Polk Signature Elite ES35 Slim Center Channel Speaker - Hi-Res Audio Certified, Dolby Atmos & DTS:X Compatible, 1" Tweeter & (6) 3" Woofers, Dual Power Port for Effortless Bass, Stunning Black

I wasn't expecting much in clear vocals from a small center speaker with six 3-inch drivers. This one surprised me with vocal clarity.When building a home theater sound system, you should always build from the inside out. First the center speaker, then mains, then surrounds. The center is so important because 90% of TV/movies is dialog and 90% of the dialog comes out of the center speaker.Don't worry about "timbre matching" ie using speakers all from the same company, always get the best center speaker you can afford. The Polk has high quality sound, and high quality goes with everything.The Polk ES35 combined with a couple of small bookshelf speakers was chosen to replace an expensive L/C/R sound bar that just had a tinny sound. It is powered by a new Sony AN1000 in a 3.1 setup. Space was a major issue to fit it under a 55" Sony TV in an enclosed space. The Polk fit perfectly my needs and it completely blew the soundbar away in every way it could. Music, dialog, bass, clarity.The speaker is all plastic but I would rate it as well-built. It had a good heft to and the plastic was not thin and cheap. It is rear ported but because of the design of the port, there is a small cage that sticks out of the back about two inches or so. You can put this speaker flush against a wall or in an enclosed space and the cage gives the port room to breath.Anyone wanting to hear better clarity for voices from their TV will like this unit. It does exactly what a good center speaker is supposed to do, allow you to listen to the TV without having to turn the sound all the way up. It's clear at all levels, even low sound levels.Anyone looking looking to replace TV sound or even a sound bar this is a major upgrade for $350. I can easily recommend it.

Beautiful speaker, looks great with grill on or off, sounds awesome for its size. I can hear and feel some good lows coming from this small thing. Easy to wire, the holes in the terminals are big enough for thick gauge speaker wire, and the terminals are apart enough that wires won't cross after u tighten them down. I purchased this to put below my TV in addition to my Anthony Gallo reference center, which is mounted above TV, so that dialogue will also be projected to ear level. I've purchased Polk speakers for my car, they sound excellent and this speaker is no different. It goes great with my Polk 12 inch sub that's in my entertainment room. Everything sounds awesome now, movies, music, Xbox games. Highly recommend this speaker if your looking for a center speaker that doesn't take up too much space.

So pleased with this purchase. Puts out phenomenal sound with no dead spots in its range. Vocals are crystal clear. And it’s slim enough to easily fit in my sound transparent floating media console (Woodwaves).

Both my wife and I have challenges hearing the voices sometimes on some of these shows where the background music tends to overwhelm the people who are speaking. We've tried adjusting our surround sound middle speaker quite often and have discovered we just can't get it right. So we purchased this higher end unit which cost about 50% of what the whole speaker system cost that we own. But it was well worth it because the verbiage is very clear now and though we still adjusted a little bit here and there it's a very good speaker and it does fill the need that we needed. It's also a smaller size than the other speaker that we were going to purchase. We happen to sit our 75-in TV on a table top and this speaker set fits very nicely right underneath it and it's somewhat hidden It's great for us.

Let me first say that I am an acoustic suspension guy, I was never drawn (very much) to ported speaker designs. That being said, there are design advantages to a ported design. The ES35 is small in size (about 4 x 6 x 24 inches). I am using the ES35 with a projection TV where the space under the screen is limited. I couldn't use my old center acoustic suspension speaker as it is too large.Summary: The ES35 has sturdy construction and is well build. I installed it on ordinary drywall. Wall mounting hardware is not supplied, but that's fine with me as I usually discard any provided hardware and buy my own superior fittings.The ES35 is a decent sounding speaker of compact size. It appears that I can blend the ES35 into my surround sound system (mainly by adjusting amplifier gains). The clarity of the ES35 is good, but I am not sure if the speaker muffles voice or not. For situations like mine, I would say that the ES35 is a buy. Maybe for other people and other situations, the ES35 would be a decent choice no matter what size limitations may exist.

On the higher end, it's a little bright for my ears, but can hear the dialog clearly which is important to me. Does sound good at higher volumes.

Nice center channel speaker for Polk 5.1 home theater setups. Balanced hi-fi sound, not dialog-boosted. I use it in a 3.1 configuration with Polk ES15 bookshelf speakers (never got around to installing rears) for both music and movies/TV/concerts. Know that it's large -- much larger than any typical sound bar -- nearly 8" high (by 20" wide by about 11" deep). So not ideal for wall mounting.

Good. Better than previous model for voices and clear dialog. Debated since I already spent a ton on the last model but did not like the range for dialog. After reading alot of reviews I took a chance and no regrets. Much better. Wired only. Not powered