Polk Audio - Monitor XT20 Bookshelf Speaker Pair - Midnight Black

I purchased a pair of Polk Monitor XT-20 speakers along with a Sony STR-DH590 Receiver for my home office. I will admit that I own a pair of Polk T15 bookshelf speakers, which honestly are terrible. I decided to give Polk another chance when the XT-20 went on sale. I wanted a basic two-channel speaker setup. I was initially concerned because the Polk instruction manual says the impedance of the XT-20 is 4 ohms. The Monitor XT product PDF from the Polk website says, “Compatible with 4- and 8-ohm outputs.” The STR-DH590 receiver manual says the minimum speaker impedance is 6 ohms. Bottom line, the XT-20s work great with this model Sony receiver. The DH590 is plenty powerful, and I don’t see any signs of overheating. The build quality of the XT-20 speakers is good. In terms of size, they are somewhat large, kind of deep for a bookshelf speaker. They just fit on my desk with not much room to spare. They are plain and boxy looking. I do like the removable charcoal cloth Polk grill though. That adds a touch of sophistication. Thanks to the 6.5” woofer, these speakers pump out some serious bass! I personally found that boosting the mids/treble help balance out the bass, and greatly improve the sound clarity, especially of vocals. On my Sony receiver, Music “Enhancer” sound mode was exactly what these speakers needed to accomplish the required equalization. The XT-20 is more than happy to fill the room with a satisfyingly thunderous, symphony-like sound when you crank up the volume. They are perhaps not as well rounded as my Sony Core bookshelf speakers, but the Polks pump put out superior bass and are happier to blow your hair back when you want to turn up the volume. Did Polk redeem themselves with the XT-20? Yes! The XT-20 is a huge improvement over the flat, lifeless T15. I’m really impressed with the Polk Monitor XT-20. It is good choice if you want a powerful bookshelf speaker with a deep, rich sound.

Wanted to upgrade the speakers used with my turntable setup, and room size limits me to bookshelf size. I think a few folks that reviewed may have either not noticed these are 4 ohms or were unsure of the significance of that, understandable when most speakers sold are 8 ohms and it's a bit of a rabbit hole to go down trying to figure out the difference and impact. Short version is, there's no technical reason you can't connect 4 ohm speakers to any modern amp/avr...BUT...results may vary. These have a frequency response that goes down to 38hz, not an easy find for a bookshelf speaker. So I bought these knowing that my Onkyo 7.2 avr might have issues with them even though it worked great for annoying the neighbors driving the more traditional 8 ohm speakers. When I first hooked them up, yes, vast improvement. But I really had to crank it up higher than I was used to to get decent output. And once I got the output I was hoping for, you could cook food if you put a griddle on top of my avr. After a while the sound started distorting as it heated up and I had to lower the volume. If you look in the manual for the average avr you will probably see it can support speakers with an impedance lower than 8 ohms, but will include a * that it's only for driving 2 speakers, so suround sound enthusiasts need to do their homework. To truly hear the benefits of these Polks they require good sustenance. This was actually the predicament I was hoping for, so I bought the Marantz nr1200, also from Best Buy. It ain't cheap and it's only a stereo avr with subwoofer support, not surround, and was more than my Onkyo 7.2. After swapping the avr there aren't enough words to express how amazing these speakers are. I have a subwoofer attached but the bass response on these is so good for their size I'm not sure it's even necessary. Highly recommend these, absolutely amazing for the price and size, but, if you're getting these to replace 8 ohm speakers you need to leave open the possibility that further upgrades to your audio system may be needed before you can truly appreciate them.

What a great pair of speaker from Polk for around $200 - an amazing deal. I connected them to an old Denon DRA-397 2x80W receiver and the sound is awesome. The highs and middles are very clear and the XT20s punch such a decent bass that I don't plan of even adding a sub. They are loud enough to fill up a large living room with a clear sound even at high volume. I'm sure they will sound even better if I get a better amp and equalizer but I'm happy with the current setup. The XT20 replaced a Bose CineMate II 2.1 system and the sound improvement is very very noticeable. The movies dialogue is so much clearer with the Polk speakers. For music the difference is even more striking, especially listening to jazz. The Bose CineMate was just horrible at everything, I should have gotten rid of it long time ago. I highly recommend the XT20s! Thank you Polk for the great product!

Love these speakers! I have them running off a Sony strdh590. They have plenty of bass for a small bookshelf speaker and nice sparkling highs. Midrange isn’t bad either.

Really nice set at the sale price! Rich low end and more than decent highs. Can take a lot of power without breaking up and are perfect for a medium sized room. Using for music in a spare room. Bass is good enough that I do not really need a sub at all.