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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.
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