rt-55 verses rt-35i

joe logston · January 2002

the rt-55i & rt-35i are both great speakers but the rt-55i is a little bass heavy i would get the rt-35is if you got sub, or subs,i compaird both side by side about 2 weeks ago at circus city but dis is not a good place to compair speakers, but what i heard the rt-35i is a winner. and cost less, thanks joe

mjk91383 · January 2002

**** man, i'd love to go to circus city!

...i envy you.

joe

OrangeToupee · January 2002

I hope you're right about that, I've got a pair of RT35i's in transit (ordered through Brandnamez) and am looking forward to their arrival. It seems as though the smaller 35i's get a more favorable mention among Polk reviewers and owners.

joe logston · January 2002

yes i lesten over an hr. to compere, the bottem end on the rt-55i kind of overlapped the treble and, hid the detail a little bit, the rt-55i has a better bottem end, but if you are going to have subs you are better off with the rt-35is thanks, joe

juice21 · February 2002

the 35i's are amazing speakers for the price. those and the 800's are my favorite polk speaker's. well, at least until i listen to the the LSi line...:D

joe logston · February 2002

i thank that the ls-9i are going to be the ones. polk needs to come out with a great sub, one with two 15" drivers with 800 watts into each channel , thanks, joe

TroyD · February 2002

...a sub along the line of the Paradigm Servo 15. That would be cool.....

Troy

rlightfoot · February 2002

I recenlty put together a HT system. I have the RT55i as the FL and FR, the CS245i as center, my old Polk Monitor series rj5 now as SR and SL (loved them as fronts, though for music) and a Velodyne CHT-10 Sub, all being powered by a Denon AVR1802. My use is 60% music, 40% movies.

I listened several times at the local dealer to the RT35 v. RT55. To my ears, the RT55s were a bit cleaner and more "presence" (I'm not an audiophile but know what sounds good), and yes, with more low end. I too, saw the audioreview.com raves about the RT35s, but the RT55s were not far behind in the rankings. I happen to like more low end in my music but it seemed to me the RT55s give warmer mids. With music, I crossover the sub very low near 60hz and let the RT55s handle most of the low end which they do admirably and cleanly. (BTW, very happy with the new Velodyne sub - quite honestly, both the 350 and 450 Polk subs I auditioned were noticeably more "boomy" than the Velodyne which is more punchy and the lows are cleaner)

Now granted, they are big SOBs of a speaker, tall AND deep. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of returning the RT55s, going with the RT35s, then upgrading to the Denon 2802 to get 6.1 (my Denon 1802 is limited to 5.1) with the $$ savings. However, I got the RT55s for $199/speaker compared with $129 for the RT35s. Any opinions on this idea?

Systems · February 2002

Can't compare the two, but here's my advice & opinion re RT55i:

Get it away from the walls, esp if you have no sound treatments. Otherwise it'll "boom" like crazy. If you want a bookshelf that handles lots of power, has a high sensitivity rating, puts out strong bass, & is now priced at $400/pr or less (if still available), this may be the best buy on the market. You can probably find more subtlety for the same or lower price, or a better all-around spkr for more money. I think that for $400, I got a decent buy.

Biwiring helps a little bit. A forum post a while back indicated that instead of biwiring, you can replace the factory jumpers with short pieces of good spkr wire & get a noticeable improvement.

rt-55 verses rt-35i

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