For the money, this is a fantastic speaker that is worthy of using quality source and electronics with. This speaker will reveal the strengths/weaknesses of the upstream components. Its sound is characterized by an articulate and detailed midrange, smooth extended highs, and surprising bass for such a small cabinet. It also is very dynamic sounding - I keep thinking I'm listening to a much larger speaker!!
My taste in music is varied - I listen to everything from classic rock, to folk, to Baroque and chamber music. The RTi4 excells at all of these. It is particularly adept at acoustic music and vocals. Obviously a speaker of this size and price has it's limits - so all of my comments are in the context of the size/price. But I can honestly say that at this price point and even well beyond, these are the most pleasing bookshelf speakers that I have heard(to my ears!).
Lest the reader assume that I am a neophyte with limited experience and poor equipment - I have been an audio enthusiast and musician for over 35 years. The RTi4s are currently being driven by a custom built $1700 EL34 tube integrated of 50 WPC and tube output(6922) CD deck. My other equipment includes NAD C162 preamp, NAD C272 power amp, NAD C342 CD deck, Magnepan MG 1.6QR speakers.
The RTi 4s are an excellent buy.

I read a lot of excellent reviews of this speaker.But I have my opinion,based on my experience. This speaker has a lot of power, good for home cinema,but not for music( for electronic music,some rock would be OK,but exactly not for classic), unnatural Hi-frequencies, somesing unnatural in middle range.Highs too bright, bass and highs dominate in sound...Similar sound-Infinity- Primus line, bass and highs dominate,some people like it,but! sound should be natural in the middle range and highs. That speaker-not.Same problem has Infinity Primus.
And this speaker has some "plastic" character of sound.Probably manufacturers have to go back for paper woofers.Not highest quality of sound,but but speakers not too expensive,so,what we want? I put 4 stars for worth of money and 3 stars for sound.

Coherence, balance, musicality, dynamic capabilities price/performance ratio

For the price and my uses, none

I Purchased thIs set of Polks after reading two very positive reviews at(AUDIOREVIEW AND STEROPHILE). Both reviewers nailed it concerning the RTI4. The sound these bookshelf speakers produce is very coherent and musical with excellent balance.The soundstaging and imaging are very good as well. The mid-range is gorgeous and the highs are very detailed and sweet!! Bass is excellent for a bookshelf speaker. I have two sets, plus the CSi3 center, paired with an OUTLAW LFM-1Plus subwoofer (the single best value in a subwoofer period!) My revceiver is a SONY AVD-C700ES w/DVD/SACD/CD combo player with S-Master Pro digital amps. The synergy of this system is sublime. Home theater performance can compete with systems costing multiples of the RTI4/CSI3 combo. However it's the musicality of this system that's its strong point. IPolk has "knocked it out of the park" with this combo. Well done Polk!!

Customer Service

Excellent!

Similar Products Used:

Too many to name.... I'm serious.

Balanced sound, value

None

These are great little speakers. I bought them for my bedroom system, so they are used only to play music. For that, they are very good. All the music sounds very natural and balanced, including bass drums, bass guitars, etc.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, RCA, Bose

Great sound for the price. Complaints about bass are unwarranted when you look at the size of the speakers, it is scarcely more than 10 inches high so what it does produce is generous for a speaker of its size. The sound is crisp and clear, living in a dorm all year, i could walk down to the end ofthe hall 10 rooms away, have all the peoples doors open with them watching tv, playing video games, listening to music, and the Polks cut right through all of the background noise. Only caution would be not to put the speaker too low. The tweeter dominates more than any other speaker iv heard when placed too low