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Review 1 of 3
Price Paid:
$300.00
from Circuit City Summary:
I bought the Polk RM6005's (with the PSW202 sub included free) on sale at Circuit City for $300, along with an inexpensive Sony receiver (STR-DE597) to complete the system for my budget of $500. This is replacing an old Prologic system. Also, we have added a widescreen HDTV, so I no longer have room for large speakers or a component rack. I’ve worked in studios and mixed some live sound - I know what good sound should be. My old system was not high-end, but I knew the new system would be a compromise from what I had. I watch a lot of concerts on DVD & HDTV, so good music playback is important to me.
I researched & auditioned a lot of systems from bottom end $225 systems up to $1000 to see what my $500 could buy. I rejected the Sony lifestyle systems because of their high distortion & single drivers in the sats. Bose systems are overpriced junk I.M.O. - NO midrange & under-performing subs - OK for TV but terrible for music. I heard Mirage sats - they sounded really good but I couldn't justify the price. I narrowed the choices to the Onkyo HT-S770 system or the Infinity TSS-450 speakers & sub (with a receiver T.B.D.). The Onkyo blew away the 450s, but the Onkyo speakers were big - the idea was to get rid of the large gear. The Infinitys were crisp & clear, but were harsh at volume. The Infinity 750s sounded better, but were out of budget. Then, by chance, in Consumer Reports, I saw that the Polk RM6005 system got an excellent rating & were well priced. The LAST place I look for audio advice is Consumer Reports – but I figured I’d try them.
Was I surprised! They sounded fuller than any SMALL satellites I had heard, except the Mirages, & were MUCH more musical than the Infinitys, though not as crisp. The tiny 50 watt sub was tight and punchy though it dropped off considerably at about 45-50 Hz. For a tiny, inexpensive set of satellites & a small sub they are fairly impressive. I've had them for about 3 months & I'm happy with the compromise I had to make - as far as the satellites are concerned. The jury is still out on the subwoofer - it’s not going to take your breath away, but it’s responsive & clean (not floppy or boomy) at half volume. It loses definition when you really pump it. I hooked up the sub & fronts using the high level connections recommended by Polk, instead of the low level input, which I haven't tried yet. Using the sub's crossover at about 100 hz (yeah, I know that's a bit high, but I'm trying to help the sats), I am surprised at the response I get over the full range, & I get reasonable volume from them (no, they're not going to make your ears bleed, but how often do you watch a movie at 120db?). Of course, all small satellites lack lower mids, but that is the compromise for the size. The center could use more presence in the 800-1Khz range to help with dialogue, but different decoding on your receiver could possibly help. Be sure to set your front speakers to ‘large’ if you use Polk's suggested connection scheme (with the fronts coming off of the sub), and set the rest of the sats & center to ‘small’. If you are using the sub at a higher crossover to 'help' the front sats, keep it close to the front to improve your spatial imaging.
The speakers provide more quality sound than I should expect from such a tiny system. I prefer listening to music in stereo, but for Dolby Digital or DTS sources, these speakers give a good balanced sound.
I’m less happy with the receiver, but for less than $200, I've got no right to complain about lack of EQ and settings. It has plenty of power at a fairly low distortion rate & it serves the purpose of getting the sound out of those great little speakers.
If you get these speakers on sale, you should be happy with them. They’re definitely built for better music performance than for TV or movies, but they still do a good job with explosive soundtracks. If I had to pay CC’s normal $500 price (incl. the sub) I would be more critical, but I would still pick them over the Infinity 450s (I can’t believe I’m saying that). All in all, it's a nice sounding speaker system for their size & price. My overall rating: FOR WHAT THEY ARE - a solid 4 out of 5. Strengths:
Good bargain - reasonable sound for the price & size
Small size
Good tonal balance (sats & center well matched tonally) Weaknesses:
Sats lack of mids & lower mids
Center could use a boost at 1KHz +/- to help clarify dialogue
Sub drops off below 45Hz, gets sloppy at higher volume
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4.67 of 5
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