The new Reserve Series executes on Polk’s mission to create premium-quality speakers at accessible prices through the application of extensive research and development in advanced materials and acoustics.
"The Reserve Series use the same custom-made transducers originally developed for Polk’s award-winning Legend Series loudspeakers," says Frank Sterns, president of Polk Audio. "Featuring the proprietary Pinnacle Tweeter, Turbine Cone midrange and Polk’s latest bass-management and resonance control technologies — PowerPort and X-Port — the Reserve Series delivers against Polk Audio's signature quality sound at an approachable price," Sterns adds.
The Reserve Series is well suited for an array of applications, including immersive multi-channel home theater systems and classic stereo listening. The series consists of nine models, including three floorstanding models, three center channels, two bookshelf speakers and a wall-and speaker-mountable height module, all designed to give listeners flexibility in terms of configuration by incorporating matching transducers and consistent voicing. The center channel speakers are available in three sizes. The R300 center channel is designed to fit in most AV cabinets, while the R350 is only 5.5-inches tall, and is wall mountable so it can be used as left, right or center channel. For the first time, Polk is introducing a height module (R900), which can be placed on the top of the floorstanding speakers or wall mounted. The height module features a toggle switch, which tunes the speaker for the application, whether that be on-speaker or wall mounted.
"You’d be wrong to think the Reserve Series is just ‘Legend-lite’ though," explains Scott Orth, director of audio and acoustical systems at Polk Audio. "While Reserve does use the same transducers as Legend, it also features multiple new developments of its own, including a new patent-pending X-Port filter and advanced cabinet construction to minimize undesirable resonances. In return, you get a classic Polk Audio loudspeaker that is amazingly balanced, offers an expansive sound stage, detailed imaging, smooth mid-range and deep effortless bass."
Seeking to retain as much of the Polk Legend flagship performance as possible within a moderately priced package, Polk Audio engineers created rigid, internally braced cabinets while leveraging driver and port technologies from the Legend Series speakers to achieve breathtaking levels of balance and realism. With a focus on every aspect of performance from music playback and home theater systems, Polk used — and created — multiple advanced technologies for the Reserve Series.
Decades of tweeter innovation, design and prototyping led to the development of the new 1-inch, high-definition Pinnacle ring radiator tweeters. "Developed by Polk Audio, The Pinnacle tweeter features a finely tuned waveguide, which dramatically improves the dispersion of high frequency energy, ensuring a broad sweet spot, while the critically damped rear-chamber helps defeat unwanted resonances. This delivers ultra-clear, crisp highs without unwanted coloration or distortion. A Hi-Res certified driver, the Pinnacle Tweeter is designed for today’s two-channel music listening as well as multi-channel 3D audio found in music, movies, sports, and video games soundtracks," Polk explains.
The Turbine Cone Midrange cleverly combines Polk’s proprietary foam core driver design with molded Turbine geometry, which dramatically increases stiffness and damping without adding mass. "This results in a smooth, detailed midrange across the entire bandwidth of the driver—the frequency range to which human ears are most sensitive," the company adds.
The Reserve Series marks the debut of Polk Audio’s patent-pending X-Port technology, which uses a set of closed-pipe absorbers precisely tuned to eliminate unwanted cabinet and port resonances. X-Port incorporates a proprietary "Eigentone filter," designed by Scott Orth. This filter consists of a set of absorbers that are strategically tuned to catch and eliminate traditional speaker distortions found within ported speakers. X-Port is most beneficial to the lower mid-range, ensuring balanced, clean mid-bass for improved detail and dynamics, and the technology is found on all vented models in the Reserve Series.
Power Port 2.0, found in the R600 and R700 tower models, is a Polk-patented loudspeaker port application that enables bass frequencies to extend more deeply and at higher output levels than traditional ported speakers. The Power Port 2.0 combines the new X-Port and Enhanced Power Port design into a unique loudspeaker application. The port tube base was redesigned in aluminum and sits closer to the floor than previous Power Port designs for added performance characteristics and aesthetics.
The R700 tower speaker model features advanced point-to-point bracing with new Cabinet Resonance Control technology (CRC) that eliminates panel resonances for enhanced detail and clarity.
Prices for the new speaker series are as follows:
- R100 Bookshelf - $599/pair
- R200 Bookshelf - $699/pair
- R300 Center Channel - $399
- R350 Center Channel (slim) - $549
- R400 Center Channel - $599
- R500 Tower - $599 each
- R600 Tower - $799 each
- R700 Tower - $999 each
- R900 Height Module - $599/pair
The Polk Audio Reserve Series was designed and engineered in the USA under strict standards for quality and includes a 5-year warranty standard. The Polk Reserve Series is now available on www.polkaudio.com/reserve and at select specialty audio/video dealers and custom integrators worldwide.
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