Pros: The clarity -- the absolute, jaw-dropping clarity and crispness, while still delivering powerful bass.
Cons: Not much...the price, maybe?
The Bottom Line: If you value spatial imaging and preternatural clarity over thump and noise -- and can afford $500 speakers...get these. "Dude, they're awesome."
Sunliner's Full Review: Polk Audio R50 Main / Stereo Speaker
This is the year. We made that decision when we finally became fed up with the slow succession of department-store bookshelf stereos we were using up. This is the year we would upgrade to a real component stereo system. We bought our electronics from Ebay, and used the money we saved to go shopping for good speakers.
We had decided to let our ears do the shopping for us, (with our wallet acting as the voice of reason) and went out to the local stores to shop. We holed up in the speaker room of Circuit City and listened to MTX (ecch), Pioneer (yawn), Infinity (hey, now) and Polk (hellooo, nurse!) floor-standing speakers in the $250-500/pair price range. We also shopped Best Buy and listened to Yamaha (great midrange and power, but lacking elsewhere) and Athena (Great speakers...but $100 more).
What struck us on all of the Polk Audio speakers we listened to was the crystal clarity, the utterly crisp quality to the sounds coming from them. Other speakers had good bass, or good high range, or good power...but none of them had the uber-clear quality that Polk had. We switched back and forth between the Polk RTi70 and the R50 several times, but in the end, the R50's were on sale to the same price as the RTi70, and sounded a little better. We paid $500 for the pair, and the boxes just barely fit in the trunk of our sedan.
When set up next to our entertainment center, they look good. Black, without gaudy adornment, with nicely beveled grilles over the speakers. They also take up just under one square foot of floor space, so they fit almost anywhere unobtrusively. They're about 4' tall, and each contain a pair of 6.5" drivers and a 1.75" tweeter. The black wood veneer shell is ported at the bottom.
The system we're using to drive our speakers is a Sony CDP-CE275 5-disc CD changer connected via an optical-digital link to a JVC RX-6010V 100-watt/channel receiver, and decent-grade Monster speaker wires. We listen to an eclectic mix of stuff, ranging from Phantom of the Opera to Glenn Miller, to Alabama, to Rob Zombie, to "Trading Spaces" on TLC. We also have our satellite and DVD player running through the system in one way or another.
We were impressed from the instant we fed music through them in our house. We heard elements in our favorite songs that we never knew were there, and we were impressed. We sat in front of them at the optimal spot for peak stereo effect, and listened to the singer sitting on top of our tv, and the drumset over our shoulder, and the tin whistle that was somewhere in the kitchen. The spatial imaging these speakers create is amazing.
When playing movies or the tv through these speakers, it really does sound like someone is in the living room. In one case, there was a car pulling into a driveway in the movie, and it sounded like they were in our driveway.
And as if clarity weren't enough, the sheer power of these speakers is mind-numbing. We turned up the power from our 100-watt receiver, and when we reached 75% of the volume knob, the floor was shaking, and we were awed.
We believe we made the right choice for us -- these speakers have it all: Crispness, clarity, punchy bass, nigh-limitless power, and a good-looking skin. We plan to have these speakers for a long-long time.
2 POLK AUDIO R50 FLOOR STANDING TOWER SPEAKERS. BLACK. BUY IT NOW PRICE IS FOR 2 SPEAKERS. 1 PAIR. BRAND NEW. FACTORY SEALED.RETAIL IS $400/PAIR. SHIP...More at eBay
Dynamic Balance two 6 1/2 Mid/Bass Drivers Dynamic Balance 3/4 Dome Tweeter Leveling Feet/Carpet Spikes 5-Way Binding Post Inputs Magnetic ShieldingMore at Amazon Marketplace
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