These speakers look amazing and sound even better! I think the wood grain ones look better, but the black ones matched the rest of my Polk speakers and the furniture in my room.
The looks:
The top is a nice shiny piano black. The speakers are slightly larger than the average bookshelf, They are definitely deeper than most speakers this size, but height and width is normal. They really do look nice and are decently heavy. The rest of the speaker is typical wood grain black but they are nice and thick.
The features:
It has a nice wall mount bracket with rubber bumpers towards the bottom that keeps the speaker away from the wall a bit and straight. The bracket is metal and very secure. You can use banana plugs on the screw in posts, just remove the covers from the top of the posts.
And most importantly, the sound:
My first impression was, "wow". I just got these, so they are still breaking in. But these speakers have a very natural sound to them. I absolutely love the sound of these TSi 100 speakers. very clear and crisp and surprising bass for a bookshelf. These blow away the Fluance AV-HTB Towers (which I returned) and the Sony SS-MF550H tower speakers they replaced. If you have more money, I would maybe suggest the TSi 200 speakers for more bass (especially if you have no subwoofer) but these work great as mains for my 7.1 system. My setup:
Polk Audio TSi 100 (these): Main speakers
Polk Audio CS10: Center
Polk Audio R15: Side surrounds
Polk Audio RM6751: Rear Surround
BIC America V1020 10" down-firing subwoofer
These are hooked up to an Onkyo SR-706 receiver and the speakers are placed 6' apart at ear level on either side of my 40" Samsung LCD. The room is 10x12' and I sit on the bed on the middle of the room. the side surrounds are 5' away at ear level at my listening position and the rear surrounds are 6' apart at ear level and I tried making it so they are perfectly even with the mains. To get the best sound, generally you want speakers to be at ear level or slightly below (thought some speakers sound better with toe in, or other alignments).
In stereo mode, I put on Journey's "Separate Ways" and the keyboards, guitar, and vocals were unbelievably natural and clear. The stereo imaging of these speakers is exceptional. The fact these speakers had no break in time is amazing and it will only get better from here. They are not as bright as the R15's (though the character may change once they are broken in) but they sound better overall and have a very natural sound. Everything sounds as it should! I think the R15;s sound amazing too but definitely think these sound more natural.
In 7.1 (Dolby Prologic IIx) mode, I played it again and wow...the system as a whole sounds amazing! But these speakers capture every sound and wow, so natural. I like listening to music in 7.1 surround (little odd to some maybe, but that's my preference.)
Keeping it in 7.1, I played VNV Nation "Solitary" and wow...these speakers make the song sound way better than my former Sony/Fluance setup. I expected them to, but these are some of the most natural sounding speakers I have ever heard. My friend has $500/each Klipsch speakers and I would not trade his speakers for mine! These speakers are a steal for this price!
Acoustic, Rock, Slow, Electronic, video games, and movies; these speakers do it all. These are some of my favorite speakers and pretty unbeatable in this price range. I have heard Sony, Klipsch, Onkyo, Bose, Infinity, Fluance, and Apherion audio. The only ones I would prefer to these are the Apherions but they are much more money and not that much better. The Klipsch are too bright (sound good but too bright after a while) and all others did not sound as good.
The bottom line? Buy these now if you want some amazing speakers for a decent price. There are better speakers, but you will spend a lot more for them. For a bigger room, you may want to go with TSi towers (300, 400, etc.) but with a subwoofer, these have a lot of bass for a medium sized speaker.
I hope this review was helpful, I will update this in about a week or two, then they have had more of a chance to break in.
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This Item  Polk Audio TSi100 2-Way Bookshelf Speaker with 5-1/4" Driver - Pair (Black) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | $199.00 | $299.00 | $149.99 | $149.00 | $198.00 |
| Delivery | — | Get it Apr 26 - 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Quality of material | ||||||
| Sound quality | ||||||
| Bass quality | ||||||
| Sheerness | ||||||
| Sold By | — | Crutchfield | Amazon.com | Electronics Expo (Authorized Dealer) | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
| speaker size | 5.25 inches | 400 millimeters | 450 millimeters | — | 5.25 inches | 5.25 inches |
| power source | Corded Electric | Corded Electric | Corded Electric | Corded Electric | Corded Electric | Electric |
| connectivity tech | — | Wired | Wired | RCA | Wired | Wired |
| speaker type | Bookshelf | Bookshelf Speaker | Bookshelf | Bookshelf | Bookshelf | Bookshelf, Tweeter, Coaxial, Subwoofer, Woofer |
| mounting type | Keyhole Hanger | Wall Mount | Shelf Mount | Shelf Mount | Wall Mount,Tabletop | Tabletop |
| weight | 10 pounds | 9 pounds | 12 pounds | 7 pounds | 8.25 pounds | 19.9 pounds |
From the manufacturer
Polk Audio TSi100 Bookshelf Speakers
Small in size, big in performance, the TSi100 is a speaker to use for wall-hanging surround speakers in a TSi Series home theater (heavy duty wall-hanging brackets are built right in). Or, use them as main speakers in a small room, where performance is key but size is a consideration.
Features:
- TSi enclosures are constructed of extensively braced, solid MDF with 3/4-inch baffles. This virtually eliminates internal resonances and damps energy-stealing vibrations, for more efficient operation and more transparent sound.
- Beautiful pewter accents, a high gloss piano-finish black top plate and your choice of stylish black or cherry wood-grain finishes make TSi speakers a part of your decor.
- Polk's proprietary, Dynamic Balance technology allows our engineers to design out distortion-causing driver and system resonances, so you only hear the good sounds.
- Klippel motor optimization uses laser measurement technology to ensure a smooth excursion path at either end of the volume spectrum for uniform performance at both low and high volumes.
Features:
- TSi design combines smaller drivers (for more overall driver area with less driver mass) and narrow baffle geometry, for wider range and more spacious soundstaging, so every seat in the house hears a prime performance.
- Durable, efficient, and tuned with our Dynamic Balance process, TSi Series polymer cones produce smooth, natural sound.
- All Polk loudspeakers are timbre-matched within their series, designed with the same components throughout, to achieve seamless speaker-to-speaker blending effects in multi-channel systems.
- Gold-plated, professional-style 5-way binding posts, for secure connection options.
Reviews with images
Modification for use in garage - works great!
Great sounding speakers! I have owned many pairs of Polk speakers of all sizes over many years, and I'm always amazed at the sound quality and the value of their products. This time, I needed new speakers in my garage. These are bass reflex speakers that have the port in the back. Many small speakers do this to get more bass out of them. Now a box with a hole in it is basically a birdhouse. Being in a garage, there are protected from temperature extremes and from the weather, but not from critters. Where I live, there are sometimes spiders, wasps, scorpions, dirt-daubers and sometimes even geckos in the garage that might find an ideal home in these speakers! So I looked around on Amazon and found some 2" round screen covers for PVC pipes. They fit the holes perfectly, and even had to be tapped in a little with a rubber mallet. They still sound great and I don't think the screens inhibit the air flow enough to change the sound at all. Works great for me, and I hope it will for you, too. Link below. Enjoy!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DX4B2Y2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
