How long do polk speakers last

Which leads us to Polk's spiffy new tower, the T This affordable speaker takes up no more floor space than a pair of monitor speakers on stands. It offers excellent home theater performance for the price, and looks more expensive than it is thanks to handsome cabinetry. Polk was clearly aiming at the superb, budget-friendly Pioneer SP-FS52 tower when designing this speaker, but it doesn't quite hit the same level of audio quality.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing; the Pioneers are quite uncommonly excellent and the Polks, meanwhile, are a solid "very good. On the other hand, the designer of those Pioneer speakers, Andrew Jones, is no longer with the company and its AV division is now owned by Onkyo.

In other words it's unclear how long those SP-FS52 speakers will remain on sale, and in case of their absence, the Polk T50 would make a very good substitute. The Polk is a handsome speaker, the T50's medium-density fiberboard cabinet is covered with an attractive black grain, wood vinyl finish, and a removable, curved black cloth grille protects the drivers. The speaker has a small, flat pedestal base with an overall fit and finish that are above average for the price class. It certainly doesn't look like an entry-level model.

As towers go, the T50 isn't very big; it measures The T50 is a two-way, bass-reflex design with a 1-inch silk dome tweeter, one 6. One advantage of bass radiators is they replace bass ports it's a closed box , so bass radiators never produce audible "chuffing" noises. They also free up more placement options in the room than ported speakers do. The T50's back has one set of five-way binding posts that work with speaker cables terminated with banana plugs, spades, pins or stripped bare-wire ends; the speaker's impedance is rated at 6 ohms.

The T50 is sold with a five-year warranty. For buyers seeking a bona fide 5. The T50 makes a good first impression right from the get-go with its bright and clear sound and commendably tight and defined bass. Watching the "Mad Max: Fury Road" Blu-ray in stereo with just the T50s flanking our display, we didn't miss surround sound or even a subwoofer.

The T50s on their own summoned up hard-hitting dynamics from the film's never ending parade of muscle cars roaring across a post-apocalyptic landscape, and the score's pounding drums were immensely satisfying, fully exercising the T50's three bass drivers. The T50s survived our heavy-handed auditions without straining or producing audible distortion.

Happy with the T50s home theater skills, we settled down and checked out a few high-res files from Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" album. The T50s' immediacy highlighted Davis' horn, the sound was exciting, and the band's grooves felt lively.

The company also makes budget hi-fi speakers, such as the popular T15, T50 and TSi models, and with its prolific presence across US retailers there is often a deal to be had on a pair.

But with competition at the budget end of the hi-fi speaker market rife to say the least, are they worth investing in? They weren't the last word in timing or subtlety, but they delivered impressive weight, scale and balance for their nominal price tag. The Polk Audio soundbars we've seen more recently haven't fared as well either. Short answer: While Polk products rarely blow us away, they do have price on their side, as well as a history of fair sound and stylish design.

We credited the Polk TSxB not just for their sound but for the simplicity of their wall-mount design and their traditional hi-fi look. With dual as opposed to single binding posts, they can be bi-wired — not a given feature at this price — and with a recommended amplification requirement of 20 to watts depending on the model, they should be easy for a budget stereo amplifier to drive.

The range comprises two bookshelf speakers and three floorstanders, with the differences between them largely lying in driver count and power handling. Recommended amplifier power per channel: 20 - watts. Dual binding posts. Recommended amplifier power per channel: 50 - watts. Again, the range comprises two bookshelf speakers and three floorstanders, with the differences between them largely lying in driver count and power handling. In the absence of our own reviews, it's worth noting Amazon customer reviews, which are favourable across all models listed below - especially in the case of the most affordable pair, the TSis pictured above.