Price Paid:  $20.00 from garage sale

Summary:
I bought these at a garage sale for $20. The woman was splitting from her husband and was selling his stuff. My last polks were monitor 10's and I loved those. These are very appealing with loud boisturous music like wagner and mussgorsky.

Strengths:
I was optimistic about bass response and was not let down. Pipe organ was well represented . It is by all accounts the most varying instrument of all and these speakers did a fine job bringing it to life. All I listen to through these are albums. Digital music just does not do these justice. All was not perfect though.

Weaknesses:
Older jazz recordings of female singers, such as ella fitzgerald, rosemary clooney, and katarina valente lost the vocals behind the instruments sometimes. The mids were lost in some other types of music also. Bass can get a little boomy sometimes but never muddy.

Similar Products Used:
polk monitor 10's, Boston hd8's

Price Paid:  $375.00 from Ovation

Summary:
When I began my search for some low costing great sounding speakers, i thought i would never be satisfied. However, when i came across these i couldn't pass them up. Now 2 years later i still using them. The build quality of these is unusall for the cost. I would have expected these (for the price) to be a light and unstable pressbox. But these were a plesent surprise. Now i'm moving and leaving these behind. I find my self in search for an upgrade, and my experiences with this brand has insured that polk will always on top of a short list for build quality and sound for the money. I hope that this has been of some help to some one!
-Good luck and happy listening
6 star value on a 5 star scale

Strengths:
These speakers are great to watch movies with and listen to all shorts of music with. The highs are through the roof and the lows are (deep for the money)

Weaknesses:
The speakers are great however, my reciever pushes to much bass to them and if the bass is to high then the sub starts to distort the sound. This isn't a problem unless you turn the bass all the way up. If you are building a system make sure to invest in a sub (this will ensure that you will not be trying to run to much bass through these speakers).

Similar Products Used:
First set of polks and love them!

Price Paid:  $500.00 from NZ

Summary:
I nearly bought the Rt10's but preferred the rt8s'tighter
sound.Bass can be wonderful and tight.Top end is great,but
the mid range is lacking on older recordings.I use an old
pair of mission 700's to overcome this problem,which add
warmth to the mid due to their slightly boxy sound(both
pairs running together)I am using a Nad 314 and Marantz
CD-63se which should give a less edgy sound than they
do with the Polks.I have never experienced any boominess.

Strengths:
Spacial sound.Wonderful bass on modern recordings-try it with Tracy Chapman.

Weaknesses:
Can sound thin on older recordings,particularly in the mid-range.

Similar Products Used:
Mission

Price Paid:  $300.00 from crutchfield

Summary:
obvously, these speakers have their limits considering their price, but i have not heard many speakers that can produce this quality of sound for anywhere near this price. i have a pioneer elite powering these with audioquest cables and i am very satisfied. the 6.5 produces great bass extention at low levels. you might find yourself looking for a sub hidden somewhere, now they wont rattle off pictures, but you will hear very low bass from them. the highs sound great at low, mid and mid-high levels, but at high levels the 300$ price tag shows with some harshness. but for a den, bedroom, or even a small hometheater, these speakers are deffinately worth looking at.

Strengths:
really great sound for the $, great open highs, really nice low bass extention thanks to the power port (its no sub of course), the adjusted crossover point allows the mids to be produced much cleaner by the 6.5 other than requiring the tweeter to dip down below it potential. overall great sound

Weaknesses:
the 6.5 distorts a little bit to easy but only at high volumes with a large amount of bass in the recording

Similar Products Used:
paradigm 3se... ive listened to countless speakers

Summary:
These sound pretty good, but the bass I found to be artificial if anything...after a year of owning them, I've clogged ports on both speakers..now the sound more book shelf like, but bass is very tight now, and I think they've improved dramatically.
I'll add a sub..hopefully a REL soon...to accompany these for a full spectrum sound..I am really happy with these regardless, as they sound great and didn't cost me all that much.
Accompanied w/ Rotel rx950 reciever and Rotel rc950 cd (find cd player finicky)
Wish they sold Carver stuff over here in OZ

Strengths:
Crisp open sound

Weaknesses:
Boomy bass ...not very tight at all

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm 11se Deluxe