 For the money you can't beat them. |
| Date Of Review: April 20, 2008 |
| Reviewed by: B. Roach, |
The livingroom in our new home just doesn't have a place for free-standing speakers due to the floorplan (very open to the rest of the house, with a fireplace in the front corner). This ruled out using my existing (high-end) theater speakers (large towers).
I went to the local big-box store, and the only set of in-wall speakers they had that I thought were worth buying were a set of Klipsch that came in at $600 per set. I almost went for them, but after measuring I found they were about 2" too wide for where I needed to install one of them. The $300 Infinity set sounded horrible. They didn't sell Polk Audio or Boston Acoustic, which was actually what I wanted to look at.
So ... I figured at $140 from Amazon, the RC65i's were worth a shot. I'm glad I did - price vs. performance these are an excellent set of speakers. Decent dynamic range, and actually a surprising amount of bass if you don't have a subwoofer (though I recommend having one - you can only get so much out of a 6" speaker).
Now ... are these "amazing" speakers? Well ... no. They do not compare to my aforementioned towers. Those towers were also $900 a piece. They also are not nearly as good as the $600 Klipsch in-walls I looked at. If you think you're going to get amazing clarity and dynamic range for $70 a speaker ... you're going to be disappointed.
What these are is a great everyday speaker that will sound decent to most people under most conditions. They are a *slight* bit muddy, but not for the price range. That's the thing you really have to do is compare them to other speakers you could buy for so little money. And even some that cost a little more - the Infinity set I listened to at the big-box store was twice the price and didn't sound any better.
It also helps if you have a good receiver that lets you control the dynamic range being sent to your speakers. I have a high-end Yamaha that allows me to cut the low frequencies out of the main channel and only send them to the sub (12" powered down-fire). Doing this, you get rid of most of the "muddy" issues.
Summary: Can't beat them if this is how much money you want to spend. Period. I liked them so much for my application that I ordered a set of rc55i (the smaller ones) and installed them for the back surround channel. When I finish the basement I'm thinking of getting some of these (rc65i) to use for the back-channel. |
Excellent Speakers!!
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| Date Of Review: December 26, 2007 |
| Reviewed by: Weatherwiser, Cedar Brook, NJ United States |
I purchased a pair of these in-walls for a pool table/game room area I am building in the basement. My receiver is an Onkyo 805 7.1 home theater system and these will serve as stereo/audio part for only that room. I have never owned Polks or in wall speakers for that matter and listened to them at the big box store before purchasing these through Amazon. I was really impressed at the audio quality. I also didn't want floor standing speakers, but didn't want to sacrifice audio quality either so these speakers filled the bill.
No back boxes are necessary, the speaker is designed as an "infinite
baffle" type and only requires that the front and rear moving sound wave
are isolated from each other. Polk recommends to maximize the sound quality, you place a modest amount of a sound absorbing material, such as Polyfil (a synthetic cotton-like material found at craft/fabric stores) inside the cavity before installing the speakers. Supposedly, this will absorb the rear moving sound wave and reduce mid range coloration. I think insulation also works just as well. I haven't done this yet and they still sound excellent! |
What a great buy!
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| Date Of Review: December 27, 2007 |
| Reviewed by: T. Hall, Twin Cities, MN |
| Super easy to put in and fantastic sound. Followed everyone's advice and stuffed the cavity with insulation....taped the wall with Scotch blue painters tape..and scored the paper of the drywall with a razor before cutting with a small drywall saw! |
one non-expert's opinion
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| Date Of Review: July 28, 2008 |
| Reviewed by: R. O'Connor, Washington, DC |
| Circuit City's Firedog team recommended these and after a lot of research I had them installed this weekend. They rock! I have two of them as my front left and right speakers and a third as the center channel (leaving a fourth not being used, unfortunately) and am extremely pleased with the sound they produce. I combined them with a 150 watt Boston Acoustic sub, and two Polk in-ceiling speakers, using a Denon 888, and popped in Saving Private Ryan and felt like I was storming the beach at Normandy. I can't give the technical specifics of why they sound so good, I just know that my dog got out of the room from the explosions and bullets. Got a great deal through Amazon with free shipping and they got here in two days. Everything was great. I highly recommend these. |
Polk Audio Rocks in Truck Stereo and these in Wall Rock in my Home Unit
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| Date Of Review: May 14, 2007 |
| Reviewed by: B. Page, Southern CA USA |
When I finally finished fishing all of the speaker wire and adding a rear set of RC55i's I was floored upon pumping about 100 watts of juice into these speakers. Amazingly distortion free and crisp clear sounding which is the same quality I got on the pair of Polk car speakers that were installed in my Chevy Silverado. If you can justify the cost and want to eliminate the clutter free standing speakers cause buy, you won't be dissappointed,
B Page |
Great Speakers!
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| Date Of Review: December 24, 2007 |
| Reviewed by: Jeffrey L. Peterson, Minnesota |
| I purchased a pair of Polk Audio RC65i 2-Way In-Wall Speakers for my theater room: They sound fantastic! They put out a deep rich sound. I am very pleased. I certainly would recommend them to anyone interested in wall speakers. |
I don't know what the last review was about!
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| Date Of Review: August 7, 2006 |
| Reviewed by: Steve S. Cooper, Colorado Springs, CO United States |
| Polk Audio is one of the leading speaker manufacturers in the world. They have been for decades. The only way the speakers could possibly sound muddy is if the system you hooked up to is inferior, or the speakers are not hooked up properly to your receiver or the components are not connected properly. There are many receivers these days that have secondary hookups for the audio components that do not give the true sound intended. You just need to make sure you are hooking up to all the main inputs. I have these speakers hooked up in my Master Suite bedroom where the wiring is coming from my basement theater. They sound Awesome installed in my ceiling rather than the wall. Hope this helps! |
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- Pair of 2-way in-wall speakers timbre-matched to the Polk Audio RTi Series for seamless imaging
- Equipped with one 8-inch dynamic-balance, mineral filled polymer-composite cone
- Frequency response: 30Hz - 20kHz
- Equipped with one 1-inch dynamic-balance, metalized soft dome tweeter with 15-degree-swivel mount
- Constructed of durable, moisture-resistant materials for use in bathrooms, saunas, or under outdoor eaves
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