Name: Polk Audio TL3 Center Channel Speaker, 115-28000Hz, Single, Black
Brand: Polk Audio
SKU: PKAAM3365A
Price: 119.99 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)

Polk Audio TL3 Center Channel Speaker, 115-28000Hz, Single, Black

Polk Audio TL3

Polk Audio

Polk Audio TL3 Center Channel Speaker, Single, Black

Adorama

Home Electronics

Home Theater

Home Theater Speakers

Polk Audio Home Theater Speakers

Polk Audio TL3 

Top Rated Gear: Polk Audio TL3 Center Channel Speaker, 115-28000Hz, Single, Black

I have had these a month now and absolutely love them. I got them when I upgraded my receiver. They have excellent high and mid range, OK lows. I do have a powered sub-woofer running to round it all out. I am extremely happy with this purchase and recommend them.

Awesome speakers

Had these for about 6 months now and I think they are great speakers for clarity and distinctive listening but you cannot have an effective all around system without running a subwoofer as well, which I did. With a sub these speakers will do just fine but they are not all around speakers and the "deep bass" claims under specifications is simply not accurate. I would recommend these speakers for someone willing to sacrifice all lows being passed through a sub with proper cross over settings. Even in the Frequency response, the response is listed as 90Hz at the low end which is decently high to be considered a low frequency.

Clear, crisp highs, but non-existent lows

be careful i made a mistake and blow 2 tl 3 surround with my sc55 receiver which puts out 140 pc

careful

polk TL 250 and psw 111  they sooooo good

I think these speakers are too good not to have any reviews.  I am using a pair of TL3 for my office PC based system.  I use my PC as the source, output through a HRT Music Streamer II to an Audioengine N22 which powers the TL3 and is a Pre Amp for my Polk PSW 111 subwoofer.  I have been using this setup for several months and am extremely happy with their performance.  

To start with using a PC and streamed audio is not the highest quality source but the TL3 make the most of it taking the edge off of music that this type of source often induces.  They image and separate very well and the highs have a smooth air about them that I can listen to all day without fatigue.  The tweeter in this speaker is based on the new LSiM line and it shows.  I spent a short time with the LSiM 703 in my system and you can tell the TL3 have a smooth quality sound about them that I love.

I am using the PSW111 to fill out the bottom end as opposed to getting the slam required for movies.  In my setup it seems that the bass is actually coming from the TL3 not the subwoofer.  I am only doing near field listening so the N22 (22w X 2 RMS) has more than enough power.  If you are going to use these in a living room environment you will need at least 50w per channel and a good sub.  Pair four these with a DSW Pro 600 and the TL3 center channel and you will have a very nice movie/music setup.  Highly recommend.

Dookie in a box. Law of physics will not allow these to sound like full sized speakers. Come on Shelly!

I finally found your blog!  Did you know there are other runnnig lawyers who are also  Running from the Law????   Must be a common professional coping mechanism!  But you are the fastest runnnig lawyer I know and will get earn your PR next Sunday!!!!  Can't wait to see you in action!Rachel

These speakers are great.  Matched with Onkyo receiver for rear surrounds.  I am going to get a pair for the front surrounds also.  I have the white version Tl3 from crutchfield.

I decided to treat myself and replace my Cambridge Soundworks satellite speakers that came with the original Cambridge Soundworks: Soundworks 2.1 system. They are being powered by the 36wpc Cambridge Soundworks subwoofer/amp that came with the CSW satellite speakers. The volume is controlled by the inline volume control that came with the system and it plugs into my pc and the sub/amp.

The first thing I noticed is that these speakers are HEAVY! I don't think Polk knows how to build a lightweight speaker.  The second thing I noticed, it that they are pretty big but because they have a small footprint, they just fit on my pc cart. I have to turn them outward so that they aren't playing into the back of my monitor. These are beautiful speakers with a nice shiny piano finish.

Once I had them hooked up, I started playing my music on my pc, I immediately had to turn down the volume on the sub because it was a little overpowering. I listened to a few random songs just to get an idea of how they sounded. Then I put them to the test of a music cd I put together to specifically test speakers. The songs on this cd are as follows:

Carly Simon: Live at Martha's Vineyard: It Happens Every day, Anticipation, The Right Thing to Do. 
Celine Dion: The Power of the Dream
Bee Gees: I've Gotta Get a Message to You
Eric Clapton: Unplugged: Tears in Heaven & Layla 
Eagles: Farewell Tour, Life in the Fast Lane & Hotel California
Virgil Fox: Heavy Organ at Carnegie Hall: Fugue in G Major

These songs for me will let me judge how well the speakers handle the clarity, separation, bass, and vocals of these songs. I turned the sub volume all the way down so that I could get a clear indication of how good the bass is. I listened first without any help from the sub all the way through the cd, then a second time with the sub added in.

The first thing I listen for is if there is any sibilance and if there is, is it within acceptable levels. Live music can tend to have quite a bit of it. Listening to some of these songs on a pair of B & W floor standers had me wincing! So listening to Eric's Tears in Heaven especially told me that the tweeter in the TL3 is a winner! While the sibilance is there, it isn't exaggerated beyond acceptable levels. 

These speakers have excellent separation of the instruments, and they are very clear especially in the upper registers, but they aren't the least bit fatiguing. However, I picked up right away that the bass wasn't quite right especially on the Eagles tracks where some of the lower bass was a little thin especially at the end of Life in the Fast Lane, but I was fairly impressed with how well they handled the lower bass notes of the organ in the Gigue Fugue.

I then listened to the cd a second time this time with the sub volume on level 2. The sub put the true fullness back into the songs since it could hit the notes that were too low for the TL3s to handle with authority. This has also given me a better idea of how powerful the sub and amp is in this little CSW box.

I am very happy with my new computer speakers, and I strongly think that Polk should put together 2.1 computer systems that utilizes a small sub/amp like the CSW computer systems for those of us who don't want to go through the hassle of using a receiver hooked up to the pc, and where a full size sub is too big for the space I have to put it.

Polk has hit this one out of the park with the TL3's, and if they ever do make a smaller sub/amp combo, I will replace my CSW sub/amp with one.

I have the TL350 5 piece surround system based on the TL3's and matching center.   Sweet mother of god,  these things are so good it's silly.  As soon as you pick these up and feel the weight for a satelite,  you know you might have something special here.   The sound?  stunning.    far better than i thought they would be (won these in a raffle.  I'd buy these full retail in a heartbeat if i had to start from scratch in home theater.

I am using these in a gaming rig currently,  my main home theater is based on the LSi series (Polk's flagship before the lSiM's that just came out).  If I lost my home theater for whatever reason and had to start from scratch...I would just buy another set of these blackstones,  a good sub...and call it a day.

At the risk of sounding untoward,  anyone that buys the Bose Acoustimass over these will make a gargantuan mistake.   these are nearly half the price,  and twice as good.    Playing battlefield 3 on my Xbox literally sounds like a war is going on in my game room.   you can hear every shell casing hitting the virtual ground.

Had been waiting til the TL3 series was available (to hopefully timbre match my LSI's), then bought the TL350 (4 TL3 satellites plus 1 TL3c center) to go with my set of LSI9's and DSW MicroPro 4000.  Much better WAF than the previous RM30's I had, and they sound better as well.  After listening to them for 2 weeks on and off, I'd say they do timbre match reasonably well (excellently so for the price!), and the accuracy is much better.  The Wife even complained about "not being able to hear the rear speakers" when they were on, which I figured out was due to the sound field being so uniform that she couldn't tell they were turned on behind her!  Unfortunately it ended up sounding less "full" due to no ability in most home theatre setups to say that the "center" channel should mostly be sent to the front left/right speakers (i.e. I'm really more irritated with the people who design home theatre processors than the weak center), so to balance things I had to update the center to an LSIC.  Now it sounds excellent.  All-in-all quite happy.  Again for the price it's excellent.