The Best, For Less

RATINGS

Speakers

PERFORMANCE

BUILD QUALITY

VALUE

BACK IN 2019, Polk Audio rolled out its Legend series speakers. For a brand known to maintain a laser-like focus on value, the Legends, with their finely constructed cabinets (featuring real wood veneer) and fully redesigned driver complement, not to mention an enhanced version of the company’s SDA (Stereo Dimensional Array) technology in the line’s flagship L800 tower, seemed an atypically cost-no-object offering. Even so, this being Polk Audio, the Legend series was priced substantially less than flagship speakers from many other brands, but also more than a typical Polk customer might expect to pay.

Fast-forward two years and Polk Audio has rolled out its Reserve series, a follow-up to the Legends that incorporates the same advanced drivers developed for those flagship speakers, along with some new technologies developed to optimize performance in a less swanky cabinet design. According to Polk Audio, the main goal was to take everything good about the Legend series and port it over to a significantly lower-cost speaker line, making the advanced tech featured in its premium speakers accessible to listeners with more modest means.

The key components the Reserve series shares with the Legends are Polk Audio’s next-generation Pinnacle Ring Radiator tweeter and Turbine cone drivers. I covered both in my review of the Legend L800 towers (December 2019 January 2020 issue) but will provide a brief recap here. Unlike conventional dome tweeters, Polk Audio’s design uses