Great price and fast delivery. Awesome sound. I am hearing sounds in music that I have never heard before. Buy these speakers and throw in 'Dark Side of the Moon' and listen to what you have been missing.

In regards to one reviewer Eduardo disagreeing with another reviewers comment that the 10s are a better choice not only do I disagree with this comment I find it foolish to accept advice from someone who obviously in nearly every one of his "reviews" is pimping or shilling for other manufacturing companies.

You may ask why. In his "review" of the 10s in between shilling for others he wrote I quote "But the RTi towers are much better than RTi bookshelves". But in this so-called review he advises to use the Rti6s so he can now shill for some on-line companies. His reasoning to save your receiver. Well the RTi10s, 6s and Polk Monitor 50s sensitivity is 89db and again quoting his review of the Monitor 50s "89db sensitivity means you don't need some massive super-powerful amp to drive these". Well, Ed since the rest of us are apparently using a receiver that is powered by something other than C-cells using the 10s may not be a problem. Also, speakers are about moving air and if smaller was better we all would be sitting around with Bose cubes stuck everywhere in Nirvana.

Now down to a real review. I own both speakers. My main system is 10s front, the 8s surround, CSi5 center, and an old "tank" AudioSource 15 inch sub. Powered by Pioneer Elite and strung together with some good generic 12 gauge wire. Both the 10s and 8s reproduce sounds accurately and in a pleasing manner but I prefer the 10s. The 10s range and imagining is fuller and deeper with better bass response. If budgeting is a problem the 8s at $199 apiece is a fantastic bargain and hooked with some good mid range electronics would give you a great system. For a 5.1 set-up buy four and use the CSi 5 as your center. Subs are subjective but you will need one to get the full effect especially for home theater. There are some decent ones in the two to three hundred range that will do the job. If you have a bigger budget spend the money on 10s for the fronts, a good mid range CD player, and then your sub.

The main set-up, or a similair one if you preferred a different line's sound, I have would make 99% of people happy in both home theater and music listening without breaking the bank. The other 1% or "audiophiles" would not be happy and that is fine.

One hugh word of advice! Before you buy a speaker or system if at all possible listen to it. Don't take mine or anyone else's opinion as the final word. Visit places where you can listen, and trust YOUR ears.

P.S. As a plus both speakers make for some more than decent looking furniture and do appear a lot more expensive looking than they are. Also be prepared for some nice real wood smells in your listenting area for some time.

I bought these speakers in February for another room in my house. I own a set of RTi12's as well and decided to go with these as my RTi12's in my home theater sound great. The disappointment started a couple of days after setting the RTi8s up. I had them going through a Sony 940 series receiver in two channel mode only. After a couple of days the sound aspect changed significantly and I thought it was the receiver as I've never had any problem with my other Polk products (the RTi12's mentioned above, and at least 12 automotive coaxial and component speakers over the last few years). I replaced the receiver with another Sony receiver for 2-channel mode only and was disappointed to find out it was the speakers. Both tweeters had shorted out. I called Polk customer support and they sent me some new tweeters. All was well for several months however, I noticed that if I turned up the volume 1/3 my receiver (tried with three separate receivers) would go into protection. I should note that these speakers get very little use, not being a part of my main home system. I was attempting to listen to these speaker last week and one of the tweeters gave out. While trying to figure out the cause I witnessed the other tweeter arch and singe the silk dome. I called Polk Tech Support and was saddened to find that the excellent customer service I had received on the previous occasion was non-existent. The rep was pompous and made no attempt to troubleshoot the issue. He chuckled and told me I needed to buy a high end Denon or Onkyo. I told him that I shouldn't need a $[...] receiver to run a simple 2 channel setup and was very concerned about the arch I witnessed being that these speakers are located next to my 4 year olds room. He just chuckled again and told me to box the tweeters up, send them to San Diego and they'd get me some new ones in a few weeks...still making no attempt to troubleshoot the problem. I'm not unreasonable and realize that sometimes internal components fail. But, due to the arrogance of the customer service representative I will be ending my 10 year relationship with Polk due to this experience.

These speakers sound and look fantastic. I would imagine most of the people in the market for a mid range speaker have a home theater set up. Bass is a personal preference, if you like your bass heavy you'll need a sub. What these speakers excel at is reproducing incredibly clear mid and high range frequencies. They are rated to go down to 40hz, but you will probably want to set your crossovers at 70 to 80 give or take. I have 200 watts running to them using their bi-amping capabilities and they rock. House filling sound with no distortion or apologies and a high level of detail at all sound levels.

Some people reading this may be suprised that I said mid range speakers. If all you know about speakers is Best Buy and Tweeter you've only seen the tip of the iceberg. This is Polk's upper mid level speaker and will blow away your expectations. You would really need to spend well into the thousands to get to the next level of performance. You would also need seperate amplifiers to power that type of equipment which can get messy and expensive.

Fit and finish is way above what you would expect in this price range, I would highly recommend going with the Cherry finish. The black oak looks nice, but the Cherry looks amazing. The pictures online don't do the wood grain and seamless edges justice.

I have these running with a polk CSI30 center channel speaker and a 500 watt subwoofer. Over the past 6-8 months I have been upgrading my home theater one piece of equipment at a time to take advantage of the new high resolution audio formats that Blu-ray DVD's offer. I did a lot of research before I purchase these and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I bought these for 400 a pair. Polk is rolling this model line out to make room for the RTI A series, the new version is the RTIA5 which is an identical speaker in a slightly different cabinet for twice the price. I would highly recommend you pick up a pair of the RTI8's at these crazy clearence prices before they are gone.

best speakers i ever owned and their absolutley gorgeous. i have these bywired for my front speakers, and csi3 for center, 4 rti4's for surrounds, and a psw303 for my sub pumpin off my yamaha rxv663 receiver hooked up through hdmi from my panny blu ray player(which by the way has a better picture and sound options than the ps3 trust me) rockin the new Rambo movie in 7.1 DTS Master HD audio ducking my head so i don't get hit in the crossfire bullets whizzin by my head it sounds so real and amazing and CRAZYYY!! ... by the way i had these before my sub and they pump out amazing bass by themselves, a lot more than i expected. i couldn't even imagine the rti10's or 12's, the 8's are plenty and then some...polk all the way, amazon prices even more the way. got mine from J&R Music through amazon brand spankin new in the box mint 100% awesome = one satisfied customer