|
I went with a polk 8" psw111 speaker. I'm not sure if it gives you a true '360' feel since i have never owned a sound system with speakers all around, but i do know it's a HUGE improvement from your tv speakers.This is a great product for people who don't want, or can't have, wires and speakers everywhere. This is a great product for people who can't have a true surround sound system with speakers behind them. This is the closest thing i could find for that.Very easy to hook up. get a good RCA cable, the polk 360 has a "sub out" output, connect both and you are ready to go)The sound quality is really amazing. Plug it in and you are ready to rock.Even though the 360 theater system says you don't need a subwoofer, i disagree. Me, i like action movies and wanted the true 'rumble' for the explosions.
All you need is a speaker wire (the subwoofer does NOT come with ANY wire to hook up the sub. It's small and doesn't take up too much space.
Ran one from the polk box to my blu ray player and another one from my cable box to the polk box. You can control the volume from the speaker so you can use it when you want, or turn it down when you don't want it.
I have hard wood floors so i couldn't hide the speaker wire and i didn't want to have to drill holes in my walls and run wire.Also, since i had a HDTV and a blu ray player, i didn't want to pay for a system that included an additional blu ray player, i wanted most, if not all, the money i was going to spend to go towards sound quality. Great addition.
A+ product. All you need is digital optical cables (it comes with one).
If you don't care about bass or don't like to watch action movies, just want nice and clear sound, then no subwoofer is needed.
It is a very complete sound system when you consider the included receiver/dvd player. The Polk 360 Surround bar produces a fantastic sound in my living room.
I'm happy with my purchase & feel like I got my money's worth. I'm surprised that even without a subwoofer, that it was able to give me a full range of sound, acceptable surround, and actually rattles this good sized room a bit. I found this counter-intuitive, so I waited to learn some more before deciding. I now attribute that to the fact that all three were in a big open room, which puts the sound bar designs at a disadvantage.
I never could get anybody at Best Buy or Queen City to give me any kind of decent demo on it; so I don't know that the Yamaha was fairly represented from a sound standpoint in my comparison. The living room at my girlfriends place where this system is at & where I spend alotta time, has no back wall & plus has only hardwood floors. If I had it to do again; I believe I would have looked at the Yamaha a bit harder, but feel like I still would have come to the same conclusion in the end. Voices were loud enough and clear enough, but music & background sounds were just not full enough for my tastes. Every wire originates from the subwoofer bass module, then to the satellites & the receiver. Even after, either buying more wire, or splicing them; they still would be a nightmare to hide.
Just not enough Bass, and not full enough range. There really just isn't a non-ghetto way to have rear satellite speakers of a true surround sound system in this room. but, I found the controls and menus to be clunky like a car stereo & i didn't feel like my girlfriend would be able (or willing) to go through like I would and figure out what each of the countless menu items actually does. So now I was down to the Yamaha & the Polk surroundbar. A "gotcha" design in my opinion. The wires from the bass module to the two satellites aren't long enough out of the box. Now that i've since paired it with the wireless JBL 12" subwoofer, I've got to say that it has probably 90% of the sound of my full polk 5.1 system at my place; but without any of the wires or rear speakers. My only con is that I wish the SurroundBar 360 system I purchased was avilable as Blue Ray and not just DVD only.creekbankstroller@hotmail.com
So, I had to decide between these three; so I went and listened to all three at Best Buy. Plus, As i have my own Polk RMDS-1 System at home, I was just pretty disappointed with the Bose 121 GSX by comparison. In the end, it wouldn't mount nicely above the 50 inch plasma (due to its weight & needing to be mounted to the wall) or to the top of the Plasma, and I didnt want it hanging off of the front of her Mantle where the TV is in order to mount the Yamaha ysp below her TV's screen.I ordered the surroundbar from Amazon, & then I went to crutchfield and ordered the Polk Brackets for mounting it to the top of the TV, and now you can not see any wires to or from the Polk's receiver or the DishTV HD receiver. In the store, the Bose sounded better than either the Polk soundbar, or the yamaha ysp. I like the fact that the yamaha has 3 hdmi inputs which gives far more future expandability. Plus the Bose had to be eliminated for their screwy wiring. One of my workmates has the Bose at his house, so I made the special trip to go and hear his all set up correctly. While I do think Bose makes good stuff & I'm pretty impressed with my Bose sound dock portable; I still wouldn't want it to be my theater system.
The hookup took about 1/2 an hour including taking my time to mount my soundbar on the wall above the plasma tv and routing my cables. Now I have an amazing system in a small package without a bunch of speakers mounted to the walls and cables running everywhere. I bought the Polk Audio Surroundbar 360 theater system to work with my 50" Panasonic 1080 Plasma. The bar by itself sounds good but doesn't have very good sounding bass so I also purchased a Polk PSW-111 powered subwoofer to go with the system to give it that rich deep bass it was lacking.
Polk Audio SurroundBAR 360-Degree DVD Theater (Black)I just purchased this unit last week and have been using it daily. When you're listening to a concert, it really sounds like you're there. The price at Best Buy with tax was about $150 more than the least expensive vendor at Amazon and they were unwilling to negotiate, so their loss is Amazon's gain. I also liked the ability to return it directly to Amazon in case I wasn't happy with it.First, let me say that the sound in general is fantastic on both HD Cable, Music stations/MP3s, and standard DVD with optical audio run directly from the units to the Polk Receiver.
Once you get the subwoofer on there, the explosions and engine rumble sound awesome.I wouldn't say that the surround sound is 100% as true as you'll find on a 5.1 or 7.1 system, but it's pretty damn effective, no matter where you are in the room. As a previous review mentioned, it's not the loudest thing you've ever heard, but it has plenty of volume for the average listener -- Star Wars III & IV, Kung Fu Panda, The Rock, and Saving Private Ryan have all sounded great so far. I have a 60W Infinity subwoofer that I ran to it and it made a HUGE difference (for the better). One discovery I did make, though, is that if you're sitting/standing a few feet away from the rear wall(s), as opposed to right up against them, the surround effect is further enhanced (I have heard this is true of the Yamaha Surround Bar as well). I'm thinking about picking up a 100W unit to see if there is any noticeable improvement. I saw a demo unit at Best Buy that sounded great even in that big open space, so I figured the sound in my den (16'x14') would be as good if not better, and I've not been disappointed.
You can crank the volume all the way to 50 and there is no distortion.I will tell you, however, that anyone who says that you don't need an external subwoofer is insane (this means you, Polk marketing department), because this thing doesn't have a lot of bass as a standalone. But, even if you're sitting up against the walls, as I am, the sound is really good.There are a few cons, however, so I'll list both the pros & cons below:PROS:* Sound is awesome when combined with an external subwoofer* Unit is VERY simple to set up* Remote is easy to use and program to control your other equipment (TV, DVD, Cable Box, etc).* Bass adjustment button on the remote itself is a nice feature* Speaker fits & looks great* Surround receiver with Dolby Digital & DTS decoding is included in the package* No messy wires around your baseboards or holes in your walls/ceilingsCONS:* NO HDMI INPUTS on the receiver (this is the #1 biggest negative I have with this unit)* Remote doesn't light up & small buttons are kind of hard to see in the dark* Audio not really customizable (no EQ or really any way to manipulate the sound other than Treble/Bass)* DVD player on the receiver is only 1080i (wish it was 1080p so I could get rid of my other DVD player)* Non-standard audio cable from the receiver to the speaker (means you can only use it with this receiver)I wish Polk would have just included 3 DVI inputs on the receiver and made their DVD player 1080p, but all-in-all I am very happy with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good surround solution without the hassle of wiring. Yes, I paid a little extra to get it directly from Amazon rather than from the cheapest listed seller, but I wanted it the next day & am a Prime member so I still saved about $80 over Best Buy. Music, in particular, sounds much fuller and richer than the Sony 7.1 surround sound system w/ Infinity speakers that it replaced in that room.
|
