Very reasonable cost; Great sound and clarity; Size does count; customer service

Need to crank it up a bit for optimum sound

I have had my Polk RT800's for almost 3 years now, and I am still happy with them today. For $600, you cannot go wrong. These speakers are big and give big sound with clarity. Why spend thousands on speakers when you can get Polks for much less? The RT800's are much much better than the lower level Polk floor standing speakers. The extra midrange driver makes a big difference. Unfortunately, one of the drivers went bad on me recently and started to hum. However, talk about great customer service - Polk sent me 2 replacement midranges and instructed me how to replace it myself - no questions asked - all under the 5 year warranty. It was easy and took 15 minutes and I am not handy whatsoever. They now work as good as new. I have not tried bi-wiring yet, but it seems like I will. I haven't even gotten a Dolby Digital receiver yet and these still sound great - my ancient pro-logic receiver still rocks these babies but I cannot wait to get the new Marantz SR 18 EX to take these to a new level. If you are a person with a decent budget, get these. If money is no object to you, well I am sure you can find better but at what cost?

Similar Products Used:

None

Excellent highs and bass

The highs don't seem to sound good at really low levels.
The bass is good but limited.

I just bought these speakers today and these are great. They are kind of expensive, but I really had no choice to buy these because I had some Cerwin Vega 712 and they had a defect in it so I switched to these. Don't buy Cerwin Vega! They are crap! These Polk Audio RT800 are awsome. I am quite suprised about the bass cause I thought that the bass would suck cause they are only small woofers, but the bass is pretty good, you would probly want a subwoofer if you like bass. I really recommend these speakers, but again, they are expensive.

does well with a variety of music

bass response is very sensitive to placement

After a nearly one-month love-hate relationship with the infamous DCM KX 12 model, I returned them and started listening to the Polk and Infinity towers. I was learning toward the Polk RT 600. But during the demo, we naturally listened to the more substantial Polks and Infinities, and the Polk 800 had a "buy me" sound, especially on symphonic music. The most appealing quality of the 800 is their ability to convincingly reproduce whatever you're likely to throw at them. Full-orchestra classical or raucous rock will blow you away, but the same skinny little tower will envelop you in delicacy on acoustic music. Caveats? The bass can definitely be boomy if they're too close to the wall. Do lots of experimentation before screwing the spikes in.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity RS5

My wife wanted me to sell my car because we had three cars and we could not afford the insurance. I refused until it occurred to me that I had an excellent bargaining device. If I sell my car then I can take the proceeds and buy the speakers I have been lusting after for the last 15 years. My only problem was that I didn’t know which speaker it was. So I proceeded to listen to several speakers from 4 different stores until I had narrowed it down to 4 speakers: Polk RT800 ($800), AR9 ($1,000), Vanderstein 1C ($800), and Paradigm Monitor 9 ($640). Here’s the Skinny.
My system consists of the following: Rotel RC-980BC preamp, Rotel RB-970BX amp, Velodyne 1215X sub, and a Sony CD player (nothing special). I borrowed a 4 way A/B switch box from one of the stores for comparison. A second set of refined ears was assisting in the analysis.

Before settling on the final four speakers I compared the Boston Acoustics Linfield 950 to the Paradigm Monitor 9 at the store and thought the Boston’s were excessively bright and lacking of bass, however they were very clear. I also compared the Klipsch 8.5 to the Vandersteen 1C. The Vanderstein seemed to sound a little muddy in the showroom and the Klipsch was way to strong on the midrange. I selected the Vandy because with all the good reviews it has received, I figured I should at least give them a chance in my home environment.

We compared 2 speakers at a time and took the winner to the next round. The 1st round pitted the Polk RT800 against the AR9. The Polk was clear but boxy. The AR9 was full w/ excellent bass and filled the room w/ sound. Both were bright but not overly bright. The AR9 was easily superior in sound quality over the Polks, especially in the bass.

Second, we compared the AR9 to the Vandy. The Vandys were on the inside and the AR9 on the outside. The AR9 filled the room with sound a little better but the Vandy was much more realistic. The amount of coloring that the AR9 places on the music became apparent w/ this comparison. We then switched the Vandy to the outside and the AR9 to the inside. The AR9 definitely are speakers that should not be confined as they need space to let the side firing woofers roam. The Vandy was more tonally accurate, especially through the midrange and treble.

The final dance pitted the Vandy against the Monitor 9. These 2 were very close and both were tonally accurate w/ very little coloring (at least to my somewhat refined ear). This was the hardest decision to make. The Monitor 9 was a little smoother and richer because it reproduced the bass better, (not to say that it was more tonally accurate on the low end, but suited my listening taste better). Both were stellar in the midrange, warm and full. Neither was bright but both were clear. We both chose the Monitor 9 because it seemed to be a little richer and fuller. I could be happy w/ either. I highly recommend either.

The dealer knocked off $40 and let me keep the floor model. My original budget was about $1,200 for a speaker and some extra accessories. I now have enough cash left over to get good quality speaker cable (will biwire), a Panamax 1000+ line conditioner (dealer to sell me floor model for $230), and some high quality interconnects to go from my preamp to sub and sub to amp), probably Audioquest Ruby or Apeture BL-4. These upgrades should do almost as much as the speakers to improve sound quality.

As a side note, I was worried that the Vandy would win because my wife found it very unappealing and her 1st response was “There is no way that thing is going to sit in the living room”. I can’t say that I felt much different, but I know some people like the look. I can’t say for sure that the looks of the Vandy did not subconsciously sway my opinion. Whatever you do, make sure you test your speakers at home. Any reputable dealer will let you take the speakers home for a test drive. I may have picked the Polks if I had not compared each of them side by side, which is the best way to bring out the brightness and coloring of each speaker.

Hope this helps. Ken

Imaging, Bass Response, Frequency range (All perfect for the money

Avoid Corner and Angel Positioning

I got the RT800 almost 4 years ago, and I have never had a regret since. The highs, the low and the near perfect midrange balance are excellent, made possible by the "polypropolyne" woofers and the parachute dome tweeter that you can beat with your fingers. Absolutly stunning dimensoining in large or small rooms. Definitly the perfect (last investment) speaker for the enthusiast. If your a normal everyday music lover, you'll never out grow the RT800. For one thing you can push them with well over 250watts of power. And run them hot with extremly low level of 1st level harmonic distortion, and as you know POLK audio creates no 2nd level distrotion (which some people actually tend to like, if your one of those you might want to look for the martin logans or other electrostatic speakers.) One thing that I would like you to be aware of is corner placement of speakers. In corners or at angel (faceing to a single point) The bass tend to appear muffled, possibly due to the reflection caused by the power port on the bottom of the speaker. Other than that, and exception speaker for the buck.

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Bose 701

These sounded better than any of the other floorstanding speakers in this price range ($400/ea.) at the good guys! (including Boston Acoustics, Klipsch, Energy, etc.), so I bought them and took them home. However, after a week or so of listening to them and trying to adjust their position within the room, I grew tired of the imprecise, boomy bass and weak midrange. Since I don't know a whole lot about speakers, I went to some other speaker places, listening to Tannoy, Clements, and Infinity speakers, which verified my notion that the Polks were merely average. The Infinitys (both the RS-5 ($329/ea. at Circuit City) and the Overture 1 ($499/ea. at Circuit City)) sounded far more precise and rich than the Polks, so I returned the Polks, and found the Overture 1s on the Net for $349/ea.!
So the Polks aren't bad speakers, they just aren't the best for their price range - hence 3 stars.

A very good speaker. The midrange is great if not a bit forward for some. I happen to like it. They are fast and musical and have rythm. Listen to the tight snare drums. The bass extention is more than adequate for music and as with most could use a sub for HT. They have a nice soundstage and image quite well. I have found them to be very flexable speakers for me. They handle all types of music and have not been too sensitive in their placement requirements. These speakers are also very efficient compared to my NHT's. They make my amp sound extremley powerfull. The only complaint I haver is with the tweeter. It reproduces sound just fine. It is not metallic or shimmery.....so what's the problem?....it just seems to lack the "air" of upper end tweeters. It lacks life... a little dry. I am not sure why, because the rest of the Polk RT's do not suffer this from what I heard. This tweeter comparision is against speakers that are twice the price as well. Overall the Polk RT 800 are excellent speakers and are much better than the rest of their price class. I think they may get a 5 for total package including value , but on speaker merit alone I see room for improvement.

I have owned the RT 800's for about two months now and my feelings are still mixed. I bought the RT800s to replace my aging Polk Monitor 10 b's. I generally have been impressed by the open sound field and very good imaging. On the other hand, they do not sound as warm or smooth as my old Polk's. I think this is related to the different tweeter types used in both speakers. I have noticed that the sound can be dramatically improved or worsened by moving these speakers just a few inches. I think I have finally got them situated correctly and am generally pleased with the sound. I wil say that they do lack good bass output without a subwoofer. I have listened to them with and without my Infinity BU-2 sub and it definitely accents these speakers with the sub connected. All in all a good speaker but I am not as impressed as I was with the older models

I really like these speakers. I compared them to the KEF Q-55 and I prefer
the Polks. Everybody seems to adore KEF but IMHO the Q-55 are not that good.
Call me deaf if you like, but the KEF sounded dull in comparison.
I selected the speakers with my ears and I don't care about buying Big Brands.
Not that the Polks sounded too bright or boomy: they just sound more
realistic, and I love them. I also compared them with a pair of B&W DM603
and the Polks may lack a bit of clarity in the mid-range, but that's only
(and barely) noticeable when directly comparing them with the B&W, which are
absolutely excellent but too expensive for this slight improvement (they
cost 40% more than the Polks here). I also listened to a pair of Tannoy
Monitor M3 and they didn't sound too impressive. The Polks have the best
bang/buck quotient.

I tested them with both classical and rock music, on a Rotel 971 amp and
preamp system.

They deserve 4 1/2 stars I'll give them 5 stars because they seem to have
been underrated by the other reviewers. BTW, they do NOT lack bass; you
just have to place them correctly (or buy a subwoofer if you don't care
about musical balance).

I intially bought the RT600's for my home theater and music setup, I decided to upgrade to a fuller and warmer sound--RT800's. The RT800's have the boost to play my type of loud music--Solid Frog, Foo Fighters, Verve Pipe, etc.... Also I like to play my movies loud just like in the theater. The RT600's did not give me the imaging I was looking for when I put them in my new finished basement, while the RT800's do the job. I have the CS300 Polk center speaker but I might be upgrading to CS400 to keep the imaging precise. Overall, I could not be happier with my setup. (I have the RT35's for the rears and Yamaha YST-SW150.)