Great amount of bass for their size, no need for a subwoofer. Mids are very nice and balanced highs are perfect amount of “ting” without being shrill. What’s not to love about a Monitor 12?

Would love to find some replacement grills.

Polk Audio 10B Speakers.

I found these on Craigslist. The guy wanted $100. That's $50 per speaker! He fired them up in his garage and I almost immediately told him "that's enough". I was afraid someone would pull up in the driveway and shout "Here's $300 - I want those!". I brought them home, unplugged my JBL 4312A series monitors, and hooked this up to my Adcom GFA 555, my Adcom GFP 555, my Rotel RCD 955ax, and my Adcom tuner (yeah, I know - lots of Adcom). Long story short, these clearly don't have the same sound as my JBL's as it's a different speaker, however, the QUALITY is - to my ears - as good. I paid $1,000 for the JBL's! which I will now be selling off in favor of the 10B's. I love the JBL's but that West Coast in your face sound is awesome for rock, but the Polk 10B's are, in my opinion, a much more well rounder speaker that excels at Jazz, Guitar, and Rock! I've been looking for a pair of these for a long time, and now that I have them, I am keeping them!!!

By the way, the guy told me that he blew the tweets and called Polk who just put another set into the mail to him (no charge!), and he installed them. I'm not sure if they are Peerless or SL1000's. Definitely not SL2000's. They sound incredible! (I understand that the Peerless tweets had a tendency to die young, although I don't know, and don't want to incite flame mail).

Peace Out.

durable, good imaging, can be pushed and still not wear out the listener, sounds good with classic rock, indie rock, alternative rock, jazz, country swing, and folk

yes, some people will find that size is a problem

I have owned at pair of Polk 10-B's since the mid 1980's. They blew us away at the time as we were stepping up from some 1970's Marantz 6-G's. We listened to a lot of what's now known as classic rock at the time and really liked the increased mid-range response that these speakers offered.

Thirty years later and these are still the main speakers in our entertainment system. These speakers still get lots of compliments for clarity and lack of listener fatigue. Best if you have room and a house as I can't imagine these in a small apartment with neighbors who might not like the volume at which these can be played. I like to play big band jazz at a loud volume while working in my upstairs study as you'd swear that you were sitting over a live performance. The sound field is as good on stereo as most 3.1 fields, even better. I have had to recheck the setting because I swear that my Polk center channel is on but it's not. This is even more noticeable when the needle hits the wax. Our listening choices have expanded and the Polks still take on whatever we play.

I hope that not many readers see this as I'm looking for another pair of 10's for our bedroom and don't want to push the demand. Did I mention that in 30 years of listening we have had no problems with the speakers. I also own a pair of Monitor 5's (kitchen) and 5 jrs (garage) which I have bought used.

You could say that I have an "old polks home". In that case we still do have openings.

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Bose, Cerwin Vega, Manatz, Sansui, all vintage of course, new Infinity and Jbl



Current system includes:
Harman Kardon 335
Pro-ject turntable
Denon CD player
Polk center speaker
Polk 8T back speakers

Very open .Neutral ,natural midrange. tight ,Deep Bass Improved sound with every equipment upgrade.

too bright in treble Can become fatiguing Need right equipment.

Had these babies for ten years now and they sound better than ever! There on 14" stand design steel stands, sand filled and spiked. Driving with B&K EX 442 200 WPC ; Audio Research LS-7 all tube Pre. Mid-range is great. Bass is great, Not boomy. Treble is a little bright, they Can become a little fatiguing. Tubes calm that down I modified thes slightley by putting 4 extra screws in the basket surround of the 10" passive radiater. The holes were already there. and I put felt pads around the tweeter to tame diffractions. These were the best speakers I've had. I guess the tube Pre helped they do a dissapearing act. They 6throw a very nice sound stage. you really hear the phantom center channel. But alas there time has come and gone. I'm Finally upgrading after 10 years,even though I really love these speakers. I just bought a pair of B&W Matrix 802 s3. Hope they were worth the upgrade. Oh the ndigital is EAD T-700 and Dsp 7000 Which really help .

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N/A

Crisp, definative sound with terrific bass.

Size of monitior, muddy midrange.

Have had these boys since 1987, Have been with me through thick and thin and have not let me down once. Unfortunately, my living room can longer provide adequate space for them and I need to replace them with smaller units.

Wow - Have to agree with other reviewers; I'm surprised to see reviews still around for these speakers. I bought a new pair of these back in '92 and loved them. After one year I traded them in on a pair of used SRS 3.1 TLs that I still have today. Polk needs to get back to the monitor style speakers of old.

Nice smooth bass. Look cool with the grills off so you can watch the passive radiator go "boing boing boing!" Last forever.

Weakness mostly in my back from moving them around everytime I switched dorm rooms or apartments.

I bought these speakers new sometime around 1990, soon after starting college. They were my first "quality" set of speakers. I would agree with other posters that they're probably better than the mass-market stuff that Polk now sells.

I bought them becuase they put out plenty of thumpin' bass on rock and rap music but also sounded very nice with modern jazz. At the time I was a bass player (wish I still had my rig), and really into John Pattatucci (bass player for Chick Corea EB), Mark King (Level 42), and lots of other funk-slap bassists. For me, these were the ideal speakers for that kind of music.

They had been sitting in a basement for some years, but we just bought a new house and so I set them up in the master bedroom. My wife doesn't like them (too big for proper WAF) but I was happy just to listen to them again for a while. Four stars for a pair of really decent old speakers.

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Some old JVC 3-ways I had in high school. I also remember A/B-ing them with similarly priced Paradigms at the store.

Beautiful clean sound

Large, takes up a lot of room. Heavy.

First of all I want to state that I am not entirely shure of the model of these. The label on the back says Polkaudio Monitor Series 2. On the back of the tweaters they say manufactured in 1987. I have seen pictures of the 10's and mine are much bigger. These have the soft dome tweater, Four 6.5" drivers, and the 12" passive radiator. They are 38" tall and 16" wide and they weigh a ton. Visually impressive is the word if you see them without the grills.

If you can give me any info on these speakers contact me at:
scottjal@maine.rr.com or ICQ 12189626 thanks.

I bought these four years ago and I was using them for general listening for a long time. About two years ago I bought a CS245 and two RT25's and turned them into a home theater setup. I had contacted Polk's help department for the selection of the speakers. I believe that they recomended those speakers because of the similarity of the tweaters, they look almost identical. A year later I got the PSW450 to fill in the base demands of home theater. I was initially concerned with the imaging due to the speakers age / manufacturing differences but when it came down to it they filled the stage nicely. I don't have a ton of money like some people to throw into the theater system, but I am using a higher end Sony receiver and progressive scan DVD using the digital fiber connection and it sure sounds good.

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Heard other casual enthusiasts that just bought new systems featuring Denon, Infinity, JBL, etc.. Always like coming home to the Polk's.

Great bass. Shimmering highs.

Recessed "mouth full of cotton" midrange.

I used to sell these guys at retail in the late '80s - early '90s. Awesome speakers for Rock music!! They blew away the comparably priced Cerwin Vegas of the time in terms of clarity and punch!! My big beef with them was the mids, though. They tended to have a "cotton-stuffed-into-the-cheeks" quality with vocals. But hey, what do I know? Have a blessed day!!

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B/A T830s, Phase Tech PC600s, etc...

Awesome sound quality/clarity - longevity!

big and ugly, I'm down to 2 front cover clips per speaker.

My speakers have been with me since college (>10 years). They have seen a lot in that time. In college I fried the tweeters twice blasting heavy metal at parties ($60.00 to replace thru Polk). My Kenwood system I had back then (very sweet) is now moth-balled and replaced with a Sony db830 home theater video receiver. My Polks 10B's are the front mains with Klipsch 3.1 as the rear surround. The sound is still incredible and I cannot justify buying eye candy speakers yet. Maybe one day when my Polks are relegated to the garage??

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Klipsch 3.1