Air,Cost,Size

Not much at this price

The R10 is a solid performer. Although most of the people that have reviewed here are people that have used Sony, Kenwood and Bose, they deserve a closer look. I did take some advice and filled the box with a bit of polyfill and it seemed to help. Everyone should know due to the size of these boxes they aren't going to blow too many people away, but nonetheless at this price they are worth a listen. I have listened extensively to paradigm titans and more expensive polks and all I can come up with is bang for your buck. Try these with some good program material and a good amp like a Rotel, and let them break in. People say they take a while to break in. I may not have mine broken in yet after several weeks. I'll keep trying. I was thinking of selling these, but knowing what I will get for them, to have a pair of well made speakers that would make great surrounds and even very good mains with a sub is worth my $40 to keep them. The tweeter seems to keep amazing me with it's air and doesn't seem too harsh and i'm sure they will continue to get better as they loosen up a bit.

Customer Service

Top notch!!

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Paradigm Titan
Energy 3.1e
Boston A70 II
Insignia
Polk rt15i

Perfect for surrounds, even kicks a little butt as fronts.

Zero

This is an absolute little gem.I was in the process of purchasing some Polk R15s or the newer M10s and I went to a pawn shop with friend and spotted these here brand new and still boxed.I bought them at a super bargain price, took them home and checked out the features and specs,low and behold these speakers turn out to be the R15s and M10s just older.The drivers and specs are the same as the recent R15s and newer M10s the only differences are tiny changes in looks but there the same speaker.Awesome!

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Infinity,Bose,Boston Acoustics

very versital nice highs and good mids brings all the bells and wistles can be used as front or rear with durability

lacks bass and power

im amazed how much sound its brought it basicly takesd a lick and keeps on ticking I use them as a front where they are very productive but at 100 watts you cant ask for more resistance quality as a rear surround they get even better theil go as far as it gets in clean crisp sound....

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acoustic research edge pro

Incredibly good sound!!!!!!!This speaker does exactly what Polk intended superbly.

none!!!!!!!

Let me start by saying that this is one amazing little speaker.I was using Bose 201s as my surrounds and although I am not a huge Bose fan and this is the only Bose product I own. I was pretty pleased with the sound but they are to big for my set up as surrounds and a little ugly.So out of my closet comes the R10s I bought 3 years ago on clearance for 38 bucks.The sound is nothing short of amazing for surround sound so out of curiousity I tried them as fronts and was blown away. They sound almost as good as my R30s,almost better.With a sub there incredible,I cant believe I spent several years shopping for speakers and had the best for my personal taste and needs in my closet all along.

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To many.

Cost vs. performance

Very slightly boomy bass. Some treble harshness which could be caused by poor recording of the CD itself.

I reviewed these late last year or earlier this year. I have pair in secondary system which includes a Cambridge D500SE CD player and Jolida JD301a intregrated hybrid amp. There are only 2 very, very short comings with these speakers, I have 3 CD's out of ~ 250 where high piano notes sound a little harsh and the bass is slightly boomy. Have 6 year old Polk RT12's that don't exhibit neither of the above short comings. Price of the RT12's 6 years ago, $350 each. I still have the RT10's in my secondary system. Conclusion hard to beat the cost vs. peformance of the RT10.

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Polk TR12.

Very open, airy sound. Not the least bit harsh. Excellent mid-bass. Well balanced. Cheap!

My cat easily broke off the "Polk" badge on one speaker (easily fixed.) Other than that, I see no weaknesses considering the cost.

These are awesome speakers, considering their small price. I was a little skeptical at first, having never owned Polk's before, but the salesman at the store who sold me the speakers told me to take them home and try them, and he wouldn't even charge my card until I came back. (!) I was very pleasently surprised when I got these home and fired them up. Once properly placed (and on a good solid stand), I think these speakers work extremely well. They are characterized by a very open and airy soundstage, and work very well as the main L/R channels in my budget home theater setup with my cheap Sony 100W receiver, and they even sound pretty decent when I play some rock or jazz with them (which is rarely). I am very satisfied with their quality, and they sound good enough that I haven't really thought about replacing them until this week, mainly because the Polk R30's are on closeout at 1/2 price, so the R10's are going to become my surrounds instead. I am very, very happy with these speakers (considering their cost, of course!) From my perspective, at this price point, they get 5 stars.

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Klipsch, KLH.

As stated before for the price(with discount) not a bad speaker and I'm sure you could do much worse.

I found this review today (the only one I could find) to make sure I wasn't being too hard on the little R10. The review does a good job of summing up perty much what I heard and reported. Just unpleasant to my ears with almost any track ran thru the R10's Not meant to step on anyones toes only posted for potential buyers to alert them that true high fidelity speakers are available for not much more.

Guess the "Audiophile" who reviewed the R10 below didn't much like my initial review. "Hocus Pocus"...not familiar with that brand. No, these $160 list price polks were compared to speakers which all listed between $139-$199 (Clearly stated in the review). The Aperions which list for $360 were not even considered. Go to eCoustic.com and you will find links to around 5000 speaker reviews. Type in R10 and you will find one review. The review is short getting past the intro here is the review in its entirety with the exception of the center channel: "The main R40's are compact and fairly lightweight, which inevitably means the box is more resonant then others in the test. The R10 surrounds use similar technology in more compact cabinets, which lessens the effect on the sound. With movies, the Polks sound a little rough and lacking in bass depth (with subwoofer...added). On our Waterworld DVD, dialogue was occasionally hard to hear among the mix and the overall effect was pretty unexciting. The speakers sound consistent throughout and blend together well, but that's simply not enough. Muscially the Polk has even less to recommend it-familiar CD's simply sounded Wrong. Orchestical recordings have an odd syrupy sound with an unpleasant hard edge of detail at high volumes. Allison Krauss's normally sweet voice sounds disturbingly warm and throaty, almost as though she has turned into a rasping Janis Joplin overnight. Music ranging from Lyle Lovett to Chopin, lacks energy. The subwoofer struts its stuff well enough, but does nothing to address the systems overall limitations. By all means consider this system but it won't make your music or movies sound as the director intended, and there is little here to appeal if you're looking for true high-fidelity. Verdict: This system won't make your music or film soundtracks sound as the director intended: Rating: 2 of 5 stars."

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Advent Mini's (list 199), Acoustic Research AR17 (Old model..list 149), Pinnacle PN5+ (list $139), PSB Alpha Mini AKA Hocus Pocus (list $199), Aperion 502D (list 360) and the newest addition to the li

Great warm sound. 5-way binding post Good finish. Simple design.

None

First of all, these speakers are meant to be geared for people with a budget of $70-$100 so it doesn't make sense for some idiot to compare it with a PSB, hocus pocus $500 speaker systems. For $75/pair, NO other speaker can match it. The bass is perfect, not too low. For those who want to rattle their walls, you have the wrong speakers. You wouldn't eat yogurt with chopsticks, so why would you want wall rattling bass with bookshelf speakers? Second, the highs are smooth. It's not ear piercing like the other brands. These speakers also have to be broken into. The longer you use them, the better they sound. I'm listening to them with a Harman/Kardon reciever. Harman/Kardon puts out very little wattage but the current is more than anything out there. 50watts per channel with 40amps of current will stomp all over your 120 watt Sony recievers. For the money, they're great speakers. If you can get better speakers for 150% of the Polks price, then go buy it. But don't make yourself look like an idiot by comparing a $50,000 Lexus with a $12,000 Kia.

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Polk R30 Floor standing speakers CS130 Center speaker

Definite improvement over the majority of minisystem speakers. Teenagers will think you are cool having Polk. Inexpensive choice for Second system. For $80 they are difficult to beat.

For only about $100 more one can buy speakers like Paradigm Atoms or PSB Alpha minis which dust these in every area.

I have purchased many budget bookshelf speakers over the years: Acoustic Research AR17, Advent Mini, Pinnacle PN5+, PSB Alpha Mini, and Edge Audio (Aperion Audio) 502D's. With the exception of the Edge Audio's all were less then 200 list price. I was looking for a speaker for my 15 year old daughters first stereo system and stumbled across the Polk speakers which were supposedly 1/2 off at CircutCity. Compared to the other budget speakers I have purchased after a year of listening to these speakers I have come to the conclusion that: The highs are bright and fatiguing, midrange thin, Bass missing in action (even when compared to other similar size speakers), pancaked soundstage and boxy sounding. Adding a subwoofer to the system helped the overall sound, still I did not find the sound enjoyable or musical. One might assume that I hate this speaker by my criticism. Well yes and no. For an $80 speaker its really not bad at all. Easy to drive, looks cool, will play loud without strain in a average size room and definitly a step above the vast majority of minisystem speakers. The problem with this speaker is that these are not $160 speakers. Looking thru the dozens of reviews it becomes obvious that the average price paid for this speaker is around $80. One might think that you can't buy much sound for $160. True at one time, but there are many companies putting out excellent small speakers (Paradigm, PSB, Axiom, etc.) that could serve as very good speakers in a main system. Polk and CircutCity should receive a big thumbs down for attempting to convince buyers they are purchasing a quality $160 speakers.

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Acoustic Research, Advent, Pinnacle, PSB and Edge Audio (Aperion).

Good power handling for its diminutive size. Open, crisp sound with wide dispersion...perfect as surrounds in a small room. Front-firing Easy to mount on the wall

Too much port noise at high volumes Boring cabinet finish

Got these for 100 dollars CDN. For awhile I used them as mains for my Sony mini-system, and was amazed how well they held their bass, even when the "groove" equalizer on the Sony was on. They sounded their best when I had them hanging on the wall, because the latter served as a sounding board. Definitely a great buy, and probably best used as surrounds.If you use them as mains, you will most likely want to have a subwoofer.

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Paradigm JBL Quest Polk rt25i, rti100, CS 400i Athena