Customer Reviews

Polk Audio RM6880 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System (Set of Six, Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Last holiday season, I wanted to gift myself a good home theater system. Though I started from some home-theater-in-a-box system, I quickly decided I get much better quality by buying a receiver and speakers. Once I made that decision, and set my budget $1000, I started searching again. After reading many reviews at different website, I first made up my mind on receiver Onkyo TX-SR605 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (I wrote a lengthy review for it, but cant see it anymore at that page - anyway, that is another excellent future-proof buy). Once that was done, I started searching for speakers for about $600. Though an AV enthusiast friend of mine suggested Polk speakers, I first bought a Boston Acoustics Horizon Series MCS100 System Midnight Speakers, again based on internet reviews. That fit the budget well, but after installing it, I found that the sound wasnt great. The bass was boomy, and the surrounds/center wasnt any better either (mine is a 35x15 recroom). So I returned it, and bought this RM6880. I am so glad I did. The bass is just right for my recroom (at half-way setting of the powered subwoofer), and the surrounds and center sound so great. The lows, mids and the highs sound so real to me. I am not sure if I hear every single frequency between 20-20KHz, and I dont care. But trust me these speakers sound so good(as I said I am no audiophile, but I do know when something sounds good).

About the speakers, there are 4 identical satellite speakers, a center and a 10" powered subwoofer. The speakers and subwoofer are 130W peak (65 normal). I can now fill my 35x15 room with a volume setting of 50-60 and subwoofer setting of 50%. At volume level 90 the room literally shakes, so I havent taken it above that.

The only negative about the package was it didnt come with speaker wires (the MCS100 did). If you dont have your room already wired, get some cheap 16-guage wire - I bought (100' Spooled Speaker Wire) and I could feel a huge change in sound quality (compared to some 18 gauge I bought from Walmart).

Also, the subwoofer does *not* have a regular subwoofer jack. This was not a problem for me, as I have the subwoofer connected to the front speaker port of my receiver (following the tips on Polk's website - which, btw, is a must read, regardless of which speakers you buy).

Guess there is no AV setup that satisfies all. For someone who wants to hear realistic sounds (and effects), but who doesnt worry all that much a about a frequency that may or may not be dropped, this setup is great. I wont think of an AV setup for another 10 years for sure :)

Wow! If anyone takes the time to give these speakers a try in their home, I don't think you'll be returning them. I had Bose speakers and gave these a try to streamline the look in my livingroom, couple that with small children and buying smaller speakers were a no brainer. I hooked these babies up to an Onkyo SR-705 7.1 receiver and all I could say was wow! The speakers are solid which many people notice once you take them out of the box, no plastic! The sub is huge and delivers pounding bass. You'll want to figure out a place for this before you make your purchase. It's only been a week so giving you a detailed description and being the first to review this product will have to wait a while. So far so good though.

This is a great sounding system! I would definitely buy again. The subwoofer is a little large but it sounds great. I also highly recommend the Polk SA2 speaker stands. They are made for this system and include all the hardware you need. The speakers sound best at the height set by the SA2 stands.

I have used this system for some 6 months and have found it to be an excellent system. The base is solid and tight. My Onkyo 7.1 receiver in 5.1 surround does a fantastic job of providing a surround experience that is far superior to many of the theater-in-a-box systems. I am considering addint two additional RM101 speakers to give this system it's full 7.1 capability. You won't be dissatisfied with the sound quality and the price is reasonable.

We recently finished our basement, and moved our "real" home theater setup down there. We still wanted something in our living room, however, so I purchased these speakers to go with an Onkyo receiver. They are small enough to make my wife happy (even hanging on the walls around the room), and have great sound for their price and size. The subwoofer is oddly shaped and *big*, but kicks out a good amount of bass if you crank it up. I prefer my music balanced, so usually keep it fairly low.

I used the included wallmounts, which had plenty of flexibility for my scenario. I put the anchor in to hang the speaker from, then marked where the "cable hole" is on the bracket, drilled down into the drywall at an angle, and ran the cable into the wall from there. Worked out quite well - cable's not visible at all.

Great sounding speakers, very clear and the sub packs a very nice punch. Speakers are very good quality and you will notice as soon as you pick one up by the weight. I did a lot of research before I decided on a set of new speakers and I am very happy with this set. I bought a refurbished set from their factory online store (ebay) for $320.00 - not bad at all.

For the past year I've been researching a home theater setup with a budget of around $3k. The last thing I settled on was my speaker system. A friend of mine owns a nice out of the box pioneer system but I had decided on getting a receiver and built a 5.1 or 7.1 system out of that. After a solid year, I still hadn't made up my mind. I settled on the TV (the fantastic LN52A650 from Samsung,) and not long after, the receiver (a Pioneer 1018AH.) But still I was not sure what speaker system to get, only that I thought I would like a Boss setup for around $6-800.

I spent the next month reading reviews on here, listening to various systems. I managed to listen to a friend of a friends boss system and while it was very solid, I found it had a few shortcomings, especially at high frequencies. They were just.. off.

Finally, I started noticing that every audiophile website I went to, every store owner who delt in speaker systems, over and over, was recommending Polk Audio which I actually had never heard of, and that settled it. I started building my own speaker setup when I came cross this RM6880 setup for right around the price, perhaps a bit to the high end, of what I wanted to spend. I hadn't even heard any Polk setups but the reviews here and elsewhere over the web finally settled it. I figured if they weren't that great, I could send them back and just go with Boss after all, even if I'd consider it a downgrade.

In the end, I couldn't be happier. The sound is fantastic and lifelike and so clear. It had no of the problems of the high ends and I even tested it by running Return of the King where the hobbits pass by Minas Morgul (the greenish building where the orc army comes from.) There is an extremely high pitch 'scream' in that part and while the Boss system had a hard time with it, this system blew our eardrums it was so flawless. It was like being back at the theater and hearing it for the first time.

Today, anything I watch, any movie I put in, combined with the fantastic 1018AH, I have all the power I could ever like. I've had more people pass by my front window (I live on main street and my main window looks right in at my home theater setup,) just stands there, in awe. Friends and friends of friends are blow away by it. The guy that owns the boss setup, I showed off what these speakers could do, he was beyond impressed and had to admit they were considerably better, and his boss were also quite a bit more expensive.

In the end, I cant recommend these more. I do have to say the subwoofer has no way of connecting to the front speakers connection as per suggested on the website, but that doesn't knock off but more then 1/10th a star. Though I've heard it makes Polk setups sound even more amazing. If I could figure out how it's done I'd do it, but I really cant imagine this system being any better.

Bravo Polk.

I like these speakers very much and although the sub is too big for the front room i put in bed room along the wall. I wanted to keep same speakers together but didn't have enough sub wire to run 40 ft to the area i wanted. I like the speakers and the front speaker looks great under my TV and they sound wonderful and they are stylish. I got them before Christmas when they were cheaper just under $400.00 I looked at a bunch of 5.1 systems to add to the two speakers i had to make it a 7.1 cause i didn't know how different it would be and it is nice!! Too bad i couldn't of gotten more time to pay off but Amason did over these one's under payment plan. My girlfriend says the additional sounds are distracting but i like it especially when I'm playing a scary game with the lights are out but won't be able to do when i get older cause of a heart attack ha ha.



I don't know exactly how loud I've had probably -10 but they do sound nice i don't think for rocking out, but with the sub going it sounds good (sony 10in which got good reviews here and at best buy and i just happen to have $40 off at best buy). My pioneer 1018 receivers volume counts down when you turn up (which i hate) but ohh well. hopefully when i move i can put all the Polk audio together and I'll update to say if difference unless i buy a bigger sub which won't be so long just a bigger square. I have the 10in sub in bed room and only watched with a couple movies and it does kick. i just think it would sound better with a blue ray player like in the front room. At first i had hooked up to just one connection but you would hear the movie out of the sub like voices i called crunch field and they said i needed a splitter or y adapter which i got but still does the same thing but when i get a blue ray player for bedroom I'll see if blue ray movies do the same if so i would have a problem course I'm using the 15ft sub wire that i was going to use to run to the spot in front room so that it would be out of sight and if that's the case i would try the 6ft that's hooked up in front room cause i read that using a long sub wire could get bleed in from other electronic. So i think this is a review as well as my current situation, I'm not an audiophile which a lot of people write but i hope this does help. Movies sound good or great depending on movie and as for just radio i have to turn up loud to hear and it sound clear.

I have had the RM6880 speakers for a few weeks now, and so far am very happy. I have them connected to an Onkyo TX-SR806 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) (see my review for this product as well), although I am not using the 7.1 capability of that system (none of my current components support 7.1 anyway).

Note, I began my search by looking at Home Theater in a Box systems, and after reading reviews and comparing prices, it seems that you can get a much better system for a reasonable price by purchasing separate. Further, my research suggested that receiver companies don't appear to make great speakers, and vice versa.

These speakers (and receiver) seem to have great sound - noticeably different and better than the 10+ year old Bose Lifestyle system we had previously.

As others have mentioned, it does not come with speaker wire. I purchased off-white medium grade 16 guage wire at Best Buy, but wish I had purchased from amazon.com, as their price was better and it appears to be the same.

Note that the RM6880 subwoofer does not accept a standard subwoofer cable, as noted by another reviewer. You can either connect with RCA audio cables to the front speaker output, or you can run your front speakers to the subwoofer with speaker wire, and then run speaker wire for those two speakers to your receiver. I connected the subwoofer to my receiver's pre-out front speaker output with RCA cables, and connected the front speakers directly to the receiver with speaker wire. However, in this setup my receiver does not actually recognize the subwoofer. Although I am disappointed by this and was concerned at first, this doesn't seem to be causing a problem. I have turned the volume on my subwoofer up to about 75%, and it seems to be working fine.

The subwoofer is a side firing set-up (i.e. the 'speaker' is on the large side of the rectangular box) and it is quite large. So, be sure you have room for it. It seems to work fine regardless of which way you have it facing (I have mine with the speaker facing the wall). My whole room shakes with good deep bass in movies and music.

The speakers have various mounting options. They come with removable small plastic brackets that provide a key-hole for wall mounting on a single screw. Or they also have the standard female input on the back for use with after-market wall mounting brackets or stands. I mounted the rear speakers on the wall with the key-hole bracket - I did not run the wire through the walls, rather used off-white speaker wire and Wiremold C50 White Cordmate II 5-Foot Wire Channel, and Wiremold White Cordmate Cord Channel, White #C10 wire concealing kits purchased at BestBuy, which were run along my molding. I used Sanus HTB3 Tear Drop Home Theater/Box Speaker Stands speaker stands for the front speakers, along with the key-hole bracket - the speaker wire is concealed through the center of the stands, and I used black electrical tape to conceal the wires between the speaker and the entrance to the stand. I placed the center speaker directly in front of my TV on my TV stand using the provided cradle. (see my reviews of those products for more information)

I will say the manual that comes with the speakers is quite useless, but the Polk Audio website has a plethora of very valuable information for speaker placement, system configuration, and hook-up diagrams.

Other than the Bose Lifestyle integrated system, these are the only speakers I have owned and did not do any meaningful listening tests at a retail store, so cannot compare directly to other brands. However, I did do a fair amount of research through amazon.com and many other websites prior to selecting these speakers and receiver. I feel that together they offer a very good value for the money, and amazon.com offered the best price that I could find on both.

Have fun and enjoy!

I was recently looking for 5.1 speakers and after reading the reviews I chose to buy this set. This set was not new, but used and in good condition. I have slight sound issues in two of the speakers but am faily happy...