3DsoundSurge Reviews: Polk Audio AMR-150 - Page 1 of 9

Important Info:

Speakers By : Polk Audio
Price : $159.95 MSLP
Power Output: (57 watts RMS total)
Subwoofer: 25 watts RMS
Satellites: 8 watts RMS x 4
Frequency Response: 38Hz - 22kHz

Minimum/Recommended System Requirements

Sound card or other audio device with 4 analog channel outputs, 4 channel digital outputs or combination. A soundcard with digital (S/PDIF) outputs is preferred.

Reviewer PC:

Mark
- Win98
- Celeron 333a o/c 416
- 128MB PC100 ram
- Creative TNT
- Creative Voodoo Blaster 12 M
- 6.1 and 13 GIG EIDE HD
- For headphones comparison testing I used a set of Sennheiser HD525s headphones. For sound card testing I used the following cards. A Sound Blaster Live, Sound Blaster Live 5.1, Hercules Game Theater XP, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Siren Audio 5.1, Philips Acoustic Edge and Digital Audio Labs Card Deluxe were used for testing. All my testing was done in Windows 98 on a BX motherboard.

Specifications

Driver Complement: Satellites

Fronts

Midrange - 1 - 3" (7.62cm) Magnetically shielded
Tweeter - 1 - 1/2" (1.27cm) Polycarbonate dome

Surround Speakers

Fullrange - 1 - 3" (7.62cm)

Subwoofer

Subwoofer - 1 - 4" (10.16cm) Long throw woofer, shielded

Enclosure Types:

Satellites - Sealed
Subwoofer - Vented, Power Port

System Specs:

Frequency response 38 Hz– 22 kHz
Input sensitivity for maximum output (volts) 0.05
S/ N ratio >90dB
Max SPL @ 0.5 m 106dB

Inputs

Two (front and rear) S/PDIF coaxial digital inputs.
Two analog (front and rear) three conductor mini (3mm) jacks

Cabinet Size:

Fronts - 10-1/4" H x 5-1/4" W x 4-3/8" D
( 26.035cm H x 13.335cm W x 11.1125cm D )
Surround -10-1/4" H x 5-1/4" W x 4-3/8" D
( 26.035cm H x 13.335cm W x 11.1125cm D )
Subwoofer - 8" H x 6-1/4" W x 10-3/8" D
( 20.32cm H x 15.875cm W x 26.3525cm D )

Accessories (comes with):

All necessary connector cables supplied for both analog and digital inputs.

Speaker Warranty - 1 Year Parts and Labor, limited

Subwoofer Amplifier Warranty - 1 Year Parts and Labor, limited

Power Amplifier Specs

Channels: 5
Continuous Average Output (all channels driven): 57 Watts
Dynamic Power (all channels driven): 114 Watts

Power Requirements - 120V AC, 60Hz

* Prices reflect manufacturer's US and Canadian suggested retail prices. Prices outside the United States and Canada will vary due to currencies, exchange rates, import tariffs and taxes, value added taxes and shipping and handling costs and at this time the unit is only available in a 120 volt configuration. Please contact your local distributor (see the Polk Audio web site) or accurate local prices. Retailers are free to establish their own selling prices.

In 1972, Matthew Polk and his friend George Klopfer were graduates of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. They shared a love of music and high-end audio gadgetry, and were both of a certain scientific bent. So that year they set out to build loudspeakers by applying scientific design principles to speaker construction. The small start-up soon found success by focusing on home loudspeakers with an emphasis on quality and affordability. Today, Polk Audio is one of the world's most successful brands of high quality home, car and multimedia loudspeakers.

It’s of course their multimedia line that we are most interested in and in this review we are going to take a close look at the affordably priced ($159.95) 4.1 system called the AMR-150. This 57 watt RMS system brings something quite unique to the mid priced market - a tweeter to the front left and right satellites. Another interesting but not unique feature is the presence of a Digital DIN input compatible with the Live cards digital outputs or similar. In this review we will take a close look at the AMR-150 to see how it stacks up against systems such as the BA4800 from Boston Acoustics and the Xtrusio DSR-100 from Logitech.

This will be the first speaker review where we offer two versions. For those looking for a shorter read, we are offering a condensed version that is less than half the length of our typical detailed review. For those looking to see more of the raw information that we base our conclusions on, we continue to offer the full detailed review text.