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Polk Reserve R350 Review (Center Speaker)

Rate this speaker:

  • Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 122 52.4%
  • Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 98 42.1%
  • Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 11 4.7%
  • Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 2 0.9%

  • Total voters
    233
OP
amirm

amirm

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These other speakers can fill in the deficiencies.
Go ahead and listen to a few movies with stereo speakers but with 5.1 decoding (i.e. no fold down to stereo). You will hear almost no dialog in much movie content using this setup (i.e. no center channel). In other words, dialog is firmly planted in the center channel so the FL and FR can't fill that in. So no, there is no fill in.
 

rebbiputzmaker

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Go ahead and listen to a few movies with stereo speakers but with 5.1 decoding (i.e. no fold down to stereo). You will hear almost no dialog in much movie content using this setup (i.e. no center channel). In other words, dialog is firmly planted in the center channel so the FL and FR can't fill that in. So no, there is no fill in.
I do agree with that. But manufacturers had to hear that also ( I hope) but still make these products. As you show when you do your testing there is a lot of junk out there. People are often disappointed when they get the stuff home. Good reviews save them some legwork… thank you.
 

Haint

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Well, from memory even average center channels still anchor the sound to the screen better than no center.
Every time I use a L and R for movies and sit off to the side dialog location is messed up. I do this often as now my audio is stereo music based and sometimes I project a film using just my L&R channels.
I could even see how a speaker with narrow dispersion like this could give great sense of the dialog coming from the screen, even if the response is uneven, potentially ones brain might more easily cue it as originating from screen center. In other words it is precise vs diffused, and again maybe the response is not so great but the localization is fine.
+ OR - 10 degrees isn't really off to the side though, and one can reasonably infer someone falling within that range is almost certainly sitting in the "sweet spot" of the LR stereo pair. The main problem with a physical center is that (excepting acoustically transparent screens), it is by necessity either quite a bit above or below the screen, while the LR's are usually much closer to center line of the image (if not exactly on it). I don't expect many people to prefer a very narrow image from a mono speaker as it's likely to sound like a dry point source with a lot of content. Stuff mixed with judicious digital reverb (like most music) would probably sound fine, but not everything is. A lot of movies and TV just straight dump the padded vocal booth recording into the center and call it a day, which would likely sound terrible on this.
 
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richard12511

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Can we do a poll on speaker polls? It’s an interesting idea. However, to me, the point of an Amir review is his expertise and testing equipment. I’m guessing that a lot of poll voters have never heard or tested the speaker. Consider moving the poll to the end of the review so a least the voters are more informed and the results are secondary to the review.

I'm definitely pro poll, but only if Amir still gives his own panther rating. The biggest value of the panther rating to me is as a subjective rating for what Amir heard. It helps to balance the objective/subjective a bit. Few of us have heard the speaker, so the crowd "panther rating" is more just a crowd judgement of the objective measurements, which is the opposite of what the panther rating has traditionally been. Amir's panther rating has traditionally been based on his impression of what he heard, and I actually like it that way. It offers a good balance to the objective portion, and counters the most common criticism I read of ASR outside of here("how can you rate a speaker based of measurements?").

Also, the most legitimately interesting reviews are those where the subjective rating differs greatly from the objective measurements.
 

pseudoid

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Go ahead and listen to a few movies with stereo speakers but with 5.1 decoding (i.e. no fold down to stereo). You will hear almost no dialog in much movie content using this setup (i.e. no center channel). In other words, dialog is firmly planted in the center channel so the FL and FR can't fill that in. So no, there is no fill in.
One would hope that maybe (just maybe) the Polk Big Cheese designer (Scott Orth?) put some effort to make this R350 Center to "fill in" with the rest of this new Reserve series of multi-speaker line.
I've tried multiple movies with multiple sound tracks and AVR sound modes in an LCR config (no rears) and the dialog did the reverse of a 'fill'. Specifically, the dialog (mids) was now mostly coming from the R350 and gone from the L/R.
Maybe the R350 is designed to be positioned as w/your testing (free standing @ear level) and my current Vandersteen 2CeSigs have spoiled my earbuds [? like 'tastebuds'?].
 

Chromatischism

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One would hope that maybe (just maybe) the Polk Big Cheese designer (Scott Orth?) put some effort to make this R350 Center to "fill in" with the rest of this new Reserve series of multi-speaker line.
I've tried multiple movies with multiple sound tracks and AVR sound modes in an LCR config (no rears) and the dialog did the reverse of a 'fill'. Specifically, the dialog (mids) was now mostly coming from the R350 and gone from the L/R.
Maybe the R350 is designed to be positioned as w/your testing (free standing @ear level) and my current Vandersteen 2CeSigs have spoiled my earbuds [? like 'tastebuds'?].
That is the intended behavior of the center channel. It is a discrete track.
 

notabenem

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Well, from memory even average center channels still anchor the sound to the screen better than no center.
Every time I use a L and R for movies and sit off to the side dialog location is messed up. I do this often as now my audio is stereo music based and sometimes I project a film using just my L&R channels.
To give you an example, the Jamo C803s in my room (L,R, no center) give an absolutely fantastic sound field and dialogs are coming from the 'front' and not from the TV or the left or right speakers. It's a very enjoyable experience. Compared to the Elacs I had, which made it extremely obvious that the sound was coming from this or that speaker and it was really upsetting seeing the sound source in front of me (actors mouth in the TV) and hearing the sound coming from a very exact position on the left.
Jamos are not perfect though. The way how they achieve this is that they add 'reverb' to the sound (don't ask me how, this is what I hear), and ultimately, they sacrifice dialogue clarity along the way. Part of the blame is on the receiver (it's Audissey signal processing is adding even more reverb). More details here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ds/jamo-c803-vs-elac-dbr-62.21216/post-720925
I have just received a Denon X3700 to see if it will make any difference to the reverb, the way the phantom center is processed, or any. It's 12 years more evolved technology than my current receiver after all, so fingers crossed.
 
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amirm

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I've tried multiple movies with multiple sound tracks and AVR sound modes in an LCR config (no rears) and the dialog did the reverse of a 'fill'. Specifically, the dialog (mids) was now mostly coming from the R350 and gone from the L/R.
This is how a lot of movies are mixed. Most of the energy will come out of the center speaker including effects since that ties the source of the sound to the screen above or below it. Left and right are not nearly as used as they are in stereo music. This is why center speakers need to be very capable for home theater, even more than left and right. Hence the reason they build them with multiple mid-woofers and causing the dispersion problem we have been talking about. They solve one problem but create another.
 

Chromatischism

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This is why center speakers need to be very capable for home theater, even more than left and right. Hence the reason they build them with multiple mid-woofers
I've often felt the same way, which is why I'm conflicted about setups that put an identical, upright bookshelf speaker as center. It will have less acoustic power than a stereo ("phantom") center, and less than a multi-woofer speaker, but will solve the problems of off-axis viewing.
 

notabenem

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maybe I'll rip out the furniture below the TV and put there something like this:
 

notabenem

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Did a couple more simulations in Octave. It just prove that the closer the woofers (ideally below wavelength distance) the better.
Sadly, the wavelength at 3400Hz (considered to be the upper end of significant part of the speech according to telecom research) is just around 10cm and even shorter above that. So, really, vertical placement is the best you can get... Anything else is just a compromise.

The way I have it (no center, L/R 4m apart) is creating the following (simulating average of 2 ears, 20cm apart):
1635312974767.png

Now I am sitting approx 3.5m from the speakers, so at that distance it's not THAT bad. Arguably, it's much better compared to the scenario when they were only 1m apart. Note the amount of 'green' - that's total cancellation.

1635313104779.png
 

krabapple

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Center channels are to anchor the dialog on the screen even if one is sitting off to the side. It is mainly for everyone else except the main listening position.

That isn't the only benefit of a center channel, though. An actual center is better than a phantom one, acoustically.
 

beagleman

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Center channels are to anchor the dialog on the screen even if one is sitting off to the side. It is mainly for everyone else except the main listening position.


I think it is quite important for the main listening position.

I just tried it your way and with the center and there is big difference.

With the center engaged there is a VERY solid sound from one area, with the left and right phantom image, the slightest movement or me or my head it wavers a lot and just sounds odd.

Besides getting the sound from speakers far apart, seems to impart an odd quality to the tonality of vocals, at least to me.
Perhaps taking the center signal and splitting it to left and right somehow alters the sound, as my left and right speakers sound VERY similar to my center when substituted for the actual center..
 
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beagleman

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I know these are not flagship but why deseign a 4 mid/woofer 2 way that is known to make it garbage when the cheaper model with 2 mid/woofer should have much better performance if all things are equal.

I believe Klipsch has the same 4 mid/woofer set up but at least they build a 2.5 way in there speakers.
When klipsh "RP" series speakers stomp on Polks that's saying something, IMO, I have heard all the RP and I'm not a fan but at least they work better than this.

If this speaker was made a 2.5 way it would probably improve?

Having not heard this speaker, how are you so sure it is literally Garbage??

I am pretty sure it IS a 2.5
 

GimeDsp

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Physics dictates that the Xover design and speaker spacing would give this speaker horrible horizontal performance. Amir's testing proves that.

As can be seen in other posts it has VERY high crossover points for a 2.5 way. Combine that with the large spacing and you get the horrible issues with horizontal dispersion that show up.

In the rare use case that there is ONE seat in your HT set up, this speaker is OK, as soon as you increase that to 2 or 3 spots this speaker becomes garbage, or to say, it has very very bad performance.

Is a Dragster a garbage car? for the use case of daily driving it is. with design and measurements this bad what's the point of listening? None.

From the review
"Knowledge of speaker design, i.e. MTM configuration, and measurements prompted me to test off-axis response. Wow, was this a dramatic change. Despite sitting some 8 to 9 feet away (3 meters), just moving one seating position would cause a massive suck out in response. You would hear bass and treble but the middle would fall out causing a somewhat hollow sound. Close approximation of it is if you listened to your speakers from behind them. Here, it is not as bad as you hear the tweeter for upper treble but not lower."

A speaker that looks somewhat cool and sounds good in one listener position.
 
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Chromatischism

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That isn't the only benefit of a center channel, though. An actual center is better than a phantom one, acoustically.
I think it is quite important for the main listening position.

I just tried it your way and with the center and there is big difference.

With the center engaged there is a VERY solid sound from one area, with the left and right phantom image, the slightest movement or me or my head it wavers a lot and just sounds odd.

Besides getting the sound from speakers far apart, seems to impart an odd quality to the tonality of vocals, at least to me.
Perhaps taking the center signal and splitting it to left and right somehow alters the sound, as my left and right speakers sound VERY similar to my center when substituted for the actual center..
It's really interesting that you guys are testing this, as I just tested it last night as well.

I have the opportunity to try a Buchardt S400 as center speaker since I have the MKII's in as well. I figured, why not, this will be my only chance to test a (nearly) identical, vertical speaker.

The results were a little surprising. The center speaker results in slightly clearer details and fidelity for the center seat.

The primary reason I can hypothesize for this is that it is a lot farther from the side walls than the left and right speakers are so I'm getting less reflected sound.

This comes at a cost, though. I could always tell the sound was coming from a speaker just in front of and below the screen. It kept breaking the immersion. Turning it off and using the left and right speakers only puts the phantom image right on the screen and has me forgetting about speakers entirely – the sound is not localized to a speaker therefore you get immersed in the movie.

Of course for the side seats, using a center anchors sound to near the screen. And again there is better clarity from it.
 
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amirm

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This comes at a cost, though. I could always tell the sound was coming from a speaker just in front of and below the screen. It kept breaking the immersion.
Did you match its level and distance (phase)? It is closer to you so needs that adjustment.

But yes, in general you are at the mercy of whoever mixed and mastered that multi-channel mix.
 

Chromatischism

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Did you match its level and distance (phase)? It is closer to you so needs that adjustment.

But yes, in general you are at the mercy of whoever mixed and mastered that multi-channel mix.
I did set the distance and level, which helped, but didn't eliminate the localization.
 

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