“I like it as is,” Geoff said, “but if you added a subwoofer, it might be my top pick.” The rest of us agreed. There’s just not enough of it, perhaps because the upper mids and lower treble seem a little boosted. The downside of the RTiA1 is, well, the down side - i.e., the bass. This characteristic sometimes made the reverb in rock recordings sound exaggerated, though. 3,” he said, referring to the Music Hall Marimba, “but things like vocals and cymbals sound a little more forward.” I found the upper treble response to be the best in the bunch the RTiA1 reproduced the high-pitched glockenspiel in James Taylor’s live version of “Shower the People” clearly, a trick few tweeters can match. It made things like the guitar from the Mother Love Bone tune more fun to listen to.”

I thought Greg summed up the RTiA1 well when he noted that “it’s got a bit of an edge to it, but for a lot of the music I listen to that’s very appealing. No one would describe the RTiA1 as sounding dull.

The ported cabinet holds a 5.25-inch, polymer-composite cone woofer and a 1-inch, silk polymer-composite dome tweeter. I even double-checked the price, doubting that Polk could sell such a nice-looking speaker for less than $400 a pair, especially $325 a pair (or even less online). “Really?” I blurted out loud when I opened the RTiA1’s box to find a substantial, beautifully made minispeaker with curved sides and a higher level of fit’n’finish than that found on any of the other speakers in this group (the Monitor Bronze BX1 perhaps excepted).

Polk audio rti a1