Home > Consumer Reviews > Polk Audio RTi8 High Output Floorstanding Loudspeaker (Single, Black)

This is absolutely the BEST speaker at this price range, bar none.

I am somewhat of an audiophile, meaning sound quality really matters to me, and I have the ears to distinguish speaker quality, especially if side-by-side.

I have listened to many types of speakers at this price range and up to 25% above, and I have to say none come close. I pair these speakers with Yamaha HTR-5990 at 150 watts per channel, along with CSi3 for center and RTi6 for surround.

At first I used conventional setup, but later discover the bi-wire capability. Conventional setup was pretty amazing already, except for the low low (but I have a 400-watt subwoofer, so it wasn't an issue). But wnce I set up bi-wire, the sound really came alive. The high and mid are crisper and clearer, and the bass (low) response became amazingly deep and precise. For music, I now turn off the sub, as the RTi8 woofer is good enough, and in fact more precise and balance.

Again, use bi-wire when possible - it makes a huge difference.

Ed Komo

These speakers sound and look fantastic. I would imagine most of the people in the market for a mid range speaker have a home theater set up. Bass is a personal preference, if you like your bass heavy you'll need a sub. What these speakers excel at is reproducing incredibly clear mid and high range frequencies. They are rated to go down to 40hz, but you will probably want to set your crossovers at 70 to 80 give or take. I have 200 watts running to them using their bi-amping capabilities and they rock. House filling sound with no distortion or apologies and a high level of detail at all sound levels.

Some people reading this may be suprised that I said mid range speakers. If all you know about speakers is Best Buy and Tweeter you've only seen the tip of the iceberg. This is Polk's upper mid level speaker and will blow away your expectations. You would really need to spend well into the thousands to get to the next level of performance. You would also need seperate amplifiers to power that type of equipment which can get messy and expensive.

Fit and finish is way above what you would expect in this price range, I would highly recommend going with the Cherry finish. The black oak looks nice, but the Cherry looks amazing. The pictures online don't do the wood grain and seamless edges justice.

I have these running with a polk CSI30 center channel speaker and a 500 watt subwoofer. Over the past 6-8 months I have been upgrading my home theater one piece of equipment at a time to take advantage of the new high resolution audio formats that Blu-ray DVD's offer. I did a lot of research before I purchase these and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I bought these for 400 a pair. Polk is rolling this model line out to make room for the RTI A series, the new version is the RTIA5 which is an identical speaker in a slightly different cabinet for twice the price. I would highly recommend you pick up a pair of the RTI8's at these crazy clearence prices before they are gone.

After putting on the sturdy outriggers and spikes that they came with, I pulled out the speaker and the first thing everyone says is wow. Absolutely gorgeous cherry finish for a speaker at this price.

Using 100 watt/channel a/v receiver the sound was immediately incredible even with 16 guage wire. I was planning on bi-amping with my other amps but these babies sound great without it. Great frequency response across the whole spectrum and they haven't even broken in yet. Yes, they are a little bright like most Polk's but not abrasively so. The sound is incredibly crisp with both movies and all types of music. THESE SPEAKERS WILL REVEAL FLAWS IN SOURCE MATERIAL. mp3's will sound flawed on these even at 320 kbps. The flac format was made for speakers like these.

I could go on all day but I won't because I want to go fine tune them some more. Please don't hesitate. Easily worth $300 a piece.

...I disagree with the previous reviewer's advice to get the RTi10 instead because the RTi10 and RTi12 both require a much stronger amp to drive to their fullest potential, for not that much more benefit in terms of overall sound quality.

Actually the best course of action would be to get the RTi6 bookshelf speakers and put your savings into a quality powered subwoofer which will not only go lower and louder in terms of bass, but take a lot of pressure off your amp/receiver when crossed over, allowing the speakers' mids and highs to really shine. This is especially true if home theater use is your primary concern.

Generally your best price to performance value will come from Internet-direct manufacturers, particularly in the subwoofer department: a Hsu or SVS sub will effortlessly decimate any comparably priced store-bought sub from Polk, Infinity, Klipsch, Sony, Yamaha, etc. Also worth looking at Internet-direct speakers from Ascend, AV123 dot com, as well as Hsu and SVS.

Google is your friend: do your homework, read professional and user reviews, and you'll be far better off for it!

best speakers i ever owned and their absolutley gorgeous. i have these bywired for my front speakers, and csi3 for center, 4 rti4's for surrounds, and a psw303 for my sub pumpin off my yamaha rxv663 receiver hooked up through hdmi from my panny blu ray player(which by the way has a better picture and sound options than the ps3 trust me) rockin the new Rambo movie in 7.1 DTS Master HD audio ducking my head so i don't get hit in the crossfire bullets whizzin by my head it sounds so real and amazing and CRAZYYY!! ... by the way i had these before my sub and they pump out amazing bass by themselves, a lot more than i expected. i couldn't even imagine the rti10's or 12's, the 8's are plenty and then some...polk all the way, amazon prices even more the way. got mine from J&R Music through amazon brand spankin new in the box mint 100% awesome = one satisfied customer