Ok, I have been a owner of a pair of polk RTi4's in stero mode on a pioneer reciver. (top of the line Non-elite) And I have been unhappy with them. They seam to be lacking space they seem a bit dull and lacking in the highs.

I am considering going with the M22's but I was hopeing one of you had previously heard or owned the Polks and could give me a comparison. I will be going 7.1 when I get my New house so I need to find a brand to stick with first. For bass I have a SVS PCi series thats incredible!


Well, thanks for your time and help!

There have been a few good posts regarding Polk vs. Axiom in the last year or so. Here are a few links :

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...true#Post136350

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...true#Post136350

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...true#Post135127

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...true#Post127554

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...true#Post121948

The last one looks kind of long... guessing it might have gone off topic a bit...

Threads off topic around here? Surely you jest!

Actually, now that I look more closely it seems that quite a few of them may have gone off topic.

So... any thoughts about M22s vs. Polk RTi4's ? Don't tell the poor guy to search, I don't think you're going to be proud of what he finds

Let's talk about sausage and botulism!

well, I read thoes linkys! You posted 1 twice tho From what I can tell is there both decent speakers... And that dont help me! lol...

The sense I got from going through those posts and others were that the differences between the Polk's and the Axioms were in the areas where you were unhappy with the Polks, ie clarity of midrange and "presence".

I don't think you are going to find many people on here who will really criticize the RTi's -- they're pretty decent speakers -- other than to say that the folks here who have heard Polks are here because they preferred the Axiom sound.

I found a couple of frequency response charts of the RTi4 -- Stereophile seems to have one of the best -- and the charts do seem to indicate that the bass and high treble are bumped up 4-5 dB relative to the midrange, so the M22s would definitely be more clear in the midrange since they are ruler flat by comparison (well, a slightly bumpy ruler ).

All I can say without hearing RTi4's myself is that you will *probably* find the M22s have the sound you are looking for -- they get comments like "exquisitely clear midrange" in the reviews -- but it's hard to say for 100% sure.

At the end of it all, the best you can do is take a good guess and try what you think you will like in your own room. There are lots of people around North America who will be happy to have you over for an audition -- wouldn't hurt to give that a try if you live in a reasonably built up area.

[EDIT] Hey, look what Google coughed up. Randy (sirquack) did a search going further back and seemed to find some better posts :

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/showfla...;o=0&fpart=

The gist of it seems to be that the M22s beat the Polk RTi's, but both people seemed to prefer the Polk LSi's over the M22s. What I took away from this was that LSi 9's at blowout sale prices are an awfully good deal.

It's interesting -- seems like if you read enough reviews you won't feel good about ANY speaker model

I auditioned the RTi6 series and Axiom M22's for a month. They both sounded great, but I noticed more detail from the M22's. I went back and forth hundreds of times with music and movies; driving my wife crazy! I kept coming back to the Axiom's because of the detail, clarity, and awesome midrange. I thought the Eagle’s Hotel California CD provided a good sampling of the punch and detail you can feel from the Axioms (SVS subwoofer also assisted). Hope this helps a little. Speakers are definitely a personal preference.

Did the Polks seam tamer to you? A littel laid back?

I am not sure that I would say they are more laid back or tamer. I do know that the Axiom's sounded like they had more clarity and the Polk's appeared to be missing some sounds. In most situations they both sounded great.

Two years ago, I compared the Rti8 and Rti10 to some Infinity Alpha 40's, and the Polks sounded a bit lifeless in comparison and muddy in the midrange. I've heard the m60 and m22 and can clearly say that the Axioms sound much cleaner. The metal tweeter on the Axioms puts out much more detail than the soft domes on the Rti series.