This was a gift from my friend last month. I must say that it has a good bass drive, excellent mid-range, detailed sound effects, especially for home theatre movies. Perfect! | Concrete Pumping

None so far.

I got these speakers at goodwill for $52 for the pair. Now I read they are $400 each or $800 for the pair. They are awesome speakers. The clarity is amazing. I was watching a tv show and heard some talking. I paused the tv show and heard nothing. Then I unpaused the tv show I was watching, and I heard the sound again. I figured out it a radio in the background of the tv show I was watching. The speakers have amazing clarity. The spekers pick up everything. The clarity is good it fools you sometimes.

These have the classic Polk top end. They sound OK for music or movies.
These do not get down to 40hz -3dB.
You will NEED a subwoofer. These speakers just can't get down to the low notes and the ones it can reach are not very powerful.
Ran these on a Carver TFM35x amp.

I would give this speaker a higher review, but it needs a monster amp to produce those low notes. There is a reason the instructions say up to a 275 watt (continuous power and that doesn't quit until it reaches the maximum .1% THD). If you have a quality amp, then you will hear the full spectrum of sound down to 30 Hz.

Bought these slightly played for $240/pair in mint and unmolested condish. I needed something to replace my aging Dahlquist DQ-10's. I'm driving with my Adcom GFA-555 (265 wpc) and augmented by Advent 100-watt 12" sub. Spectacular. I can't play them loud enough without taking a serious sonic beating. Depth and imaging are fantastic at this price range. Was considering a set of vintage SDA-SRS (signature ref standards) but may be satisfied with just these.

Bought a pair refurbished from Polk for $179.00. Honest!!! Not a blemish on them. I think
they were clearing the last of the old stock.

The speakers have nice, smooth high-end with full miss, the bass is adequate but I would suggest a subwoofer. It is not mandatory but with a sub with adjustable crossover you can pick up where the Polks leave off. Try about 60 hz. Easy on the volume of the sub! These can benefit from filling-in but do not need to go above 60-65 hz and no louder than needed of muddiness ruins the sound.

Imaging is good if not excellent. Once placed properly the stage appears deep and cohesive. Using a Music Fidelity DAC and Harmon/Kardon 3490 the sound is smooth with all instruments clear in the mix.

Give these speakers some power, a good source of signal and they shine. They are the budget bargain in speakers, right now...if you can find any left.

Bought these about a year ago as a somewhat overkill computer audio setup. Before anyone balks, I'm not using these in a near-field setup and in fact, they are about 10 feet in front of me with my computer desk set up in the middle of a 18 x 14 x 8 rectangular room. The speakers are about 18" from the front wall and about 2' from the side walls. The floor has an area drop rug that covers about 60% of the hardwood floors. Overall, the room is a bit on the bright side. The speakers are driven by a Dayton Audio DTA-100a Tripath amp, rated at 50w/ch @ 8 Ohms.

Listening results and opinion.

THE GOOD:

Bass doesn't go as low as their specs would suggest. It drops off steeply after 50Hz +/- , but what's there is solid, punchy and very well controlled. No boxiness to speak of. These speakers would really shine with a modest subwoofer to fill out the lower octave.

Both male and female vocals are actually extremely good. Much better than the $360/pr price I paid for these speakers would suggest.

High end is VERY extended, but not without it's faults. See below.

Fit n finish is good. The vinyl veneer looks great. Seams are well cut n finished.

THE NOT SO GOOD:

Considering the cabinet volume and the four 6.5" mid/bass drivers, I would expect to have a bit more extension in the bass region.

Enclosure fails the knuckle wrap test. Instead of a dull thud, I get a pretty resonant tone that is very obvious when knocking on the sides of the enclosure. Surprisingly, it doesn't translate into muddy base and midrange. Is it a fault then?

The tweeter, while very extended in range, suffers from mild breakup especially with string instruments. In most cases, it's not very obvious, but there.

The 5-Way binding post are very smooth and slippery. This makes it tough to tighten down on the preferred bare leads. I'm sure a set of banana terminals would make this a non-issue.

The speaker grills seem very thin and fragile. Removing them takes a lot of patience and care.

OVERALL VIEW:

For the money, these are tough speakers to beat! Tight lows and a dreamy midrange are the standout features of this system. They would make for a great low-budget home-theater system when matched up with the sibling Monitor 40s and a sub.

Had these for a month, Driven by a Denon 7.1 (Monitor 40 Surround, CS2 Center, Klipsch SB-1 Rear) Fantastic Full-Range Sound. Klipsch and Infinity are impressive at first, but youll eventually get sick of their titanium tweeters. Klipsch and Infinity provide for barely higher highs, at the exchange of screeching trebble -which is headache inducing. These silk dome tweeters on the monitor 70's are absolutely perfect and blend in with the acoustics of your room, which brings out a "warm" soundstage.

Theres been some debate as to whether these towers need to be paired with a sub. This is my final say on the issue: NO Sub required for music listening, YES sub for home theater/game use. The speakers produce all musical bass frequencies, and most of Home theater bass frequencies. Some people like the "feel" their home foundation shake in situations like on-screen movie explosions (35hz and below) Other than that, no need for a Sub. Even then, youll have to get at least a 12" Sub to even notice the difference.

I have been an audio enthusiast for many years, and I wasn't really fond of Polk Audio. Newegg has these Cherry Monitor 70 on sale for 199 each ($400/pair which is like 50% off). I thought it may be a good deal, and so I read some reviews on this website and on Amazon, and they were good enough to convince me to buy a pair. After I broke them in for about 1 week, the sound smoothed out, nice and relax. The treble is good enough with the detailed high, but it wasn't fatiguing. Vocal sound was nice full but never exaggerated ... like listening to Joe Louis Armstrong ... it was niiice!!! The bass was good enough.

It's not a hard-rocking pair of speakers though. I tried listening to Van Halen's Jump, Pamana, Craddle Will Rock and others. It was good enough.

Using these guys in home theater is great! The vocal is nice ... since the vocal part is 90% of the movie. Getting into some action sequence like the first battle scene in Aliens vs. Monster ... the bass was very responsive, the midrange and trebble impact was also there. The sound was totally clean and articulated.

For the price, I like these guys so much that when Newegg had the Monitor 50 on sale for $90 each ($180/pair), I bought those to replace my old Paradigm Monitor 3 for surround sound. I can't wait until they get in my possession.

I believe that Polk Monitor series speakers are being replaced by the Tsi series, so they are being sold at a cheap price. I totally recommend these guys if you can steal them for cheap! Cheers!

Good bass drive, excellent mid range, detailed sound effects especially for home theater movies.

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These floor standing speakers were amazing for this prize. When i listened to bose 701, Kef and paradigm, they were good but the prize was'nt in my budget, but when i heard and listened to polk, i was so amazed of the sound quality compare to the speakers i listened before and it saved me a lot of dollars.

Customer Service

excellent

Similar Products Used:

bose 701