Monitor Audio vs Mission vs Polk

[coolioo]

Hello guys. I have recently aquired a new Onkyo 605 receiver. Now I would like to complete my HT setup by aquiring a 5.0 speaker set. A sub will be added later.
Unfortunately, because of my limited budget and because of the limited speaker availability to the merchant i'm limited at the following 3 speaker sets:

Monitor Audio set:
Fronts: BR 2
Sattelites: BR 1
Center: BR LCR

Mission set:
Fronts: Mission M34i
Sattelites: Mission M31i
Cener : Mission M32i

Polk Audio set:
Front :Monitor 50
Sattelites : Monitor 30
Center : CS1

Please note that I can't go to listen them because the merchant is at 200 km away.

Could someone please help me to decide which speaker set to buy?

Thanks,
Daniel

[mike c]

Monitor Audio BR versus Polk Audio Monitor series = IMO, Monitor Audio

i've A/B'ed the Monitor Audio BR2 and Polk Audio RTi4 (btw, Polk Rti over Polk Monitor series hands down)

Monitor Audio Bronze Reference BR2

you will see with my a/b results that choosing between the two is purely subjective, meaning i have some songs i prefer the polk and some songs i prefer the monitor audio br series

bummer is, we can't decide for you ... we might have totally different tastes.

[coolioo]

Maybe this can help you: I will use the speakers for especially :

- movies with Dobly and DTS tracks including the latest TrueHD
- music : rock, and 80's

[mike c]

again, this is MY opinion, your mileage may vary.

i would go for the MA's over the Polks for these reasons:
-the MA's are warmer = good for rock and new wave 80's
-the MA's have great build quality
-the Polk Monitors have a lot of bad reviews even on the Polk Audio website (the Rti series is just way better) [i was able to a/b the monitors and rti's at fry's sanfo i think]

[coolioo]

Thanks for your opinion. I'm must admit that I'm a newbie in this area. This would be my first set of quality speakers.
May I ask what is your opinion about the Missions as well ?

I don't know if you have noticed but those Missions fronts are standfloors while the MA's are bookshelfs. I don't know if this really matters from the perspective of sound quality.

[mike c]

unfortunately, i have never heard mission speakers.

IMO, crappy floorstander vs. quality bookshelf = quality wins. i'm not saying the polk floorstander is crappy ... but size and number of drivers have nothing to do with the SQ, I learned this when I was comparing the Monitor 40 and the Rti4, and yes i noticed that the polks were floorstanders when i was thinking why you weren't comparing BR's to Rti's.

[rnatalli]

I have the Monitor Audio BR2's which I'm selling so I can upgrade to the Silvers which cost substantially more. If you're interested in the MA's, let me know as I'll let them go for a good price. They're only like 5 months old.

[coolioo]

Thanks for your offer but I leave in Romania.

[rnatalli]

Thanks for your offer but I leave in Romania.

Ah, ok. Personally, I'd take MA (obviously since I own them) over Mission and Polk. Mission speakers are great too, but won't have the detail of MA. Never liked Polk.

[coolioo]

Hello. Based on reviews from other forums as well , I will buy the MA set but with a B&W ASW 300 sub.

Thanks for your help.