i am by no means an audiophile, but i consider my ears pretty good at picking out good clarity sound that i like (of course, it's all personal taste). i comparison shopped very hard looking at the polk RTi10 floor speakers and the Boston Acoustics VR3 floor speakers. the boston's seemed richer to me. i did, however, buy a polk CSi5 center and FXi5 surrounds, as well as a Polk PSW 505 sub. i chose the CSi5 b/c i felt that it had qualities close to a modest larger speaker, so it would give me a wide range of uses. i didn't really even test the FXi5 before buying them. since i only use them for random movies, i placed faith in the polk name that they would serve my modest purposes and they have so far. i chose the polk sub mainly for price and the 12" woofer. i have not comparison shopped subs. i have considered buying a more expensive sub, but can't really justify it. i got the PSW 505 for $300 with polk current promotion (normally it's $500) and can't really come up with a good reason to spend several hundred more. so, my long boring answer to your good question is that i felt the RTi floor speakers by polk weren't all that hot. the others that i own seem fine. i LOVE my boston acoustics. for $999 the VR3's sound very rich and full.
