Polk Audio T15 Bookshelf Speakers, Pair, Black Review

I picked up a pair of these from BB a couple years back. The reason was because I was in a hurry to have a set of speakers for my new SMSL SA50 mini amp that I wanted to use on a covered patio, where I didn't need outdoor speakers. They were $100 and I grabbed two more pairs when they were on sale at $50.

I like front ported speakers, because that's the style that I'm used to using in the recording studios that I work in. Front porting reduces the wall reflection that you get from rear ports because of the physical distance and will typically bring you a flatter sound, but won't extend the bass frequencies the way that rear ports are able to. But I use a sub to do that, so it's not important to me. For my original use on a patio, there was no wall anyway for rear ports to work with.

This Is What They Are

MDF cabinets measuring 6.5 x 10.6 x 7.2 inches deep. These are covered with wood look vinyl in black. There is corner bracing and the MDF is half inch thick on the back, where I measured. They also have a sheet of acoustical foam inside, to cut down on the higher frequencies from the port. There is a keyhole for wall hanging and the grilles are removable.

These have a 5.25 and .75 inch speakers on a simple 2 way x-over that's undoubtedly 2nd order. They claim a Fr of 60 - 24kHz which I believe must be at +/- 10dB, or about the same importance as a used car with a rolled back odometer. 100 - 18kHz at +/- 3dB is likely closer to the truth. A rated sensitivity of 89dB and 100 watts input, they are 8 ohm speakers from the 5 way binding posts.

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How Do They Sound?

This will depend so much on what you were listening to most recently to compare them with, and what you are now and were playing for music. But I'm paid to be objective and I normally listen to studio monitors, so here's what I think.

Even at $100, I think they sound like a good value and that goes up as the price decreases. Sonically they aren't bad, or good, but this speaker design and dimensions have been around for at least 30 years and the components used aren't the cheapest offered. Even the simple two way x-over is better than merely using a cap on the tweeter like some do.

They are not as bright and present as I would like and I removed the grills, which helped so little that I still want to remove more grilles. I guess that I wish that that tweeter had more sound from it.

Right now, I'm listening to two pairs stacked, with the top one upside down, putting both tweeters in the middle and at ear level. Today these are being used with a sub and fed power from a SMSL Mini 5 . The amp is fed from a BBE 282 Sonic Maximizer, from a USB DAC and I'm using .wav files.

Do I recommend them? Absolutely, they have their place in the world of audio, and they are much better than probably 75% of the speakers out there, when including what comes with a box of brand X surround sound system. I have mine out in the garage and they are are fine for casual listening.

I often turn this system on after listening to studio monitors and I can still like it.

They are value speakers, and their good value moves towards great the closer that you get to $50 a pair.

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