Excellent highs. Tight, warm sound. Very accurate reproduction. They look great, sound great, and are worth every cent.

Bass is on the week side, but like I said, pair this with a sub and you will have no problem.

When Polk designed these speakers, along with most other pairs of their speakers, they anticipated that you would own a subwoofer. Polk did not have the intention of these towers producing sub-base levels, so they designed them to be small and narrow. When you pair these with the Polk PSW10 10" subwoofer, they sound GREAT!!! I am currently using this in a 7.1 setup with the Polk CS175i center speaker, F/X300i surrounds, and the PSW10 subwoofer using an Onkyo TX-DS898 A/V Reciever.

Similar Products Used:

CS175i F/X300i PSW10

Appearance,Sound,Good Clean Bass Responce

None that i can hear.

I love these speakers.Bought them to replace a pair of Radio Shack Nova 18's which I blew the 10" woofer in one. A replacement woofer was $40.00. Then I saw the Polk R40's on sale for $99.00 each at Bernie's. I read all the reviews on the R40's. Everyone said they had excellent highs and midrange, but were lacking in bass, because of the 5-1/4" mid-base drivers. I have them in a surround sound setup in my basement, consisting of a Sony STR DE-635 Dolby Digital Receiver 80x5 watts. The Polks are used for the front mains along with a pair of Cerwin Vega DX-7's, Boston Acoustic HD-5's for rear surround, and a Audio Source VS-ONE for the center channel. The Cerwin Vega's are 12" 3-ways with a 6-1/2" midrange. They do play very loud and pump out more bass because of the 12" woofer, and sound great. When I switch to the Polk's, the sound is so clean and dynamic, and the bass they put out for 5 1/4" drivers is exceptional, as long as you don't play them at maximum volume. They still play pretty loud to fill a 24'x20' basement. They also sound great when listening to stereo music or CD's. Too bad they are being discontinued for a newer model, but the way the R40's sound, I bet the new model will also sound great. My hats off to Polk Audio. These are excellent speakers for the money, and for the price I paid, they are a steal!

Similar Products Used:

Infinity,Bose

Price! Accurate highs and mids with video application.

Seem less dynamic when playing music

Great sounding speakers for the price. I have a modest home theater setup including: Technics receiver and CD player & Toshiba DVD player; Paradigm center channel; Infinity subwoofer; sonance rear channel.

Similar Products Used:

JBL and Infinity bookshelf speakers

Beautiful appearnce, nice size, accurate mids and highs, PRICE !!!

lack some bass. Althouh if own a subwoofer this is not a problem.

To start off this is my set up. •Harman Kardon AVR 120 receiver •Sony Mini Disc deck •Poineer DVD / CD deck •polk center channel •cerwin vega 10 " sub •sony rear surrounds •all high quality optical cable To be totally honest I believe these are a good set of speakers epescically for the price. These speakers have very accurate mids and highs. I agree with others here, these speakers do lack some bass. But they have enough to get by. If you are looking for a quality speaker but on a budget I would highely recomend these speakers.

Crisp clean highs, good solid mid''''s, 150 Watts per channel, good looking speaker as well (small floorstanding footprint) Don''''t forget the price! As of 3/26/02 you can pick them up for $149 / Ea.

Lack a little bass, but hey if you are truly an audio enthusiast you own a subwoofer!

Well it all started when my wife blew my Polk R10''''s. I went to Circuit City after months of reading reviews and specs. I wasn''''t going to buy anything just listen. I was told about the upgrade program that Circuit City offers for speakers. If you owned the speakers for less than 1 year you can upgrade them for full credit on your old pair. Being honest, I told the guy that my R10''''s are blown. He said since Circuit City is an authorized dealer and repair facility for Polk that he would take them anyway. Well at that point it was a shopping spree. I listened to the R40''''s, and the Infinity''''s and anything else they had worth a darn. I liked the Polk and Infinity but I am on a budget. The R40''''s for the price were the choice for me. They didn''''t have exceptional bass, but my 120 watt 12" CV Sub would handle that just fine. They are crisp and accurate on the high end. Despite some of the other reviews I''''ve read I think they have pretty good midrange sound as well. The true test is how well will my Harman Kardon AVR320 push them. Oh it push''''s them pretty damn well. Along with my Boston Acoustic HD5''''s and Acoustic Research center. I require great sound for mostly music and a bit of home theater. This configuration is outstanding for my needs. Loud, crisp, clean sound and Home Theater that comes alive. I''''ve pieced together a compact and somewhat hodge-podge system but it sounds awesome. I also wish more reviewers would put down what artists or types of music they listen to. We listen to alot of Techno, Rave, Dance, Hard Rock. (Moby, DJ Sasha, John Digweed, GodSmack, and occasionally I will sneak my Stevie Ray Vaughn DVD {Live at El Macumbo})

Similar Products Used:

Bose 141''''s, Klipsch KG4''''s, Polk R10''''s, Harman Kardon AVR320, Harman Kardon HK3300

Price, Look, and clear sound.

Can''t handle a huge amount of power, and lacks huge quanties of bass. But that is to be expected for the price.

These Speakers sound pretty good, I recently bought them from Future Shop because they were on sale and couldn''t pass them up. The sound they produce is very clear and has a respectable amount of bass for the size of the drivers 5/14". I thought these speakers sounded fantastic until I heard a set of Pok''s my friend had RT 1000''s or something. I think I will eventually use these as rear speakers although they would make perfectly good fronts for those non- AudioPhiles.

quality, price

none, taken the strengths

I bought these speakers to replace a couple of old Infinitys that died. They do pump out a lot of sound for the money. Sure they aren''t the best but if you want the best - be prepared to shell out the large! If you want some high quality for your budget, check ''em out

Similar Products Used:

big honkin'' polks, infinitys

Small Footprint, clear Mids and smooth highs

Definatly needs a sub (but I think that was the origonal idea here anyway)

I bought these speakers on an impulse buy to match with my Polk Audio center channel (CS245). As soon as I pluged them in I knew I was listening to a top quality speaker compared to the cost. They project the mids and highs very evenly throughout the room - very omni-dirrectional. I liked em so much I went back to get another pair for my rears the next week - I now have an R40 in each corner, the CS245 in the center and a Nuance Sub (N-200) for the bottom end. An absolute perfect 360 degree timber-match.

Best buy for its price class - and I recommend these to anybody buillding for a small to medium size room, or with a limited budget.

Similar Products Used:

Acoustic Research, Altech Lansing

Great speakers for a home entertainment system. Acting as the main speakers, they provide the power you want when watching an intense action movie.(great midbass) I highly recommend it as "movie-watching" speakers. I think spending over $600 for theatre main speakers is only for the true movie conisseur.

They aren't optimum speakers when listening to pure stereo.
The tweeters are less than I expected. Doesn't provide the excitement you get when hearing a cymbal crash or a high B flat on the trumpet. Also, the bass lacks the precision you get from say an Infinity or a B&W. I don't really recommend these as stereo speakers. What I do recommend are the Onkyo D-102Ex's. These are "quality" speakers! For just under $600, I was amazed at the overall reproduction of the original recording. However, this may only be true because of the stereo amplifier I have
(Denon PMA-1500RII)

This product is suited for a home theater. That's it. That's all it should be used for. Except for casual listening, it isn't meant for true stereo speakers. Believe me, stereo music has to be played on high quality speakers in order to hear the original recordings done in the studio. Listening to music through 5ch or Pro-Logic simply doesn't work for me.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo D-102EX, Bose Acoustimass Series, Onkyo Monitor 900

Ummmmm........Color?

Bass, Tweeter, Mids, power handeling, and overall sound

I don't really have an imac but that is what i willl put these speakers up to. If you listen to these in the store they sound great. that is because they have played them over and over and over again. ive had these for 2 months and play they very often loud and soft. they aren't broken in yet!!! they still sound like out of the box crap......if you want to see one of these speakers got to the local imac store and have them crank them imac speakers cuz they have to be the SAME THING!!

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Ummmmmm..........the speakers built into my imac???