Incredible Value, Great sound

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I was loooking for a better sounding speaker to replace 5 Optimus Pro LX5II speakers because of their inefficiency and murky bass output. I saw an ad for Polk R10s from the Good Guys for $36 each. When I auditioned the speakers at the showroom I thought they were the best sounding speakers on the wall -- regardless of price. Even at the regular price which is double what I paid, they are a great deal. They only come in boxes of two, so I bought 4 of them. When I got them home I was amazed at how great they sound. Smooth, clean, efficient output from the bass all the way through the high end. I only wish I had bought 2 more of the them at the sale price!

Here's my setup:
Sony STR DB930 Receiver
4 Polk R10s for the L&R front and back
Energy exls10 subwoofer

I tried using one of the LX5II's as the center speaker, but it sounded better without it.

It was tricky getting the bass to sound it's best with this setup; I found the best DB930 settings are for the R10s to be set as "small" and subwoofer output from the DB930 connects to the unfiltered xover input on the exls10. Then set the DB930 LFE and subwoofer levels to -6 db.

The resulting setup sounds hard to believe!! Digital input DTS will absolutely blow you away. I'm not a big fan of the Eagles but I can't stop listening to the "Hell Freezes Over" DTS DVD because the sound is amazing. Close your eyes and it sounds like you're sitting in the same room with the band. I bought a bunch of the DTS CDs and they also sound great. Previously I thought people who said CDs don't sound so great were full of it, but now I know why. After you've experienced the clarity and dynamics of good quality 5.1 96 khz 24 bit DTS recordings it makes 2 channel 44 khz 16 bit music sound like you have cotton in your ears. I would never buy another regular CD again if I could find the same music in DTS. "Saving Private Ryan" DTS DVD is so realistic sounding it scares the ---- out of me.

In an 18x12x9 room the setup plays frightfully loud without distortion. Bass sounds great with the exls10's great low extension and it blends smoothly into the R10s -- a huge improvement over the LX5IIs. The midrange is clean, clear and forward. And the highend is crystal clear without being overly bright. The only thing I miss about the LX5s is the spaciousness of the dipole tweeters.

In summary, I've spent a lot of time listening to high end HT/stereo setups and this setup sounds about as good as anything I've ever heard -- and at a total system price of around $1000. Pretty amazing! I just wish I could buy all music in DTS format!! Hey music companies: if you want me to buy all my favorite music again just re-release it DTS encoded!!

Similar Products Used:

Optimus Pro LX5II

loud bass for a small speaker, clear but not too bright, and overall just very loud. Great price too, and has keyhole wall mount in the back

bass can be boomy at high volumes, can be solved by covering or dampening the front.

I got these at Circuit City, after pricematching them against GoodGuys since the GoodGuys were out of stock.

Im using this for my surrounds, and for that they are a superb performer, giving my slightly higher-end RS-2 and JBL SCenter a run for their money at times. If you want to give your surround a workout try the Terminator2 ultimate edition DVD. The T2 THX trailer on that disc totally rocked my room, I could really hear the 5.1 sound engulfing me, thanx to these Polks. Way better than the pair of Aiwas i was using for surrounds before. And also much better than the KLH911B which was around the same price at about 30-40bucks each.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha bookshelves, Infinity RS-2, KLH-911B :P

Price, fairly true replication in midrange/high.

Lack of definition of bass.

I bought these since my Infinity's died of old age. The Polk's have not broken in but from what I can tell so far the highs and midrange are pretty true. Putting through some music I adore and know, it was nice to hear it replicated as it should be. The only problem I have and this is where it failed against my old Infinity's is the lack of definition on the bass. I put in Peter Gabriel's "Milgrams" of his So ablum and waited for the pluck on a particular note I know would test the speaker. It produced the the low but the subtle detail was not produced at all. Well, considering what I paid I really cannot complain too loudly about this. Overall so far, they seem to replicate the music well.
They come with 5way binding posts which make it nice and easy to hook up your cables to. I usually don't care about how it looks, since I am more interested in how is sounds, but the black finish is fine. But for now, they will do.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity Bookshelfs mid 80's model

Great midrange, Crisp highs. DIRT CHEAP, I BOUGHT 4 AT 20/e

Tend to walk away at high volume, way to light.

Very accurate responce, there are none that are better for under 50/e ANYWHERE. Correct me if i am wrong. The RT25i was very comparable, posibly excedes it in power handleing. The 35i sounded much better because of its bass responce, and the 55 was just great.

The Monitor series that paradigm puts out fills a large room much better then these do, but having 6 surround spkrs and a center (4 of which are R10's) does the job nicely.

If I have it in my budget after I buy a PW2200 subwoofer, i might buy some Monitor series Paradigm fronts to replace my old Vintage Marantz Imperial 5's (which lack the fullness in midrange responce that the Paradigms have)

For Price the R10 is IMPOSSIBLE to beat. It is a little ugly with the grill off, but who cares, it sounds great.

Took awhile to fully break in (about 4 months) but they lost the weak feal that they had when out of the box.

Similar Products Used:

Vintage Marantz Imperial 5 (Nice)
Listened to RT15i and others in the series, this sounded better then the 15, and simmilar to the 25.
Listened to Paradigm Monitor Series (Blew the R10 away but expensive)
Klipsch Quintlet (EEW)

Power handling, bass punch for its size, quality for the price. Nice balanced, accurate sound.

Can't complain

I bought my first pair to replace the cheap Technics surrounds that were included with my receiver purchase. They work beautifully as surround speakers.

I bought a second pair for my son to go with his hand-me-down receiver and they work amazingly well as stereo monitors for his small bedroom.

I don't know that I'd pay full retail price for them, but they're a great value for the price I paid. Get them when they're on sale at Circuit City, Good Guys, etc. - you won't regret it.

Similar Products Used:

Technics surrounds that were free when I bought my receiver

Warm sound, well balanced, good midrange, surprisingly good bass for its size, cheap, highs nice and crisp.

At this price, NONE.

Was looking around to setup a decent HT setup for myself. I already had Polk RT35i's at the front and the CS245i center so all I needed was surrounds. Got them off Circuit city, was supposed to be $39 each but there was an open box pair so it went for $30 each. These are probably the best $60/pair speakers out there, well balanced, quality sound that blends seamlessly with my other speakers. Heck, if you have a sub, they can do duty as the front speakers too, just don't expect subsonic sound from the 5inch drivers. However, upper bass is nicely executed. I'm thinking about buying another pair just for my room.

Detailed highs, mids

No real bass

I have set up a nice "secondary" system comprising of:
NAD 3240 Amp
Arcam Alpha 7 CD Player
Thoren TD166 Turntable
Yamaha KX300U Cassette

I was looking for a good quality bookshelf speaker to deliver a nice (not mind-blowing) full-range sound. The Polk R10's definately fit the budget. Nice 5-way binding posts and good quality construction are the first things you'll notice. Pull off the grilles and you're met by a nice looking tweeter, a small woofer with good quality rubber surround, and a small port. Sound quality is pretty damn good for its size. Very detailed and unstrained, but little or no real bass. I know, what do you expect from such a small woofer? Anyway, they didn't do the job, so I brought them back and bought a pair of Quest Q610's which were the same price but a better fit for my system. You really have to question why Polk doesn't only market these speakers as "surround" speakers because they really don't have the ooommph to do the trick on their own.

Similar Products Used:

Sonab C10, Quest Q610

airy highs and midrange

easily-induced distortion (mostly crackling in the bass)

Got a pair of the R10s at our local tweeter when they stopped carrying polk. Running them off a Pioneer sx-780 receiver, which is very clean and neutral sounding. These speaks play well when the volume is low but at reference levels, they can't handle the power I supply them. Though tight, I've found that for the most part the bass is one-note. The midrange is colored like a typical polk offering, and the highs are a little subdued. Taking the grilles off helps remedy this a bit, but even then the shortcomings in the bass region cannot be ignored.
Overall, I'd say they're at least better than most other $100 speaker pairs out there. Not a bad deal, but definitely not the best deal out there.

Similar Products Used:

infinity il 10, mirage fr-x 1 and 3, paradigm titan, atom, minimonitor, boston cr-6-8, technics, some old criterion and jennings research.

Mid's, Highs, Detailed sound

At this price, nothing!

I am on a TIGHT budget. I bought these for my fronts in a small HT setup. I have a powered sub handling <100Hz, so I can't comment on how they handle bass. The mid's and Highs are handled very respectably, and at this price, I was very pleasantly suprised. The sound was very detailed and clean. I highly recommend these to someone looking for a small speaker with a small pricetag that doesn't skimp on sound.

Similar Products Used:

Advent Marble, RCA Bookshelf, Pioneer

Price, Suitability for surrounds, voice match for Polk 40's. Low power primaries.

None yet.

These are my surrounds in a system fronted with R40 mains, and the CS275i center. The R40's and R10's have the same components for both drivers (5.75 and .75), matching the voices perfectly. They are specifically well-suited for this purpose. These are small enough to fit on some light-duty speaker stands, and this works particularly well for me since we re-arrange our living space frequently, and the surround positions change.

I went into setting up my home thater with a very strict budget in mind. Over the course of a couple months through exchanges/returns (which Circuit City is very good about), I've wound up with the following:

HK-AVR110 (A/V Receiver 300.00)
Polk R40 (main 200.00 ea.)
Polk CS275i (center 100.00 w/purch of R40's)
Polk R10 (surround 49.99 ea.)

So I've got 900.00 in the whole system to date, and couldn't be happier. I couldn't squeeze the subwoofer in just yet, but the R40's produce a very respectable amount of bass, that I have moved the subwoofer to near-bottom of my priority list.

I can't finish without commenting on the CS275i center channel as well. Polk was running a promotion with CC, whereby you purchase 400.00 worth of mains (or anything else for that matter), and you get a free CS175. I paid the extra 100.00 because I just couldn't bring myself to buy an un-balanced (single bass driver) center channel. The CS275i is bright, and warm. No surround system is complete without a credible center channel. I was trying to forego this element, and I'm glad I didn't.

CC and Polk were instrumental in my decision and ability to buy it all. Thanks! (purch. 12mos. SAC w/CC card)

**** (4 stars for the R10's, aren't many Giant Killers in my experience)

***** (5 stars for the system)

Similar Products Used:

Polk R40, CS275i.