Installed the Polks last summer and loved the sound, a little muted on the highs but great bass and you could feel it in your chest on the highway. One of them just stopped working late last fall. Tweeter works fine, woofer cuts in and out if I bang on the magnet?! Bought online so no warranty....

The original pre-amp Hertz Dieci's for now but they just don't cut it in the bass dept. Super clear highs, much more so than the polks but no bass.

Stopped at the local audio shop to see what they had for components. Listened to some Hertz Energies and Phoenix Gold TI2's. The Hertz sounded great but maybe a bit too piercing with the highs. He cut me a great deal on the Phoenix gold's, with the added bonus of being able to swap them out when I get them installed for something else if I don't like the sound.

Will have to see for myself, I used Phoenix Gold stuff back in the day (20 years ago) when it was high end, along with PPI etc...

Supposedly they're back in the high end market now. Had my choice the Energy's or the PG Ti2's. ti2's had a polymer woofer compared to the paper cone on the Energies.

Now waiting for 2 of the Electra glide gague blanks to mangle.

 

which polks sir?

 

Ti265CS - great.. another speaker with no specs in the owner's manual or on the PG website.. just what we all need...

What you haven't bothered to share with anyone is what amp you're running and what specific model of Polk speakers failed on you. Being that you went with these PG speakers, I can only assume you're referring to the DB series speakers which aren't rated to handle a lot of power or distortion for that matter.

I agree with you partially as I used PG stuff many years ago too, but it was mostly high output alternators for high current systems and other electrical accessories that they were good at designing and producing back then. Any of the amps I put in back then whether for subs, coax, or components usually came back for warranty replacement or simply wanted something better.

This kind of stuff gets under my skin as you can tell because the whole story doesn't get told up front, just the thrashing of a product. AND it just happened to a good friend of mine just as it happens to many others. He's heard my bike and a couple of other bikes I've done in the 4 speaker polk MM651 configuration with the SS amp and he was blown away. A week later he meets some guy out riding that owns a car stereo shop on the other side of town, has a few beers and next thing I know he's calling me from the CS shop to tell me what he just bought because it sounded amazing and all I could say in disbelief was man that's great, hope you're happy with it on your bike. What he didn't realize (and I didn't bother to share with him at this point) is I can take a $40 amp and make any decent speaker sound great on the showroom floor of a CS shop because the display cabinets are tuned for certain speaker combinations. So in the end, he calls me after getting this guy to install it for him and says man it don't sound anything like yours does. All I could tell him at that point was pull it out and sell it and we'll put a real setup on your ride in a joking manner but he knew I was serious.

You want to hear what speakers sound like on a bike, you put them on a bike. Listening to something on a showroom floor ain't gonna tell you squat. Sorry for the rant here and hope you're happy with them and I sure would love to see you come back after they're all installed and let us know what you think.

 

Beav

 

Woah there silver..

I was running the MM 651's with the RF 300x4. While the amp may not be rated to handle the 2.7 ohm load the speakers sure as hell should have been able to. Again, I don't discount that the speakers sounded decent. The fact that I've read multiple other reviews on people that have had the exact same problem. Driver just quits. I'd have gone with the polks again but I'm not paying msrp to get the warranty these speakers obviously need and not taking the risk of having one quit on me again.

It's my understanding that the Phoenix Gold Ti2 line was shown at CES this year. I preferred the sound of the silk dome tweeter over the metal tweeter of the hertz.

When it comes to the enclosure at the store, hell yes you can't compare. I know these cabinets are not tuned for each speaker. They're all the same. So comparing apples to apples with a 100w amp the Phoenix Golds won. The crossover components in the phonix golds weigh as much as one of the MM651 speakers. Clear cover, massive coils.. Looks like great quality.

If I don't like them I can return them. That's why I went local over the discount online store.

I'll post a review when done. These are 300.00 speakers at the store, I paid 200.

-- Edit--- I purchased a new 300x2 online to replace what I thought was a blown amp from overdriving the polks. So I now have that amp installed not the 300x4.

 

and there we have it.. the rest of the story... mismatched speaker and amp combo.

What did you honestly expect to happen sir? That PBR300x4 is a terrible amp to begin with running at a 4 ohm load where it's spec'd to be stable, then you inject a 2.7 ohm load into the mix and it just won't perform. You wind up with less undistorted power either way you go, whether up or down. It is crucial that you match speakers to the amp and match the amp to the source (via the gains) to get optimum performance from the amp/speaker combination. Distortion, among other things kill speakers and that my friend is what killed your Polks. These boosted rail RF amps are not the same as the old school RF amps where they're stated to be 4 ohm stable yet will handle a load down to a 1/2 ohm with proper current/voltage running to them.

I built some of the cabinets for American International so yes they are tuned. There are dummy plates that go inside of each cabinet to closely match (as possible) the thiele small parameters of the speaker being put into it.

You weren't overdriving the polks, you were under-powering them and over-distorting them.

 

You're not listening.. The Cabinets are tuned for 6.5" speakers. Each of them was in the same size enclosure. Back to back the speakers I chose sounded better. All I'm saying.

It will be interesting to see all of the failed Polk driver threads at the end of the summer.

 

you won't sir and I'll tell you why.. These folks here seek and are given good solid advice (on many different products) from someone who did this for years and someone who has tested MANY a different setups including speakers, amps, and aftermarket head units from various manufacturers ON A BIKE. And there are a few others here that contribute that really know their stuff as well.

Matching components is the key to this audio game whether it be a motorcycle or a car. match your components and set your system up right and you'll be happy, it's SIMPLE!

The system(s) that I recommend are not like your initial system in being put together in a slap-hazard manner without research and then come here voicing your uneducated opinions about how it didn't work as expected by you. What you initially bought and installed as for speakers are a top-line product. The way you abuse them by slapping them on that POS 4 ohm amplifier that isn't designed to be run with these 2.7 ohm speakers in the first place can only have 1 ending sir and you've experienced that.

I'm not knocking your choice of equipment you're replacing this with. What I'm irritated about is the choice of yours to post this here to begin with.

 

Just stating the facts.. Speaker died.. I'm replacing it.

 

I have had my polk mm561 speakers for over 3 years. Matched to a 2ohm wet sounds amp. They sound great no better speaker, unless you spend a lot more money.