Product Description

Enhance the sound in your home with a set of 100-watt in-wall loud speakers from Polk. Each of these speakers contains one Dynamic Balance 8'' mid-bass driver and one 1M-^T' soft dome tweeter, which blend to create great sound whether you're watching a movie or listening to your favorite band. To make them really disappear, just paint over them to match any decor in your home. Note: Priced as pair.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7 in Speakers
• Size: 8 Inch
• Color: White
• Brand: Polk Audio
• Model: AW0080-B
• Number of items: 2
• Dimensions: 10.31 pounds

Features

• Pair of 2-way in-ceiling/in-wall speakers timbre-matched to the Polk Audio RTi Series for seamless imaging
• Equipped with one 8-inch dynamic-balance, mineral filled polymer-composite cone
• Frequency response: 35Hz - 20kHz
• Equipped with one 1-inch dynamic-balance, metalized soft dome tweeter with 15-degree-swivel mount
• Constructed of durable, moisture-resistant materials for use in bathrooms, saunas, or under outdoor eaves

From the Manufacturer
The Polk Audio RC80i 2-way In-ceiling Speaker delivers incredible stereo sound to any room in your home from speakers you can barely see, without using any floor or shelf space. The RC80i is easy to install, requiring only that you cut a hole, feed the wires through, and simply drop the speaker in where it is held in place by rotating cams that safely secure the speaker with no extra assembly or mess. Once installed, the paintable grille and flange allows this in-ceiling speaker to virtually disappear in the room.

The Polk RC80i utilizes a eight-inch dynamic-balance, mineral filled polymer-composite cone with a rubber surround that outlasts cheaper foam surrounds, as well as a one-inch ring-radiator tweeter with a 15-degree swivel mount. The swivel-mounted tweeter is aimable for direct high frequency control that ensures spacious imaging with amazing clarity, and well-balanced sound in any listening position, even off-axis listening positions, rather than in just a small sweet spot. Constructed of rust resistant hardware and durable, moisture resistant materials, the RC80i is safe for use in bathrooms, kitchens, saunas, or even under outdoor eaves, and a glass-filled composite baffle that provides a dense, acoustically inert platform for the speaker's high end components. This unit features strong composite driver baskets that keep moving parts in rigid alignment, a wide-dispersion design for even sound-coverage throughout even large rooms, and a wall-distance toggle switch that flattens frequency response when installation requires placement near a corner or adjacent wall. The RC80i also features a tweeter-level switch that lets you tailor the highs for your room acoustics, and is timbre-matched to the Polk Audio Monitor Series for seamless, enveloping imaging when used in a home theater system.

What's in the Box
RC80i speakers (pair), 2 grilles, 2 cardboard templates with paint masks, owner's manual, and registration card.

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Customer Reviews

Fantastic speakers
These speakers are great. Installation was much easier because the large, 8" opening you cut into the wall/ceiling makes it much easier to fish speaker wire. The mounting brackets securely fasten to the wall so there is no shaking or rattling. The tweeter can easily pivot to aim at your listening position. These are voice matched to the Polk "Monitor" series speakers, so match with any other RC series in-wall speaker, CS1 or CS2 center channel speaker, and PSW10 or PSW12 subwoofer.

My only 2 complaints, which were not enough to drop the rating, are:
1) The speaker cutout template turned out to be a tad small, and I had to go around with a keyhole saw again to make it 1/8" larger to fit the speaker all the way. That made it a little messier, but it ended up fine.
2) The speaker grill is pretty hard to remove, but you only have to do that once, and you want it to fit snugly anyways.

Just remember what you're buying
I purchased 4 of the RC80i for surround sound in my living room, lefts and rights for both front and back speakers. My rationale in purchasing in-ceiling speakers was the desire not to have a room filled with visible speakers. The mounting was very easy. Just cut the holes via the template and slide them in. The grilles fit snug and I'm sure will be a challenge if I ever have to remove them. The directional tweeter design is great and a must with in-ceiling speakers. Unfortunately, I was hoping for a little better fidelity. The speakers lack the high frequencies. They're good when listening to movies but you can hear the difference when listening to music. I set my expectations too high and have to remind myself of the price.

Fantastic speakers; easy installation
I installed a pair of these in the kitchen, after which my wife and I both had one of those mouth-open, "wow" experiences. They flood the room with deep, rich sound: crips highs and full, round lows. You can angle the tweeters to "aim" them better, but I didn't want one particular sweet spot in the kitchen, so I left them pointing directly downwards. Awesome.

The installation is quite easy as well. I found that with a carefully cut hole I had no problems at all with speaker insertion. As with the other reviews, I had a devil of a time getting the speaker grilles off, and was afraid I might pull out one of the tiny holes with the paperclip. Polk would do better to package these with the grilles off so that the installer can skip that step. However, I found that putting them back on was easy - you just have to make sure you put them back on with an even insertion on all edges and then work your way around little by little...you can't fully insert them on one end and make the rest fit, they are that tight.

Bottom line: I love these and highly recommend them.

......................................................................................................................................Last update : 2010-02-09 07:00:05