My trip to Polk... A very exciting trip.

[madmax]

Hey guys,
I went to Polk Audio on Thursday to pick up the "Polk Audio Logo" I won off of ebay. Let me tell you, the people at Polk are the nicest group of people you would ever want to meet. Micah met me (and my friend Glen who I took with me) at the entrance. The first thing I noticed was a pair of ancient Polk speakers in the main hallway. Micah took us from there to engineering. We met several people and talked about several things. After Engineering we made our way past the lunch room (which has Matts special espresso machine) to the CAD/Drafting department (my friend used to do CAD stuff for them) and met a very competant CAD operator. I think there were 4 or 5 of them all together. There were some very cool designs sitting on his desk. Along the way we were asked not to look too closely at some new "cutting edge" speakers sitting next to a their area. I could tell you about them but I like living too much. After that we made our way through a long hallway with various models of speakers sitting all over the place. They actually had a set of the SDA 1.2's sitting there. Still a little hope for the SDA series, I hope. This company has speakers all over the place. You can tell the sound of the speakers is very important to them. We ended up at a demo room. I was given the center chair and watched a few concert DVD's. WOW! Perfect soundstage and integration of a full HT system including LSi 25's, LSi center, a PSW 650 and some great surround speakers. Micah can correct me if I've made any mistakes. The sound was absolutely flawless! I think they used a Theta processor and a Conrad Johnson 5 channel amplifier. I was treated like a king from the moment I entered the building. Thanks Micah!!! It was a real thrill to sit in the Polk Demo room and get my own personal demo. I sat there for a few minutes looking at the Polk logo all over the place and once the lights went down and the sound came up I was in heaven! CC does not do the newer Polks justice. All in all, this was the best demo I have had. Sitting in the Polk building and getting this special treatment was as good as it gets. Almost a feeling of power. I will remember my trip to Polk for quite some time. After that we walked back to the auto section where the very qualified workers were fitting up a sub on a test vehicle. On the way there I notice a huge woodworking shop. I'm sure they could make any test box you can think of. I couldn't help but to notice that every worker in the Polk building had a big smile on their face. Don't let Micah tell you there is any better place to work. I got a feeling of happiness and excitement from the time I entered the building until I left. Unfortutunatly Matt was out at the time. I would have liked to have met him and Kenneth Swager as well to hear of his audio equipment building pursuits. I will post some pics of the logo when I get them. Polk is a VERY cool place! Very cool!
Thanks again Micah,
madmax

[briancs]

Sounds like a hell of a trip. Congrats on being able to get your real LSi demo on. I went to wal-mart this weekend:)

[joe logston]

sounds like a lot of great people at polk audio, no wonder that polk speakers are so good, thanks madmax for this post, dam good post.

[nascarmann]

I want to go........:(

[Micah Cohen]

Hey madmax001, it was a PLEASURE meeting you (and your friend) and showing you around. I am really happy you dug that LSi demo (I had some reservations -- too muddy? room not calibrated correctly? the TV ratio wasn't set properly and the surrounds were shaking the telephone off the wall!), but I wish we could have sat in there all day and just played music and movie bits to listen to on the LSi's!

You know, really: If you (you, you or you) are coming to the area, give me a good head's up and I'll try to set something up. It's very cool meeting Polk fans, and putting on demos gets me the hell out of my cave-office for a while. Plus, it is pretty cool.

Madmax001, be sure to send pix of the giant logo when you get it set up! I can't wait to see it! Thanks for the great post, too!

Micah

PS -- Everyone here is smiling because we pump nitrious oxide thru the building AC. Don't be fooled.

[LiquidSound]

MadMax, did you go to Maryland or California?
Micah, what's the difference between the two locations? I think the Cali location is more for production.
Can you give me details on the Maryland location?..directions, cost of demo if any, bringing my own music/dvd's, how long the demo lasts, who can I bribe to let me stay overnight, and most importantly......can I bring beer.:D If so, is there a certain brand I should bring?*hint*hint*
Once I get some new wheels, I'm Polkward bound.
Thanks for the info chief.

[Ron-P]

Did Micah give you anything cool from his sock drawer?


Peace Out~:D

[Steve@3dai]

I feel a TX to MD roadtrip coming on :)

Phuz, you with me?!

[phuz]

Lets go Steve!

[Aaron]

You guys might as well pick Russ up on the way. I'll meet you there.

Aaron

[Micah Cohen]

Oh jezuz, look what I've started. Paul's gonna kill me.

Hey, listen, I meant if anyone is ever just passing thru (Baltimore) and wants to stop in, I'd be happy to entertain you. Don't make a pilgrimage -- it just ain't worth it.

No cost -- If you're in the area and want to stop by, just give me a good head's up so I can prep. (We have tons of cool demo stuff here, but if you got something you'd like to hear, by all means bring it.) Map the address online and you'll know where we are, Northwest Baltimore about 10 minutes outside the central city. And you can bring beer. Dark beer. Maybe Paul'll go easier on me if you offer beer.

Baltimore is headquarters, as it has been since 1972. All the paper work happens here. CA is mostly shipping, QA, and some tech stuff. I've never been to the CA location, so I don't know what it looks like. Has anyone else been there?

Don't make a pilgrimage, you goofs. If you HAPPEN TO BE AROUND, it'd be cool to meetcha. If you drive from Texas you're a wacko! You hear me?! :D

Micah

[Strong Bad]

You know if you ever ever EVER feel like getting out of work, then just send me an email and I'll be happy to stop in for a looooooong demo. Heck, I'm only about a half hour drive away.

I'll be more than happy to take care of Paul by offering him a few beers at the strip club (aka...work). Naked women and beer....what a country!

And before I'm hounded by everyone else, you can come along to the strip club also. I think I can afford a few more beers.

John

[madmax]

Originally posted by Micah
Oh jezuz, look what I've started. Paul's gonna kill me.

Hey, listen, I meant if anyone is ever just passing thru (Baltimore) and wants to stop in, I'd be happy to entertain you. Don't make a pilgrimage -- it just ain't worth it :D

Micah

I think a pilgrimage might be worth it if you are a real Polk enthusiast! I totally enjoyed myself. Right down the road from Polk is a Fuddruckers. "Worlds Greatest Hamburgers" Made for a great lunch before the demo.

Micah, let me know if you ever auction off one of those cool huge Polk rugs. (hint, hint)

madmax

[fireshoes]

Sounds cool. You should have a promotion for sales people to win a trip there. Not that I don't love your current promotion! I just ordered some RTi70's. ;)

[Steve@3dai]

Actually, I've never been to the east coast, so I think it's a worthy excuse for a vacation.

Plus, I owe Paul lunch or something :)

[Micah Cohen]

Well, if you're buying Paul lunch, I'm sure he'd demo your head right off!

What's it like never having been to the real, eh, ehem, East coast? I've been to Austin. How come you haven't been here?

... Those rugs are cool, huh? We recently got those made for shows. We at first thought about selling them or auctioning them off, but we like them. And we need them now for shows anyway. But they are cool! I want one, too.

John, the key is to bring the girls to Polk. Duh.

MC

[madmax]

Aw... shucks.
madmax

[Thom]

Hey Micah, when can I get a demo of the nice stuff?

[Aaron]

Hey Micah, when can I get a demo of the nice stuff?

Never! Didn't you see the sign on the demo room door? "No car audio guys allowed." :D

Aaron

[RBreak]

Micah, you might not know but I thought I'd ask anyway, do you know what CAD software the guys in the CAD/Drafting dept. use? I work in CAD, we work with three different CAD software platforms right now; Pro-E (Pro-Engineer), Procam (Teksoft), and Flowpath/Flowcut (for the waterjet). We have been through a few others through the years also (Microstation). If my employer ever shows me the door, maybe I could work for Polk! Just curious, Thanks. --Rob

[Micah Cohen]

Polk CAD guys use Pro-E and Pro-Mechanica to design and engineer the cutting edge loudspeakers of tomorrow, today.

MC!

[RBreak]

Thanks for the info! Very cool, we use Pro-Mechanica also (the fly-through and mechanical motion is very cool). It's kind of neat that my home theater speakers were designed on the same CAD software I use every day at work. I never really thought of how they were designed before. Thanks again, --Rob

[mantis]

The guys from Texas are Wacko..even if they take the trip or not.

Micah,
offering a demo chance at Polk????I might need to drive down there and get my demo on.And I can bring some of my own stuff???thats even better.

You guys are just to cool......I couldn't dream of leaving.
Besides I couldn't argue with ToryD and Russman with Aaron's quarky little posts on the side....

[Micah Cohen]

All I need's some advance notice -- a good week or so. I'm sure I can work something out.

MC

[RuSsMaN]

Chuck, you still got that thing?

[TroyD]

That was a cool item...

BDT