Home > Consumer Reviews > Polk Audio RM6000 Ultra-Compact Home Theater Speaker System (Black)

This speaker system definitely fills the room. But the quality and the sound reproduction accuracy of its center speaker is very poor. The center channel in 5.1 AVR typically carries the dialog and the main sound track of movies. The center speaker of this system does a poor job of reproducing the center soundtrack and music signals. I switched the center speaker with a Bose VCS-10 and noticed a major improvement. The latter speaker is not considered the best of the breed either. But it still does a better job than the center speaker of RM6000. A better choice is probably RM6700.

My budget was tight so I decided to go with bottom-of-the-line models from high end brands. As such I ended up selecting a Denon AVR-1602 amplifier and the Polk RM-6000 speakers. I was reluctant at first to use satellite speakers in the front due to the potential to lose a lot of midrange, but in the end that didn't happen.

What I discovered, though, is that proper speaker placement and aiming is absolutely crucial with this set. I had casually placed the speakers around the room for a quick sound check, and they sounded like .... I thought I was going to be disappointed, but I mounted them anyway. I put them on ceiling brackets in the four corners of the room, and aimed them more or less towards the center. At this point they sounded very good. Crisp highs, clear midrange, and powerful bass.

Polk calls the RM-6000 an "entry level" speaker system, but it's certainly not a compromise on quality. If I had a larger room I might need some larger speakers, but as it is I'm quite satisfied with this setup and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable set of surround sound speakers for a small to mid size room.