Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
BOUGHT THESE SPEAKERS AS THEY WERE BEING DISCONTINUED. PICKED UP PAIR FOR ABOUT 600 DOLLARS IN 1996. A THREE WAY BOOKSHELF SPEAKER THAT WEIGHS ABOUT 60 LBS. EACH. MY MUSICAL TASTES ARE RATHER ECCLECTIC SO I NEEDED A VERSATILE SPEAKER. FROM BEETHOVEN TO MICHAEL JACKSON FROM LED ZEPPLIN TO MILES DAVIS. THEY HAVE PERFORMED EXCELLENTLY.. INCORPORATED INTO A DOLBY 7.1 SYSTEM AS THE MAIN FRONT SPEAKERS SOME OF THE BEST MONEY IN MY SYSTEM I'VE SPENT. MK SUB , POLK CENTER, 4 POLK IN WALLS ROUND OUT MY SYSTEM. YOU CAN ALWAYS SPEND MORE MONEY IF YOU HAVE IT BUT MOST HAVE TO GET THE BEST THEY CAN WITH THE FUNDS THEY HAVE . ELITE RECEIVER RECNTLY REPLACED WITH DENON

karister

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $500.00 from private party

Summary:
One of the best speakers still around. They are from the early 80's and in great condition with all original drivers. They do sound amazingly detailed with great lows and awesome mids and crisp highs. I do appreciate them more now than ever before, and they handle pretty much anything with great efficiency. I've seen still they go on sale time to time from 200-350 kinda, well worth every $ invest on them.

Strengths:
Deep and tight bass with great mids and crisp n clear highs.

Weaknesses:
May be the cabinet veneer!

Similar Products Used:
Bose, Infinity, Mirage, Paradigm

talldude777

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $60.00 from An old friend

Summary:
These Polk Audio Monitor 10A that I picked up from an old friend for $60 are fantastic. They look like new. What a deal!
Just read the reviews before me, and you will see that everybody who owns these speakers has nothing but good things to say about them. I love the "laid back" sound they produce. They have an excellent soundstage when driven in stereo with a good amp.
I agree with what most say, you need to get them on a small stand with a slight tilt upward.
All types of music sound great. You can not beat these for the price they are going for now on the used market. My next step will be to get some of the SDA Polk Speakers.
Great job Polk Audio!

Strengths:
Polk Audio Customer Service is 2nd to none.
You can still buy replacements for all of their speakers!
Rubber surrounds on the drivers (no foam rot here)
Tweeters are so sweet
Very good bass response

Weaknesses:
Tweeters are prone to blow, but replacements are easy purchase
Can't think of any more

Similar Products Used:
Infinity, HK, Denon, Polk Audio, Pioneer THX, PS3

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cpadg

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Price Paid:  $0.00 from n/a

Summary:
I picked these speakers up over thanksgiving from my grandparents, who bought them in the late 80's / early 90's after my parents bought a pair. They used them for a while then retired the polks to their basement upon getting a surround system, where they sat unused and unloved for several years. They cleaned our their basement recently, and not realizing what they had, were going to throw them away if I didn't take them! (Talk about a heart attack)

I'm currently driving them with a Carver HR-752 receiver @ 100 W RMS / channel. I'm in a 12x20 dorm room at college, and these things will sing until my eardrums bleed! The quality of the sound is simply staggering, all the way from 25 Hz earthquakes to an ear-splitting 25 KHz, regardless of the volume level.

The music I play is just about everything: pop, rock, classical, organ, new age, and the Polks handle it all with ease. Organ music is especially difficult to reproduce accurately, but it sounds fantastic on these speakers - turn them up enough, and it sounds like your room is suddenly filled with a several-hundred rank organ. The amount of bass they will produce with a FLAT EQ is unreal: I often find myself turning the bass DOWN! How often does a college student do that? There is simply no need for a subwoofer, and I honestly think adding one would make it sound worse!

Turn these speakers up past your average listening level, and they really start to shine - female vocalists especially seem to jump out of the speakers right in front of your face. The midrange that so many others gushed about really is fantastic. It's hard to describe in words, but the moment you hear it for yourself you'll know exactly why so much is said about it. It's a feeling of "Oh, wow! So this is what a speaker should sound like!"

Currently the tweeter in the left speaker is dying on me, so the sound is certainly below their potential, and they still sound stunning. Polk still sells replacement drivers however, so even should you break something it's not the end of the world!

As far as comparing them to other speakers, the only thing I think that could compare would be Polk's famed SDA series, and even then the Monitor 10s could give the lower-end ones a run for their money! At this price, there is simply nothing, nothing, that can compare with the Monitor 10's combination of imaging, power, low end, and midrange.

One last note: you absolutely MUST get the stands or your sound quality will suffer. If you want to make your own, the front of the speaker is 9.25" from the floor, and the back is 8+7/8" off the floor. Those are the only really critical dimensions.

Strengths:
- Excellent response over the entire frequency range: 25 Hz to 25 KHz: bass is tight and palpable, midrange is highly detailed and present.

- Highly efficient - they will maintain imaging at very low volume levels

- Capable of driving you out of the room and sounding excellent while doing so! More than enough capacity to cause hearing damage in almost any sized room.

- Polk still provides replacement drivers!

- They're big. I happen to like big speakers, so for me, this is a strength :-)

Weaknesses:
To be perfectly honest, all the monitors out there are getting a little old. If you get a pair and keep them for a reasonable amount of time, be prepared to replace something, probably a tweeter (~$50 shipped for a replacement from Polk). Some audiophiles contend that the crossovers (determines what frequencies the different drivers see) should be redone at some point as well, but that's certainly not vital.

They were produced in the late 80s, so they're covered in faux wood vinyl or something that does a poor job of imitating wood. This is completely unrelated to the sound, so it doesn't matter unless you have to contend with a significant other.

Similar Products Used:
Heard/lived with: 2 pairs of Monitor 10Bs, Boston Acoustic bookshelf speakers, Bose sub/sat system.

Price Paid:  $175.00 from ebay auction

Summary:
The Monitor 10's are a great speaker,nice imaging,good highs and bass.One the best used bargains out there.They are not placement sensitive.One quality I can describe best about these speakers is that there is a live feel to the performance.The sound sounds about 8 foot high and 5 foot deep.I guess you might consider this the imaging.I dont remember ever hearing any speaker with this kind of soundstage.If you are on a tight budget and want a great speaker,try these,you wont be disappointed!

Strengths:
Built like a tank,very durable,rubber sorrounds on woofers wont rot. Fuse protected tweeter.Heavy non-resonant cabinet.

Weaknesses:
Non at this price!

Similar Products Used:
Radio Shack mach 1's,DCM kx-12,Bose 401,Old Genesis, Advent original large speakers.

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