Polk, really?

kach22i

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Were there any worthy mid-fi or high-end Polk loudspeakers pre-2000's?

My exposure to Polk is limited to living with Polk's (big boxes on short stands) for a couple weeks on loan in the early 1980's, they were nothing special (flawed) compared to other speakers and way overpriced in my opinion. Flat and shallow sounding but could take some power, the moderate listening levels were un-involving to put it nicely.

Compared to the similarly sized but 1/2-1/3 the cost Audio Lab (Fisher drivers) speakers I had, I liked my overly warm speakers much better.

My other experience was at a hi-end store in the early 1990's, it was one of their larger floor standers, it sounded like flat cardboard to put it nicely. The Polks were a total embarrassment compared to the B&W and Martin Logan's in the same price range. The store was trying to decide if they were going to pick up the line or not, they decided against.

So when come car guys started talking about loudspeakers and Polk came up 3-4 times and had to think that maybe I was missing something.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1028881-looking-speaker-recommendations.html

What did I miss?

Did Polk ever make any good speakers?

I'm thinking of the Polk SDA in particular.

Tell me about them.
 
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NorthStar

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Polk, do they use anechoic chambers to measure and test their speakers?

I never owned Polk products (speakers), none. I know nothing about them, only from what I've read since the 70s. Yes, I remember the SDA reviews. One of the dealers from way back carried their line. I was dealing with another dealer...Canadian and British speakers.
...Mirage, B&W, Meridian, Energy, Image, ... Paradigm later on.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/speaker/floor-standing/polk-audio-t50-speakers-review/
That's pretty good value for budget towers ($129 each). It fits the young budget segment of hi-fi stereo clientele. Hi-end no way, lo-end yes way.

Polk was founded in 1972.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polk_Audio
 

mulveling

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I had the displeasure of owning Polk Lsi 15, several years ago. The Lsi was their "highest end" line from early 2000s, now replaced by the Lsim. Bad speaker for 2ch, bad purchase. Just OK for home theater use. The Lsi 9 and Lsi 25 models were actually capable of being quite listenable, but certainly not anywhere near high-end. After I heard my first Tannoy, I wanted to drop-kick the Lsi to the curb. Their bread and butter for a long time has been the cheap tower speakers for big box retailers. Heard some Rti towers setup at a friend's house, and those can be OK for what they are.

I know the SDA's are revered by some - and I haven't heard em, but geez time and technology marches on. They really LOOK like they were build in the 70s/80s. They'll look way out of place in any modern high-end setup. And they never were one of the "real" vintage legends like Tannoy DC etc.
 
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kach22i

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Full page ads in Stereo Review with Mr. Polk in a white lab coat must have convinced a few that their ears were lying to them is my guess.

The photo of some floor standers in the car thread sitting a few inches from the wall and flanked in by rack equipment leads me to hold on to my original opinion.

Every company can make one good piece of equipment, what was the Polk product?
 

Nooshinjohn

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I currently own the SDA-SRS 1.2TL’s. They have been fully restored with much better caps/resistors, better isolation transformer and other upgrades. I find they respond quite well to better gear and amplification. I won’t pretend for a second that they are the greatest speaker in the world, but the are damned good. For the money I have invested in them, it would take a speaker several orders of magnitude more expensive to equal or better them.

Given my room is 19 feet by 15 feet, finding one that works as well in that space would also be tough.
 
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Nooshinjohn

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Full page ads in Stereo Review with Mr. Polk in a white lab coat must have convinced a few that their ears were lying to them is my guess.

The photo of some floor standers in the car thread sitting a few inches from the wall and flanked in by rack equipment leads me to hold on to my original opinion.

Every company can make one good piece of equipment, what was the Polk product?
If you live in SoCal, and are open to changing your impressions, I welcome you to bring your favorite recordings and take my rig for a spin.
 

kach22i

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If I ever get to visit my cousins in California I might take you up on that.

Do you have any experience or exposure to the mini-frig sized Polks of the 1980's-1990's?

A lot of bad speakers in that era.

The Infinity with EMIT tweeter same rough size as the SDA-SRS 1.2TL is really impressive, but what the SDA-SRS 1.2TL reminds me of is some of the current McIntosh speakers.

The Mac's don't sound bad, but for the money they should blow one away in my opinion.

Infinity did small and large speakers well, other companies did just the mid-sized speakers well.

I'm just trying to figure out Polk as I've heard the medium and medium large sized ones in different decades and both were flat as cardboard. I really need to keep an eye out for the larger Polk's if I ever go to another AudioKarma show - hope to change my mind.
 
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Nooshinjohn

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I have heard most every Polk speaker made... and yes, there has been some pretty bad ones, but you also have to take many factors into account. My Polk's are the size of the mini-fridge you speak of, and all of the SDA type speakers need room to breathe. Minimum recommendations are three feet off the side walls and 4 feet between them. This was not achievable in most retail locations that displayed them, and at nearly 200 pounds, they are not easily moved around, so it was very difficult to nearly impossible to set them up properly.

Polk also never set out to play in the ultra-high end pool. They were very happy and successful building a product that held their own against much more expensive speakers at a price most could afford, and to a large extent, they succeeded. I agree that today's Polk is a company I would not give a second listen to, as it is mostly soundbars that seem to have a mind of their own, but given the right gear behind them, and properly restored, they can be a terrific speaker. Mine are a blast to listen to even at low volume.
 

kach22i

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I've never seen your speakers in person, but I would call them full sized refrigerator sized (random Internet photo below).

A mini-frig is about 30-inches high.

http://www.lasareath.com/html/87 - Me with my 1.2's - There not that big, I'm still Bigger!!! LOL.htm


What I find so disturbing is this is the second large Polk that's been smooshed to the wall.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1028881-looking-speaker-recommendations.html
 

kach22i

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Nooshinjohn

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Holy crap that is an old picture. This is what I have now... And 6 inches from the back wall is considered nominal. You can push them back even more, or bring them forward a bit, but I have found the factory recommendation of 6 inches to be best. image.jpg image.jpg
 
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kach22i

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Holy crap that is an old picture. This is what I have now... And 6 inches from the back wall is considered nominal. You can push them back even more, or bring them forward a bit, but I have found the factory recommendation of 6 inches to be best.

Interesting, matches what I've been seeing and that is different than most other speakers.

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/183402/polk-audio-sda-srs-placement
checked the owners manual and it mentions they should be right up against the wall, that didn't work for me

After reading the above I went and skimmed though the owner manual of the SRS/SDA, pictures show the speakers close to the wall and explain about some signal canceling going on but I did not get the 6-inches part, but can be assumed from the diagrams.

List:
https://polksda.com/manuals.shtml

I will say that I don't think that based on the years made that I've head any of the original SDA series speakers.

I probably have heard one of the monitors in the early 1980's and tower RTA's in early 1990's.

https://polksda.com/list.shtml

I've heard things before and after.

Now I'm very curious.

EDIT:
I'm reading this 1985 Stereo Review article now, very interesting.

https://polksda.com/srsreview.shtml
 
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kach22i

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1986
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-09-19-8603100317-story.html
On your first listening to these speakers the SDA effect really grabs you. Voices and instruments do seem to emanate from areas outside the speakers. The better the recording and the simpler the recording technique, the more impressive the effect becomes. However, after extended listening the faults of the SDA-CRS+ become tiresome.
These speakers have an unusual tonal balance, and although you can`t fault them for insufficient or excessive bass and treble, the overall balance seems wrong. Furthermore, they lack clarity, with music seeming vaguely veiled. Although the SDA provides a wide stereo field (which also allows you to hear stereo from more places in the room), the image blurs in places. Thus you should audition these speakers with a variety of music to see if the enticing SDA effect outshines the speaker`s imperfections.
 

Nooshinjohn

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Rich Warren doesn’t know what he is talking about. What were his testing methods? How long did he listen to them, and where? What is the associated equipment? What type of speaker wire? How were they set up? Were they broken in yet? Did he use the SDA cable and a common ground amp?

As I said previously, the speakers can only reproduce what is fed to them. Crap in, crap out... they also respond best to high current, high power amplification.
 
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DSkip

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Stock SDA are forgettable to me. I’ve never complained about their tone but understand the veil and muddy aspect. Like any speaker though (especially those built to lower price points) upgrades completely transform them. I’ve heard a highly modified pair of 2.3tl pre and post mods and the difference was staggering.

The modded pairs are speakers I can respect, yet also speakers that I’d never seek out to own for personal reference. They also have updated tweeters for these models that really help their performance.
 

kach22i

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What I did like about the old Rich Warren/Chicago Tribune article is he mentioned Bob Carver's Sonic Hologram, but did not mention Quadraphonic, and early surround sound delay systems and by 1986 Pro-Logic surround sound.

This helped put in context what Matthew Polk was attempting to do, and his contribution to altering the limits of what we call stereo can be filed with other efforts by Koss, Klipsch, Bose, McIntosh, Carver, DBX, Dolby, and many others (panel guys too) that dared to color outside the lines or think out of the box.

I'm more interested than ever in hearing a Polk array, even a modified set.
 
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Nooshinjohn

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Stock SDA are forgettable to me. I’ve never complained about their tone but understand the veil and muddy aspect....

The muddiness and veiled aspects tend to disappear when they are upgraded, but they really came to life with the introduction of Audioquest Meteor full bi-wires, and the Audioquest WEL's that connect my amps to the Pass X0.2.

Just shoot me a PM... my rig is available to listen to any time!
 
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