Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, White)
by Polk Audio
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List Price: Our Price: $175.00 You Save: $64.95 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $165.73 (click here) Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, White)
Customer Review: Excellent Speakers
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been using these speakers for about 2 months, and I'm finding them to be one of my better recent purchases. I'll go through the main categories and give you my impression:
SOUND: Obviously the most important factor. I set these up in my living room and let them play for about 2 straight days in order to break them in a bit. Once I put them outside, they really shined. They fill our deck and pool area with a pleasing and musical sound. They are not going to get you a ton of bass, but at the same time the music sounds "full" and does not have a "tinny" or overbearing treble sound. My wife and I agree that these are nice sounding speakers.
APPEARANCE: I got the white ones, and they match perfectly under my gutter overhang. They're well made and look like a quality item to anyone that notices them up there.
INSTALLATION: Clearly this can vary, but I found them easy to install. Basically just screw in the holders, then attach the speakers to the holders. Running the cables to the speakers is the tricky part, but i managed to hide it under the gutter as well. If you're using them outside, you'll need underground low voltage wire (like they use for landscaping lights). I bought my wire at Home Depot - cheap, $17 for 100'.
VALUE: For the price (I paid $125 including s/h) they're an excellent value.
MISC - One huge benefit of these speakers is they require very little power to drive them. I'm using an old Denon receiver with 60 watts (30 to each speaker) and it's more than enough. I can barely turn it up before it reaches a level that would be annoying to the neighbors.
To anyone considering these speakers, I highly recommend them!
Customer Review: Relatively speaking...
Summary: 3 Stars
Folks, let's not get overheated here. The reviews salivating over this product are a bit long on hyperbole and bit short on perspective. For some perspective, let me say that I ran my white Polk 45s on the B channel of an NAD receiver, with a pair of nice (but by no means extravagant) Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s on the A channel. No comparison. Absolutely no comparison. The full audio range was better represented on the Diamonds. Put bluntly, running these guys against a set of true speakers made the Polk's deficiencies far more apparent. The mids are muddled, the highs a bit too tinny. I was impressed by the bass for speakers of this size, but ultimately found the sound to be comparable to a decent set of computer desktop speakers with attached subwoofer.
Now, for a bit more perspective, one does need to consider how these speakers are to be used. If you intend to use these outdoors, they may be perfect for you. They seem incredibly solidly built with good engineering all around. They are visually attractive and just the right size to produce decent sound while remaining relatively inconspicuous. The brackets and grills are stout. Given that an outdoor environment comes with its own background symphony of noise, my quibbles with the quality of the sound may be taken with a grain of salt. I am sure we will be happy using these guys outdoors on our patio. But given the limitation in sound quality, that's precisely where they will stay.
Customer Review: Great outdoor speakers!
Summary: 5 Stars
After a few years of hauling a large boombox in and out all summer and being jealous of neighbors who had speakers, I finally picked up a pair of the Atrium 45s for this summer. After about a month of use, all I can say is wow! These speakers sound way better than the neighbors' speakers (both small, cheap bookshelf speakers -- one Radio Shack, one Sony). These speakers fill my patio area (~15' X 25') with ease at low volumes and will clearly fill the backyard (~70' X 55') at mid-volumes. Mind you, you are not going to get thumping bass that rattles your chest (the woofer is too small and bass just dies outdoors anyway), but these are speakers that will clearly reproduce the low-end, giving your music much more of a dynamic sound. Sure, bigger (and more expensive) speakers will give you more bass (to a point, remember you're still outdoors), but for the price ($104 from Amazon), these are hard to beat!
I was a little worried about the non-multidirectional mount that is included with the speakers as other reviewers have noted, but once they are up and I see how well the speakers perform, it really isn't a problem. I also found that my grills were solidly on the speakers -- maybe a slight redesign or better builds?
Its nice to know that Amazon itself is an authorized Polk dealer -- should warranty issues ever pop up. (Note, Not all of the 3rd Party buying choices from Amazon are authorized dealers, so be careful).
Customer Review: Very good clear sound
Summary: 5 Stars
These speakers are great with clear sound and plenty of power. I was concerned when the box arrived with a dent in one side. The damage was very minor with only one very tiny dent in one of the speaker grills which is easily repairable. No harm to the speaker itself. I installed them under the eves of my patio horizontally rather than vertically to be able to aim the music for the desired coverage. The mounting instructions said to mount the speakers down a little from the underside of the eves to reduce the bass effect so that's what I did and got a good balanced sound. The speakers are connected to a TEAC AG-790 amp using 16/4 speaker wire so I can choose which set I want to use (or both). My music source right now is only from a Delphi SkyFi2 XM satellite radio using a stereo docking adaptor. Good speakers, good sound. Teac AG-790 AM/FM Stereo ReceiverDelphi SA10101 SKYFi2 XM Satellite Radio Receiver and Remote ControlDelphi SA10103 SKYFi2 Home Adapter KitCustomer Review: Great outdoor speakers, awesome sound for the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought 5 pairs of these for various outdoor areas around my rambling house; the sound is just terrific, no complaints, and I'm pretty picky. Clear and crisp, even at a high volume. The design is nice, simple, quality; great connectors, sturdy brackets; was easy to attach them and wiring was a breeze.
I have read comments from others that the grilles come off too easily...owning 10 of these speakers, not a single one has had this problem; they fit securely if you put them on properly, so I guess maybe they were careless in not pushing them in firmly enough? Anyhow, I haven't experienced any problems with them.
Other than the good reviews on performance, I selected these because I could paint them to match my house. I painted all 10 speakers an oregano (dull green) color, using satin finish spray paint, and they blend in great with my house color now, and don't stand out like they would if they were white or black, which is terrific. The painting is a bit of a pain in the butt, because of needing to take things apart to do a professional job, but it was worth the trouble; they look great.