I have just moved into a new house that has a much smaller living room. I'm shrinking my speakers from Cerwin-Vega 15s and I'm looking to buy a decent bookshelf speaker. I've been shopping at a few places and Fry's had Polk R15s on sale for $50 for the pair. I couldn't pass it up. After hooking them up I was sold on the polk name and went out to buy a center channel speaker and became even more impressed. With this new center speaker, the R15's can't compare and I'm looking to upgrade to better bookshelves and put the R15's as my surrounds.
Has anyone heard anything good or bad about the Polk audio RTi4's? I have done research and they have gotten good reviews, but I wanted to hear your opinions as well.
edster922
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I've listened to the RTi4s myself and while they are definitely a cut above the R15s, they were kind of fuzzy around the highs and tended to distort rather quickly at loud volumes. The R15s will be competent as surrounds, but I totally understand your desire to upgrade to better mains.
I'd get the RTi4s only if you find them for $200 or less, otherwise there are much better bookshelf speakers out there in the $250-400 range, especially Internet-direct speakers like the Ascend CBM-170 ($328) which would match pretty well with the Polk center. Retail speakers I've been heard and been impressed with are the Paradigms and Triangles.