2015-03-10T20:00:00
Rated 5 out of 5
OWM5....OhMy!
I have been using Polk exclusively now for 15 years. Before that, I built my own speakers. Fun building your own, but I don't have the time now. These OWM5 Polks are an amped up version of the number one Polk of all time, the M3II. M3II had a wedge design and was wall mountable in a number of different ways. M3IIs are no longer available new, but are always for sale on eBay. The OWM5s have two 4 1/2 inch drivers and a tweeter. They have little brother, the OWM3, which has one less woofer, and is the real inheritor of the M3II throne.
A friend of mine put these up in a 3.1 system, and she raves all the time about hearing things she never heard with her bigger floor standing models. It does have a big sound for a 3.1 small system. I have mine mounted high in both corners(pics) of my living room in a super wide 22ft. 5.1 sound stage with no rear or side surround(yet, have not decided on more). Sounds great(less filling). These are easily some of the most flexible speakers with respect to mounting location. They tout them as having 9 mountable configs. I think there could be more if you really tried. I have some old Fxi(2woofer 2tweeter)surround models, and these OWM5s blow them out for clarity. My number one system is interesting, the two new OWM5s 22ft. apart in each corner, three CS275s(close to OWMs cofig) for the up front sound, and 10 inch JBL sub. How much more sound do you need? I guess if I had a hundred foot room I may need to add beefier specs and a 9.2 affair, but for 99 percent of the listeners out there that are not entertaining a room of a hundred of there closest friends, OWM5s are plenty good. I am good shopper, and put this newest config. together for $800, which includes a 7.2 Sony STR-DA3400(retail$1000). Saving Private Ryan at half volume would get me a swat team here in 5minutes! I don't know anyone personally that would tell the difference between these OWM5s and $500 surrounds. Do I need to widen my circle of friends you say?
I put these in the crux of the sidewalls about 7 feet up. They mounted in minutes. I have one screw I put through the wedge shaped bracket that fits into that crux point. Make sure you hit a stud, or the one screw situation is not recommended. It is a long 3" screw too. Drill a hole first, and obviously smaller than the screw diameter. My right surround needed two of them because the top position on the bracket did not hit a stud. You screw the bracket down, and place the speaker on the bracket, done. It lifts on and off because it is caught by two heavy duty fixed position mounting bolts on the bracket that fit into the back of the speaker's rear notches. BAM, and no speakers on boxes, stands, bookshelves, etc.. The speakers have screwdown or banana plug connectors. Compared to the M3IIs, they mount about as easily. The M3II and the OWMs have a very cool look about them.
The ceiling and wall mount config looks interesting and would be nice for some rear or side mounting, but seem a little precarious since they slide on and off. I'm sure they are solid, just seems iffy. These OWM5s come with a bottom mount to stand on something or put in a bookshelf. It is not the best for stability, and would not recommend this. I would feel more comfy with a bottom stand that had a bigger footprint. They could be easily knocked over. I see people selling them on eBay with cracked cases. People in California need to worry about earth movements jostling speakers off of things. The speakers forte is mounting, do it, and buy it for that. Would do a good job as budget center speaker too. There are other Polk bookshelf speakers that aren't tippy and also sport beefier sound specs if you want them sitting on something.
They come in white too. I had extra M3IIs for several years before some sold or died and got on to these a little late in the game. I'm down to an ultra rare pair of M3II Videos for bedroom surround, and they are the only shielded version of M3II! Wish I had gotten these OWM5s sooner. I tried to post two pics but this system is having trouble with anything higher than a 1080 picture. So I quit. I hope Polk keeps these around for a while, and they could probably surpass the old M3II as the most popular Polk in history!
movieskinny
Originally posted at
2012-10-22T20:00:00
I was looking a set of speakers to upgrade my HT from 7.1 to 9.2. I wasn't looking for anything to expensive. I found these on sale at a great price and use them as my front high speakers. Mounted them directly to the wall with no problems. They produce the sound for the front high position with no problems. It's not a major speaker position. So no issues, they are doing what they are supposed too and sound fine when the discrete channel kicks in, subtle but there.
grimmace
Originally posted at
2010-03-20T20:00:00
I have had 42" SurroundBar for a few years now, and recently got a used Outlaw 1050 AVR to run it. This AVR includes a sixth, center rear surround channel which can run either with Dolby Surround EX from DVDs with that type of encoding, or it can derive a sixth channel from the two surround channels in standard 5.1 surround sound. An opportunity recently arose to try out the OWM5 and see if it is a suitable speaker for use as a sixth channel. I received a pair of these, wired them up in parallel and set them up behind and to either side of my main viewing position. I also tried using just one speaker directly behind me. My favorite DVD for testing surround sound is Master & Commander which has lots of good creaking ship noises as ambient sound in the surround channels as well as good sea battle sequence with lots of directional cannon fire sounds.
The SurroundBar 42 can, at best, develop a surround field of about 150°, with an occasional sound that appears to come from directly to the side. Adding the OWM5 pair produced a diffuse sounding rear ambient sound stage which really complemented the SB42. Using just the single OWM5 directly behind produced a distinct rear channel which sometimes is just right for very directional sounds like cannons, but is sometimes too much for ambient noises.
To get a good blend of the rear surround with the surround channels it is important to choose a speaker with a timbre that matches the surrounds. I wanted to do an A-B comparison of the drivers of the two speakers. My Outlaw 1050 doesn't have a B channel but my old Yamaha RX-V496 does. I hooked up the left and right SurroundBar fronts to the A channel, and the OWM5 to the B channel (no subwoofer. I tried a variety of music genres and it was very clear that these were two quite different speakers. The SurroundBar is so much brighter than the OWM5 that I did not feel that it is a good match. So I will keep looking for a used RM series center speaker.
I also gave these a try as office speakers, hooked up to my Mac by way of the same Yamaha AVR and a Griffin iMic for a computer interface. I placed the OWM5s on either side of my dual monitors, about 3 feet apart. Speakers this close to the listener often sound grainy but the OWM5s sounded quite clear, good enough to tell the difference between 320mbs mp3 files and Apple lossless format. Bass response was acceptable and, as noted earlier, they are not as bright as other speakers in their size category. I think this is a good thing in this close in situation. I can recommend the OWM5 for a small office rig and suggest that a subwoofer be added to improve the bass.
Finally, I tried these speakers in place of my Monitor 7a pair in my main 2 channel rig, powered with a Parasound HCA 1000A. Again, the bass response was nowhere hear as good as a full range speaker like the sevens, but at higher volumes they do put out a surprisingly good sound for small speakers, not too bright or harsh like you might expect.
I did not try any of the wall mount methods, but I did set them up both vertically and horizontally on tables. For horizontal set up there are two self adhesive feet and a 3" piece of padded tape that you can apply to the bottom of each speaker, a simple and inexpensive solution. For a vertical orientation there is a snap on stand. This must work well for the OWM3 but it felt a little light for the OWM5, like it would be easy to knock over.
So I can recommend the OWM5 for a small office rig or a starter budget 2 channel system. I would bet that 3 OWM5s and 2 OWM3s would make a good surround system. They just don't match well with the SurroundBar in a 6 channel system.
Jim L.
Originally posted at
2010-02-07T19:00:00
What's up all?
I kinda finished my review of the OWM5 speakers . I plan on keeping here for a few more days before I send them to the next person which I will need the shipping label or address of where they are going.
Ok enough with all that lets get into my review shall we?
It snowed here in Lower Bucks County just North of Philadelphia and I had nothing better to do then connect up the OWM5's and give them a serious listening. Ok so thats not a bad thing to resort to reviewing speakers. It's what I do and love.
I have a few systems around the house and decided to use my house system to test these flat guys out. it consists of a Sony receiver , Jamo speaker selector box , Onkyo Tape deck , zone 2 feed from the theater system for anything I want which in this case I used the Apple TV in Apple lossless recording quality. I use Audioquest cables in the system.
So I have a workout room in the basement where I currently have a pair of Atrium 45's . They cover the space well and I enjoy them. I decided to disconnect them and replace them with the OWM5's. At first when I did the swap I hated the OWM5's right off the bat. They sounded like a really cheap speaker. I was shocked that they sounded so terrible. I figured as they have been used by other members they would be fully broken in. So I left them play and I went on with my workout. I use my iphone to control the apple tv. I have a workout playlist that I had running for about 45 minutes. I changed it up and put on some Minnie Driver "Hungry Heart" to hear some female voice. I had to stop working out and sit and listen to the OWM5's so I could judge them more accurately.
My Speaker selector box is a Jamo as I noted and I reconnected the Atriums back in for a A B vs demo with Minnie Driver singing for me. I noticed the mid range on the OWM5's where more pronounced . The Atrium 45's mid range lacks clarity and punch the OWM5's have. Kinda cool. I also noticed the tweeter sounded more blended on the OWM5's over the Atrium 45's. Another shocker.
Ok so they don't have good low end , understandable as they have limited cabinet space and are flat. I have a older polk psw300 that just sits around so I decided to connect it via left and right preouts for a pure stereo integration. I found that 100hz seemed to blend pretty nicely. Under that and they seem to have a hole in the low bass above that they tend to bloat.
Onward to more and more musical selection I threw everything I had at them from Jazz to crushing death metal. What I noticed is they are a pretty balanced speaker. They played everything I gave them and didn't really shine or fall on any one given music genre. Thats pretty assuring as one who might use such a speaker might have many different tastes.
To make this review slighty short I'll wrap up with some thoughts. First off these are not high end speakers. They don't have a high end clarity to them. They lack detail and control. They also try to dig a little deeper then maybe they should. They also tend to be on the bright side. All this is perfectly fine due to there price point. They also have excellent mounting options. You basically can mount them any way you want or where you want. I have not ran them as theater speakers but judging from there musical abilities they will make most very happy. I would use them in a nice budget system with a good quality sub. I liked the older PSw300 with them. It really made them sound pretty damn good considering what they are and how they are shaped.
Fit and finish is average to good. I'd say for the money they are well built. Anyone who is looking for a nice cheap yet musical speaker that can go just about anywhere needs to check these out. I was thinking my bedroom doesn't have a surround system in there. I just have a pair of in walls(polk) for house music. I would like to add a full 5 speaker package with these and my psw300 sub in there and a nice Pioneer ELite vsx21 receiver. This would make a nice well balanced bedroom system.
Daniel H.
Originally posted at
2009-12-27T19:00:00
I was extremely surprised at these OWM5's. These were purchased to replace the OWM3's that I had for about 2 weeks before. I was looking for sides and rears and decided upon these after trying the OWM3's as well as the Polks' FXIA6. Some might ask why the FXIA6's did not make the cut. I have a CS20 center and 2 TSI500'2 for the front center sound stage; I was looking to round out the setup with sides and rear and originally went with FXIA6's and OWM'3s for rears. After watching movies like Transformers and 300 I was suprised at how much clearer the sounds were coming from the OWM3's over the FXIA6's, the FXIA6's were loud-almost too much but they had depth. But, the FXIA6's were not timbre matched with TSI line and I DID notice this. There was much more "depth" to the FXIA6's, this was a huge plus. I went ahead and watched Transformers again with only the sides and rears on and was shocked and what only simple sounds came through. Bullets, "whooshes", screeches, lazer noises, and ocasionaly background melodies. I thought i would hear full explosions and music but not so. The sounds that did come though sounded a bit muffled on the FXIA6's and clear on the OWM3's. Even though the little OWM3's sound field was small and centered on the side wall I still settled on the OWM3's because they sounded clearer and reproduced the sound with clarity; the price was right also, 1/4 of the FXIA6's. But then I stumbled upon the OWM5's and found more of what I was looking for.
The OWM5's had the exact same clear sound with quick tight resilient midbase noise as the OWM3's. Better yet, the sound field of the speaker was now 6" wider with an extra midrange so the pinpointing was not as centered on the sides and rears like the OWM3's; I now felt more immersed in the sound than ever before.
What I like most about these OWM5's over their little brothers is the extra sound they produce. The OWM3's are great but these punch a little deeper and produce more sound for sides and rear the room. I turned them sideways to produce an even "wider" sound field rather than a "taller" sound field, this was excellent for my setup.
My other thoughts about the OWM5 is that they look fantastic, they match the TSI line and dissapear into the room...excellent. They can also get loud if you want them to, they really push when turned up and sound clear with 0 distortion. However, you will not have base depth on these like the TSI200's, or FXIA6's, but for sides and rears you simply can pass on this---for front I would use a speaker with "depth". I also would not go with the TSI100 or TSi200's for sied and rears because they are sizeably large that they look really odd when mounted on a wall-anywhere. These mount everywhere in almsot any position and do not get in the way, physically or visually. One other thought, I would like to see a TSI version of the FXIA6 or FXIA4 because I believe it would introduce even more sound immersion as well as being timbre matched.
John J.
Originally posted at
2009-11-23T19:00:00
These are very versatile speakers that can cater to your every needs. Got a pair a tried them out as fronts, center and surrounds and they were a big step up from my traditional sized satellite speakers. They were a little bigger but made up for its size with the number of ways they could be mounted. A sub will be needed but that's to be expected for their size. Not only did they sound great but they were also eye pleasing. Will be purchasing a complete set to run in my bedroom setup.
Leroyjr1
Originally posted at
2009-03-09T20:00:00
I have a dream last night owning these speakers! They sound really crisp and easy to install any position you want!
June L.
Originally posted at
