Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat sounding Alexa for the entertainment room
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2019
This is a TV sound bar with Alexa built in and a wireless subwoofer for deep bass. The sound bar measures approximately 43”x 4.5” x 2” and the subwoofer measures 14” high x 13” x 6”. Each piece has its own independent power supply. The connection between the sound bar and the subwoofer is wireless; the pieces pair with each other automatically, although they have buttons for manually pairing if necessary and indicator lights to show pairing status. The sound bar is designed to lay flat on a shelf in front of your TV or hang on your wall below your TV using the included screw inserts. Also included in the package are a remote control (powered by 2 AAA batteries, included), a 6.5’ HDMI cable, a 6’ optical cable, the 2 power cords, and a paper manual in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.
Ports on the soundbar include HDMI (ARC) for input from your TV, Optical for input from your TV, HDMI 2 for video streaming input, HDMI 1 (not explained in the manual), USB output (not explained in the manual), and power in. There are buttons on the top surface of the sound bar to control volume up/down, mute, and “Action” (not explained). LED lights surrounding these buttons indicate sound bar connectivity status. The remote allows you to control volume up/down, sound mode (movie, sports, music), bass up/down, voice up/down, source (TV inputs, Bluetooth), HDMI sources (1, 2), mute, night mode, or “Action” (lower volume to use Alexa). Also, back, play, pause (for music controls?). Of course, the remote isn’t necessary once you set up the sound bar to work with Alexa since you can run all these controls by voice with Alexa. To use Alexa, you need to download the Polk Connect app on a device (like a phone or tablet) and setup the sound bar on your network using the app. Then enable the Polk Connect skill for Alexa, and you’re all set for voice controls.
I like the sound of this Polk soundbar set, although it took a little thinking outside the box to get it connected. I use a projection system in my entertainment room instead of a TV. My projector has a single output, an RCA digital cable. The soundbar has very limited options for inputs, basically just HDMI, optical cable, or Bluetooth. For my old speaker system, I had a digital to analog converter for getting sound to a standard 3.5mm analog aux cable, which I could input directly into my speaker system. No such luck with the Polk, which has no RCA inputs (digital or analog) and no 3.5 aux cable inputs. So I had to get an additional converter to get from the 3.5mm aux cable to the soundbar. I found a Bluetooth transmitter that accepts a 3.5 mm aux cable, and I was planning on sending the audio to the soundbar from the transmitter to soundbar via Bluetooth. I wasn’t excited about adding yet more Bluetooth transmissions to my house. But fortunately, the Bluetooth converter device has a passthrough mode with optical out. So my signal goes from my projector via digital RCA to a converter to get to analog 3.5 mm aux, to the Bluetooth transmitter which simply converts 3.5 aux to optical out to the soundbar. And it works. But phew! Too bad Polk doesn’t simply include some more input options on this soundbar. If you happen to have an older TV or gaming set, you’re going to need to check your sound output options carefully and perhaps stock up on a stack of converters to get the sound into the Polk in an acceptable format (HDMI ARC or optical).
Once I got the sound into a format the soundbar would accept, I was quite delighted with the performance of the system. The sound is delicious and deep for movies, and I can easily bring up voices for dialog-heavy viewing. The Alexa controls work well. I can control lights and plugs all over the house with the soundbar. And the soundbar cooperates well with my other Alexa units.
Overall, this soundbar produces great sound quality and the Alexa controls work well. With this unit in your entertainment room, you won’t need any other Alexa units in the room. But keep in mind that sound inputs are limited, so if you want to connect this soundbar to devices besides a very up-to-date TV, you will need at least 1, and maybe more, converters.
