It is perfectly balanced from top to bottom and its tonality is matched perfectly with my Polk center 245i. By the way, my pair is the new Polk RT35i with the trilaminate dome tweeter (Polk used some metalic materials to perk up the highs).

It doesn't pump out deep bass notes, but that's why I'm using them as satellites along with my PSW 1200 (Crutchfied still might have some left for $699; that's where I got mine).

These speakers are perfectly balanced as far as I am concerned except for low-end bass. They sound great whether you play music or movies. I would recommend that you have a good subwoofer though, otherwise you might be dissapointed. They definitely sound better than the Infinities I recently retired. The Infinities were great when played as an A-B pair, but either pair played without the other sounded off. The bookshelfs sounded high and harsh and the towers sounded flat. My new Polks sound just right as satellites to my subwoofer.
Don't take my word only, go and listen for yourself at Goodguys or somewhere.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity RS600 (tower) and Infinity RM85 (bookshelf).

imaging,clarity

not the best for rap if that's a weakness

nice, clean sound. i find them very listenable for long periods of time. equally nice for music and movies. i use a sub so bass is not an issue in the lowest registers.

but these have a nice bass. and sound good with most any music. the speakers are built rock solid and polk is still one of the best at standing behind their product.

bottom line, i think these sound much better than most at the 350 price point, i'm not a paradigm fan........that boomy bass turns me off. infinity is not as balanced.
and ar is not quite as clean, and gave me listening fatigue.

if 350 is what you got to spend give these a listen, polk speakers are still among the better built and sound even across the spectrum. enjoy.........

Similar Products Used:

paradigm,infinity,ar etc.

Size, Bass responce and overall sound.

Cheep grill and logo.

I just purchased these speakers and replaced my extremely old Yamaha's. I was very impressed with the overall sound from music and movies. I enjoy rock and alternative music and it seems like these speakers actually enjoy playing it. I was suprised with how much bass these things produced. I would recommend a sub for these speakers so you dont have to strain the mid range to get your desired amount of bass. Also I had to bring down the amount of trebel that i was using with my old speakers because theses Polks nearly shatterd my ears. Its amazing how much volume you can throw at these speakes and get absolutly no distortion. Im using the Yamaha 5140 AV reciever for these speakers and I would recommend using a clean Amp because these speakes produce every detail in sound. I am currently using them for my fronts and they are fullfilling there duties. I highly recommend these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

after listening at the speder bike chase in star wars return of the jedi, i was hooked!!!
but knowing circuit city, their soundrooms are made to make speakers sound good, but after takeing my RT35's and my harman kardon AVR-45......amazed!
even using my old, and i mean OLD cd-player, it was blissfull, great highs, exelent lows, and a good midrange, hooking it up to my computer, playing quake2 was totaly diffrent!, the roar of the chaingun and the BOOOOM of the rocket were exelent!!!!!

the weirdest part of all....no subwoofer was used!

polk audios power point is an exelent reproduction of bass for a bookshelf speaker!

a definate buy!

Boy- I have to say- I've been going round and round researching and auditioning large bookshelf speakers like these. From Paradigm Monitor 3's, Energy C-2's, Klipsch 3.1, etc, etc.
Much as I want to spend some more bucks on new speakers, my current RT35's just always seem to win out over auditioning these others. I listen primarily to rock, female vocals, some jazz and these can really deliver clarity in those genres. The bass depth is good enough; with a subwoofer, the soundstaging is even more "seperate" and defined. I can't say enough good things about these speakers with this type of music (but I really, really want to spend some more money) I'm an addict.

I picked up a pair of RT35's at Circuit City (gag!) but it was an open box buy and they blew me away with how loud they could play and still sound great. I paid about $300 total for the pair and speaker cable plus they are still under 5 year warranty. I look forward to picking up a sub to handle that super deep resonant bass. Also to add two more and a center speaker. These, to me, even sounded better than the RT1000's in the same room. They do sound a little bright and the cheap polk stickers on the covers are tacky but for the price, they're a steal.

I'd give 4.5 stars but I guess I'll have to round up. Hah!

i just bought these 3 days ago from circuit city for $350/pair. compared them with infinity rs-3. the rs-3 was much brighter, but the polk had tighter bass and a looked better. when i brought it home, the polks really pump out loads of bass, but i wish the highs were crisper. that was the only drawback. nice design, power port rocks and it was very heavy (20 lbs each). it would be a 5 star rating if it had infinity's high end response.

After stressing out on which speakers to buy, the RT-35 was a breath of fresh air. I had looked at Bose, Infinity, and DCM and the Polk had the best overall sound for the money. The nicest thing about them is they aren't too heavy to wall-mount. Perfect for rear or even front speakers. Add a good reciever and a sub and you have the beginning of a high-end home-theater system. I really like them.

I have a Polk system that consists of: front RT35s, center CS245, rear RT25s. Let me tell you, this sounds absolutely wonderful and easily beats anything near its price range ($800 for 5 spkrs). I auditioned various models of JBL, Infinity, and a few others before settling on the Polks. In a side by side comparison using my own cd's (no biased salesman in the room) with the Infinity RS-3s, the RT35s won hands down. They had gobs more bass and simply sounded warmer overall. I don't know how they do it, but these bookshelf speakers can pour out some serious bass, which is great for home theater because I can set the crossover on my JBL sub that much lower. And man! can they play loud. I need to get a more powerful receiver so that it doesn't clip!
Previously, I had a set of Infinity bookshelfs and a center for my system, but traded them in within a year at CC (this policy is something that CC does right!). They were "ok" but I was expecting more. I didn't know what "transparency" was all about til i got these. And that's exactly what they are. You don't hear the speaker, you hear the music!

At any price, these are terrific speakers, and it's great that they are relatively affordable at $350/pair. I read a recent review of them in a high end audio magazine (can't remember which) where they were reviewing several other much more expensive bookshelfs from places like Mirage, Paradigm, etc., and they gave the RT35's an extremely favorable review. They even mentioned to make sure that your electronics are not easily fatigued because these speakers will reveal every detail. This just confirmed what I already knew about the RT35s, but it felt great to read it in a magazine (you know what I'm talking about...).

Hence, I am planning to upgrade my receiver soon and look forward to enjoying even better performance from my Polks! Kudos to the engineers at Polk Audio, Five *'s!

I've had the RT35's for about 6 months now and they are unbelievable. They are my rear speakers and I feel like they are really overquallified for the job. If there was some way to hook these up to both rear connections and B connections on my receiver, I would, so I could play them with my mains on A when no effects are in use. Great buy....wish it only had the trilaminate tweeter, but everything can't be perfect, I guess.