Polk Audio RM705 5.1 Home Theater System (Set of Six, Black)

I purchased this set to go with a Denon AVR790 receiver for my living room and as part of a media system I was setting up. While I see a lot of reviews complaining about the subwoofer, I've found these speakers to be more than adequate for my home. With my receiver, I have the audio setup that has you place a mic around the room and optimize the output for the best listening. With the subwoofer in this system, I find that I had to bring the levels down on the manual controls quite a bit to make it fit within range for the receiver, so I really don't feel I needed anything bigger for my ~170 sq ft room.

The whole system works pretty well on the whole. The sound is fantastic. I've had them for nearly a year, and I am still loving the sound they put out. It is fantastic for movies and fantastic for music. They are in a nice package and size. While I was a bit worried when unpacking them, once I had them mounted and wired up, I found they were quite perfect.

The subwoofer is tricky according to some because it looks like you have to have two wires for input. However, it works well with just one wire (or you can split them up). The only complaint I have right now is that the auto setting on the subwoofer doesn't always turn on when my audio is on. This is somewhat by design as it is more a result of my levels not being high enough to trigger the subwoofer. There probably isn't an easy solution, but these levels aren't really all that low either. I often turn the audio up for a short time to trigger the subwoofer to come on and then turn it down. I'm not sure there is a better solution as when it is on without input, it gives an audible buzz that can be annoying in a quiet setting (it isn't that loud, but when things are quite, you'll hear it).

Overall, I am very happy with the sound, and I would never hesitate to by Polk products again.

Just received my new speakers a couple of days ago. I really haven't had a chance to properly hook them up. The speakers are powered by a new kenwood VSX 820. I am only running crappy speaker wire (I think it was 18 gauge) and the system still sounds great. I need to set it up properly for music. While watching movies these speakers are great. I usually test new speaker stuff or a tv with the movie "gone in 60 seconds" I put the movie on the big jump sequence on the bridge and see what it sounds and looks like. These speakers make it feel as though you are in the car. They make the sounds of the movie crisp (both background sound and speech). Even the satellite speakers throw out base. The sub is good enough for me. It will easily shake my house. I know some reviewers didn't feel it was strong enough, however it is more than enough to piss off my fiance. Hope this review helps.

The center and satellite speakers sounds very good. The Sub is ok, it sounder bigger than I would have expected. But, I can hear just a little noise when turned on and no signal is being sent. But, that is not noticed when listening to the speakers at a normal distance, I could only hear a hum when I was close to the sub's driver. Connectors are a little hard to deal with; but, the brackets are a great help. For $250 a full set of 5.1 speakers that are pretty accurate and a sub that has an adjustable crossover and volume is a great deal. This is an older model that still looks very modern.

When ordering this Polk HTS, I reminded myself not to expect something unrealistic. At this price point, I think a realistic expectation is that you will get a 5.1 sound system which will adequately fill a small to medium sized room with quite accurate soud rendition, but it will be at least one level below a Boston Acoustics, Klipsch or Bose sound system.

The product arrived on time and in good condition. I hooked it up to a Yamaha HTR-5840 Receiver with the intent of reproducing good quality sound from my Samsung Blue-ray DVD and Samsung HD 4650 TV (I had spent almost as much as the Polk HTS buying monstercable speaker wires and a few optics cables to supplement the quality of sound supply from the TV and blu-ray players). Polk supplies very little in the way of installation manuals / user guides with their product, but I had no trouble getting everything connected using the most current user guide from Yamaha for their receiver.

The sound quality is as expected, and a little better. You will not be instantly transported to the Royal Albert Hall when listening to this system, but the sound from bass (actually pretty good sub-woofer) all the way thrugh mid-range and into the high trebles is fine. With two satellite speakers positioned behind the listeners, the sound for the most current movies (whether live transmission or blu ray) is great and a substantial improvement over the standard sound you can expect even from a high-end TV's standard speakers. Crank the volume up, and there is very little distortion (unless of course you try to max it out).

All in all, for a few hundred bucks you get a very nice sound system that is adequate for every-day movie and TV viewing. Streaming Pandora also presented very well.

Three days after ordering this item from Amazon, but to be fullfilled by another company (6ave), Amazon posts a new price $25 less than I paid. This time, such orders will be fulfilled by Amazon itself. Win some, lose some, I guess.