very flexible, includes bracket, nice sound

Kind of ugly design: better speakers out there for same or just a tad more

I've had these speakers for 5-6 yrs now..and they have served me well. If you have a small HT and using for surrounds (could not see using for anything else- party room maybe) I upgraded to the f/x300i's..ands soon to the 500's. As good as they are..for the price..I'd get the RT25's or spend a tad more and get the 35's..
Much better speakers in my opinion.

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Polk f/x300i

Versitile mounting, wide soundstage that extends well beyond the speaker; they "disappear" as well as any speaker I've heard; nice mid range clarity and detail

Limited bass (but hey, you can't expect bone rattling bass from a small minimonitor); limited dynamics and transients, limited power handling, especially on music and movie peaks; mounting brackets seam a bit weak (the bracket on both speakers have broken on mine)

I purchased these with my very first home theater setup (do you remember Pro- Logic?) when I was in college back in 1991 for use as the rear surrounds. They still perform well at this duty, although once my theater/listening room is built, they will be replaced with full-size Magnepan MMG's to complement Magnepan 1.6's for the front.

With the exception of the mounting brackets, these speakers have performed most admirably indeed. Those darn brackets have broken twice on the one speaker and once on the other. I gave up after that and placed them on 52" speaker stands. I also agree with some of the previous reviewers-the dust covers are quite tricky to remove.

For Pro-Logic, these speakers are ideal. For Dolby Digital, they are a bit localized and don't perform as well as bi-pole or di-pole speakers for space or ambience. Still, even on Dolby Digital, they perform very well for a nine-year-old speaker.

They are currently being used in my "makeshift" two-channel only set-up while I wait for the completion of my dedicated listening/home theater room. The sound is surprisingly sweet and detailed. Near reference level, however, even with my subwoofer handling everything below 70 hz, I hear audible distortion on difficult musical peaks. This is to be expected with a speaker this size, but is something I never encounter on my Magnepans...even without the sub so I had to adjust. They can also become metallic and brash above about 85db in the upper mids and lower treble on some material and in "bare" rooms.

The soundstage width is phenominal for any speaker while soundstage depth is good, but average. Instrument placement is quite well proportioned. In all, these little guys could show some $3000 speakers how to do soundstaging.

My verdict- an excellent speaker for the price and one that I can still enjoy music on while my main gear rests until my room is complete. I believe the going price for these speakers is now somewhere around $350 and there have been some improvements made like different crossovers and better power handling. Listen to them before laying down $600 or $700 or more on rear surrounds, especially if you still watch a lot of Pro-Logic. You could build quite a nice music system around them as well and have enough left over for some new CD's. Just beware of their mounting brackets,


Value- 5 stars
Rear channel in a surround setup- 5 stars
Music only setup- 4 stars
Overall- 5 stars

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None. These are the only rear channel speakers I've ever owned. The rest that I've owned have all been large, much more expensive floorstanders