Overall great sound reproduction. Non-bulky towers make any room look great. Bi-pole capability.

None.

The upgrade from the RT600i to the RT800i was the best move I've made in a while. The bi-pole capability really allows you to separate the highs and lows. I am the envy of all my friends (except 1). Running them off a Denon AVR-3801 with Polk cs400i center and Polk f/x500i surrounds. One Polk PSW250 and a Velodyne ct-120 sub. They asound pretty darn good!

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RT600i

sound so smooth and natural, look real good

needs more bass

For the best sound with these babies I would highly recommend bi-wiring them. I’m some what happy with my purchase. they need more low end.

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PSB, Klipsch

Crips highs, smooth deep bass, beautiful real cherry wood cabinet, small footprint, no distortion or coloration, excellent customer support from Polk. Questions about bi-wiring/bi-amping were answered quickly and in detail. Thanks Polk!

a little pricey but worth it

These speakers are fantastic! I know there is supposed to be a break in period of several hours before any pair of speakers start to sound their best, but when I got these home and connected them to my Yamaha receiver I was astonished. The music sounded so real I could swear that there was a band right there in my living room. Female vocals (often the hardest to accurately reproduce) sound so smooth and natural. The titanium dome tweeters produce excellent highs that are crisp but not fatiguing. As I played them for several hours they just kept sounding better. Now, they are unbelievable. As you probably know, the placement of any speaker can make a noticeable difference in the bass response. A couple of inches closer or farther from the wall can be very noticeable. I had absolutely no complaints with the bass these guys put out, but after I found just the right spot for my room acoustics the bass really came alive. I mean not just the smooth low frequency you expect from nice tower speakers, but actual thumping that hits you in the chest. With this kind of bass I can live without a subwoofer. Having been completely satisfied already, I decided to see what they sounded like bi-wired. I have always been of the mind that cables don’t really make much of a difference. Well, I bit the bullet and spent over $100 on some Kimber Kable 4PR (14g) for the highs and some 8PR for the lows (10g), terminated them with gold bananas and reconnected everything. Right away I learned what “imaging” is. The sound opened up and I could really tell where each individual instrument was coming from inside my living room. And this is just in two channel stereo! For the best sound with these babies I would highly recommend bi-wiring them. As far as I’m concerned these speakers are all I’ll ever need. I’m very happy with my purchase.

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many

POLK REPUTATION, BUILD QUALITY, SOUND CLARITY, BASS, SIZE, NO DISTORTION AT HIGH LEVELS, BI-WIRE CAPABLE, POLK CUSTOMER SERVICE IS FANTASTIC.

NONE SO FAR

I HAD SHOPPED FOR 6 MONTHS WITH ABOUT 20 HOURS OF LISTENING IN THE DIFFERENT SOUND ROOMS TO THE SPEAKERS I MENTIONED. I ALWAYS BROUGHT MY OWN CD'S WITH LOTS OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC TO REALLY PUT THE SPEAKERS IN THE SAME PRICE LEVEL TO A GOOD AND EQUAL TEST, I ALSO BROUGHT KNOWLEDGEABLE FRIENDS ALONG TO GET DIFFERENT OPINIONS. THE KLIPSHES WERE GOOD BUT I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THE HORNS AFTER AWHILE. THE ENERGY SPEAKERS LACKED THE PUNCH FOR HOME THEATRE. THE INFINITY SPEAKERS WERE GOOD ALSO BUT AT HIGHER LEVELS THEY LACKED CLARITY. THE CHOICE CAME DOWN TO THE PARADIGMS OR THE POLKS IN WHICH THE POLKS CAME OUT THE WINNER. THE TWO WERE GREAT FOR MUSIC BUT THE POLKS OUT PERFORMED THE PARADIGMS. I PUT IN MANY HOURS ON THESE TWO COMPANIES IN THE SOUND ROOMS FOR THE TWO MAIN SPEAKERS AND ALSO WITH THE FULL SURROUND IN WHICH I WILL BE GOING 7.1 WITH THE ONKYO 797 WHEN IT COMES OUT IN SEPTEMBER. THE POLK SYSTEM JUST GAVE MORE IN THE HOME THEATRE SIDE OF THINGS AND ALSO WE TESTED DVD-AUDIO AND MY OPINION AND ALSO MY FRIENDS AGREED THAT THE 2 SPEAKER SETUPS WERE FANTASTIC BUT THE POLKS JUST WON THE OVERALL BATTLE.I MY OPINION YOU CAN'T GO WRONG WITH THIS PAIR OF SPEAKERS BUT SPEAKERS ARE A VERY PERSONEL CHOICE SO YOU MUST TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN TO LOTS OF DIFFERENT SPEAKERS AND DON'T BE INFLUENCED BY THE SALESPEOPLE BECAUSE MANY OF THE SALESPEOPLE I DEALT WITH DID NOT KNOW THE PRODUCTS AT ALL.

MY PURCHASES IN SEPT WILL BE
ONKYO 797
POLK CTR CS400i
POLK BACK CTR CS245i
POLK SURR FX500i
SUB PSW650

Similar Products Used:

KLIPSH, INFINITY, ENERGY, PARADIGM

Great sound in a great package at a Great Price

Not much

First allow me to say that I also work for Circuit City and would like to respond to the earlier reviewer's comments on how we must all be audio geniuses. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but most Circuit City employees are idiots. For the most part we are after our comission, and here's how this works: the more we sell a product as a company, the less it pays. If we sell little to no of a certain brand, for instance, the amount it pays us goes up until we start selling it. Polks pay the least of our three major brands (Polk, Infinity, Bose). Translation: We sell more Polk speakers than Infinity, and more Infinity than Bose. So the reviewer from CC who says he bought the Entra Two's is an idiot. You'll take a 5.25" and a .75" tweeter made out of that damn ceramic crap? And how can you stand that bright sound? Well at least one person bought them to keep Infinity happy, I know no one else has. And to the guy who said he knows what he's talking about, he's listened to $15,000 speakers, can I please remind him to keep this in context? I think Martin Logans are the best speakers I've heard, but I can't get Logans for $400 each retail.

So enough ranting and about the speaker. I cannot beat them, or their bookshelf cousins, the RT55i's, for the money. Sound is clear, crisp, and clean. Not overly bright either. Midrange, where about 50% of your sound is, is excellent. And decent bass response as well. I cannot fault these speakers at all.

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Infinity

Clarity, soundstage, price, able to play at high volume

Not as much bass as some other speakers in the price range, but, again, the subwoofer works beautifully in conjunction with these.

These speakers are great. Crutchfield lets you audition speakers in your home for up to 30 days before deciding whether to return them. I gave these things a workout, and they are very impressive. They have great detail, imaging, and clarity. I have listened to a lot of speakers and these are one of the best in this price range. They hold up favorably with speakers costing much more. They do not have the best bass output, but that was solved because Polk offered a choice of subwoofers for basically half price.

Combine these speakers with a quality Polk subwoofer, and you have a system that produces extremely clear, detailed sound, with as much bass punch as you could want (at least enough to get complaints from the neighbors). You don't have to biamp these, you can get great sound using the bass from these speakers in conjunction with the subwoofer bass.

I originally was skeptical of these speakers, but honestly, they are a quality product that you will enjoy. They are excellent for home theater as well. Try them. Unless you like speakers that produce heavy bass with no sound detail, you will wonder who opened up your ears when you listen to these. Outstanding clarity.

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Genesis, JBL, Infinity.

great natural sound with just the right amount of highs and bass that sounds like a ten inch sub they are simply a great deal for under one thousand anywhere

The speaker doesn't seem to take alot of power very well but if you run them at 100 to 125 watts rms they rock

Basically for under a thousand dollars i don't think that i heard a better speaker and they complemented my other speakers very well. which i thought was going to be an issue. overall though these speakers will completely satisfy the audiophile in all of us

system is
hk signature amp and preamp
and hk dvd 50 dvd player
def. tech. rears and center
and polk dual psw 650 sub.

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paradigm, def. tech., jamo, yamaha, and jbl

clear and crisp mids and highs, yet warm sounding overall. Clean and durable design. Small footprint, but very stable. 5 year warranty

none

Excellant speakers. Highly recommend.
Surprising good bass for a non-powered sub speaker.
For those who haven't personally dealt with Polk,
let me just say this:
Polk is a company that fully understands the meaning of customer service.
They rock!

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too many

Warmth of sound, sleek appearance, price

none

Last December I purchased a pair of the Polk rt6001's at $600 from Circuit City. At the time of purchase, I noticed the "Trade-Up" speaker promotion offered for one year from original purchase. While I enjoyed the rt600i's, I always wondered if I should have paid the extra $200 for the rt800i's. When I saw the 800's on sale last Sunday for the exact same price I paid for the 600's, I packed my 600's up and headed to Circuit City. To my surprise, 1/2 hour later I was heading home with brand new 800's on board for $0!!!! They allowed me to do a straight swap---is this a great country or what??!!?? I've had the speakers for a week now and I have to say the sound quality is a dramatic improvement from the 600's. The bass is much more pronounced and the overall sound is much warmer that what the 600's could pump out. I would STRONGLY encourage anyone thinking of purchashing the 600 series to spend the extra money and upgrade to the rt800i's----they are excellent speakers!

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I upgraded from the Polk rt600i's to these

Crisp, Clear sound with better bass than the Polk RT600i's.

none so far!

I am actually pretty new to the "audio world" but I have recently decided to buy what I needed to build a decent home theater. My old setup was a Sony STR-DE415 Reciever with two huge, old Infinity's as the fronts and two Bose 201's as the rears. That's about it. Oh, and a crappy Samsung DVD player.

I recently went out and bought an Onkyo TS-DX595, a pair of Bose 601 series IV's and the Bose VCS 10 center speaker. I brought it all home and thought I had done good in my choices. I had my friend come over who has been really into the whole home theater thing for awhile now and he gave me some opinions. That's when I got on the internet and started doing some research. From the information that I got and the price range I was in, I decided I would go out the next day and check out Polk, Energy and the Infinity Entra's. After trying them out I decided that I liked the sound of the Polk Audio 600i's and the 800i's. The 800i's had a huge difference over the 600i's when it came to bass. The high's seemed to be a bit clearer as well. The 800i's have a great overall sound at a pretty decent price. I decided to buy them and the infinity Entra center speaker and return my Bose stuff. So far, I have been extremely happy with my new purchases. The sound of the Polk's is much better than the Bose and the Infinity center is much clearer than the muddy Bose center. I'm not bashing Bose here, I still love my Bose 201's and am currently using them as my rears. The Polk's just sound better. Great speakers!

My setup:
Onkyo TS-DX595 Reciever
Panasonic DVD-RV31 DVD Player
Polk Audio RT800i front speakers
Infinity Entra center speaker
Bose 201's, rear
JBL SUB125a Sub

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Infinity, Bose, Energy, JBL...