Jake-O-phile

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $660.00 from www.brandnamez.com

Summary:
A great speaker for the price. They perform very well for home theater and casual listening. I did find that the highs were not quite as brilliant as I would have liked, however, the addition of a super tweeter to each tower has made the pair outstanding!!! I wish I could give them a 4.5 instead of a 4.

Strengths:
midbass, low-end response

Weaknesses:
highs were detailed, but not brilliant....

DefinitiveSid

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.83 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
Since I started my hobby in the summer of 2002, I started out with Polk Audio. The RT35i. After about 2 years or so, I decided I could get Towers. So I purchased the RTi70. At first, with the excitement of new, larger, speakers in the house, I liked them. I thought they were great. This excitement quickly came to a close. I plugged the RT35i back up one day, which to my surprise completely stole the floor in the high end against the RTi70. The RTi70 was harsh, undetailed, and completely forgetting snares, cymbals, acoustic guitars, critical pieces in the music that can bring it to life. They did though, have a great soundstage, with decent bass. So there was some hope for them still. Almost. The bass was slightly boomy, but with a good subwoofer, this was hardly noticeable. It wasn't until I picked up the Definitive Tech BP6B that I realized how 'clothed' the mids were. They sounded like they were producing the sound from behing something (a brick wall maybe?)...completely dead. No real refinement in the music or showing any detail within the midrange. Not to mention that there was an incredibly nasty hiss between the mids and highs of this speaker, so along with no detail it was extremely hard to listen to. Another thing about this speaker is the fact it is down right ugly. The 'styrofoam' looking grill looks cheap, feels cheap. The wood veneer looks terrible, looks cheap. Might as well just slapped vinyl on there, atleast Vinyl has an actual wood grain of some sort. To me, this is possibly the worst line Polk has produced, it had a shelf life of 1.5 years and was probally one of the most rushed lines they made (if it wasnt rushed, it sure looked/sounded like it). A complete dissapointment, and atleast they pulled it off the shelves. The first RT line was amazing, why did they change it?

Strengths:
- Wide/Deep Soundstage - Nice Midbass 'Thump' - Decent Bass Down To About 40hz

Weaknesses:
- Bright Highs - Un-Detailed Highs - 'Clothed' Mids - Slightly Boomy Bass - Ugly As Sin

Similar Products Used:
- Definitive Technology BP10B - Definitive Technology BP6B - Polk Audio RT35i - Polk Audio RT5 - Polk Audio RT25i - Polk Audio SDA SRS 1.2TL - Klipsch Chorus - KLH 900b - Vintage 'New' Advents - Pioneer CS-E9000

Price Paid:  $550.00 from eBay etailer

Summary:
I agonized for a long time on what speaker group to get, narrowing it down to Infinity, Polk and Klipsch. Comparable in price and performance at several price levels, Polk won out strangely enough because I thought that they wouldn't be staring back at me as much will the speaker grilles off. For the money I'm very pleased and you would have to go up quite a bit in price to get an appreciably better sound. These are the last piece in the puzzle I created to have a well-matched sound system. Prior to this I've had 3-4 brands of speakers hooked into the 5.1 system. I'm quite certain that these work better with my Polk CSi40 center, having identical drivers. Although I'm sure this influences me, the perfect aesthetic matchup compliments the excellent transition of sounds from left/center/right that is possible now. They look good with the speaker grilles on or off. Downward firing port eliminates some of the issues with having them too close to the wall, although I still have them about 12" away at the rear.

Strengths:
Great both in stereo and as the LF/RF in a 5.1 surround sytstem. Of course they match up well with the Polk CSi40 center and FXi500 surrounds.

Weaknesses:
none so far. Use a sub for movie LFE and possibly some types of music

Similar Products Used:
Wharfedale MFM7s, NHT mains

Price Paid:  $199.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I am a musician and spend a great deal of time listening to live music as well as studio monitors. The speakers were purchased to replace an aging set on a secondary system.

Strengths:
Really nice reproduction of highs and mids. Low end response is adequate for small rooms only without augmentation from a sub. Superb reproduction quality for the price.

Weaknesses:
Watch your dynamic power! I lost three tweeters in the first 24 hours. These speakers are recomended for amps up to 150w and aparently do not contain an internal crossover network to protect the tweeters. I drove them with a vintage 70w amp that is capable of producing dynamic peaks well in excess of 150w. The tweeters died acordingly :-( Look for the RTi70's if you want more power.

Price Paid:  $600.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I owned the RT12s bought back in 1996 and I thought they were awesome. I am just recently upgrading my entire system and I was looking for some decent sounding speakers to replace my aging RT12s. I compared various lines of JBL, Infinity, Bose, Def Tech,Klipsh and the Polk Audio line up of the R series and the entire RTi series of speakers. Out of all of these the RTi70s sounded overall the best for price and sound quality. The infinity Alpha series came in close. I demoed the Polks at CC off of a HK 525. By this time, I had decided to stay w/ Polk and compared the RTi100s,RTi150s, the R30s and 50s, and of course the RTi70s. The 100s seemed to lack the clarity the 70s had and the 150s sounded real good, but could not justify spending an extra couple of hundred per speaker, and you need a heck of alot of wattage to power them anyways. The 70s sounded the best out of the group and I was pleasently surprised how much better they sounded when I got them home. They use the cheapest wiring to hook up systems for demoing at most of the retailers I have been to and CC was no exception. I have an older kenwood VR-990D digital rcvr (110w to 5ch ea) and it lit those babies up in Dolby Digital. I have to turn my Bass almost completely all the way down and I have no need for my Klipsh subwoofer. The highs on the speakers (to me) sound superb and the midrange sounds are excellent. One thing I like most about Polk Speakers is the Bass Reflex ports, eliminating the need for a woofer. My first set of speakers were Boston Acoustic A150s bought in the early 90s and it did not take much effort to blow those woofers out. That cant happen w/ bass reflex. Overall, I consider purchasing the RTi70s as just an upgrade to my already excellent RT12s, which is saying alot!!

Strengths:
Excellent Bass and midrange Excellent highs Great sound for the price, beats more expensive speakers on the market

Weaknesses:
HEAVY!!

Similar Products Used:
Polk Audio RT12 Infinity Alpha Series