Polk Audio SurroundBar (42", 50", 360 DVD Theater, SDA IHT) - Review/ Help Thread

[hearingimpared]

Hi guys,

Just purchased one of these for a set up in a bedroom (today online), where I don't have the facility or want for rear speakers in that room. Am awaiting delivery of it and from the reviews on the Polk site and the blurbs in the forums, I doubt it will be anything but "Polk Perfection". As all my Polk purchases have been "unheard" prior to purchase, because Downunder you don't find the stuff in retail stores, I doubt I'll be disappointed. As per my signature, I have the full home theatre set up in my lounge room and wouldn't consider a SB for a main system, but as a secondary system, this thing will be ideal. This is going to be hooked up to a Marantz SR5300, a Polk PSW200 and a 42' Fujitsu plasma that is wall mounted - and the SB will be wall mounted just below it - I can't wait!

Just read the above post from anonymouse - I understand it will sound thin unless you set all your speakers to "large" in your electronics. I'll certainly rate it when I receive it and will set it up as per specifications.

Welcom to Polk's Dark Side of the Moon!!!

[danger boy]

very cool VXR8...

the SurroundBar is a good unit... it will not give you exactly the same sound as having a complete home theater set up.. it can't.. physically (sp) it's not placed behind your head.. but I find that it does a good job of giving the impression of surround sound.

it has it's place in a home theater esp if people don't want to run wires in walls or under carpets, etc.

congrats on your purchase.. and enjoy!

[VXR8]

Why thank you - glad to be on board!

[VXR8]

Thanks Dangerboy - looking forward to "another" Polk product!

[GeorgeM]

There's a nice price available again ($600.00) for the Surround Bar at www.crutchfield.com. I purchased one there a few months ago for a relative and have not seen a lower price since that time. They also have a fine reputation as an etailer.

-GeorgeM

[hearingimpared]

There's a nice price available again ($600.00) for the Surround Bar at www.crutchfield.com. I purchased one there a few months ago for a relative and have not seen a lower price since that time. They also have a fine reputation as an etailer.

-GeorgeM

Thanks George I'm on it like flies on . . .

[tolax]

moved surround bar/AVR235 config question to general speaker question - hope that was correct place!

[hearingimpared]

Well I received my Surroundbar today. . .one problem, I don't have anything more than the subwoofer to go with it. I have to get the TV and the AVR yet. I'm going to see if I can bring it Phil's to check it out on his HT to avoid the BS that happened with VTI because I didn't open it for a couple of months.

[VXR8]

Hi guys,

Received and set up my SurroundBAR today - including wall mounting. As per my RM6000 system I am not currently using in complete, I have utilised the PSW250 with the SurroundBAR. Initially, I was amazed how big the SurroundBAR was, but everything that is included with it makes it a snap to hook up and mount.

As for the sound, I have set all speakers to "Large" and have the sub at about 100. I have the sub hooked up in parallel with the front speakers, as per Polk's suggested hook up method.

The unit has exceeded both my expectations in quality of build (Black brushed aluminum) and sound. I have dabbled with both a DVD and have just listened to a CD through 2 channel. For all intents and purposes that I purchased this unit (the wife actually paid for it), other than having the normal set up, this is impressive. Again, as per Polk's slogan with the SurrounBAR, "Five Channels, One Speaker, Zero Clutter", this is what I wanted in the bedroom.

Anyone who is tight with space, or just wants the simplicity of one speaker with the sound of five, I cannot recommend this product high enough.

Ciao for now.

[brettw22]

As for the sound, I have set all speakers to "Large" and have the sub at about 100.

There is no way that a SurroundBar can handle full range frequencies, so by setting the speakers to large you're going to cause damage to the speakers. You need to set them to small so that all low end frequencies are deferred to the sub........

[VXR8]

There is no way that a SurroundBar can handle full range frequencies, so by setting the speakers to large you're going to cause damage to the speakers. You need to set them to small so that all low end frequencies are deferred to the sub........

Hi Brettw22,

The settings are as per Polk Quick Start Guide included with the SurroundBAR. It suggests that you set all speakers to large and parallel run another set of cables to your sub input - check this link for the PDF User Guide - go to pages 6 & 7:

http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/m...StartGuide.pdf

Cheers.

[reeltrouble1]

There is a filter in the bar so if you set the speakers to small they will be "double" filtered, in this particular case large is the correct setting per Polk HQ.

RT1

[brettw22]

Interesting........that's kind of odd in that some processing is going on in the speaker based on the signal being sent through the cable.......

Carry on...........

[engtaz]

This would be great in kitchens and bedrooms where space is hard to find and you still want the sound to envelope you.

[Jstas]

My Review...it's gonna be long.

OK, the environment:

Sources:
Mintek DVD-1600 DVD Player
Microsoft XBOX

Amplification:
Onkyo TX-SR502S 6-channel receiver

Subwoofer:
Yamaha powered sub I got from doro. I'll post the model later.

Source Material:
DVD:
Serenity -- opening scenes, opening music and a few flight and fight scenes
Firefly -- Episode One, opening battle scene, opening space scene, theme music and several dialog sections.
Days of Thunder -- many different scenes, provided a good show of surround sound.

CD:
Supertramp -- Breakfast In America (Remastered) Tracks 2 and 4
FooFighters -- The Colour and The Shape Tracks 1, 2, 4, 6 and 11
Soundgarden - Superunknown - Tracks 1, 2, 5, 8 and 12

Video Games:
Star Wars Battlefront II
Halo

First things first, hook up was a snap! It took a total of 20 minutes! Color coded and well marked, everything matched the hook ups on the back of my Onkyo. It was a no-brainer. The only way it could have taken longer is if I took the time to hide the wires and properly mount it on the wall and install the receiver and sources in a rack. I'd also have to say even though I did not use it, the wall mounting system looks stout enough and fit together perfectly with very detailed instructions! Kudos to Polk Audio for the "user friendliness"! Even my brother commented "Dude! That was EASY!"

I set the speaker up on top of the TV (27" Panasonic). Listening position was about 9 feet away. The speaker was at about chin level if I was standing up so I angled it down slightly. The room was very oddly shaped though so I wanted to give it a fighting chance. I was only pushing about 60 watts per channel to the speaker but that was more than enough juice to give it impact with or without the sub included. Needless to say though that due to the odd shape of the room, reflections suffered. It wasn't as open as it was at Polk HQ. If I had spent more time with placement, it could have improved.

Watching a movie:
The speaker did something that I see so few home theaters actually do and do well. It sounded like a movie theater. I mean, that's the point of HT, isn't it? Bring the theater home? Well, it brought it! While the surround effects did suffer due to room acoustics, the stage was still there. It wasn't as deep but there was still a good deal of sound movement all around. There was power there though. I didn't have to crank it to get the volume and physical feel you would get in a theater. Dynamics were very good too. The Onkyo HT receivers are very underrated in my opinion and the SurroundBar really showed how good the performance can be. Explosions had impact, REAL impact. You could feel it and it was very responsive. Sudden changes in volume and tone happened instantly without break-up or distortion. Dialog was crystal clear and not fatiguing at all to listen to. Music was equally as clear. Things like engines zooming in any direction didn't sound flat or tinny. I guess the best way to describe the sound was life like. I knew when there was a NASCAR stock car zooming past my head vs. a Chevy rental fleet special on a sandy beach. The rental Chevy sounds like a rental Chevy and the NASCAR stocker sounds like a race car. No coloring or dynamic compression due to a lack of frequency response. Was this the end-all, be-all of HT systems? Not by a long shot. When we listened to it at Polk HQ, it was on some decent, fairly high dollar stuff. I ran this on $450 HT receiver, one step up from entry-level/base-model. The difference? Aside from some dynamics limitations, sound was on par with what I heard at Polk HQ. It gets 4 out of 5 stars for movies. Only because even with the surround effect, multiple speakers will do better in a more difficult room arrangement. Also, the lack of displacement causes the dynamics issues and causes the speaker to get lost and lose its impact in a larger room.

Listening to music:
Dynamics. This thing does it very well with very little power. It doesn't need a sub for most stuff but if you like to listen to rock or rap or something else with a heavy beat you need one. Also, if you do alot of listening at low levels, the low-end response drops off very quickly so a sub will help reinforce that at low levels. It didn't like the loudness and bass boost buttons. Got a tad bit of farting from the speakers. The same actually went for movies now that I think about it. However, the detail was there. I'd put the sound on par with the smaller RTi speakers. The sound stage was wide just like my 2B's too. You could pick out instruments and placements fairly well. It wasn't as drastic as the 2B's can make it but it was definitely there. I would choose other speakers for music if I had a choice of an HT and a stereo rig but this speaker will do well enough for the average "Bose Rules, everybody else drools" guy. It definitely blew the Bose systems out of the water. I have several friends with Bose to compare it to and they couldn't hold a candle to the SurroundBar for music reproduction. I would again give it 4 out of 5 stars for music. The shortcomings were not enough to cause an issue for an average listener. For the "audiophile" they were worth another star off but for most people, this is way more speaker than they have ever heard in their lives. Just for that alone it gets 4 stars. It's affordable audio and a very good stepping stone to a higher level of involvement. If the SurroundBar was a gateway drug for music, it'd be one of the better ones. You can get alot out of it without alot in to it and it just makes you ache for more!

Video Games:
THIS is why I couldn't wait to get this thing in my hands to test it out! The SurroundBar absolutely SHINED doing video games! Even on a split screen, 2-player mode the surround effects and detail were awesome! The big battle scenes in Star Wars Battlegrounds had you standing in a flurry of blaster fire with bolts zooming everywhere. If you got smacked by an opponent in the back of the head, you heard the thud of the weapon on your helmet and in the proper direction. Just like when watching movies, things were zooming everywhere. Even when Luke Skywalker hacked off my head with his lightsaber I heard the lightsaber swoosh go from front to back.

In Halo, the wind was what we wanted to hear. It changes depending on where you are in the battle field. With only two players, it was easy to localize stuff and see how good the surround sound is. Movies are busy and it can be difficult to localize a sound and follow it. I imagine if I had better demo material available for the movies, it would have been better but I was more concerned about video games since I didn't get to hear that at Polk HQ.

For video games, I give it 5 out of 5 stars. It performed beyond my expectations in the surround sound effects and met my expectations in dynamics and accuracy. It added a touch of realism to the games and it honestly made Star Wars Battlefront more enjoyable than it already was. If you want a surround system for a video game system that doesn't take up a ton of room, this is it. Look no further! Buy yourself a SurroundBar, mount it on the wall or on top of the TV, get a cheap receiver and go to town! I was very impressed!

Overall rating: 4.33 stars out of 5

This isn't the ultimate HT system. It's supposed to compete with the HTiB systems and the likes of Bose. However, like most of Polk Audio's other products, it delivers the goods for a price that makes you feel like you stole it! Add a small sub for $200-$300 and pick up an entry level HT receiver from any major name and you have a very nice setup for less than $1500. This would work great in a bedroom, game room, kid's room or even a garage. It's unobtrusive and blends in to many decors with ease. That gives it a high WAF rating! It out-performs many of the small sub/sat HTiB systems already on the market and even out performs most of the HTiB systems that are more expensive. The only thing lacking is a 6th channel. Since most material is not distributed in 6 channels yet anyway, that's not a big deal. The "industry standard" Bose and their Acoustimass and Lifestyle systems do not compare. This sits head and shoulders above them in dynamics, accuracy and frequency response. This sounds like I am gushing but this speaker performed very well in near ideal conditions at Polk HQ and then in far from ideal conditions in my parent's home. It performed so well that my father was asking about price and where to get one and what he would need for it.

So yes, go and get this SurroundBar. I wish I had more time with it. It'd be good for almost any room in the house. I don't think it would fair well in a kitchen or a bathroom though. Anywhere else, it's a winner for sure!

[VXR8]

Great review - I'll try the XBox games too, as I haven't tried the SurroundBAR with a games console yet. Happy with both 2 channel and DVD as well.

Cheers.

[danger boy]

shipped the SurroundBar to the next person to demo it..

here is my review.

First off, the SurroundBar is heavy. Much more heft to it than I thought it would be. Heavy is good. I hoisted it up on top of my 32" tube TV and it sat there like it was made for that TV. Nice.

Since my TV is on a higher TV stand... I had to point the SurroundBar slightly downward. No problem.. the stand is secure and made it easy to aim it down or upward as needed.

Wiring is so simple.. all color coded wires... so unless you're color blind, you should have no problem at all wiring it up.

movie's. I used my fave movie that I enjoy where I know has a good surround channel in the rear. I used Black Hawk Down. Half way thru the movie I noticed that the surround channels were really lacking any ooph.. so I cranked the rear left and right channels to max.. +12. that helped quite a bit. Once I did that.. the movie really came to life and while the rear channels weren't behind me sound wise. I could hear the rear channels extend out beyond the SurroundBar itself to the left and right. Making the soundstage much wider now.

music. I have to say in my demo, the SurroundBar can't really do music well. The lack of full range front speakers really killed the live feel to any music. Even with my big ass subwoofer.. the fronts still sounded way to tinny for it to be listenable. So i did less music listening than movie watching.

Bottom line.. for those folks who don't want to wire up their house for movie watching.. it does ok for surround effects. First movie I watched it sounded to tinny. but I got used to that and it blended well with my subwoofer.

If you are used to having 5.1 or more speakers in your house and you want to try to recreate that enviroment in another room.. well, this may not quite live up to your expectations.

If you have a flat screen display and you want clutter free sound.. and have a decent subwoofer.. then this would probably satisfy your needs for a while.

Given the two weeks I had with it..I feel that it was enough time to do a fair demo with my set up. My set up is . Outlaw Audio 990 pre amp. 3 Marantz mono block amps for LCR and Adcom GFA 5400 for the surround channels. Each little speaker was getting it's own amp for the most part.. so power wasn't a problem in my case.

Taking everything into consideration.. my best score for the SurroundBar would have to be a 3 out of 5 for performance. 5 out of 5 for ease of use and build quality. Overall score equals a solid 4

[NCNog]

I purchased the SB today after much debate regarding my current setup. For the last four years, I have had a 5.1 setup with wires running along baseboards in plastic channels. The speakers in front (Monitor30) and the speakers in back (RM101) were all on stands and presented a very cluttered environment. Now, we are in the process of painting and fixing up the TV room and the decision to remove the 5.1 in favor of trying the SB has been made. I have a few questions:

1. I have a Yamaha RX-V2500. There appears to be some debate in this thread as to how to connect the SB to the amplifier and what settings to use. Should I set the speakers to "Large" or "Small"? What should I do with my powered Yamaha sub (it has a single input)?

2. Should I use the cable provided with the SB or use a higher quality cable like the MonsterXP I already have?

3. Has anyone gone from 5.1 to SB and felt it was a comparable experience?

My room is 12'W, 17' 7" deep, with 9' ceilings. The TV is in front of a half wall facing towards the living room.

[danger boy]

run the surrounBar set to small fronts. and use your Yamaha powered sub.. the SurroundBar needs a good sub to really make it happy. so you may want to upgrade your sub if it's not kicking it for you.

[NCNog]

run the surrounBar set to small fronts. and use your Yamaha powered sub.. the SurroundBar needs a good sub to really make it happy. so you may want to upgrade your sub if it's not kicking it for you.

I thought setting it to "small" would cause double filtering of the bass since the SB has a filter? My receiver can be set to output base to the sub only, none, or both. I was thinking about outputing to both with the SB set to "large" and with the sub crossover at 100-120.

[VXR8]

I thought setting it to "small" would cause double filtering of the bass since the SB has a filter? My receiver can be set to output base to the sub only, none, or both. I was thinking about outputing to both with the SB set to "large" and with the sub crossover at 100-120.

That's correct, you will double filter - read your user guide and it tells you to set all speakers to large - I have one and have it set as per Polk's instructions ;)

[NCNog]

That's correct, you will double filter - read your user guide and it tells you to set all speakers to large - I have one and have it set as per Polk's instructions ;)

I have a single sub-woofer out on my receiver. I will have to use it. So, using their alternative solution, I will set my speakers to "Large" and set the subwoofer to "Both". That way the bass will get sent to the Soundbar and properly filtered and blended with the Bass of the subwoofer.

[Eric W]

I purchased the SB today after much debate regarding my current setup. For the last four years, I have had a 5.1 setup with wires running along baseboards in plastic channels. The speakers in front (Monitor30) and the speakers in back (RM101) were all on stands and presented a very cluttered environment. Now, we are in the process of painting and fixing up the TV room and the decision to remove the 5.1 in favor of trying the SB has been made. I have a few questions:

1. I have a Yamaha RX-V2500. There appears to be some debate in this thread as to how to connect the SB to the amplifier and what settings to use. Should I set the speakers to "Large" or "Small"? What should I do with my powered Yamaha sub (it has a single input)?

With a fairly recent receiver such as the Yamaha, if you use the "sub out" to "LFE" input on the Yamaha sub, simply run all the speaker wires directly from the receiver to the SurroundBar's respective inputs. Then on the receiver's setup menu set everything to "small", crossover = 120 Hz and subwoofer = "yes".

2. Should I use the cable provided with the SB or use a higher quality cable like the MonsterXP I already have?

That is certainly up to you, however keep in mind that the Surroundbar's included cable will fit behind the speaker unobtrusively when wall mounting. If you use "aftermarket" wire, it will be considerably thicker and harder to hide.

[NCNog]

With a fairly recent receiver such as the Yamaha, if you use the "sub out" to "LFE" input on the Yamaha sub, simply run all the speaker wires directly from the receiver to the SurroundBar's respective inputs. Then on the receiver's setup menu set everything to "small", crossover = 120 Hz and subwoofer = "yes".




That is certainly up to you, however keep in mind that the Surroundbar's included cable will fit behind the speaker unobtrusively when wall mounting. If you use "aftermarket" wire, it will be considerably thicker and harder to hide.

Thanks Eric. I will get to try this this weekend and hope to have some feedback by Sunday.

[beaglemg]

run the surrounBar set to small fronts. and use your Yamaha powered sub.. the SurroundBar needs a good sub to really make it happy. so you may want to upgrade your sub if it's not kicking it for you.

I just got an Onkyo 605 and the speaker setup doesn't have the option to set to small or large...only set in Hz. Any idea how to equate small to Hz?

[RuSsMaN]

Always run the SurroundBar set to LARGE on all five channels. (as mentioned several times in this thread) It has it's own built in bandpass filter on the midwoofs.

beaglemg - set it to the lowest Hz setting your Onkyo will allow.

Cheers,
Russ

[MikeC78]

Always run the SurroundBar set to LARGE on all five channels. (as mentioned several times in this thread) It has it's own built in bandpass filter on the midwoofs.

beaglemg - set it to the lowest Hz setting your Onkyo will allow.

Cheers,
Russ

This still doesn't make any sense? Why is there a filter in the surroundbar? That's what settings in your receiver is for, correct?

This built-in filter can arise some issues for some running subs with this. As I recall, some receivers will not send LFE to the sub when in the LARGE setting in the AVR, some receivers do have a "plus" setting that will allow this workaround.

Why not make things simple like usually every other speaker for HT, set to "small / 80hz"?

[RuSsMaN]

It is simple. It keeps Joe consumer from blowing up his SurroundBar. Lots of micro-sized speaker systems have built in filtering, most just aren't aware of it.

I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'm not aware of any modern receiver (in the past 10 years) that won't send LFE to the sub with mains set to large.

Cheers,
Russ

[MikeC78]

It is simple. It keeps Joe consumer from blowing up his SurroundBar. Lots of micro-sized speaker systems have built in filtering, most just aren't aware of it.

I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I'm not aware of any modern receiver (in the past 10 years) that won't send LFE to the sub with mains set to large.

Cheers,
Russ

I guess, but that goes with anything really. "Joe consumer" could blow anything up if he doesn't know what he is doing.

As I recall, most receivers will NOT properly send the .1 channel to the sub if set to "large" in the AVR. One that comes up off the top of my head is my Pioneer AVR, unless I have the "plus" setting running.

[beaglemg]

Always run the SurroundBar set to LARGE on all five channels. (as mentioned several times in this thread) It has it's own built in bandpass filter on the midwoofs.

beaglemg - set it to the lowest Hz setting your Onkyo will allow.

Cheers,
Russ

my speaker config options are as follows:
Subwoofer: y or n
Front, Center, Surround, etc : Full Band or 40 - 200hz
LPF of LFE: 80 - 120 hz
Double Bass: on or off

If the subwoofer is set to NO, then the receiver greys out the option to tweak the fronts.

Your help is much appreciated. My sub is a Polk 404.