CEDIA 2006

Polk Audio introduced the $1200/ea. RTS100, "the first in-ceiling speaker to meet THX Ultra2 performance standards." The RTS100 has a 14" diameter enclosure containing dual 5¼" midrange drivers and a 1" Ring Radiator tweeter mounted between them. Polk’s exclusive Sound Shape baffle floats the sound waves toward the listening position for "imaging that seems to hover in front of the listener rather than being localized in the ceiling."

Thing is, it works. Playing a Blue Man Group/Dave Matthews performance that was essentially a series of spatial cues connected by a tune, the system had the sound out in the room, not up in the ceiling. Pretty impressive—and perhaps a godsend for space-strapped videophiles.