Cheap Polk Audio RT 800i - Left / right channel speakers - 2-way (Electronics) Price

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Customer Reviews of Polk Audio RT 800i - Left / right channel speakers - 2-way

The best you can get without a builtin subwoofer
I bought these speakers to replace an old set of Fisher 100W 18" three-ways from college. They were intended to compliment my new 48" projection TV and my new 100W Onkyo amplifier. I am a musician, and first and foremost I insist that my speakers' musical reproduction be impeccable. <
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>When shopping for these speakers, I took four CDs: Lee Ritenour's Color Rit, for "Etude," Yes' Close to the Edge, for "And You And I," Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire 4, for three songs: "G Major Toccata," "Crystal," and "Dancing Flames," and Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, for "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "The Ocean." Some might question the Yes selection, since the tape hiss from the master recording is quite noticable, but this is a limitation of the technology which the members of Yes chose to accept in order to ensure that the full sound of the session tapes would be present on the album rather than obscured by post-processing which was at that time rather primitive. The Led Zeppelin tracks are some of the best engineered recordings ever done for this band, and as with all Led Zeppelin engineering, the overdriven sound and tape compression drive a set of speakers to their limits. The Mannheim Steamroller selections combine pipe organs recorded in situ in cathedrals with piano, violin, viola, and cello, with brass and reeds, and Chip Davis at his drum kit; "Crystal" was selected specifically because it is completely electronic, to ensure proper reproduction of totally electronic instrumentation. "Etude" is a fully acoustic tune, with Lee on the guitar playing a very sensitive melody and the bass player simultaneously playing an ascending arpeggio that challenges $10,000. speaker systems to their utmost. <
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>Most speakers under $500 are completely incapable of reproducing any of these tracks properly; when the bass comes in, either it is muddy, or the "sparkle" of the guitar and cymbals completely disappears. In the passage in "And You And I" when Chris Squire first comes thundering in, the entire remainder of the band seems to "fade out" with ordinary speakers, and the high-pitched sound of the triangle is completely lost. <
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>Not with these babies! The crossover doesn't miss a THING. There's PLENTY of capacity in the coil to drive the bass, and PLENTY of capacitor to ensure that the tweeter isn't "robbed" of all its power by the thundering bass riffs. Furthermore, this high performance in a "bass + treble" environment doesn't come at expense of the midrange; the middle notes of the guitar, and the notes of the strings and reeds on the Mannheim Steamroller selections, are smooth as glass. No distortion is discernable, even when the notes of massive pipe organs 50 feet tall are being reproduced; the bass is not muddy, but is reproduced with stunning clarity and precise imaging location. It is unusual with most speakers to be able to place the bass player on the soundstage, but with these speakers it is no challenge at all; he's "right over there." In fact, many salesmen claim (covering of course for their speakers' muddiness and lack of clear bass reproduction) that "your ear can't locate bass." This is completely incorrect, and I challenge you to obtain well-engineered albums and go to a purveyor of quality audio reproduction equipment and prove it for yourself. <
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>For the absolute best bass response, I do recommend a subwoofer, 10" or larger, at least the same power as the amplifier you are using; if you insist on perfect bass imaging, get two, but below about 60-70 Hz, the human ear is in fact incapable of placing deep bass (this is the source of the myth promulgated by salesmen hawking cheap pieces of junk that you can't image bass; this totally ignores the fact that there is no difficulty imaging bass above 100Hz). <
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>In addition, do not attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear; these speakers need and deserve an amplifier capable of providing the instantaneous amperage that they require to properly move their voice coils, so if you can pick it up with one hand, I guarantee it doesn't have the power to drive these to their full capability. You need massive transformers and capacitors, and fully heatsinked high-current transistors in TO-3 cans to provide the current these babies can make proper use of. You should see large high-current terminals on the back of the unit, and it should weigh at least ten pounds. <
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>That said, these are not Klipschorns; they are excellent, but they don't require a Macintosh. Be aware, however, that any THD, crossover distortion, or IM distortion produced by your amplifier will be clearly audible in these speakers; be particularly careful that you use them with a very high-quality, low distortion amp, because you WILL hear every single defect it has. I have reduced owners of expensive "A-class" boat anchors to tears with these speakers. An A-class amplifier simply cannot produce a distortion-free sine wave, because the top half of the load line is inherently of different shape than the bottom half. With some speakers, you can't tell, but with these it is clearly audible. <
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>The reproduction characteristics of the Onkyo line just about perfectly complement these speakers, because of their extremely accurate linearity and it's excellent biasing and shielding, which reduce harmonic, inter-modulation, and crossover distortion to well below inaudible levels at any reasonable volume. In addition, the Onkyo amplifiers are specifically designed to be capable of delivering high current without significant waveform distortion. Note that many manufacturers specify THD; however, not all specify it at full volume! This is another "gotcha." <
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>So, how do they perform on movies? Heh. <
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>The depth charges in "Das Boot" will rattle your windows, and the neighbors from down the street may ring the doorbell to check if everything's all right (assuming they're brave enough to come close enough to push the button). Meanwhile, you'll still be able to hear the "ping" of rivets bouncing off the bulkheads over the sea-floor echoes of the detonations; and you'll KNOW which side of the boat the latest charge went off on. You'll be able to HEAR which direction the blast was in! <
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>When the Dark Tower falls in The Return of the King, your cat will disappear in a puff of smoke. :D <
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>And when Michael Myers is sneaking up behind you, you'll be able to hear him breathing, and the squeaks of his shoes on the linoleum, just before he starts the chain saw. <
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>In the interest of full disclosure, I also have run a pair of Bose 201s for rear speakers, and the matched center speaker for the RT800, the CS250s. Currently I'm running a pair of FM wireless speakers with their own amplifiers, but I am dissatisfied with their performance and will probably replace them before long. The 201s were better, by quite a lot. <
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>One note: You know those little teeny satellite speakers that a certain manufacturer whose name has four letters (I have mentioned it above) sells for incredible amounts of money? I took those four CDs to their store and spent no more than ten minutes determining the quality of their most expensive system. I was, frankly, appalled. It is, in fact, hype, and sound coming out of little teeny satellite speakers sounds, in fact, like sound coming out of little teeny satellite speakers. The most amazing thing about a dancing bear is not how well the bear dances. How these work for home theater I have no idea, but they are completely inadequate for musical audio reproduction. To say the least. <
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>Even if you buy a set of Polks, you probably can't get these any more; and I would test any speaker properly before buying it. Be certain that you get a good amplifier to begin with, and when you test speakers in the store, try to test them with the same model, or at least one from the same manufacturer and in the same price range. LOOK at the distortion specs; is THD given at full volume? Is IM distortion given as a spec? How about crossover distortion? If not, seriously consider another model. Pick it up; there simply is no replacement for the mass of a good transformer that makes a large, dense magnetic field that will not entirely collapse when the heavy bass comes in and the speaker cone needs to move four inches to reproduce it. Yes, yes, it's the power supply transformer; where precisely do you suppose the energy those transistors are sending out those huge cables is coming from, anyway? <
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>And above all, have fun!