Who has the Polk Reserve Signature book shelf speakers?

I got a pair.

Fit and finish is great but so they should for the extra money.

Sound wise. They are pretty good but not great IMO.

Top end is very refined (maybe a bit too much so) and bit too subdued especially at lower levels. My R700s seam to have a better balance in this area.

They have to be played with some volume to come alive. Or turn up the treble control if you are that way inclined. They sound a bit like you have the loudness button on for those who remember what they did.

Overall IMO Polk tried too hard to make a stand mount sound like a floor stander and missed the mark for why some prefer the sound of a good stand mount. Precise, Articulate, Lighter on its feet.

I like them but don't love them. But i mainly got them as a collectors item being and old Polkie.

I may have a play with the caps and resistors at some stage since the CB on them is nice and easy to work with.

Ive not heard the std R200 so would be very interested if someone here could compare the difference. If any.

VR3 wrote: »

So to expand on those comments...

I sold mine because the midrange performance was well below my expectations in the end.

I really really really wanted to like them and keep them but my 20 year old Def tech pm500s performed far better in my application, to my ears. Ymmv

Absolutely beautiful speakers though and Polk knocked the build out of the park.

Yeh I prefer my JBL L50s TBH.

Def tech has a house sound that one would love or hate. The reserve series is very reserved and as mentioned they need alot of volume to wake up and do their thing. Just not a good fit for near field

The R200s are, though.

I dam near hated them initially. Boomy, edgy when set up similarly to 703s and L200s with their Power Port diffusers.

It wasn't until I had them in a temp setup for testing a new-to-me integrated, out 8ft from the wall and in a 4ft triangle, that they became beautiful and capable performers.

I was experiencing imaging I'd never experienced before. For example, I have never heard music approach me from a distance ahead during a track fade-in. I was blown away with this.

I found them to work best with integrated amps. They did not pair well, in my case, with an earlier Yamaha AVR.

I didn't get a chance to thoroughly test them on a B&K AVR 507, only just briefly. Pretty sure they'd have been better than on the Yamaha, but still not as good as the integrated's. B&K stuff to me has always been more laid back, fatter, and easier on the ears.

Yes they most definitely need space to tame the bass Polk built into them. I had to pull mine way out onto the room the get some sort of balance.