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Polk Audio SurroundBAR 360-Degree DVD Theater (Black) |
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| Price: Too low to display |
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | You just bought a new flat panel, wide screen HDTV. All you need is some great sound to go with that beautiful picture. How do you feel about installing speakers all around your room and running wires everywhere to add surround sound to your new TV? Don't worry, there's an easier way. The SurroundBar 360° DVD Theater is the best performing single-speaker surround sound theater system on the market. Polk Audio's exclusive patented SDA Surround Digital Technology eliminates the need for rear speakers. Our patented PowerPort Bass Venting Technology, advanced Digital Signal Processing and Neodymium motor structures create "built-in subwoofer bass" eliminating the need for a separate subwoofer.
A technological breakthrough featuring a host of innovations including a multifunction CD/DVD player with Faroudja DCDi video upscaler, AM/FM tuner and high-performance digital amplifier, the SurroundBar 360° DVD Theater offers tremendous value for your entertainment system. It can play your DVDs, CDs, MP3 and JPEG and Kodak photo discs and has a USB input for memory stick readers. You can also connect any video game, satellite/cable TV box, MP3 player or other external source. With its sleek two piece design, the SurroundBar 360° DVD Theater can complement any TV.
SDA stands for Stereo Dimensional Array, a patented Polk Audio exclusive*. Matthew Polk describes SDA Surround Technology as "a mixture of acoustical engineering, psychoacoustic principles and a little magic." To understand how SDA Surround Technology creates 360 degree surround sound, we must understand how sound works and how you perceive sound. Our ears are positioned at the sides of our head so we can distinguish exactly what direction a sound is coming from. The tiny difference in intensity and arrival time from one ear to the other allows us to sense immediately from which direction sound is coming. | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| | Observations
Pros: Built like a tank
Simple setup
Cool factor of 10
Cons:
Should have blue ray at this price point.
Frankly I think it needs a subwoofer, Tried it for a few days with a Polk subwoofer and without. Yes it sounds decent without a sub, but only decent, not great. I have yet to hear anything even close to 5.1 or any type of surround. Upon contacting Polk, I was advised that this bar was NOT (unlike the soundbar series) designed to be used above the tv only below with the optimal placement directly in the front of the tv. Frankly the soundbar sitting in front of a 56 inch tv looks horrible, under it it looks built in. Polk indicating that could affect the sound field. Well thats just cute, the whole POINT of this system was it was supposed to give you the 5.1 effect regardless of placement or your position in the room!
It is a nice system, could use a tad more volume, not amazing with the surround, even though the wide open setup I heard at best buy was nothing short of amazing, but in my 12 X 12 living room, far less than spectacular.
Finally save your money, at this price point the 360 is not ready for prime time. If you are looking for solid tight sound in a high end soundbar this is it. If you are expecting the results Polk claims you will be badly disappointed.
My old 5.1 theater in a box $300.00 system sounded a tad better frankly.
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| Not a bad solution, but.... | |
| | The biggest issue I have with this unit that while it advertises HDMI connectivity it really doesn't have it. If you have a basic setup like me (1080p tv, set top box and a blu-ray player), you can only connect them by degrading picture quality or - as I have - use the optical audio tv output to connect to the dvd player's optical audio input and forego all other functionality of the dvd player. Not very impressive, given that owning a ps3 or a blu-ray player and therefore wanting to use full hdmi connectivity is not exactly the highest level of sophistication in late 2008.
Sound is not 360 degree (as much as we'd all want it to be), but it's a great replacement for the tv speakers. The system looks good, fits nicely in front of the tv and causes little clutter.
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| As good as 5.1 Surround Sound Reproduction gets... | |
| | This is a copy/paste of my review i posted over at CNET...
Pros:
- best surround sound reproduction i have heard to date
- no subwoofer needed, bass sounds true!
- easy to set up, easy to configure, easy to use
- excellent price compared to other high end virtual surround sound systems
Cons:
- could use a few more notches of volume
- lack of equalizer and presets (no fine tuning of sound)
- no HDMI inputs for audio or video passthrough
I had previously owned a Philips Soundbar and always seemed to want more from it - better 5.1 surround sound reproduction, more inputs, and better sound quality. I looked at the Yamaha's but the price and its lack of compatibility with my apartment layout (works best with square room, solid walls on all sides) kept me away. Along came the Polk SurroundBAR 360. It did everything my Philips Soundbar did, but better.
The sound from the system is fantastic. You obviously are not going to be tricked into thinking you have a set of rear speakers, but the processor in this system got the reproduction right. There is a near perfect balance of the various simulated speakers (center, front right and left, rear right and left and subwoofer). Other "soundbar" systems I have tested had problems with voice and center channel sounds, almost always being hollow and full of reverb and echo. Standard PCM or Stereo sources also provide a full, rich sound spectrum - something the Philips lacked. Another amazing thing about this system is the lack of a subwoofer. For an average sized apartment like mine, plenty of full bass is output through the single speaker unit. For those wanting to add a subwoofer, there is an input.
As well as the system reproduced sounds from all types of encodings (Dolby Digital, DTS, PCM) I still wish I had the ability to tweak a little more. Maybe this system is playing all of the audio tracks as the producers have intended it, but it's always in my nature to tweak.
The system is extremely easy to setup. The video quality from the DVD player is very good (not the best I have watched). The remote is simple (although I have a Harmony Universal Remote).
Hopefully CNET can throw up a full review sometime soon. In the meantime, check the manufacturer's website for the full specs of this unit and explanations of the technology behind it. As somewhat of an video and audiophile who is limited by his living arrangements on what he can setup in a hometheater, I highly recommend this system.
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