This is an overview of the Polk Reserve speakers for home audio and home theater. When Matthew Polk introduced the Polk Monitor 10 to the world in 1972, he really shook things up with the amount of performance it offered for the money. Matthew and his engineering team had taken everything they had learned from making some pretty serious speakers designed for large live concerts and they put it into a new home speaker that went on to become one of the best-selling speakers of all time.
In 2019, Polk set out to produce a line of speakers called their Legend series that paid homage to those original classic Polk speakers from the ’70s and ’80s. Polk developed a new tweeter, midrange/woofer cone material, and a new bass port for the new Legend series.
The Reserve series makes us think back to those early Polk 10’s in that Polk is putting almost all of the tech they engineered for the Legend speakers into the Reserve at a much lower price point. Reserve replaces the very popular RTiA line that was introduced in 2007. The Reserve lineup has about as much trickle-down technology as we have ever seen from a speaker manufacturer. They are quite the value for the money offering music and home theater enthusiasts a great selection of very affordable speakers that perform way beyond their cost.
You’ll be able to put together many different combinations of perfectly matched home theater speaker systems with Reserve. There are three towers, two bookshelf models, two center channels, an on-wall model, and a set of flexible Atmos speakers that can be placed either on top of the speakers or mounted on the wall.
Because they share so much technology, we will first go over what is common to them all, then get into the differences you’ll find as you go from model to model.
Pinnacle Ring Radiator Tweeter
When Polk first hit the scene in 1972, people loved the pure sound of their tweeter. Polk developed this tweeter for the much more expensive Legend series, and now every single model in the Reserve speaker series has this tweeter!
They came up with a finely tuned waveguide that improves dispersion which gives you a broader sweet spot. This new 1” tweeter also has damping in the rear chamber to help defeat any resonances. These tweeters are capable of extending way beyond the range of human hearing with clear highs and no coloration or distortion. We’ve seen a similar radiator on much more expensive speakers and it's pretty neat to see it on speakers that start out as low as the Reserve Series does. This is a good example of how these speakers offer a lot of tech for the money.
Turbine Cone
When Polk engineered the Legend series they took a material commonly used in midrange drivers and changed its characteristics to make it stiffer and better damped without adding any mass. They take a polypropylene foam core material and use injection molding to produce its turbine appearance. The result is an effortless midrange sound that is very sweet. And yes, believe it or not, this exact same tech from the Legend series is in all of the Reserve models as well!
X-Port
It seems like every great speaker manufacturer these days is working on how to make a ported speaker perform better. Originally, ports started out just as short tubes in a speaker to allow air to escape, which, in most cases, also improved sensitivity and deep bass response. The drawback to ported designs is they can color the midrange.
You’ll find the X-Port on most all of the bookshelf and tower Reserve models and the bigger center channel. Polk uses a patented design of closed pipe absorbers designed to reduce resonances in the 500-800 Hz range. This lets them have the benefit of a port for more bass impact with reduced midrange colorations.
Cabinet Construction
All of the Reserve models have very well braced cabinets with cross members to improve rigidity. In a move you normally see only in much more expensive speakers, where there are midrange drivers independent of the woofers, they even put the midrange in its own internal enclosure.
The really great thing about the tech the models share is you can put together many different perfectly matched home theater combinations. With them all using the same tweeter and just different sized versions of the Turbine driver, you can’t get much better than that for matching things up.
Now let’s take a look at the individual models.
This is the entry bookshelf speaker using the Pinnacle Ring Radiator Tweeter and a 5 ¼” Turbine cone bass driver. These are relatively small, being about 13” tall and 6 ½” wide. They do have the X-Port on the rear, so you will want them to be a little bit away from the back wall. Interestingly, they still have a key-hole slot to hang them on a wall. We think you would only want to do this where they were used with a subwoofer and crossed over pretty high to prevent the wall from blocking the port. But this would be a great application to hang them on the sidewalls for your primary surround speakers.
Being small in size, they throw out a really nice three-dimensional image, especially if you place them on stands and spend some time setting them up. These could be used as your main speakers in a nice stereo set up, or for surround speakers in a home theater configuration.
They are the only model that is not wide enough to accommodate the Reserve Atmos speaker, so bear that in mind when thinking about a full surround sound setup.
We do wish they were set up for bi-wiring as many speakers in a similar range offer this. From what we can tell, Polk opted to put the much more expensive driver tech from the Legend series into this. If you don’t plan to bi-wire this is a great trade-off in our opinion.
Polk Audio Reserve R100 Bookshelf Speakers - Pair
The top of the series bookshelf moves up to a 6 ½” Turbine driver. These are a bit larger at 14” tall and 7 ½ wide, with a big jump in the depth at 14” deep. They too have the rear-mounted port.
The much bigger cabinet and larger driver enable these to reach down further into the lower end and start to sound more like a small tower speaker. The specs only show a 7 Hz improvement in the low end, but to our ears, these sound much punchier in the bottom end.
We like the fact these are large enough to accommodate the Reserve Atmos speakers, so you could use these on a stand with a subwoofer as your main front speakers in a Dolby Atmos-based system. Also, if you have the depth, for only $100 more a pair, we would recommend them for surrounds as well with the deeper impact ability.
Polk Audio Reserve R200 Bookshelf Speakers - Pair
This is the first model of three in the towers of the Reserve series. Like all of them, it uses the Pinnacle Ring Radiator tweeter with dual 5 ¼” woofers. They stand 41” tall, about 10” wide, and about 14” deep.
Like all of the towers, they have a pretty neat outrigger stand that adds stability. The stands are also well thought out in that you can use either spikes for carpet or rubber pods for hard surfaces. These have a rear-firing X-Port.
Our opinion on these is unless you cannot accommodate bookshelf speakers on a stand (which can be a bad idea if small children or large pets are part of your household) you can save some money and use the R200’s with a subwoofer. These only go 2 Hz deeper than the R200 and cost almost twice as much. Take the difference and put the Atmos height speakers on top of the R200’s.
Polk Audio Reserve R500 Floorstanding Speaker - Each
Now we start to get into some tower models that make the most sense. These have a totally different bass port technology for tighter and more impactful deep bass.
The R600 uses two of the 6 ½” Turbine woofers with the same tweeter all the speakers share. These have very good bass response with a 3 dB down point of 43 Hz. They are only slightly larger than the R500, yet produce a bigger, fuller sound.
These add what Polk calls their Power Port. This is where the X-Port works in conjunction with the stand that has a tapered section that sits right under the X-Port. We think this is a pretty cool idea since the outrigger stand provides the taper that sits at a fixed distance below the speaker.
We found this to add a level of flexibility in the setup as you do not have to worry about how the rear-firing port interacts with the back wall. Although you still want to follow the same general rules as for all tower speakers and keep them away from room boundaries if you can.
This model packs a lot of punch with a big soundstage for the money.
Polk Audio Reserve R600 Floorstanding Speaker - Each
The R700 is the only tower that is a true three-way design. As you might have guessed, it has the same tweeter as all the others, but with a 6 ½” Turbine cone midrange coupled with dual 8” polypropylene woofers.
The cabinet on these is 45” tall, 12 ½” wide, and almost 17” deep. And they are quite stout, weighing in at 79 pounds each!
The internal cabinet on the R700 has a separate enclosure for the midrange driver and lots of nonparallel internal bracing Polk calls CRC or Column Resonance Control. At Audio Advice, we are big fans of great internal bracing, and we have to say the amount in here for a speaker under $2000 a pair is pretty darn impressive!
The R700 is also the one model in the line that offers speaker bi-wiring connections, which we appreciate.
These have a big powerful sound. Even though these are the most expensive models, we feel like they offer the best value by far. The R700 is one heck of a lot of speaker for the price!
Polk Audio Reserve R700 Premium Stereo Floorstanding Speaker - Each
Now let’s look at the other speakers you can use for a complete home theater setup.
This is the first of three center channel options. The R300 has the same tweeter with dual 5 ¼” Turbine cone drivers. It is a relatively small sealed cabinet, so it lends itself well to fitting inside many of the AV cabinets that have a space cut out for a center channel.
The R300 will match well with any of the models, although for only $200 more, we do recommend the R400 if you have space. The center channel is the most important speaker in your home theater system and we feel the R400 performs better on voice.
Polk Audio Reserve R300 Compact Center Channel Speaker
As we said, this one is much bigger with dual 6 ½” Turbine cone bass drivers with the same Pinnacle Ring Radiator tweeter. It uses a rear-firing X-Port so you will need to have it a bit away from a rear wall or surface, making it better suited to sit on top of your AV cabinet under your TV.
The R400 reaches much deeper into the bass than the R300 giving center channel special effects more impact and to our ears just sounds more effortless producing voices as well.
We feel this is the way to go for a center in the Reserve series.
Polk Audio Reserve R400 Center Channel Speaker
LCR speakers are usually designed to be slim in height so they can slide under a TV easily. The R350 has four 4” Turbine cone drivers. Two are used for the midrange and two for the bass. The cabinet is only 5 ½” tall, 30” long, and about 7 ½” deep. It is a sealed enclosure giving it more flexibility in placement. It also has a keyhole slot for wall mounting. In that application, you could use two on either side of your TV and one below it. Or if you were pressed for depth on your surround speakers, these could be wall-mounted for surround speakers. However, using a pair of the R100’s will set you back a lot less for surrounds!
Polk Audio Reserve R350 Slim Center Channel LCR Speaker
This is one of our favorite speakers in the Reserve line. At Audio Advice, we love Dolby Atmos and these allow you to easily add Atmos to your reserve system.
The R900 is angled and designed to sit on top of any of the towers or the R200 bookshelf. It uses a ¾” version of the Pinnacle Ring Radiator tweeter with a 4” Turbine cone bass driver.
And it gets better as not only can these be placed on top of most of the models, they have a keyhole mount that allows you to hang them on a wall for use as a surround or rear speaker.
For under $500 a pair, these are a great way to add the fun of Dolby Atmos.
Polk Audio Reserve R900 Dolby Atmos Elevation Surround Speakers - Pair
In listening to these, we believe they are a great choice for music lovers who want a good product in this price range but don’t want to pay for bells and whistles that they won’t use. As we mentioned, these speakers don’t allow for bi-wiring, but in this price range, we think Polk’s strategy of putting every dollar into performance is the right choice. The one thing about all of these we do need to point out is the need for some decent power. None of the models are particularly sensitive and you will be best off for any of them if you can use a home theater receiver or stereo amp that has good current capabilities. Then they will really come to life!
Polk Audio Reserve R100 Bookshelf Speakers - Pair
Polk Audio Reserve R200 Bookshelf Speakers - Pair
Polk Audio Reserve R500 Floorstanding Speaker - Each
Polk Audio Reserve R600 Floorstanding Speaker - Each
Polk Audio Reserve R700 Premium Stereo Floorstanding Speaker - Each
Polk Audio Reserve R400 Center Channel Speaker
Polk Audio Reserve R300 Compact Center Channel Speaker
Polk Audio Reserve R350 Slim Center Channel LCR Speaker
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