Anyone try these??

[WildOne]

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

[Face]

Generic crossover, no thanks.

[WildOne]

Ok
The crossover is junk!

What about these speakers?

Thanks
WO

[Cal Weldon]

I wonder why they refer to the tweeter as silk dome and a polymer?

WO, maybe someone here has heard the kit. Be patient.

[picowallspeaker]

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 ???

[WildOne]

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.

[picowallspeaker]

Great!
I just watched at the picture
So ....you get double !!!!
And...if I need just two extra woofers ?
I mean ...May this project be a basis for future projects ?
Or does it leave you with a bunch of baskets and plastic ?! Because that's my 'feeling' when I watch at those advertising .

[johnplemons]

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.

[DrDyna]

Originally Posted by johnplemons

Bottom line on these kits, if they sound like crap, they are not listed or sold.

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.

[johnplemons]

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