hey everybody in this video we're going to talk about the polk reserve speakers for home audio and
home theater now back in 1972 when matthew polk first introduced the polk minor 10 to the world
he really shook things up with the amount of performance it offered for the money
matthew and his engineering team used everything they knew about making serious speakers designed
for large live concert venues and then they put all of that same knowledge into a new home speaker
that went on to become one of the best selling speakers of all time
fast forward to 2019 and polk set out to produce a line of speakers called their legend series
that paid homage to those original classic polk speakers from the 70s and 80s today the reserve
lineup has about as much trickle-down technology from their legend series as we've ever seen from
a speaker manufacturer these are jam-packed with a ton of value for the money and i think this series
really offers music and home theater enthusiasts a great selection
of very affordable speakers that perform way beyond their cost now let's get started
alright now with the reserve series polk really allows you to put together several
different combinations of perfectly matched home theater speaker systems there are three towers two
bookshelf models two center channels an on wall model and a set of flexible atmos speakers that
can be placed either on top of the speakers or mounted onto the wall which is really cool now
they all share so much technology with each other i'll just go over what they share in common first
and then i'll get into the differences you'll find as you go from one model to the next now before i
get into that i'll tell you a quick story when i was 16 years old and shopping around for my first
car stereo system my dad took me to the store and we listened to a bunch of systems my dad's
a full-time musician and also a recording engineer so growing up i always looked up to him whenever
something grabbed his attention about audio and especially music when we got to the polk section
and played some music that was kind of a moment when i started paying closer attention to the
sound of audio equipment because i know that look in my dad's eyes when he likes what he's hearing
there was this top end extension that almost seemed to sparkle that no other systems had
needless to say we left the store with a polk car stereo system on that day
and i knew i had the best sounding system of anyone i knew and there's a reason for this when
polk first hit the scene in 1972 people loved the pure sound of their tweeter polk developed
the pinnacle ring radiator tweeter for the much more expensive legend series but every single
model and the reserved speaker series today has this tweeter they came up with a finely tuned
waveguide that improves dispersion which gives you a broader sweet spot and this new one-inch
tweeter also has damping in the rear chamber to help defeat any resonances they are capable of
extending way beyond the range of human hearing with clear highs and no coloration or distortion
when polk engineered the legend series they took a material commonly used in mid-range drivers and
changed characteristics to make it stiffer and better damped without adding any mass they take a
polypropylene foam core material and use injection molding to produce its turbine appearance and polk
calls this their turbine cone the result is it always gets an effortless mid-range sound that is
very sweet and yes believe it or not this exact same tech from the legend series is all right here
in the reserve models as well it seems like every great speaker manufacturer these days is working
on how to make a ported speaker perform really good originally ports started out just as short
tubes in a speaker to allow air to escape which in most cases also improves sensitivity and deep bass
response the drawback to ported designs is they can color the mid-range you'll find the x-port on
most all of the bookshelf and tower reserve models and the bigger center channel polk uses a patented
design of closed pipe absorbers designed to reduce resonances in the 500 to 800 hertz range and this
lets them have the benefit of a port for more bass impact with reduced mid-range colorations now all
of the reserve models have a very well-braced cabinet with cross members to improve rigidity
the really great thing about the tech the models share is you can put together many different
perfectly matched home theater combinations with them all using the same tweeter and just different
size versions of the turbine driver now let's dive in and take a look at the individual models next
the r100 bookshelf is the entry bookshelf speaker using the pinnacle ring radiator tweeter and a
five and a quarter inch turbine cone bass driver these are relatively small being about 13 inches
tall and six and a half inches wide they do have the x-port on the rear so you will want them
to be a little bit far away from the back wall being small in size they throw out a really nice
three-dimensional image especially if you place them on stands and spend some time setting them up
these could be used as your main speakers in a nice stereo setup or for surround speakers in a
home theater configuration they are the only model that is not wide enough to accommodate
the reserve atmos speakers so bear that in mind when thinking about a full surround sound setup i
do wish they were set up for bi-wiring as many speakers in a similar price range offer this
instead polk opted to put the much more expensive driver tech from the legend series into this
and i think this is a good trade-off in my opinion the color choices for the r100 are black walnut
and white the r200 bookshelf moves up to a six and a half inch turbine driver these are a bit larger
at 14 inches tall and seven and a half inches wide with a big jump and depth at 14 inches deep
they too have a rear mounted port the much bigger cabinet and larger driver enables these to reach
down further into the lower end and start to sound more like a small tower speaker to my ears these
sound much punchier in the bottom end i like the fact these are large enough to accommodate
the reserve atmos speakers so you could use these on a stand with a subwoofer as your main front
speakers and a dolby atmos based system also if you have the depth for only a hundred dollars more
a pair i would recommend them for surrounds as well with the deeper impact ability the color
choices for the r200 are black walnut and white the r500 is the first model in the towers of
the reserve series like all of them it uses the pinnacle ring radiator tweeter with a dual five
and a quarter inch woofer they stand 41 inches tall about 10 inches wide and about 14 inches deep
like all of the towers they have a pretty neat out trigger stand that adds stability
the stands are also well thought out in that you can use either spikes for carpet or rubber pods
for hard surfaces these have a rear firing x-port these do not go that much deeper in the low end
than the r200 bookshelf so it may come down to what type of speaker works best in your room
as these are almost twice as expensive as the r200 my opinion on these is unless you
just can't accommodate bookshelf speakers on a stand which can be a bad idea if small children
or large pets or part of your household you can save some money and use the r200s with a subwoofer
the color choices for the r500 are black walnut or white okay up next the r600 towers have a totally
different bass port technology for tighter and more impactful deep bass and now we're starting
to get into some tower models that make the most sense the r600 uses two of the six and a half inch
turbine woofers with the same tweeter all of the speakers share these have very good bass response
with a 3 db down point of 43 hertz they are only slightly larger than the r500 yet these produce
a bigger fuller sound these also add what polk calls their power port 2.0 the power port 2.0
combines the export in conjunction with the stand and i think this is a pretty cool idea since the
out trigger stand provides a tapered section that sits right under the export at a fixed distance
i found this to add a level of flexibility and setup since you do not have to worry about how
the rear firing port interacts with the back wall although you still want to follow the
same general rules as for all tower speakers and keep them away from the room boundaries if you can
this model packs a lot of punch with a big sound stage for the money the color choices for the
r600 are black walnut or white the r700 is the only tower that is a true three-way design as
you might have guessed it has the same tweeter as all the others but with the six and a half
inch turbine cone mid-range coupled with a dual 8-inch polypropylene woofer the cabinet on these
is 45 inches tall 12 and a half inches wide and almost 17 inches deep and they are quite
stout weighing in at 79 pounds each the internal cabin on the r700 has a separate enclosure for the
mid-range driver and lots of non-parallel internal bracing pull calls crc or column resonance control
now at audio advice we are big fans of great internal bracing and i have to say the amount
in here for a speaker under two thousand dollars a pair is pretty darn impressive the r700 is
also the one model on the line that offers speaker bi-wiring connections which i appreciate
even though these are the most expensive models i feel like they offer the best value by far
the r700 is one heck of a lot of speaker for the price the color choices here for the r700 are
black walnut or white now let's look at the other speakers you can use for a complete home theater
setup the r300 is the first of the three center channel options the r300 has the same tweeter with
a dual five and a quarter inch turbine cone driver this is a relatively small sealed cabinet so it
lends itself well to fitting inside many of the av cabinets that have a space cutout for the center
channel the r300 will match well with any of the models although for only $200 more i do recommend
the r400 if you have the space the center channel is the most important speaker in your home theater
system and i think the r400 performs better on voice the color choices for the r300 though are
black or walnut as i said the r400 center is much bigger with dual six and a half inch turbine cone
bass drivers and the same pinnacle ring radiator tweeter it uses a rear firing x-port so you will
need to position this a little bit away from a rear wall or surrounding barriers and this makes
it slightly better suited for sitting on top of your av cabinet or under your tv the r400 reaches
much deeper into the bass than the r300 giving your center channel special effects more impact
and to my ears this just sounds more effortless when producing voices as well i feel this is the
way to go for a center channel in the reserve series in fact if you go to our home page on our
website we have a free home theater design tool that will let you play around with all the parts
of a custom home theater system so be sure to check that out on audioadvice.com the color choices
for the r400 are black or walnut now lcr speakers are usually designed to be slim in height so they
can slide under a tv easily the r350 lcr has four four inch turbine cone drivers two are used for
the mid-range and two for the bass the cabinet is only five and a half inches tall thirty inches
long and about seven and a half inches deep it is a sealed enclosure giving it more flexibility
and placement it also has a keyhole slot for wall mounting in that application you could use two on
either side of your tv and one below it or if you were pressed for depth on your surround speakers
these could be wall mounted for surround speakers the color choices for the r350 are black walnut or
white the r900 is one of my favorite speakers in the reserve line at audio advice we love dolby atmos
and these allow you to easily add atmos to your reserve system the r900 is angled and designed
to sit on top of any of the towers or the r200 bookshelf it uses a three-quarter inch version
of the pinnacle ring radiator tweeter with a four inch turbine comb base driver and it gets better
as not only can these be placed on top of most of the models they have a keyhole mount that allows
you to hang them on a wall for use as a surround or a rear speaker for under 500 a pair these are a
great way to add the fun of dolby atmos all around you now if you're wanting to take advantage of
all the new movies encoded with dolby atmos coming to netflix disney plus and now hbo max then you've
got to check out our home theater layout design guide on audioadvice.com we put a link to our guide
in the description and if you have any questions you can chat with one of our home theater experts
right from our website as well alright when listening to these i believe they're a great
choice for music lovers who want a good product in this price range but they don't want to pay
for bells and whistles that they won't use as i mentioned these speakers don't allow for by wiring
but in this price range i think polk's strategy of putting every dollar into performance is the right
move the one thing about all of these i do need to point out is the need for some decent power none
of the models are particularly sensitive and you will be best off for any of them if you use a home
theater receiver or a stereo amplifier that has good current capabilities if you can do that they
will really come to life now there's more to read about in our full written overview so be sure to
check that out link to that is in the description and if you have any questions about these
give us a call chat with one of our experts at audioadvice.com or just stop in one of our
award-winning showrooms and we'll be happy to let you know how they'll fit in with your setup
in the meantime thanks for watching if you've enjoyed this video
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