solid sound

none

I bought my R40's at Christmas to compliment Bose Acoustimss 5's as front speakers with VCS 10 center channel and 161 rears. The Bose system was good but seemed to lack a solid mid range which the Polk's supply superbly. I live in a condominium complex which means high volume is out, but together this system delivers crisp, clean sound at acceptable levels. I've tried each separately with good results, but prefer the combination. These are the first Polks I've owned and I'm highly impressed with the quality as well as price. I'd recommend them to anyone who appreciates a good bang for their buck! (no pun intended.)

Similar Products Used:

Bose acoustimass 5's, 201's

Small footprint, superb build quality, attractive look, excellent warm sound, nice highs, and more bass than you would expect from two 5 and a 1/4 drivers. Punchy!

None so far

I've been looking for some time for a good set of quality speakers to start a home theater. I work at Circuit City and have been testing Infinity, and Polk for the last few months and finally decided on the R40's. I was a bit worried, based on what I had read here, that they wouldn't have enough guts for home theater. They certainly do!! I don't have a sub woofer, and I can still shake the walls of my apartment with these bad boys. I have a family upstairs that likes to let their kids run relays all night long, well, needless to say I let them have it every chance I get!! The T-Rex scene in Jurassic Park Does the trick. I also picked up an Onkyo TXDS-484 at the same time. I love that thing to. It is clean, warm and strong. I would recommend it to anyone starting out a first home theater. I then picked up a Polk RM6600 black, surround package, and left my R40's as fronts, with two sattelites in the box if I ever need them. I'm thinking of picking up a sub this week, but I'm not sure if I would even get much use out of it in my small apartment. It would definitely round out the HT experience, but I'm not sure. I'm thinking of either the Velodyne CT80 or the Infinity ENTRASUB. You guys email me and let me know which is better. Both sound great, but the Infinity sounds effortless. But the R40's, for a first time tower, are awesome. I like them better than the Infinity ENTRATWO's, the comparable tower at Circuit City. Props to Circuit City!!! I got the two R40's, The Onkyo TXDS-484, The RM6600 5-pack, Monster speaker cable, an optical cable, ESP on the towers, and the onkyo, and only spent $850. Not bad for a $1700 system. If you can afford better then get better, but if you can only afford $200 a speaker, then get these things, you won't regret it. OUT!!!

My system consists of:

--Polk R40's (front L+R)
--Polk RM6600 5-pack for surrounds and center.
--Onkyo TXDS-484 reciever
--Sony DVP-C670D (dvd player)

Kind of thin on components, but I'm getting there.

Similar Products Used:

First set of home speakers.

price is reasonable, pretty good sound for the money, attractive design, dual midbass drivers look cool, small footprint

doesn't use Polk's stiffer blue poly woofer or cleaner 1" tri-laminate tweeter instead of the 3/4" silk dome.

I am happy with my purchase of a pair of R40's. They do not have a really special or attention grabbing sound when you demo them, but they are very listenable long term, seem fairly accurate and dynamic for HT DD/DTS soundtracks, or for stereo only presentations and I do not get a fatigue vibe listening to them.

Of course I'm hearing oh-so clean harman/kardon AVR210 optical digital PCM stereo and DD/DTS for the first time, over these speakers so that could be affecting my judgement, but I am really happy with them. I do not drive them too hard often as I am in an apartment situation in an overpriced college (tourist trap) town, but they have a dynamic sound even with the sub off. Even at *very* low listening levels, bass kick drums or HT digital explosions produce a quick pressure change you can just barely feel over the whole front of your body while sitting quietly...very filling for a 12x16 room.

I have a mode defined where the R40s are 'small' and the amp redirects any bass below 80Hz from L+R to the sub channel (Polk PSW250 8") for 2.0 stereo (CD/MP3/VHS) sources. WOW.. The amps is really able to make some volume as it relieved of a lot of work and produces no bass at all, just send it to the sub amp. Then the R40's 5.25" cones start slammin and jammin looking like car audio subwoofers. They crank out powerful mids, instruments, voice and highs without having any low bass to overwhelm and distort the small 5.25" drivers allowing the volume to go WAY up. They only get the material above 80Hz which they can handle easily and can really make some nice sounds! Also using a 16" stand for the towers to bring the tweeters up to the seated ear level.

Only complaint, not using Polk's stiffer blue poly woofer or cleaner 1" tri-laminate tweeter instead of the 3/4" silk dome, and no power port. Make an R50 for $450 or $500 with Blue/Tri-Lam and I'm selling my R40's on eBay. That would be a fine fine speaker for the money, more so than the R40 even. I have the CS245i center which uses 2 of the blue woofers and the 1" Tri-Lam and it is very nice. No I didn't match all my drivers on an all new system, can you beleive it? This sounded better to me, and the CS175 to CS245 $$ difference is only $50 and you go from 1 x 5.25 black to 2 x 5.25 blue poly and from the silk to larger tri-lam tweeter! A no brainer.

If you hook some R40's up to a hissing DE or DB Sony, your not doing it justice. I don't agree with spending more on the speakers than other components in the $1500 range. You have to spend a good bit on a receiver ($500+) to get away from underpowered consumer hissy junk. Spend $20,000 for Thiel monitors, they will hiss on a Sony DB or equiv. HKs really has a clean sound. At 50-70% volume, with nothing playing, you can't hear a thing to tell its even on at listening distance. Silent.

Spent $1500 on an HT setup Dec00
H/K AVR210 $500
Polk
2xR40 $400
1xCS245i $200
2xR15i $200
1xPSW250 $FREE from crutchfield.com
Monster Opticals, sub RCA's, 12ga C/FL/FR, 14ga RL/RR, spade lugs
16" front stand / 36" rear stand

I imagine I will sell rear R15i's and get another set of R40's and another PSW250 for opposite rear corner of the existing PSW250 in the future for an upgrade. Check my other components soon for reviews. Check out how my PC hooks up to this circus and what it can do at www.jasonfagan.com

Similar Products Used:

DCM 2 / 3-way towers, Infinity 2-way 6.5" towers

Very accurate sounding mids, height of speaker, decent bass

They are not that powerful of a speaker

I purchased these speakers as surround speakers for my dolby digital home theater system. This is why I listed height as a strength. I use Cerwin Vega's as my main 2 speakers so I did not expect a powerful speaker when I hooked up the Polk R40s. Overall, great surround speakers but only decent main speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood, Cerwin Vega, Bose

At 100 per pair, just about everything. Mid's and Highs are smooth

None at this price

I am using these as fronts for a small HT setup on a tight budget. I have a powered sub, so I can't comment on how they handle bass. I'm sending them only 100hz and above, and they handle that at reasonable levels without breaking a sweat. The sound is more detailed than I would have expected at this price. It's nice to be pleasantly suprised every now and then. I plan on purchasing another pair for rears, and a matching center. Good job Polk!

Similar Products Used:

advent Marbles, Rat Shack specials.

foot print, price, quality sound

low bass

The R40's have so much more bass than my 901's. Although they don't have as big of a sound as the reflection oriented Bose, the R40's have a lot of clarity and umph. Man what a great clear sound.

I don't have a sub but for the less demanding audio enthusiast these produce enough thump. Anyway these do produce some low bass, enough for mid level listening, 30-50%, of Jazz. The accoustic Bass is so crisp and no distortion at all.

I would definitely recomend these as the best buy for the money. I have them set up with a pair of AR Edge speakers for a wider sound and to take some of the load off of the 40's tweeters so they don't over heat and muddle up on me. I would suggest a small bookshelf speaker to run in tandum with these to do just that, something that excells in highs. If these speakers get better the longer you have them (as some of you say) then I am looking forward to a long relationship.

Similar Products Used:

Bose 901, AR

highs

none

this product delivers a supirior sound that wich ranges between high and low medium a sub woofer compliments these speakers perfectly

Similar Products Used:

new bose speakers($500)

Low Price, small footprint, favorable bass/size ratio

tap-in feet, dust-grabbing speaker cloth

Previously I have owned a pair of vintage Sansui 3-ways, Kenwood 888X 5-ways, and Bose Acoustimass SE5. The Polks are superior in sound quality to all three, although the Kenwoods (with 16' drivers and 98dB sensitivity) could deliver more punch. I am amazed at the rich deep base provided by the two 5 1/4' drivers. Because of the near ear-level position of the tweeter the highs are crisp and clear. These speakers do not have the 'muddy' midrange that I have come to associate with the Bose Acoustimass series.

As stand-alone speakers the R-40s are clean and will go loud but not to that chest-thumping loudness that speakers with larger drivers can go to. For normal listening levels they really shine. For louder listening levels the R40s could benefit from a subwoofer to help take off the load.

The R40s are well suited for home theater applications.I hooked them up to my Dolby receiver with Pioneer surrounds in the back. Movie theaters have nothing on this set-up. Voices were clear and automobiles rumbled.

The R-40s are clean and clear, have a stylish appearance and don't take up much space. The worst part about them is the tack-on feet. (I may take them off soon). If you're looking for bass-blasting club speakers look elsewhere but if you're looking for a low-cost sweet-sounding space-saving speaker system I highly recommend the Polk Audio R40s.

Similar Products Used:

vintage Sansui 15", Kenwood 16", Bose Acoustimass SE5

If your looking for a pair of mid priced speakers with a great soundstage go with the Polk R40's. In my experience these speakers bring you the sound of your music and movies and that is all. Unlike the DCM KX-10 loudspeakers I previously has there is not a recognizable hum in the backgroud of your music. I think this is due to better air filtering present with the R40's. I love the speakers conectors. Plastic connectors commonly break, and are unreliable. As others have commented they sound spectacular in store because they have been used for so many hours that they are already broken in. While, mine have not been broken in yet, I love the sound for my budget. I have heard that there is a disc you can buy that when played will break in your speakers for best sound.

The sound quality is great, but if your looking for a more punchy bass, you should probaly add a powered subwoofer. Infinity speakers wil give a more punchier bass, but in my experience with their bpookshelf speaker the bass is so punchy that it drowns out the vocals in music. (I am looking into purchashing a full polk setup with my R40's as my main speakers). The bass response really does not bother me though because the bass it does produce is clear and crisp. The speaker grates do collect a lot of dust, but why would you even leave them on. The speakers look great. At the Home Entertainment show 2001 in New York that I attended, one of the discussion forums recommended leaving the speaker grates off so nothing interferes with the sound.

In summary, these speakers are a great mid priced speaker. The soundstage they provide is excellent for music. Since I do not have a full home theater setup, I cannot comment accurately on movies. If you like a more punchy bass you could add a subwoofer.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity bookshelf speakers, DCM KX-10 loudspeakers

good bass response, build quality

tweeter

I thought these were good speakers overall. Good build, the mid/woofers were made good, had a nice bass response for the size drivers. My only two complaints are that the tweeter is made really cheaply, and the mids sounded too harsh. The tweeters motor structure was extremely tiny and my guess is that they werent ferro fluid cooled either. The tweeters in mine got extremely hot and ended up sounding really bad. It was strange cause I was listening to my stereo at a little less than half volume, where as my crap KLHs could take 3/4s volume and not fry. The midrange frequencies sounded a little too harsh for my musical taste. Over all they are a good pair of speakers for $400. I wish they could have used a tweeter that could handle the volumes i need.