Polk Audio Monitor 50

[ZetaEpyon]

I've been wanting to upgrade my speakers for quite a while, and just saw in my email that Newegg has the Polk Audio Monitor 50 on sale for $89.99 per speaker, with free shipping. Does anyone have experience with this speaker? Online reviews seem generally positive, but it's always nice to get a little more personal experience if possible.

I also noticed that av123 will have b-stock x-sls towers available on April 30 for $199 per pair, plus shipping. Any ideas on how these would compare?

For reference, I'm currently using an old $40 pair of Sony bookshelf speakers and a $50 sub, hooked up to an older Pioneer 5.1 receiver. So I'm pretty sure that either of these is going to be a noticeable upgrade. Ideally, I'd like to go with something a little bit nicer, but these would fit my budget right now, as well as being more suitable for my current apartment.

 

[bobdole369]

Polk Audio is middle of the road and the monitor 50's are pretty consumer. It all depends on how much you wanna spend. If it sounds good to you - there ya go.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1072622

A quick link to an avsforum post where they are mentioned.

I would go with the av123 stuff in a heartbeat personally, but these are for your ears...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Based on the quality of my X-LS classics, I would not hesitate to recommend the X-SLS, especially if that's for the encore version. It should help to improve one of the few weak points of the X-series.

Do you know the condition of the b-stock X-SLS? Is it veneer cracking, or something very minor?

 

[Riverhound777]

The one I saw on their website said severe veneer cracking.

 

[ZetaEpyon]

The one I saw just said "Available April 30th", there weren't details listed for each pair, like usual. I imagine they'll probably add that stuff when they're available.

I think right now I'm leaning toward the X-SLS, unless the defects are pretty severe. Additionally, it's not the Encore version, though that could be had for $20 more. What were the weak points in the originals?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Here ya go

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/sp...23%20X-LS%20Review.zip (save and unzip)

 

[kalrith]

The Monitor 50 wouldn't be a bad choice for that price. That's about what I paid for my Polk R50 a few years ago. I really enjoy them, but I realize that they're around the low end for speakers.

 

[s44]

Don't buy from av123. They're in serious financial trouble (the ever-dropping prices are NOT a good sign), are probably technically insolvent, have screwed some formerly loyal customers and closed their forums so you can't complain. Especially don't buy anything that they can't ship out now, or that may give you any sort of trouble.

If and when they sort out their finances and reopen their forums, then go ahead and buy. At this point, it's a total crapshoot.