Polk Audio T15 Bookshelf Speakers

  • Great value

  • Well-rounded sound quality

  • Substantial build

  • Some roughness at high volumes

  • Safe, boring design

  • No bells and whistles

If you’re in the market for a budget set of passive bookshelf speakers, then you really can’t beat the Polk Audio T15 Bookshelf Speakers.

  • Design
  • Build Quality
  • Setup Process and Sound Quality
  • Price
  • Competition
  • Final Verdict
  • Specs

We purchased the Polk Audio T15 Bookshelf Speakers so our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and assess it. Keep reading for our full product review.

The Polk Audio T15 Bookshelf Speakers are the absolute definition of good value. They’re perfectly viable as a budget pair of passive speakers based on the affordable price point alone, but because of their solid performance and depth of sound, they could also be viable as your main speakers for years. Admittedly, they aren’t winning any sound quality awards, especially when you put them up against brands like Yamaha or Klipsch. But for $100 for the pair, you probably aren’t expecting peak performance. 

We spent about a week with these Polk speakers as part of our home movie setup, and we were pleasantly surprised at just how close to the premium sound they got. They aren’t without their shortcomings (a bit of breakup at high volumes, some muddiness in the mids), but on the performance-to-price ratio alone, these get our stamp of approval.

Design: Simple and even a bit boring

It surprised us just how much the simplicity of design took away from these Polk speakers. The trend lately is to provide a bit of flair with your speakers—Klipsch does it with rose gold accents, and some speaker manufacturers even put time into what the enclosures look like without the mesh grille covering. The Polk T15s are just plain boring. 

At about 10.5 inches tall and 6.5 inches wide, they are big as far as enclosures go. This offered some nice value on the sound quality front, but we found that they were bulky trying to fit them into our entertainment center. Though, for that height and width, we were surprised to see them at just seven-and-a-quarter inches deep—skinny considering the rest of the size. 

The only finish the T15 are available in is a brushed black, similar to most other passive speakers. The entire build is black, from the mesh speaker grille, all the way down to the matching-colored driver and tweeter which are only exposed if you take the grille off. The only contrast is offered by the silver, metallic Polk logo on the front bottom of the unit. 

We found that they were bulky trying to fit them into our entertainment center.

Normally, we’d chalk this up as a good thing, because the speakers maintain a neutral placement in a home theater setup. And sure, this design is great for those who want them to blend in while watching movies. But with cool design features, flashy wood tones, and more being flairs offered by other manufacturers, we were a little underwhelmed on the design front. 

Build Quality: Adequate for most users

After perusing Polk’s online descriptions and specs, it’s not entirely clear what these speakers are made of. They feel like a mixture of wood and composite, but we aren’t sure what that actual composition is. That said, they feel substantial. The drivers themselves consist of a 5.25-inch mineral-filled polymer composite main woofer (which does most of the heavy lifting when projecting sound) and a 0.75-inch silk polymer composite tweeter. In other words, both drivers start life with the same material makeup, but Polk has made the tweeter just a little bit softer to the touch. 

While these two components help to bolster the sound (discussed below in the sound quality section) we’re not entirely sure that the enclosure is doing much to help. There is a plastic front-mounted bass port that helps to project some of the low-end, possibly owing a bit to that extra-low frequency response these T15 are capable of. The mesh grille on the front is fine, arching out the front just a bit, rather than sitting flat against the enclosures. This helps substantially with durability, as it puts a bit of a buffer between your speaker cones and any unintentional knees and elbows when you’re carrying the speakers. All in all, these enclosures look and feel substantial, even if they don’t seem to be putting sound support quite as high in the construction category.

Setup Process and Sound Quality: Full and substantial, but don’t push it

Polk is an interesting brand that sits somewhere in the middle of the consumer audio space. They aren’t top-tier, or even high mid-tier. Most people who purchase Polk products do so because they want an affordable price point. But the brand strives to provide true quality for that price. We found, for the most part, that the T15 treads that balance nicely. We put these bookshelf speakers through the wringer, hooking them up to our standard home movie receiver alongside a substantial subwoofer. We fired up action movies, top 40 radio, and everything in between, and we were surprised at just how nice they sounded—up to a limit. 

On paper, the T15 cover 45Hz–24kHz on the human hearing spectrum, which is pretty substantial on the low end when compared to bookshelf speakers at similar price points. At 8 ohms and 89 decibels of sensitivity, these are right in line with competitors, even seemingly a bit louder than most. They can handle up to 100W, but we found them to be better suited for lower wattage. Polk puts the bottom recommend wattage end at about 20W.

These are among the most well-rounded speakers we tested, and that is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, the T15 give you everything you’ll need as a bare minimum, but on the other, they don’t do any one thing really well. There’s plenty of bass and fullness, but it’s not quite as rich as premium speakers. There’s good detail in the upper range, but it can feel a little thin at quieter moments. If you love cranking up your receiver for movie theater levels of volume, you’ll get a little bit of roughness around the edges on the T15. But if you want solid performance right in the middle of the range, for a good price, these speakers sound perfectly nice.

Price: Amazingly, almost shockingly affordable

On one hand, the T15 give you everything you’ll need as a bare minimum, but on the other, they don’t do any one thing really well.

Competition: Pretty slim in the budget category

Klipsch R-15M: The Klipsch answer to the 5-inch driver are their R-15M speakers, which do admittedly sound better than the Polk T15, but they’re also more than double the price.

Dennon SCN-10: Dennon’s take on this category comes with a more substantial spectrum and a higher degree of loudness for about $30 more.

Micca MB42: For even less than the Polk T15 you can get a smaller, less substantial pair of bookshelf speakers from Micca. Though you aren’t getting the quality or brand value of the Polks here.

Impressive audio performance at an affordable price. 

Specs

  • Product Name
  • T15 Bookshelf Speakers
  • Product Brand
  • Polk Audio
  • Price
  • $99.00
  • Weight
  • 8.25 lbs.
  • Product Dimensions
  • 6.5 x 10.63 x 7.25 in.
  • Color
  • Black
  • Total Frequency Response
  • 45 Hz → 24,000 Hz
  • Nominal Impedance Range
  • 8 ohms → 6 ohms
  • Speaker Inputs
  • (1) Pair of 5-Way Binding Posts - Gold-Plated