QUALITY PER RED CENT FACTOR --- Hard to find a better, more even sounding speaker for under $600, or a thousand for that matter. Very smooth - excellent for movies and music. Seamless integration with the rest of my Polk setup. Get these before Polk discontinues them this spring.

Break in period. For this price I cannot be picky about anything else!!!

I already had a Polk CS-350 LS center and a 3 year-old pair of Polk RT800s for the front. These are connected to a Sony-ES receiver I have had for a few years. I was wanting to add a nice pair of rears or to upgrade my fronts and move them to the rear. I ended up doing the latter. I found the RT800i at CC for $270/ea new! For $540 these speakers are hard to beat. They are somewhat different from my older RT800s in that they have a grill over the enitire front, are more sturdy and so far sound more even through the midrange and highs. I believe this attribute is due to Polk sencond generation crossover. I debated upgrading to the RT1000s but decided against it since I feel adding 2 6.5 inch powered drivers to a 12 inch power sub that I already had would be a waste of money. And the RT-2000s were much more than I wanted to spend. *Note* After an extensive search, I found the RT-800s and RT-1000s for 270 each at J&R Music world. However, the $160 shipping to get the 1000s here was just too much. Check them out if you live nearby.

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Definitive Technolgy, Mission, Velodyne, JBL

the best for the money

not much

hi every one i have all polks in my system i been in autio for 21 yrs.the polk speakers are the best for the money there almoset to good you cant go wrong with polk speakers there the best for the money that it. here is a link to get into the polk club you will like, you will lean more about speakers and autio through the club try it, thanks

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Clear midrange, brillant (not harsh) highs. Great multipurpose use from Jazz, to Rock, to Classical. Perfect as home theater mains (just get an additional subwoofer), produces wide soundstage.

Not enough bass for home theater (LFE)

Absolutely dynamic speakers. No obvious flaws. Appropiate for mid to high current recievers. I''ve listened to quite a few higer-end floorstanders in the last year, and there is no clear superior speaker in it''s price range. (or double its price range for that matter.) Enjoy.

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Yamaha Towers (from mid-80''s) Sony Bookshelf, Infinity Towers, Acoustic Research, Wharfedale

Smooth highs and mids, accurate right out of the box!

At first glance they seem a little frail, but after inspection they seem solidly built.

I wouldn''''t call myself an Audiophile, but I have been very interested in Hi-Fi and Home Theater for about eight years. For the price I paid, and only having had these speakers for a few days and I can not find very many flaws. The RT800i''''s provide good detail and a smooth, forward sound that I guess could be construed as too bright by some. I can not say too much about the bass as I have them crossed over at 88htz via my Rotel preamp. These speakers have not even been broken in yet and they sound better than most at the same price. If I had paid $800 for the pair I would still be happy with them, and for $560 you will be hard pressed to find a better sounding speaker at a retail store.

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Design, real wood, well built, quality product, Polk Audio reputation

none that I can tell. If I had to choose one.. is that the bass is a little weak from what I was used to with my old KLH towers

I've only been using these RT800i's for a little more than a month. It seemed to take about three weeks for them to properly break in. At first they were a little bright and the imageing was to direct. Once they were broken in.. i noticed the sounds was more defussed and not so direct. If you purchase a pair of these.. make sure you propery break them in. Break in takes about 40 to 60 hours of audio being heard thru them. I suggest you keep them playing in the background while doing other things or reading. No not work overwork them with loud audio till the break in period is complete. You'll be amazed when the break in is over and they just open up with great sound.

My receiver is only 70wpc and I have found that these speakers like just a little more power. don't get me wrong... they do sound very good.. but I know they would just kick it up a notch if given a little more power.

Finally, since Polk Audio just recently came out with a new LSi line of speakers.. you can get great deals right now on most of the RT line of Polk speakers. Some of them are even being phased out... so excellent deals are out there on a great speaker.

Lastly, the real wood of the speaker just makes it look that much better than other speakers. Very classy look. Small foot print.. less than 1 square foot. They can be bi-amped, and bi-wired. If you need more bass.. move up to the RT1000i line.. they have powered subs in them and will really rock you.

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3 way KLH towers with four 8" woofers in each tower
very good bass

Smooth overall tonal quality. Solid bass and clear upper range

Bass adjustments needed from time to time depending on music selection and placement in your room.

I did alot of research and shopping and most selections boil down to a personal preference. The value/sound package that I found were the Polk Rt800i. There are better speakers,however for the money these will give your system a nice sound.

All types of music can come to life with these speakers. While set-ups will vary, as front speakers or in conjunction with a theater system these are nice. I looked at the 1000's with the built in powered sub woofer and I found them too muddy. I also explore some others with a built in sub and they too did not give me the bass response that I was looking for.

Combined with a separate sub the Polks will fill most large size rooms. As more volume is added they perform well with little to no distortion.

I would highly recommend these units. I fail to see how some others are purely negative about these speakers. When you spend this kind of money and more, you should be hearing the product first hand, with multiple option ie: different receivers/amps, combo systems and the like. So, if you do this, and still buy them,yet still aren't pleased, then listen and buy what suits you. Another words if you are buying them because you heard them on someone elses system and based your decision on that, then the mistake is on you.

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Infinity IL40

Great imaging, full rich sound (with the sub), excellent mid-range and treble

None that I noticed

First i would like to point out that i'm not an audiophile. I don't have the ear (or the cash) to be one, but i do know when something sounds good or bad. When i first listened to these speakers, i wasn't that impressed. I thought about it for about a month, but then i heard about a free subwoofer offer (the psw200). Well, i went to have another listen to them, and I'm not sure if it was their receiver or my imagination, but they sounded fantastic the second time. They sounded even better when i got them home (medium sized room). From music to movies (heavy rock to Fantasia 2000), everything sounded just right. It took a bit of receiver tweeking to get the imaging right with my center speaker but that's the receiver's fault, not the speakers. And the free sub just makes these puppies sing! I've noticed small details in the music i never heard before (and sometimes a whole instrument!) Anyway, I'm trying to find a fault with these speakers and i can't think of any. Unless your standards are really high, you'll love these speakers. Of course there's better out there (for much more money), but isn't that the case with almost everything in life?

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Paradigm

plays loud

boomy bass, harsh highs

I got stuck with these speakers cause circuit city lost some old jbl speakers i had in for service. They are the best speaker circuit city has but that is not saying very much. If you only use them for home theater, and rap music they are probably ok. They will play really loud.

If you are interested in hearing details in the music, these speakers are not for you. I bought some norh 2-way bookshelf speakers and moved these to my surround speakers. These speakers are just too expensive for what they deliver. The bass is boomy, slow and sloppy. The highs are very bright and I found it hard to listen to them for any amount of time.

They are not the worst speaker I have ever heard but I feel they are way overpriced.

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JBL, norh

Fantastic reproduction for an affordable speaker

none

Once my dahlquist speakers died after 15 years of use I decided to replace them as opposed to repairing them for the third time. And I also wanted to add surround cinema to my house. I spent 4 weeks listening to numerous speakers including the Bose LS15, Cerwin Vega and Infinity towers. Overall I found the polk's to be the best bang for the buck. I purchased the RT800i front speakers the polk cs400 center speaker, polk 500 series surrond speakers and Circuit City gave me two polk PS250 subwoofers as part of a promotional pakage. The entire system with an Onkyo 777 cost me $2300.00 Of all the speakers that I listned to in this price range the polks were by far the best. The Bose while very attractive in size and apperance were by far the worst performing system in this price point. I love these Polk's Bass is good highs are great and the center channel is phenominal. These speakers actually sound better than the Dahlquist that I owned ($2400.00 a pair) I would strongly reccomend the polks to anyone that wants to use them for stright stereo or as a surround system. Concert series DVD,s such as Sherly Crow or Sara Mclaughn sound fantastic in 5.1 stereo surround.

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Dahlquist DQ10

Sound quality, build quality, imaging, detail, voice reproduction

Limited bass response

When I decided to start shopping for speakers for my surround sound system, I first went to the local high-end audio store. I auditioned an $80,000 Meridian Digital System, $15,000 B&W Nautilus speakers, $20,000 Wilson Audio speakers, and numerous other high-end speakers. I was very impressed by the sounds I heard, which should be expected at these prices. I have been in this hobby for many years, so I know what to listen for in speakers. Just to hear his response, I asked the salesman to tell me what separates his speakers from those at the local Circuit City. He laughed at me and said that I could bring any speakers I want from any other retailer to do an A/B comparison. He guaranteed that nothing would top his selection of speakers. I decided to take him up on the offer and drove down to Circuit City. I auditioned their limited selection of speakers and was very impressed by the sound of the Polk RT800i’s. So, I bought them and took them straight to the high-end store, still unopened in their boxes. The salesman couldn’t believe I actually took him up on his offer, especially since I had done it on such short notice. I wanted to be realistic about my test, so I decided to only compare the $799 Polks to speakers costing less than $2000. To my complete surprise, the Polk’s dominated the competition with cleaner highs, better detail, superior imaging, increased voice clarity, and better dynamics! The salesman, although clearly surprised too, insisted without a good explanation that he still liked his B&W’s better. So, although I was expecting to come home with a brand new pair of high-end speakers, I happily ended up with the Polks. You might be thinking that I must have some bias towards Polk speakers or that there must be something wrong with my hearing. I thought this might be the case too. That’s why I brought a friend with along during my speaker auditioning to help assess the sound quality of the different speakers. He was even more adamant about the superiority of the Polks than I was, insisting that they sounded better than anything under $40,000! In summary, the Polk RT-800i’s are one of the best speaker designs I’ve ever encountered. Are they perfect? No, they have limited bass response despite their Power Port technology. But, since most people, including me, use powered subwoofers in their home theater systems, this is not an issue. Highly recommended.

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