Polk Audio Monitor XT speakers give gamers and movie fans affordable Atmos

Polk Audio has unleashed a new Monitor XT range of speakers, giving various mix and match options for those who want to build their own hi-fi or home theater system, while still keeping things relatively affordable.

The Monitor XT Series comprises of the XT70 and XT60 floor-standing speakers, the XT30 center channel speaker (or alternatively the XT35 low-profile center speaker), and the XT20 and XT15 bookshelf speakers, with the XT12 subwoofer.

All the best soundbars of 2021
And check out the best Dolby Atmos speakers
How to set up the Hi-Fi system of your dreams

The range comes certified for Hi-Res Audio and Dolby Atmos, and in the latter case there’s also the option of buying dedicated height speakers (XT90) which can sit atop the floor-standers (or XT20 bookshelf speakers), or indeed they can just be placed on a shelf.

All these different speakers are timbre-matched, so you can buy whichever models you wish to put together into a system and be sure that the resulting overall sound will be consistent. In Polk’s words: “Matched components provide a unified sound field with seamless speaker-to-speaker blending for truly immersive listening experiences.”

Polk boasts that the Monitor XT speakers are good all-rounders and capable of enhancing the “experience of music, movies, TV and game sound”.

Effortless bass

The subwoofer is a 12-inch 100W powered model and it provides “powerful and effortless” bass, with the floor-standers also offering plenty of oomph in terms of their bass performance.

The loudspeakers benefit from Hi-Res Audio Certified Terylene dome tweeters, and these enable playback up to 40kHz – beyond the range of human ears – to give a clear and spacious sound, Polk notes.

The Monitor XT range comes in midnight black and the speakers are up on the Polk website now, although you can’t order just yet – but they are labeled as “coming soon”, so it shouldn’t be long now. Pricing runs as follows:

XT12 Subwoofer: £299 / $299 each
XT15 Bookshelf: £149 / $149 per pair
XT20 Bookshelf: £249 / $249 per pair
XT30 Center Channel: £169 / $149 each
XT35 Center Channel (low-profile): £199 / $249 each
XT60 Floor-standing Speaker: £349 / $398 per pair
XT70 Floor-standing Speaker: £499 / $598 per pair
XT90 Height Speaker: £179 / $149 per pair