Polk Audio New Monitor 45B Two-Way Bookshelf Loudspeaker (Black) Pair

Pros: Arrived on time. No damage. Packaged well. Speakers are much bigger than I expected. Built well. Sound Great for my mid size room running 5.1 Yamaha reciever, with all polk speakers and 8" Polk Sub.

Cons: None

Pros: Excellent Price from Newegg on discount
Crisp and Loud for a 500 sq foot living/dining room.

Cons: An obsessive audiophile might want more volume out of them, like the floor standing monitors. (My receiver is giving them 80 watts each).

Other Thoughts: Thanks to the magic of Newegg I was able to get these for a significant discount, and they are fantastic. I'd buy these at full price now that I've owned them for a while. They pack a punch when cranked up, and always retain a very concise, crisp sound. I plan on getting two more and a center channel. Paired with the PSW505, these Polk Audio monitors have beautiful sound. FLAC audio never sounded better.

Pros: Amazing Sound
Great Price
Easy Setup

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I got these speakers to complete my 5.1 setup. I am using them as surrounds and am blown away by how much these speakers add to movies. They are being powered by a Denon 1913 receiver and exceed my expectations.

Pros: Polk suggested I return the failed tweeter for replacement rather than the entire speaker thereby saving on shipping costs and risk of damage to the speaker. Polk shipped the replacement tweeter 2 days after receiving the defective one.

Cons: One tweeter failed after 30 days while being driven by a 50W per channel receiver.

Removal of the tweeter requires a torx driver and a disconnecting locking solderless connectors so the option of returning just the tweeter might not be suitable for some people.

Other Thoughts: The back and side panels are ~ 1/2 inch thick, not 3/16 inch as others have stated. Polk only claim the baffles are 3/4 inch, not the entire cabinet. But yes the sides are not braced which contributes to resonance and the slightly boxy sound.

The crossover has a simple 1st order low pass filter for the mid/bass drivers, and a 2nd order high pass filter for the tweeter. The crossover does have a mylar capacitor in the tweeter circuit, however it is a small value capacitor in parallel with a larger value non-polarized electrolytic capacitor. This technique is supposed to give sonic characteristics similar to a larger value mylar capacitor, but at a lower cost. Polk only claim to use mylar capacitors, not that the only use mylar.

Pros: The speakers that I currently own are very average and are the same exact components as these speakers do.
That said they are very average speakers that are built very cheaply! They sound o.k. for movies but they are horrible for music. The only pro is the price!

Cons: Even before I purchased my Definitive Tech studio Monitors that are selling for only $280 a pair right now, I was using these speakers. These speakers are very hollow sounding, they have a horrible midrange that is very forward sounding! The cabinets resonate at even low volumes! They advertise that these speakers have a full 3/4 inch panel thickness. This is total miss-information these speakers have only a 3/16 inch panel thickness that leads to the hollow sound and the resonating problem at any volumes! These speakers are made in CHINA to boot! Trust when I say you will need to not only add more foam insulation to these as I did to help with the resonating problem, but considering that for $80 more you can buy a really great Definitive studio Monitor speaker, that makes these sound like a very inadequate.

Other Thoughts: Your much better off spending a little more cash and buying the Definitive Tech. Monitor 450's at a $280 price and a 55% savings! These speakers are fabulous in every possible way! Please do yourself a favor and read about the Definitives. Check the unreal price you can get them for! Then think about spending the extra cash!
I bought these speakers for only $120 for the pair and I used them as temp. speakers. The new Definitives are so much better in, every possible way. They really do have 1" front and rear panels with internal bracing that eliminates speaker resonance at any sound level! They have also have internal bracing and are also insulated as well. The components used in the Definitve 450's are so much better, plus they weigh in at 20L.B.s each even though they are smaller than these Polks that weigh only 17 L.B.s The 450's have a 61/2 inch midbass, a 1 inch all aluminum tweater, with special fluid heat cooling and a 8 inch passive radiator to extend the bass response! I would hate to see people make the same mistake that I did when these speakers at $200 are over-priced. The Monitor 450's are only $80 more and sound like the $650 a pair speakers that they used to sell at. Definitive has discontinued the 450's and come out with a new line that's almost identical as the older 450's. ( Don't make the same mistake that I made!) If you really want a good speaker system the Polk RTi3's and the Denfinitive 450's are much better sounding and only a small increase in money spent over these really cheap bottom of the Polk line speakers!

Pros: Sound excellent as rear speakers. Great sound, great price, and look amazing

Cons: Stands are a pain to get. I recommend building your own. I have my in actual bookshelves on each side behind my section couch.

Other Thoughts: Upgraded from 10 year old onkyo htib speakers

These are MIND = BLOWN

these at the time were $170 a pair. There are better speakers out there, but for $170 or cheaper this is a no brainer people!

Pros: Decent sound for casual listening.

Cons: Slightly boxy sound. While like any small speaker there is a lack of deep bass, I find the mid-bass somewhat over emphasized. Lack of side-to-side bracing; the sides vibrate noticeably. I found the binding posts hard to use despite having only medium sized hands.

Other Thoughts: Using for background music in my rec room. Worth the approximately half of nominal list price that Newegg usually charges.

Pros: Rich and full sound for their modest size. I am impressed at how these bookshelf speakers can produce a consistent quailty sound at different volume levels. They are meant to be turned up! Sounds like you are sitting front row in a tavern or small music venue.

Cons: Lacking bass... but hey they are bookshelf speakers. Paired with a Polk 10' sub.

Other Thoughts: The front protective cover seems a little cheap but the speakers are painted a cool gold color. Makes them seem even more impressive.

Pros: Sound great, look great, great value. Speakers have a very full sound for their size. Highly recommended for someone who wants great sound in a limited space, or someone who wants to add great surrounds to a larger system.

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: Someone below mentioned these are made exclusively for Newegg... Not sure where they got that, but Polk's Monitor series are one of their most popular lines and can be found anywhere that sells Polk products. You probably won't be able to find a better deal on these new models anywhere else though.

Pros: I'm not an expert but in my opinion the mid-range coverage of these units is exceptional. I run a lot of techno that is basically all mids and base. These do you have a surprising amount of tump in the mid range going down to the 47 Hz. But as others have mentioned you still need a sub woofer to get the real sickness on.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I'm running an old but legendary Kenwood VR-307 at 4x100watts with the POLK505 Sub in a 2.1 config and its really nice. The PSW505 Was hammering my 2x100watt Set up. So I scored two more of these And the system is nicely balanced now. the subwoofer is still only at 50%. The house shakes. I'm fortunate to be in a house. If you only get 2 of these you should be ok if you only get the 10" sub