers.
There isn't anything that I kit, that I would not put in my house, there isn't any kit that I sell that I wouldn't offer to a friend. If it sounds crappy, I don't sell it, I will not offer it in a kit fashion. If I don't like the way it sounds, why should you? And yes I have more of these kits in my house than my wife wants. Every time she turns around there is another set of speakers being tested.
Just wanted to mention that just because people buy things doesn't mean they are good. If you put a terrible product on e-bay, all you're doing is taking an informal poll of how many idiots there are who purchase things from e-bay, which should not be confused with any mark of quality for a product.
For example, my brother-in-law purchased a "7.1 surround sound system" from e-bay a few years ago, a "Volk Audio".
Take a look at it here, if you dare. (this one isn't ours, I wouldn't want the bad karma of selling it some other poor sucker)
VA101 VOLK AUDIO SURROUND SYSTEM | Algonquin | eBay Classifieds (Kijiji) | 7835183
When I was preparing to help him set it up in his computer room, we un-boxed the unit only to find that the "receiver" unit had only a row of Left and Right analog audio inputs to go with it's full compliment of speaker connectors.
In wondering what sort of magic they employed to get the digital output from a blu-ray player to arc to the inside of the receiver that lacked a digital input, we opened the receiver unit only to discover a toroid power supply of approximately 200VA, a single paper-phenolic circuit board about the size of a sony walkman that was bristling with cold solder joints and components of a quality that would normally be reserved for talking toy teddy bears.
To top it all off, the empty section of the unit that wasn't occupied by a 5 dollar transformer and 75 cents worth of integrated circuits, they had bolted several plastic-coated cement blocks to add weight to the unit in an attempt to make people think it actually contained something of value.
Now, I'm not trying to make any insinuations about the quality of these speaker kits, but we should be aware that just because something sells, doesn't mean that it's a quality item.
Edit: added some photos just in case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating.
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You are absolutely 100% correct, you can buy poor product any where. As I buy the product that I sell, I am presented with such crap all the time. In fact we bought a load of complete white box speakers..
There was lots of great writing on the boxes, how good they would perform, their specs. It looked like a nice Dual 8" design. To get a better idea of the material, search Google for white box speaker deals. They talk about guy's selling these in parking lots, $2000.00 speaker set for 300 bucks. Have I got a deal for you, made a delivery, they put an extra on my truck by mistake, type of sales pitch..
The way that they were purchased, ( From Uncle Sam ) we couldn't do a proper inspection or testing of the product. We spend $25,000 on the deal, and we lost $15,000 in the deal because we did a quick sale to someone outside the United States of the product. When I was able to check and test the material I found it was the biggest piece of crap speaker set in the world, rather than do some of the testing in house, we sent a set out to an old time facility to do their testing.. I'm sure you've heard of Speaker City out of the Los Angeles area. They blew them up for us, we wanted to know how realistic the specs were on the box. Not very was the answer, the cabinets looked great, but they were filled with crappy components just as your surround sound system was.
There are people out there to make a buck and sell anything they can, without caring what it is. I have a different mind set, sure you can sell someone something once and you got their money. I prefer to have return customers, I prefer to have my customers send their friends to me. I treat people the way I want to be treated and answer them honestly. When talking to a customer on the phone, if I don't have what they want, or can't help them, I refer them to someone like Speaker City, Parts Express or other good companies that are out there. Sure I want to make money, but doing it at the expense of someone else isn't the way it works.
My company has been around for over 50 years, I started playing with speakers when I was 15 years old and had a 1966 Dodge Van with 10 speakers hooked into my stock AM Radio. I was a kid who didn't know anything, but through trail and error, schooling and learning what and how to do things, I've come a long way.
My friend you are correct, you can buy crap on eBay, you can buy crap at Sears as well as Target. It is the way of the world and everyone need to make a buck, screw the quality.
But being a bit old school I like to get value for my money, I research what I buy, they is the anal side of me. That same anal side mixed with the idealist I hope I am stops me from selling something that doesn't sound good.
The CFO in my company keeps on me about cutting down the time I spend talking to the Mr. Speaker Builder in all of us. Why, because they like to do it on my toll free number, and many end up not buying, or buying enough to cover the cost of their phone call or in most cases, their phone calls.
Back to your brother in Law, he should have bought the $49.00 Surround Sound Speaker set I have. It have two small towers, two tiny rears, and a center channel speaker. Oh and a Powered Sub-woofer that matches the description of the receiver that he bought. The difference is that I sell the system as the 5 speakers and a sub-woofer project. Truth and reality is that the Speakers aren't great as far as Construction Quality, they have this way bitch-en Wood Grained Photo Paper Finish on the cabinets. Fine wood finish they are not, but they sound decent, couple them with a small 80 watt receiver and they have a good sound. Do they compare to the Castle Acoustics set up I have in my house, in sound or cabinet finish? Heck no!! But for $49.00 I don't think you will find a better sounding set of speakers. My daughters each have a set in their rooms, as I said coupled with a nice and simple receiver. Like a 90 watt Yamaha. As I said, I like value for my money, and I like to give the customer value for their money, in my business and they way that we buy product, I have the ability to give my customers great value for their money than most other outlets. I don't buy through regular channels, I buy close-outs, from bankruptcies etc..
The quality of the product that I sell is of much higher quality than my prices would reflect.
Again just words from someone sitting at a keyboard in Tennessee, the computer doesn't have a gauge showing the integrity of the person at the other end of the wire.
I can tell you that there are a number of good companies out there, if you don't like what I have to offer, it is your choice. Apex Jr., Parts Express, Speaker City, and MCM are just a few good companies that I hope you frequent.
I know what I have for sell, I know the quality and the quality of how it sounds. So do my repeat customers, if you're curious you can see some of their comments on eBay. Just search for seller Mavin, 99.9% of the 24,000 customers who left me feedback are very happy with what we sell. But don't take my work for it, research us on eBay, compare me to the company that sells the setup you were comparing me to..
Did your brother in law really pay $1400.00 dollars for that stuff? The small out of focus pictures showing the product should have been the first warning. Look at my images, they are in focus, and show you what I'm selling down to the smallest detail.
Here is my link..
3 Way Kit Mavin EMi12 Kit using RTi12 Major Components
In my mind a picture is worth a thousand words. Judge for yourself.
John
There was lots of great writing on the boxes, how good they would perform, their specs. It looked like a nice Dual 8" design. To get a better idea of the material, search Google for white box speaker deals. They talk about guy's selling these in parking lots, $2000.00 speaker set for 300 bucks. Have I got a deal for you, made a delivery, they put an extra on my truck by mistake, type of sales pitch..
The way that they were purchased, ( From Uncle Sam ) we couldn't do a proper inspection or testing of the product. We spend $25,000 on the deal, and we lost $15,000 in the deal because we did a quick sale to someone outside the United States of the product. When I was able to check and test the material I found it was the biggest piece of crap speaker set in the world, rather than do some of the testing in house, we sent a set out to an old time facility to do their testing.. I'm sure you've heard of Speaker City out of the Los Angeles area. They blew them up for us, we wanted to know how realistic the specs were on the box. Not very was the answer, the cabinets looked great, but they were filled with crappy components just as your surround sound system was.
There are people out there to make a buck and sell anything they can, without caring what it is. I have a different mind set, sure you can sell someone something once and you got their money. I prefer to have return customers, I prefer to have my customers send their friends to me. I treat people the way I want to be treated and answer them honestly. When talking to a customer on the phone, if I don't have what they want, or can't help them, I refer them to someone like Speaker City, Parts Express or other good companies that are out there. Sure I want to make money, but doing it at the expense of someone else isn't the way it works.
My company has been around for over 50 years, I started playing with speakers when I was 15 years old and had a 1966 Dodge Van with 10 speakers hooked into my stock AM Radio. I was a kid who didn't know anything, but through trail and error, schooling and learning what and how to do things, I've come a long way.
My friend you are correct, you can buy crap on eBay, you can buy crap at Sears as well as Target. It is the way of the world and everyone need to make a buck, screw the quality.
But being a bit old school I like to get value for my money, I research what I buy, they is the anal side of me. That same anal side mixed with the idealist I hope I am stops me from selling something that doesn't sound good.
The CFO in my company keeps on me about cutting down the time I spend talking to the Mr. Speaker Builder in all of us. Why, because they like to do it on my toll free number, and many end up not buying, or buying enough to cover the cost of their phone call or in most cases, their phone calls.
Back to your brother in Law, he should have bought the $49.00 Surround Sound Speaker set I have. It have two small towers, two tiny rears, and a center channel speaker. Oh and a Powered Sub-woofer that matches the description of the receiver that he bought. The difference is that I sell the system as the 5 speakers and a sub-woofer project. Truth and reality is that the Speakers aren't great as far as Construction Quality, they have this way bitch-en Wood Grained Photo Paper Finish on the cabinets. Fine wood finish they are not, but they sound decent, couple them with a small 80 watt receiver and they have a good sound. Do they compare to the Castle Acoustics set up I have in my house, in sound or cabinet finish? Heck no!! But for $49.00 I don't think you will find a better sounding set of speakers. My daughters each have a set in their rooms, as I said coupled with a nice and simple receiver. Like a 90 watt Yamaha. As I said, I like value for my money, and I like to give the customer value for their money, in my business and they way that we buy product, I have the ability to give my customers great value for their money than most other outlets. I don't buy through regular channels, I buy close-outs, from bankruptcies etc..
The quality of the product that I sell is of much higher quality than my prices would reflect.
Again just words from someone sitting at a keyboard in Tennessee, the computer doesn't have a gauge showing the integrity of the person at the other end of the wire.
I can tell you that there are a number of good companies out there, if you don't like what I have to offer, it is your choice. Apex Jr., Parts Express, Speaker City, and MCM are just a few good companies that I hope you frequent.
I know what I have for sell, I know the quality and the quality of how it sounds. So do my repeat customers, if you're curious you can see some of their comments on eBay. Just search for seller Mavin, 99.9% of the 24,000 customers who left me feedback are very happy with what we sell. But don't take my work for it, research us on eBay, compare me to the company that sells the setup you were comparing me to..
Did your brother in law really pay $1400.00 dollars for that stuff? The small out of focus pictures showing the product should have been the first warning. Look at my images, they are in focus, and show you what I'm selling down to the smallest detail.
Here is my link..
3 Way Kit Mavin EMi12 Kit using RTi12 Major Components
In my mind a picture is worth a thousand words. Judge for yourself.
John
The drivers look like decent quality replacement drivers for a polk audio speaker, but why a random cerwin vega crossover?
You'll get a better response from the folks around here if the crossover was designed for those speakers, even if it was made from the least expensive bits from parts-express, even if the majority of random customers are satisfied with it.
Edit: No, he didn't pay $1400, I think it was more like $300. The box says something like MSRP $2,000 so that people feel comfortable about buying them for 3 or 4 hundred, when in reality they are barely worth $20.
You'll get a better response from the folks around here if the crossover was designed for those speakers, even if it was made from the least expensive bits from parts-express, even if the majority of random customers are satisfied with it.
Edit: No, he didn't pay $1400, I think it was more like $300. The box says something like MSRP $2,000 so that people feel comfortable about buying them for 3 or 4 hundred, when in reality they are barely worth $20.
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Of the Cerwin Vega.. A few years back Cerwin Vega got bought out by the Stanton Group, all went well until Stanton told the California people they were moving to Florida..
With that the panic started and Cerwin Vega had three large warehouses full of product, which is where we come in and how we moved into the speaker business. We bought a great majority of the completed and raw components from those warehouses. 135 fifty three foot trailer loads to be a bit more precise..
I use the Cerwin Vega crossovers because I have them, they are a good main stream crossover, well made and it gives the DIY user the option to Bi-Amp. Further I like to keep cost to the customer low, and I have these, meaning that I don't have to source a replacement to add into the kit, which increases the overall cost..
Best answer is that it sounds good with the speakers..
I do have other crossovers that I will have to look at with the kit though, I am running low on the Cerwin Vega Bi Amp units.. Which leaves some M&K I might be able to use. I just need to put them in the lab and see where they crossover at to make sure that they are a good match to the response of the speakers..
If you need a quick and easy kit for a basement or garage, then check out the $25.00 set of towers.. I have a bunch of the Tower cabinets from the Surround Sound Deal, you know the ones with the photo paper Black wood Grain Finish. Believe it or not,, they do sound pretty good. Or if you want a cheap high end sounding center channel speaker, check out the Boston Acoustics Center kit. I've been told buy a big time audio engineer that they are some of the best speakers he has heard for reproducing the human voice that he has heard. For $30.00 It can't be beat.
Like I said, I want people to have value when they buy for me. I want to make everyone someone who isn't afraid to build speakers. Once they get the bug, then they can DIY something more complex.
john
With that the panic started and Cerwin Vega had three large warehouses full of product, which is where we come in and how we moved into the speaker business. We bought a great majority of the completed and raw components from those warehouses. 135 fifty three foot trailer loads to be a bit more precise..
I use the Cerwin Vega crossovers because I have them, they are a good main stream crossover, well made and it gives the DIY user the option to Bi-Amp. Further I like to keep cost to the customer low, and I have these, meaning that I don't have to source a replacement to add into the kit, which increases the overall cost..
Best answer is that it sounds good with the speakers..
I do have other crossovers that I will have to look at with the kit though, I am running low on the Cerwin Vega Bi Amp units.. Which leaves some M&K I might be able to use. I just need to put them in the lab and see where they crossover at to make sure that they are a good match to the response of the speakers..
If you need a quick and easy kit for a basement or garage, then check out the $25.00 set of towers.. I have a bunch of the Tower cabinets from the Surround Sound Deal, you know the ones with the photo paper Black wood Grain Finish. Believe it or not,, they do sound pretty good. Or if you want a cheap high end sounding center channel speaker, check out the Boston Acoustics Center kit. I've been told buy a big time audio engineer that they are some of the best speakers he has heard for reproducing the human voice that he has heard. For $30.00 It can't be beat.
Like I said, I want people to have value when they buy for me. I want to make everyone someone who isn't afraid to build speakers. Once they get the bug, then they can DIY something more complex.
john
Well, I didn't mean to sound disparaging, I'm sure they are good deals for the prices you are asking on a pure parts basis, however the idea of using a crossover with those speakers -which might sound passable or even reasonably good -but without measurement, impedance adjustments, fs damping, l-pads or baffle step compensation is going to be met with grumpy faces around here.
Most of us will look at those kits and see $1000 worth of hidden sound quality that a custom crossover would provide. I'd be very interested to see how those assembled kits measure and what the crossover schematics are. Who knows, perhaps you could swap out a couple of parts on them and triple the value at the same price
Just my two cents.
Most of us will look at those kits and see $1000 worth of hidden sound quality that a custom crossover would provide. I'd be very interested to see how those assembled kits measure and what the crossover schematics are. Who knows, perhaps you could swap out a couple of parts on them and triple the value at the same price
Just my two cents.
I got four towers. The mids and highs are absolutely amazing, sounds better then the original Polk RTI 12. There seem to be missing lower frequency crossing but I realize it in the original Polk RTI 12 as well. If you pair it with a power sub, you will love them. Am I a amateur, maybe but I love audio details, I have 6 acoustat 1+1 setup in my bedroom for non dynamic listening. I have four Christie Vive audio towers in another room if I need dynamic and clean listening. My EM I12 was for movies. Four tower, B&W surround, rebuild cabinet with Polk LS90 for center, two velodyne 15 inch sub. Have enough EM I12 for another 8 tower. Yes, my movie room sound alot better than most movie theater setups.
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I just want to say thank you John, it's a little late when I saw this post. I reply below with pic of my cabinet. Your kits provide years of quality listening. Although I am using more high end audios in my bedrooms, I am still using your EM I12 for my living room. Fried came and listened to them. It motivated two coworkers to buy from you.