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Best of all - banished the wires. While others have complained about the lack of "true surround" from not having speakers physically placed behind you, I find this quite superior. Like others have mentioned, use the instructions. This provides a much more realistic sound quality in that it totally wraps around the room in much the same way that typical sound does. He loves big sound and I hate wires running all over the house.
Lows and low, highs are high and the rest is very crisp clean sound. We originally attempted a different configuration and the results were inferior.in fact, we thought something was wrong with the speaker so took the time to review everything, realized our mistake and were very pleasantly surprised by the superior sound quality. When we recently purchased a new television set decided to give this a try. Plain and simple, we had an ongoing problem. We already owned a sub-woofer so hooked this into the stereo receiver, connected the television and dvd - great sound, no ugly mess of wires and easy installation.
At least to my sensory input, I've always hated the "disconnect" between seeing something on a screen in front but hearing it behind you.
An 8" is too small to balance out with the SurroundBar effectively. But I digress.My decision after reading the reviews on the SurroundBar from Polk was to try it out and keep the room clean of wires. But I hate looking at wires as I get older, and prefer my current home to be as wire free as possible. Wireless rear speaker setups are a better option, where you have one receiver and two mini-amps connected to the rears. Your room dynamics will affect how the speaker sounds granted, my parlor room is a near perfect cube and pretty large. I will add some wireless rears and run a 7.1 surround setup, since I have the amazing Onkyo TX-SR576S receiver (new also). The super low roofline makes running wires in the attic to the edges of the room virtually impossible, so my only real option was either wireless or a surroundbar setup. There's just not that certain sound you get from a hard wired speakers.
It does sound fantastic, no doubt. Get the matching Polk PSW10 sub, or a similar 10" forward firing sub. I've been a home theater buff for years now, and have only had "true" 5.1 or 7.1 surround setups, with obligatory wires everywhere and unhappy wife as a result (wives I'm convinced care little about home theater, just it works is about it.). Unless you plan on spending a mint, wireless speakers are pretty good at being surrounds or iPod accessories but that's about it. No, you will not get the same effect as you do with speakers that are behind you.
It seems there wasn't even an attempt to QC the package prior to sending out to the next customer. The speakers are great, but I was disappointed that Amazon (ordered direct) sent a package that had obviously been previously returned, contained the wrong manuals, and was missing the hardware necessary to attach the speaker to the wall mount bracket. :(
Good looking but lacks "umph". Not as good at simulating Surrond as I hoped for the price.
I bought an open box that ended up being about 75% off MSRP so for that price it certainly was a great deal. I still have my full 7.1 system boxed up for when my 10 month old grows up a bit and stops trying to knock the floor standing speakers over, but for now this certainly fits the bill. I did already have a 5.1 receiver and a decent subwoofer. It's more like 3.1 with allot of ambiance. It does look great and really cleans up a room. I'll be short and sweet, it sounds good, not great. If you want something that comes close to a 5.1 surround experience in a 1 speaker package I would recommend it. If I had to purchase them on top of the speaker, I might have looked at the Yamaha solutions.
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