Polk ES60 Tower Speaker Review

[beagleman]

The LSi series are extremely impressive even all these years later. Whenever people ask me what speakers to buy, if they’re looking for used speakers that’s my first recommendation.

Some of my most enjoyable listening sessions ever were using stand mounted LSi7’s.

Still regret selling them.

I had a set of the Polk Lsi15s and parted them out (long story) but also miss them.

I often find when people make anti Polk comments, they are basing their experiences on, either having very little knowledge of what Polk has made over the years, or expressing some bias against a large well known brand.

Either way, the Lsi and Lsim line ups were quite good and reasonably priced.

 

[beagleman]

Yes price is very low... Hence the performance too... If the brand name were less notorious, no mercy at all would be shown.

I am not sure how you perceive the performance to be VERY low? (Stressing the VERY on low))??

I mean they have great output, fairly low distortion, and decent enough bass. In room has rising treble, one fault for sure.

Even the FR is basically within plus or minus 2.25 db about. I mean to me, and I think most here, I fail to see what is very low performance in the charts.

Ideal? No!
They do not even appeal to me, but they seem to be quite a bargain, and the performance is more towards fairly good.

 

[mhardy6647]

Polk.

 

[375HP2482]

Oh, geez.

Do I have to scan my old JBL Aquarius ad now?

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh, geez.

Do I have to scan my old JBL Aquarius ad now?

nope.

source: https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/home-speakers/1974-l120.htm

source: https://www.lansingheritage.org/html/jbl/specs/home-speakers/1972-s109.htm

... but they were -- how to put this? -- not great.

The Polk Monitor Series Models 7 and 10 (particularly the 7) were among the best values in loudspeakers of their era in the US.
Conversely, Polk's first commercial loudspeaker, the Model Nine, was... not.




In fairness, Polk did eventually do away with the spitty Motorola piezo tweeter and replace it with an Audax soft dome tweeter and a proper XO (as the Model 9A), but I think the 7 and 10 were out by then and eclipsed it totally.




In both cases, the large cone is a passive radiator.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Wouldn't high quality standmount bookshelf speakers and two high-end subwoofers produce a substantially better audio experience? Not sure cheap floor standers would hold a candle.

There are dozens of variations of this argument on this site. It is a corollary of the Iron Law, namely that there is no replacement for displacement. Subwoofers (i.e. not just extra woofers) are only going to help up to around the frequency where the sound becomes directional, and while opinions differ where that line is, at the very most your sub is rolling or rolled off at 200hz. You have vast swaths of musical content above that point and under the tweeter crossover north of 2khz, the meat of the bass and lower guitar spectrums, the kick and various other drums, male vocals, etc. A pair of these has 6 6.5" drivers working on the lower half-ish of that band.

For a simple 2-way you would need an 11" driver to have the same driven surface area, and a motor that would keep up while remaining efficient, and then your directivity is all messed up. Most bookshelves aren't going to have that and make up for it with higher xmax of the driver, but that only works so far and brings many compromises; efficiency drops, higher frequency suffers, you have to pull the crossover frequency down which makes the tweeter circuit more complicated and/or need a bigger waveguide.

No amount of DSP is going to magically make this go away, either. What does factor here is distance and volume; if you're close to your bookshelves in a small room you might not notice a difference, if you're pressurizing the entire first floor of an open-plan McMansion to THX levels you will want more driven surface area.

 

[bevok]

I had been thinking of getting the Polk Reserve Atmos pack as a good value surround system that seems to measure well/sound good (the towers at least) but these are even cheaper (almost NZ$2k less) and look pretty darn good. Will have to take a listen and see if that treble is enough to annoy.

 

[375HP2482]

Shouldn't be an issue unless your gear did away with the Treble control.

 

[musicforcities]

I assume they are not as “hot” as klipsch on the high frequencies?

Quick question: Is a bottom facing port easier on speaker placement? Does floor covering and structure affect its response? For example, I have polished concrete floors on a structural slab.…would the port response or db level be affected by that versus a carpeted floor on wood trusses?

Nice to see a mass market manufacturer doing solid work. I have Polk Rti ceiling speakers that are extremely good for such things.

As yes, one can pick these up refurbed by Polk with their full warranty for around $700 for a PAIR.
They do look pretty huge.

 

[staticV3]

I assume they are not as “hot” as klipsch on the high frequencies?

They are very much hot on the high frequencies:

 

[Power Pop 23]

I assume they are not as “hot” as klipsch on the high frequencies?

I am familiar with the sound of the Klipsch RP-600M loudspeaker. I do not perceive my pair of Polk ES60 loudspeakers to be as 'hot' as that Klipsch model.

Quick question: Is a bottom facing port easier on speaker placement? Does floor covering and structure affect its response? For example, I have polished concrete floors on a structural slab.…would the port response or db level be affected by that versus a carpeted floor on wood trusses?

I am not certain the bottom port makes speaker placement easier. I still prefer my pair no closer than 3 feet from the wall behind them. Note Amir measured considerable 'floor bounce' from the Polk ES60 loudspeaker in his graph of 'Early Reflections' and recommends heavy carpeting.

Nice to see a mass market manufacturer doing solid work. I have Polk Rti ceiling speakers that are extremely good for such things.

As yes, one can pick these up refurbed by Polk with their full warranty for around $700 for a PAIR.
They do look pretty huge.

Yes, they are tall and deep. I perceive the 'halo effect' Amir mentions and think the size of the enclosure may enhance this perception.

 

[beagleman]

They are very much hot on the high frequencies:
View attachment 349662

I could be wrong, but I have assumed the "Target Goal" (As per Harman) for "in room" to fall at the rate of about 1db/octave.
I have redrawn the line to show approx. that amount of slant from 100hz upwards. That may account for Amir describing it as a good bit better than the curves show. Still strong in the treble, but to a good bit lesser degree.

 

[goldark]

I could be wrong, but I have assumed the "Target Goal" (As per Harman) for "in room" to fall at the rate of about 1db/octave.
I have redrawn the line to show approx. that amount of slant from 100hz upwards. That may account for Amir describing it as a good bit better than the curves show. Still strong in the treble, but to a good bit lesser degree.

I always thought the amount of downward slope would be determined by dispersion characteristics (aside from frequency response, obviously). You could have 2 very neutral, great-sounding speakers with different download slopes.

 

[beagleman]

I always thought the amount of downward slope would be determined by dispersion characteristics (aside from frequency response, obviously). You could have 2 very neutral, great-sounding speakers with different download slopes.

True, but the RED LINE drawn, is the "Ideal" or target value, that depending on room size etc, usually slopes down at about 1db per octave.

The line (red) should be pretty much the same, but with the speaker response going above or below the line at points, indicating how its sound will be heard in a room with reflections factored in.

 

[musicforcities]

Well, I certainly thought they were a "mini" version of my Salon 2 speaker.

Holy crap. That is a golfing panther hole in one endorsement

 

[musicforcities]

They are very much hot on the high frequencies:
View attachment 349662

Yes I see what you

They are very much hot on the high frequencies:
View attachment 349662

yes I see what you mean. I don’t mind reasonably boosted uppers as I am 50+ and can use help there.

This curve seems almost the inverse of the old “English” speaker curves with a dip in the presence region intended among other things to make the sound stage seem bigger (and speaker “disappear” a bit), but usually at the price of imaging precision.

I wonder if a pair of these with such a curve creates a very strong phantom center effect.


But most klipsch are not only hot but screechy to my ears.

 

[musicforcities]

One can buy a PAIR of these factory refurbished with Polk full warranty for $600 with FREE shipping.

For those of us who enjoy great audio, but have a pretty big room (open plan room of 1000 sq ft), in a system used 50/50 for 2 channel music/multichannel video), who don’t a ton of available cash (kids in college etc) for tower Revels, that seems like a pretty great value/performance ratio.

I currently have a pair of small Mirage MRM-1 stand mounts that weigh almost as much each as these Polk towers. they were quite pricey and well measuring in their day, and go shockingly deep for their very compact size, but with their low sensitivity and size there are times when they really struggle to fill the room with an immersive soundstage. Even with a sub and room correction.

With electronic/techno and acoustic guitar and such they do great…Pink Floyd’s song, wish you were here is holographc, as is Madonna’s vogue. But orchestral with high dynamic range sounds a bit hollow as there only so much air they can move between 80hz and 1000hz at reasonable volumes. Well recorded Rock can also seem a bit hollow at lower volumes and then conjested in the midrange at higher levels. Don’t get me wrong they sound very very good if fed enough power, but i have been thinking of getting some towers for that room, but have a hard time justifying the price for a pair of revels etc given that what i have is pretty good as it is.

But for $600 a pair worth the experiment.

Other options would be a second sub (which would be close to the same price or more, lol), or getting a Denon avr-x3800 or x4800 and splashing out on the DIRAC upgrade to see if that does better than other room correction software I have tried. I can get a refurbed x3800 for around $800 too, but the Dirac upgrade is several hundred more.

 

[Power Pop 23]

One can buy a PAIR of these factory refurbished with Polk full warranty for $600 with FREE shipping.

That is an excellent price.

Can you provide a link ?

Thank you

 

[darrellc]

Can you provide a link ?

Thank you

I think everyone is referring to accessories4less.com. They're at $699 factory refurb'd, free shipping, warranty.

 

[Power Pop 23]

I think everyone is referring to accessories4less.com. They're at $699 factory refurb'd, free shipping, warranty.

I agree. Polk Audio offers a 2 year warranty on refurbished loudspeakers and a five year warranty on new samples.