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I’m somewhat of a fiend when it comes to speakers. I see a pair that looks interesting or that has attracted some buzz, and I want to test them out myself. A while ago Polk Audio introduced their first multimedia speaker systems, and these were really good looking systems that I wanted to try straight away. Well I never got a chance to try those speakers first hand, though now I have the chance to try one of the newest additions to Polk Audio’s lineup. The AMR90 is a brand new 4.1 surround system that costs just a hair above $100.

A Profile Shot of the AMR90 & A Closeup of the Surround Satellite

What drew me to the original Polk multimedia speakers was their amazingly fresh looking design. The subwoofer was a cylindrical affair that looked like a work of art – an aesthetically functional unit. With the AMR90, Polk aims more at maximizing sound quality and minimizing cost, so the speakers have lost some of their aesthetic edge.

The entire set is quite complete, even to the point of including brackets for wall mounting the rear speakers. Each of the 4 small satellites house a 2” driver, while a 4” woofer can be found in the relatively compact rear-ported subwoofer. You can see from the photos that the subwoofer design is altogether very “normal”, and doesn’t have the flair of the older Polk systems. The satellites also are of considerably different design. One of the cost savings measures is in the construction of the speakers… plastic enclosures abound. That means that the satellites are all in plastic enclosures, though at least the majority of the subwoofer is made with MDF (medium density fibre) wood. While purists will always prefer wood enclosures (especially for the subwoofer), speakers have in the past achieved excellence with plastic materials, and Polk aims to do so as well.

An interesting design feature of the satellites is the minuscule rear facing ports. In my experience, most multimedia satellites do not use any sort of porting design. In fact, only larger speakers usually make use of a port to deepen and solidify their lower frequency response. These ports at the back of the AMR satellites are pretty cool in that they actually ARE exhausting a significant amount of air when the speakers are in use. When I tried some basic AB comparisons with the satellite ports plugged and unplugged, it was fairly obvious that the ports did actually change the frequency response of the entire speaker set. The midrange did indeed have a fair amount of added boost.