Polk Reserve R700 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review

Polk knocked the ball out of the park with the Legend series which we thought were easily the best speakers that Polk had made to date. However, it wasn’t all that surprising that we found them to be so good given they are one of the largest loudspeaker manufacturer’s flagship product lines. With the resources, expertise, and experience that Polk has at their disposal, the Legend series had no excuse to not be really good. But how good of a speaker can Polk make at half the cost of the Legend series? Will it only be half as good, or will it be ninety percent as good? That is the question we will attempt to answer in our review of the Polk Reserve R700.

The Polk Reserve series is the replacement for the RTi series and is the second series down from the Legend line. The Reserves are more expensive than most of Polk’s speaker lines, which are low cost, but they are quite a bit less expensive than the Legend series. The Reserve R700 looks to be the cost-conscious version of the Legend L600. They share a lot of design elements, but the L600 looks to be a bit more upscale. However, those upscale qualities take a toll on your wallet. How much sound performance does the Reserve R700 retain when shorn of the higher-priced niceties of the Legend series?

Appearance

At a glance, the Reserve R700s look like pretty typical floor-standing loudspeakers. Their overall shape and styling do not push the envelope in terms of industrial design. That is not to say they look bad at all; on the contrary, I think they look nice. But maybe the “Reserve” part of their name signifies how aesthetically reserved they are. It is only when you take a closer look at them where they do have some elements that set them apart from other loudspeakers in this class. Details like the turbine midrange cone or the ring radiator tweeter are slightly unusual as is the “power port” base design. On the whole, the styling is conservative but too simple to become stuffy or staid.

The enclosure can be had in a textured vinyl black or a walnut veneer. I received the walnut veneer, and I think this is the finish to get between the two available finishes. The walnut veneer looks quite nice. It is not a real wood veneer but rather a vinyl imitation. However, it is not at all obvious and quite a convincing imitation. The cabinet has rounded edges, which is a welcome touch to give it a sleeker and more inviting appearance. The magnetically attachable grilles really dull the appearance of the R700s. I think the exposed drivers give it a more interesting appearance but without turning it into any kind of eyesore since it already has sedate styling. The bass driver cones have a cool metallic sheen, and so do the midrange cone and tweeter to a lesser extent. The midrange has some nifty swirling fins in the cone that gives it a bit of flair, and the tweeter has a pointed pole piece that also lends a nice touch of visual detail. All of the drivers have trim rings that hide the screws, thereby giving the ungrilled appearance a bit more class. Overall, the Reserve R700s are so understated that they could fit unobtrusively into just about any interior decor. They are simply ‘nice’ without being particularly eye-catching or unattractive.

Polk Reserve R700 Tower Speaker Review Discussion

Design Overview

As mentioned, Polk’s Reserve series draws a lot from their Legend Series, so we will be quoting our Legend review since they share very similar or the same components. To start with the obvious, the Reserve R700 is a three-way floor-standing speaker with a down-firing port. Getting into a more detailed discussion of the speaker, we will start at the top with the tweeter. It uses a 1” ring-radiator tweeter that Polk has relied on for some time on their higher-end loudspeakers. Ring-radiators are a bit different from standard dome tweeters. The way ring radiators work is that instead of having the voice coil former affixed to a dome as in traditional dome tweeters, the voice coil former is simply connected to two large soft ringed suspension pieces: an outer ring and an inner ring. The inner ring is connected to a stationary rod in the center that also holds that needle-looking phase plug. Whereas in normal dome tweeters, the acoustic radiating surface is the dome. In a ring radiator, the acoustic radiating surface is these two large suspension rings. Normally the suspension bits in drivers are used merely to hold an acoustic radiating surface in a manner where it only has one plane of travel, back and forth.

To quote from our Legend series review:

"One of the advantages of ring radiators is that ‘break-up’ modes are pushed out to much higher frequencies versus typical dome tweeters. ‘Break-up’ modes are where the radiating surface, whether that be a dome, cone, or plane, loses its shape from playing frequencies so high that it bends only part of the surface instead of the entire surface. It can really hurt the sound quality of any speaker where it is not controlled. Another advantage is that ring radiators can easily play to ultrasonic frequencies since the soft suspension piece being driven is usually much lighter than traditional dome materials."

The tweeter has a copper cap that should help to drive down inductance, which will give it a wider bandwidth as well as less distortion. It also has a highly-damped rear cavity that will reduce resonances from backwave radiation.

With the midrange driver, Polk again uses a 6.5” turbine midrange similar to that found on the Legend speakers. Again, quoting from our Legend review that uses the same technology:

“The cone has a peculiar shape that Polk calls the ‘Turbine Cone.’ The cone shape has seven fin-type protrusions that form a vortex pattern hence the name ‘turbine.’ The shape and number of these fins are claimed to make the cone stiffer which can drive break up modes higher in frequency where they will be easier to filter out by the crossover circuit.”

The fins are only part of the measures utilized by Polk to thwart cone break-up, and one other tactic they use is the material composition of the cone itself. Polk calls it the foam core polymer injection cone, and it is a very stiff foam with a dense exterior that sandwiches a light but rigid interior foam structure. It is lighter, stiffer, and better damped than more typical cone materials. The result of the turbine shape combined with the foam core cone are drivers that can play to relatively high frequencies before break-up artifacts start affecting the sound. That means that any cone misbehavior will be easily filtered out of audibility so that it does not intrude upon the tweeter’s bandwidth.

Getting into the bass drivers, the R700 uses two 8” polypropylene cones with some beefy half-roll surrounds that look like they could move plenty of air if given the opportunity. One interesting design detail about the bass drivers and midrange driver is that they use dual opposite-facing spiders so that any one-way bias in excursion by one spider is negated by the other spider. This should lower even-order harmonic distortions as well as do more to keep the voice coil aligned and restricted from lateral movements. The midrange and bass drivers also use shorting rings in order to reduce induction effects, which again broadens their bandwidth and reduces distortion.

The port on the R700 is quite interesting and shows some thought was put into pushing standard port design forward. Polk has always had their ‘Power Port’ technology which places a prong mounted on a base into the port opening that is supposed to reduce port turbulence by controlling the travel of air at the port’s exit. For the Reserve R700, Polk has evolved this technology into ‘Power Port 2.0.’ In this iteration, instead of a prong at the port’s exit, there is a tube that goes up into the port and is shaped into a set of closed-pipe absorbers that act as Eigentone Filters (an eigentone is an acoustic resonance caused by parallel boundaries). These filters are strategically located to reduce unwanted port resonance. Resonances above the port tuning frequency are usually unintended and can be high enough in level to affect the frequency response. Polk claims that the Eigentone Filters can reduce these higher resonances by as much as 14dB, which is a major reduction in audibility. 

The cabinet is robustly built with plenty of internal bracing and acoustic damping. The midrange driver gets its own sealed enclosure within the cabinet. The base is a solid metal piece that holds some conical feet and does a good job of giving the speakers a stable platform. The terminal cup has two sets of five-way binding posts, so the R700s can be bi-amped or bi-wired. These speakers could probably handle a bit more power than what a normal AV Receiver can produce, so users might be able to extract a few more dB out of them by bi-amplification. For the most part, these speakers should be adequately powered by a decent AVR. It’s worth noting the R700s are IMAX Enhanced certified, which means they meet some threshold of performance, although, like THX certifications, the exact specifications are not known. However, so far the other speakers that have received IMAX Enhanced certification that we have covered have all had very good performance, so that does bode well for the Reserve R700 as well as IMAX Enhanced certification itself.   

With a 6.5” midrange driver and two 8” bass drivers, the overall design suggests a loudspeaker with a fairly wide dynamic range, and with design cues from the Legend series as well as IMAX Enhanced certification, they look like they would have a neutral tonality as well. Let’s not see if all of this technology delivers on its promises with some real-world use…

Listening Sessions

In my 24’ by 13’ (approximately) listening room, I set up the speakers with a few feet of stand-off distances between the back wall and sidewall and equal distance between speakers and listening position. I angled the speakers to face the listening position. The listening distance from the speakers was about 8 feet. Amplification was handled by a Pioneer SC-55. No room correction equalization or subwoofers was used.

Music Listening

Starting off with something with a focus on a pristinely recorded vocal, I found a terrific album in Lisa Ekdahl’s “Grand Songs,” a collection of jazzy covers of diverse hits from such artists as Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, The Monkees, and Billie Eilish. The Swedish Ekdahl makes these songs her own with her playful and soft singing style. She is backed by some mellow jazz instrumentalists along with some lush orchestral elements and an occasional choir. This music is very easy on the ears yet is also superbly recorded and mixed to bring Ekdahl’s delicate voice out to the front of an extensive instrumental accompaniment. I found this charming album on Qobuz steaming in hi-resolution and thought it would be great for evaluating the R700’s ability to recreate a human voice.

The first thing I noticed about the R700s was how well-centered Ekdahl’s voice in the soundstage. Her voice emitted from a point squarely between the speakers. Each instrument had its placement as well, with an acoustic guitar just to the left of center and a double bass behind the center with Ekdahl. Tenor sax and piano closely flanked center stage, and orchestral strings were widespread over the width of the soundstage. Everything sounded right in tone, and I didn’t notice anything off about any of the instruments or vocals. The double bass and bass drum sounded potent but without being domineering, in other words, they sounded just right. The R700s brought performance into my listening room with picturesque clarity. Everything came together for a fine reproduction, and the album proved to be very enjoyable. These speakers turned out to be a great choice for jazz vocals.     

Another sublimely recorded album that I found on Qobuz was “Enargeia,” a project by the celebrated young opera singer Emily D’Angelo. In this new release, D’Angelo performs selections from contemporary female composers as well as two pieces from the twelfth-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen who is the main inspiration for the works and performances here. She is accompanied by the twenty-piece Das Freie Orchester Berlin. By showing just how much Bingen’s compositions fit in with modern works, D’Angelo demonstrates the timelessness of Bingen’s music. This exquisite album released on the Deutsche Grammophon label is magnificently produced and makes for superb demo music for high-fidelity sound systems.

As with other albums I had heard, the imaging was superlative through the R700s. D’Angelo’s voice took center stage, of course, and the R700s anchored her there with pinpoint precision. The orchestra seemed to span a width further than the speaker’s placement as well as spanning a depth past the backwall of the room. The R700’s gave a detailed account of D’Angelo’s meticulously controlled and pitch-perfect singing. The orchestra was vividly realized as well, and the R700s were able to act as a transporter that placed me in the performance space of this recording. Individual instruments were rendered with fine detail when they were given a solo. At higher volumes, the drama in these operatic pieces soared, and the R700s retained the same balance and definition irrespective of a considerably increased loudness. Emily D’Angelo’s voice is a wonder to behold and deserves a good sound system to recreate her singing to its full potential. I think the R700s can be a part of just such a system.  

A recent release from Vangelis took me by surprise, but any new work from the famed Greek composer is always welcome. “Juno to Jupiter” is another entry in Vangelis’ tributes to space exploration, much like his previous efforts “Mythodea” and “Rosetta,” and it combines his lush signature synths with grandiose orchestral and choral accompaniment. In “Juno to Jupiter,” Vangelis plays with a range of different musical styles from synth-pop to tranquil ambiance to symphonic bombast, yet everything is tied together with his distinctive sound. An album of such instrumental breadth stands as a good test of a loudspeaker’s neutrality since a tonally unbalanced speaker will rearrange the prominence of the instruments in the mix.

The soundstage of “Juno to Jupiter,” as presented by the R700s, was appropriately monumental. The R700s imaged with a spaciousness that enveloped my listening position from all sides of the front hemisphere. Such a towering sound mix had a “wall-of-sound” effect on the R700s, yet precise imaging was not lost when it was called for. The occasional operatic vocal solo or lead synth solo could hold a dead center soundstage position when they appeared in the music. There was a lot of use of low frequencies in this album, from orchestral bass drums to synth drones to bass guitar, and it all kept the dual R700’s dual 8” woofers busy, but they were never overwhelmed. I doubt that the addition of a subwoofer would have benefited the sound at all for the R700s on this album even with Vangelis’s extensive employment of bass. Much of this music has a sound that is dense with different layerings of instruments, yet the R700s kept everything lucid and distinct. “Juno to Jupiter” is big music, and the R700s had no problems scaling the sound to match the recording. They were able to lend a cinematic sensibility to this album; maybe there is something to their IMAX Enhanced certification after all!

For something that could be used to examine the R700’s dynamic range, I loaded up “Partial #6,” a compilation in a series from the always reliable Division Recordings. Division specializes in bass-heavy electronic music with an experimental edge, so their music is not just formulaic dance-floor numbers but rather explorations in new sounds and ideas in bass music. The “Partial” series takes a number of tracks from their roster of artists and gives a sampling of where their progress is in pushing music forward. The music is tinged with dubstep, drum and bass, techno, and associated bass-heavy genres, and so can be quite demanding of a loudspeaker if played at a high level. I figured this would be a good test of the R700’s twin 8” bass drivers; they looked serious but were they actually serious?

I set the volume high to see what the R700s could do, and they did not disappoint. Those 8”s can really throw a punch when given enough power and the right signal. The kick drums filled the room with a palpable thump. Snares and hi-hats snapped with a sharp attack. The bassline rolled on as thick as a pile of cinder blocks. At my listening distance, the R700s were easily enough to attain a club-like experience, even with my modest 140-watt/channel amp. The bass was powerfully reproduced, and subwoofers were absolutely not needed. However, I do think subs would have had a bit more tactile feeling although perhaps not an aural one. If you are looking for a floor-standing speaker that can reproduce some serious bass, the R700s can certainly do that. Track 7, “Tortured Thru” was hard evidence of their ability to rock. The percussion sounded like someone was stomping on the floor. The Polk R700s certainly had enough dynamic range for my tastes, and I am sure that they could satisfy all but the most extreme headbanger in terms of their ability to play loud without any kind of audible distress. 

Movie Watching

One movie I had been eagerly looking forward to was the new adaptation of “Dune,” and I thought it would also be a good opportunity to see what the R700s could do for a large-budget Hollywood spectacle. I have long been a fan of Frank Herbert’s saga and am also a fan of David Lynch’s imaginative but flawed adaptation. I have also enjoyed everything that its director, Denis Villeneuve, had done so far. His directorial style should make for a great fit for “Dune.” This science-fiction epic promised to have a colossal sound mix, replete with a music score from Hans Zimmer who has a penchant for heavy bass. This was a movie that demanded a high playback level, so I cranked the volume with the hope that the R700s would live up to the task ahead.

“Dune” turned out to be as much of an aural spectacle as it was a visual one, and the R700 speakers conveyed this far-flung futuristic soundscape with gusto. All of the many interesting effects sounds were strikingly realized such as the descending carrier vessels, the Sardukar chants, the force-field armor, the dragonfly-esque airships, and, of course, the sandworms. The sound mix was a feast for the ears, and I expect “Dune” will win the Academy Award for “Best Sound Editing” and/or “Best Sound Mixing.” The R700’s bass capability came in very handy here, and I am glad I watched this movie on a sound system that could handle its bass requirements. There was probably some extreme deep bass that the R700s missed, but these tower speakers did a great job for their size and cost, and I didn’t feel that the absence of subwoofers was detracting from the experience at any point. Overall, “Dune” sounded terrific on the R700s, and I just hope that I will be reviewing as capable of a sound system when Part Two is released. 

For something with a more down-to-earth sound mix, I finally sat down to watch Steven Spielberg’s “The Post,” a drama released in 2017 about the Washington Post’s decision to publish the so-called “Pentagon Papers” leaked by the state department military analyst Daniel Ellsberg. I had been wanting to watch “The Post” for some time but it simply slipped my mind in favor of other streaming content. As a major studio production with an all-star cast, “The Post” should have the best sound engineering that money can buy, especially since it features a score by John Williams. I would expect a movie that largely takes place in a newsroom to be fairly talky, so “The Post” ought to be a good test of the R700’s proficiency at dialogue intelligibility.

It turned out that “The Post” truly was a great test of dialogue intelligibility since there was so much hurried newsroom jargon but also many moments of overlapping dialogue which isn’t too common these days. Dialogue was always crystal clear even during simultaneous conversations, and all of the lines were easy to follow using the R700 speakers even amongst the newsroom clatter. John Williams’ orchestral score was also wonderfully relayed, and his music managed to bring tension to the simple act of delivering a final draft to a typesetter. The expert sound editing made “The Post’s” sound mix an exercise in maintaining clarity amidst complexity, but even so, a good audio system is needed to reproduce the resulting mix, and the R700s excelled at this. While “The Post” is not an effects-driven bonanza, it is not a film I would want to watch on mediocre speakers since the ability to track complex dialogue is critical to following the story. I read of a lot of people simply turn on close captioning for their shows and movies simply because dialogue can be hard to follow, but that wouldn’t be the case with decent speakers. It’s a good film and should be viewed using a good sound system.

Polk Reserve R700 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Measurements & Conclusion

The Polk Reserve R700 Towers were measured in free-air at a height of 4 feet at a 2-meter distance from the microphone, with the microphone raised to a 7.5’ elevation that was level with and aimed at the tweeter center. The measurements were gated at 8-milliseconds. In this time window, some resolution is lost below 400 Hz and accuracy is completely lost below 200 Hz. Measurements have been smoothed at a 1/24 octave resolution.

The above graphs depict the Polk R700 Tower’s direct-axis and horizontal dispersion out to a 90-degree angle in five-degree increments. Information on how to interpret these graphs can be read in our article "Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II". The first thing to observe is the very flat response at and near the on-axis angle. This is a neutral loudspeaker. The on-axis window would be characterized as +/-1.5dB from 200Hz to 20kHz by our measurements. This is exceptionally good, especially for this price range. We do see that the tweeter loses off-axis dispersion above 6kHz and beams in a fairly narrow pattern by 10kHz. At high treble frequencies, output is down considerably outside of a 25-degree angle. While listeners don’t need to be dead on-axis to hear the full range of treble from the R700s, they should be roughly around the on-axis angle, so these speakers might require a slight toe-in for an optimal listening experience.

The above polar map shows the same information in the preceding graphs but depicts it in a way that can offer new insight regarding these speakers’ behavior. Instead of using individual raised lines to illustrate amplitude, polar maps use color to portray amplitude, and this allows the use of a purely angle/frequency axis perspective. The advantage of these graphs is they can let us see broader trends of the speaker’s dispersion behavior more easily. More information about interpreting this graph can be read in "Understanding Loudspeaker Review Measurements Part II".

In the polar map of the R700, we can see that the directivity is pretty consistent out to 6-7kHz after which the beaming tweeter constricts dispersion. This general tweeter behavior was also seen in the ring radiators used in the Legend series. Listeners who are seated past a 30-degree angle off-axis might hear a softer presentation than those listening closer on-axis. However, most listening situations place most listeners within a 25-degree angle of the speaker’s ‘aim,’ so this isn’t likely to be a problem. And for those few who are extra-sensitive to high treble, simply adjusting the angle of these speakers can act as an automatic filter to soften the sound. All you have to do is have the speakers facing straight forward with no toe-in angling, and that should place the listening position at about a 30 to 35-degree angle which will shear off a lot of output above 10kHz.

The above graph shows the response of the R700 at a sampling of some vertical angles. One interesting thing we can see in comparing these responses is that the -10-degree angle looks to be the most linear response. That is so linear that there are plenty of studio monitors that aren’t as accurate! The advantage there is that angle is more likely to be the vertical angle that most people listen to rather than the tweeter height which is a bit high (the tweeter sits at a 42” height). This has always been a problem with many larger tower speakers; the tweeter, which is normally the reference angle for listening, is always mounted too high. Polk has addressed this, and in normal use, listeners will be met with a beautifully neutral sound. 

The above graph shows the R700’s low-frequency response captured using groundplane measurements (where the speaker and microphone are on the ground at a 2-meter distance in a wide-open area). As with upper frequencies, we see a very flat and accurate response. The port tuning frequency seems to be in the mid-30Hz range from looking at this response alone, although that does get confirmed in the impedance measurement below. Below that point, the roll-off slope looks to be a standard 24dB/octave decline that most traditional ported speakers will have. With room gain, users can expect strong bass down to 30Hz. It’s nice to see that Polk didn’t do anything unusual and just stuck with a hard target of a neutral response. This kind of low-frequency extension should be able to catch almost all bass in music recordings and much of the bass in movie sound mixes. For movies, the addition of a subwoofer would bring benefits to deep-digging science fiction, action, and horror movies, but they certainly aren’t absolutely necessary. Those looking for a speaker that can easily get by without a sub have a good choice in the R700s.

The above graphs show the electrical behavior of the R700 Towers. These speakers are not the most benign electrical load nor are they particularly burdensome. It’s a very normal response, and I would have to say the nominal impedance is about 6 ohms. From this graph, we can tell that the port tuning frequency is about 35Hz. The mismatch of the peaks around port tuning indicates that the resonant frequency of the drivers is lower than that of the enclosure. The bottom line from the impedance and phase graph is that pretty much any normal amplifier will be able to handle these speakers with no problem.

I measured the sensitivity at 88.9dB at 1 meter for 2.83v. That is very close to what Polk reports. That is pretty typical for loudspeakers in this class. Users will not need a monster amp for these speakers to get loud. However, they should be able to take a good deal of power if a beefy amp is available.

Conclusion

As always, let’s briefly go over the strengths and weaknesses of the product, and let’s start with the weaknesses. Making a list of the weaknesses of the Polk Reserve R700 is tough, because, in my view, it doesn’t really have any, especially at its pricing. I might say that it looks a bit dull in the black finish- not bad but not at all interesting. The walnut finish is much nicer. Personally, I would like to have seen a satin white finish or something just a bit different. Polk is playing it very safe in the aesthetics department, and I can’t blame them for it since people mostly just buy black or wood finishes when given a choice between anything else.

Something else I would like to have seen is a Reserve center speaker that is an analog to the Polk Legend L400 center. The Reserve series does not have a three-way center, yet there are some major advantages of three-way centers over the MTM center designs that are available in the Reserve series. In fact, the center speaker I would recommend to go with the R700s is the Legend L400 rather than any of the Reserve center speakers. I think the L400 would be a better match because of its overall performance, and a L400/R700 front stage setup would be a terrific sound system. However, the lack of a three-way center can’t really be held against the R700s themselves which are the subject of this review. 

With those nit-picks out of the way, let’s talk about the strengths of the R700s. First and foremost is performance. The R700 is a very accurate speaker and is doubtlessly one of the most accurate in its product class. It has a neutral response, and the response is the most neutral in the regions that people are most likely to listen at. They have a very good dynamic range, as one would expect from a loudspeaker of their specs, and, with a near 89dB sensitivity, they don’t need a monster amplifier to get loud. They have good low-frequency extension, which should reach down to 30Hz in most rooms, so they don’t need a subwoofer to give you powerful, authoritative bass.

Going back to styling and appearance, the walnut finish model does look very nice, and the cabinet, drivers, and grille all have a reserved aesthetic that is unlikely to clash with any interior decor. The build quality is excellent, and these near 80lbs. speakers weigh more than pretty much anything else in their product class. But sheer weight doesn’t mean much unless the mass is intelligently applied, and the R700s make their pounds count with a heavy-duty cabinet with real bracing, a solid metal base that anchors the speaker to the floor with an extremely stable stance, and brawny drivers that can deliver some serious SPL without sacrificing linearity. In other words, they are a lot of speaker for the money.

I can’t help but compare the Reserve R700s to Polk’s Legend L600s. They both have a similar three-way design with very similar drivers. While I have not had experience with the Legend L600s, I have to wonder what they do that the R700s does not do. It brings to mind a car manufacturer that has a luxury brand that is basically the same vehicle mechanically as the regular line except with a nicer trim. If you can live with the knowledge that the wood veneer isn’t real (but looks very convincing), then I am willing to bet you get most of the sound of the Legend L600 for just over half of the cost in the Reserve R700. Plus, you get a more advanced port technology in the R700. Polk has told me that the Reserve series is not meant to be a bargain Legend series but rather a successor to the RtiA series, but when I compare the performance as well as the design, this does not seem to be the case. The Reserve R700s inherit an awful lot from the Legend series, and since the Legend series was so high-performing, that is a very good thing. There is some very stiff competition in tower speakers at this price point, but it’s hard not to give the Polk Reserve R700s the top nod here. Anyone fortunate enough to have a set of these will be met with an accurate and enjoyable sound for years to come.

Polk Audio
R700 Reserve
MSRP: $2,200/pair

Polk Reserve R700 Tower Speaker Review Discussion

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value