Polk R20s (1 Viewer)

[BarbaraN]

I picked up a pair of Polk R20s at Fry's for $100. They are replacing an old pair of Infnity RS3000s, one of which is no longer working and the other on its way out. I am planning on getting a new receiver in the near future and will then probably move the Polks to rear or sides and get better speakers for front. Just wondering if I should keep the Polks or just get something else for now. I thought that the price was good and read some good things about these. Will mainly be using these for movies and sometimes for music CDs. Haven't deboxed or tried them yet, but they sounded OK in the store. Also checked out speakers at Best Buy and Circuit City and liked one of the Klipsch sets (about $400) at BB but didn't want to spend that much money at this time.

Thanks in advance.

Would appreciate your input regarding the Polks.

 

[Raj_asaurus]

This may be of no help to you, but I own the RTi38s and I find their sound to be excellent for the pricepoint of 250. If your fry's has any of these they will probably be on this liquidation price as they are being phased out to the RTi6. I would recommend these over the R20s because they just seem to have an overall more balanced sound with excellent base.

 

[Nathan W.]

I've never heard Polk speakers before, but they strike me as a quality product and I think you made a steal on those for $100. I bet they'll sound mighty fine even without putting out deep bass.

 

[Lev-S]

The R20s are my rears and the Rti6s are my fronts. Both decent speakers with the Rtis producing more bass and cleaner highs thanks to a nicer tweeter. Nice buy!

 

[Raj_asaurus]

yeah the RTi series is definitely awesome!

 

[Thomas Nichols]

I use the R20's all around (mains and surrounds) and I think they sound great. I love the R20's. For the price I think they are really good. I hope you enjoy them. If this is your first HT kind of deal. I would live with the R20's for awhile and see what you think. They have definitely worked for me. Is there better sounding stuff out there. Absolutely. Is the R20 a good sounding speaker. I think so. Hard to beat the price as well.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

The Polk "R" series will be more than adequate - especially at $100 for the pair. Sure, the RTi series is a bit better, but the cost is far greater, too.

2 RTi8s and a CSi3 center ran about $780 (with tax) a few weeks back for me.

To get involved on more discussions regarding Polk speakers, you might want to also enroll at "Club Polk" which is a forum for Polk owners. Just have the serial numbers of your speakers handy so you can register the product on-line and sign up for the forums.

 

[BarbaraN]

Thank you for the replies. Connected the R20s and to my ears they sounded very good. The sound is clean and crisp, maybe a bit lacking in bass which could be my settings. I noticed that they are being discounted at other places such as J and R. At Fry's I was told that only the cherry "wood" R20s were reduced which was fine by me since I preferred this to black.

I will check out Club Polk. Am hoping to slowly upgrade all of my HT components.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Also keep in mind, the speakers need about 100 hours of use to fully break-in and sound better. As far as the bass is concerned, Polk could be a little weak on that end. But, keep in mind subwoofers are best for producing bass. I use my subs all the time whether it be for home theater, Dolby Pro Logic II use or even 2-channel music listening. As far as I'm concerned, most speakers are quite weak when it comes to bass, so I'm destined to use a sub for good bass.

 

[BarbaraN]

Which subwoofer might you recommend to go with the R20s?

Thanks.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

Anything but a Polk subwoofer - they are too weak. But, mostly, this depends on how much bass you desire and how large your room is. For starters, you could look at the $139 subwoofer from Parts Express that seems to perform quite well. From there, if you have a larger budget, you could look into some of the options such as the Shiva sonotube kit from Creativesound.ca - at $400 or so, anyone can put one of these subs together. Also, at $399 is the Adire "Rava" subwoofer which is a cabinet-based sub with real wood veneer and a 12" Shiva driver. If your budget is $500+, you might consider one of the SVS subs that are so popular.

 

[BarbaraN]

I found a Cerwin Vega V12S on clearance at Sears. Do you think this would work with the Polks? By the way, I am very happy with the R20s. Listened to 1812 overture (had sound turned down and it was booming upstairs) some parts of Attack of Clones (very clean) and watched Whale Rider. What a difference from my old Infinitys. Purchased a Panasonic XR25 receiver, also on clearance at Sears, but haven't had time to reconnect.