Price and looks

dynamics and too much color to the midrange

I didn''t purchase these speakers when I was last shopping for speakers. I instead opted for Klipsch RP-3s. I am very happy with my choice, but here is what I think about these speakers: The RT-1000 is about as low in the range of Polk speakers that I would go. Anything less, and you don''t get any tweeter or woofer performance. Having said that, I still felt that these speakers were not as impressive as a number of other brands that I listened to. The sound was uninvolving and has that characteristic Polk coloring of the midrange sound. They were on a par with the Infinities in the room (though he Infinitie''s had a slightly better treble range and less color to the midrange). Overall, I was disappointed. I had heard Polks five years earlier, and despite that midrange color, I liked the Polk products I had heard. These however seem to have aspired to mediocrity. I crossed Polk off my list

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM602...and though not similar: Klipsch Heresy, Klipsch Rp-3.

Small footprint,well built

Harsh sounding tweeters,weak mid-range and weak bass

I don''t know what the big hype is about these speakers. I find the tweeters to be on the "harsh" side and the mids to be on the weak side. Also the bass from the powered subs is very weak. I have heard better and stronger bass from regular ported speakers without any built in powered subs! And then you must use another seperate powered sub to get strong bass? On the other hand they offer a nice small foot-print and are very well built. All and all a disapointment as far as Im concerned. Look for them at your local Bernies clearance Isle.

Similar Products Used:

Mirage,JBL, Yamaha

Are able to make smooth transition between frequencies and have a high Db sensitivity rating which means require low wattage to drive them to sound great.

Those irritating grean lights. I ended up putting a small piece fo electrical tape over them - auh, much better.

Before purchasing these speakers, I had Definitive Technology towers, but they didn''t reproduce the bass I was looking for. The Polks supply a nice bass response to accompany the main sub. I have found making adjustments on the recvr bass control and speakers really gets rid of the boomy bass and they will reproduce a tighter bass. I use them for ht/music listening and they really come alive when playing HDCD encoded CD''s. The imaging is true, just like being there. I highly recommend. If someone is thinking of purchasing these and have some doubt, just go listen to them - you''ll be convinced.

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Rt400-center Definitive Technology towers-rear Yamaha Hitachi 61"

build quality, sound ,clarity at all listening levels, and PRICE

Anything that tries to produce sub sound with mid bass size(6 1/2 speaker powered) is asking for trouble. But if used for excellent voice matching and great mid bass sound more POWER to ya, free up your recievers power.

This is a great speaker for ht/music use. the only thing I would recommend is to add a subwoofer even two (stereo use).This will give you ground shaking bass if that is what you enjoy.(I do).I would not expect a 6 1/2" "sub" to produce deep low bass nor should anyone else. But it does a great job all the way down until the subs take over and that is all I need them to do. these towers free up your reciever power to power the mids anfd hi''s. Bass is the first thing to fall to the way side if the reciever does have ample power to drive bigger speakers. I have these towers paired with the velodyne 12" and a polk 10" each of them set at different power levels and the variable crossovers are set differently as well.. It took a little tweaking of the system but I feel I have achieved the loudness and clarity comparable to going to a good dance club or rave. I am very satisfied.. would recommend these to everyone.

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none

No distortion until amp does. Sounds almost the same at all volume levels. True bass. No boom.

Expensive to run all the time. Amp in speakers combined with users amp = uses a lot of electricity.

I thought Polk was over rated. I bought these because they Demos and were undamaged. What a suprise. they''re great. I usally listen to head banger & surf thrash so I thought I wanted someting along Sherwin Vega line. These are better for rock & roll. I also play blues (not R & B) and classical. I have DDD CD of Bach''s Tocata & Fugue in ''D'' minor played on German Cathedral Organ that real if you stand ouside the house. Cops have come every time.

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Dahlquist, Bose 901 II (4 combined w/400 Watts), JBL "Olympus" (w/Dynoco Mono (2) tube amps), Altec Lansing "Voice of the Theatre" (w/Phase Linear (huge).

Home theater mod sounds AWSOME, midrange, built solid.

none

I love these speaker.at first they sounded flat with music and I almost took them back for the energy XL-28s.I have energys at home in my livingroom and they sound great with music but very bright when the volume is pumped up. When in the store me and this other guy were both listening to all the speakers without the help of the sales person. This guy really knew his stuff and at the time I was thinking of swaping the Polks for the energy speakers. The first thing he advised me to do was to play both speakers at the same volume and the first thing we noticed was that the polk was louder with descent sound with great midrange and the energy had better highs and pretty good mids. the energy''s sounded alot better at this volume. Next we turned the bass off completly and pumped up the volume and the energys highs got nerve racking but the polks sounded better and more balanced. The guy suggested that I hook up a EQ to my cd player which I just happened to have at home already. Man these babies really kick with the EQ and I now I can get the highs I was looking for. In the HT mode they alreaded sounded better than the energy''s with the dynamic range that the Polks have. I advise anyone with these speakers that are not satisfied with there music to get an EQ you will be amazed with the sound you can get out of these speaker, and the sound you get at high volumes. The sales person was pushing for the energy''s saying tthey were the best that the GoodGuys sold. well they cost the most and he''s on commision. I now enjoy these Polks more than my Energy''s even with music. P.S. I got these speaker at this price because the store is closing.

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JBL, KLP, Cambridge

Good clarity, excellent base respone

None at all

I've been thinking about getting into home audio for some time now, but have never had the resources to do so. I briefly thought about going to an all Sony system, which is what my dad has, but after reading the reviews decided to hold out for a while. It paid off. I got hired at Circuit City and found out about the discount on home audio... 50% or MORE. After about a week it became clear that the job was not going to work, but I had my heart set on getting a nice audio system.
Having worked at Circuit City for nearly two months, and spending about half that time in the sound rooms, I began to narrow down my list of choices. I talked to our Audio people, who for the most part know what they are talking about and have very nice systems of thier own. I went from Infinty to Polk... reciver was a no-brainer. Harmon Kardon AVR110. I started out on the Polk R40s. I tried them out with the soundtrack from Gladiator, The Eagles, and Tantric (has some nice bass lines). They stunk. No highs, no lows, all mids. Then I went to the RT600's, much better, but still a little weak. I flirted with the Infinty Entra Twos (which have great sound for being so small and cheap) for a while, then for the most part settled on the RT800's with the dual mids. Then came the true test- the beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. After about 30 seconds I decided I needed more bass. And thats when they showed me the RT1000s. The bass shudder was amazing, lound and low yet amazingly clear. I ended up going with those, and the FX300's for the rear, along with an RT245i for my center. No need for a sub. I used monster cable all the way around, trust me, use nothing less. I got it all hooked up in less then two days, and its amazing. I paid a little over $1200 for everything. If you want a good sound system, go work at CC for two months and go nuts. These speakers are worth every dime.

My ear likes them alot and thats what really counts. Solid construction.

Poorly written instruction manual. Didn't go into detail on the whys of using the different inputs

First off, the MSRP shown at the top of the page is for each speaker. The price I have listed as paid for is for the pair. Plus, Polk had a promotion that had a free PSW250 subwoofer included at no charge. I feel I got a great deal but no deal is great unless you get a product that supports your outlay of money.
Prior to purchasing these speakers, I read all of the reviews and what I looked for mainly was any thoughts on the quality of the speaker, not the sound. The reason is sound is soooooooo subjective. What sounds great to you could be horrible to me and vice-versa. During auditioning, I listened to $5,000 speakers and couldn't tell any difference between them and the Polks I paid $850 for. On the other hand, I listened to some speakers in the $1,000 range and could tell a difference. No speaker was bad, just some sounded better than others - to me. And that is the whole point of this review. I felt that these speakers met my needs of clear hi ends and a smooth, yet solid low end. I heard musical tones on some of my CD's that I had not heard before.
As far as home theater, I feel as if I am immersed in the movie without being beatup.
The quality of the construction was very good. It's a well made speaker with a nice cherry woodgrain finish. And yes, it's real wood in these models.
I felt the instruction manual left a certain amount to be desired as there is more than just standard fittings on speakers these days. I felt I needed more guidelines on the value of using the different types of inputs but then that could be my inexperience as these are the first speakers I have bought in over ten years. What really overwhelmed me was the connections on the Denon AVR-3000 receiver I also purchased, but that is another review altogether.
The bottom line is I am very happy with my purchase. However, don't run out and buy these because I, or someone else said to. Buy them because your ear likes them.

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B & W, Carver, Infinity, Definitive Technologies

Beautiful Cherry cabinet, slim built, great highs and mids. Bass is okay, but then again I have an extra subwoofer. I three subwoofer, I get plenty of bass for the DVD movies and CD music.

None so far.

Really enjoy these speakers. Great sound for under $1000 a pair.

My system:
Onkyo Digital DS-TX777
Onkyo DVD/CD 601.
Velodyne Subwoofer
Polk RT 35i (back speakers)
Polk CS400 (center speaker)
Monster cables around

Would love to crank these babies up but I live in a townhouse and my neighbors would get a little upset.

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Bose 401 (I also own a pair a Magnaplanars MG1 (Maggies)-need to be refurblished from the late 70's

lots

none

these speakers are very nice. great highs smooth lows good mids. An overall awsome speaker. Good with music , and great with music. great buy!

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paradigm,energy