Polk Subwoofer

Review by Alan Rose : Definitely met expectations

After much research and review reading, I decided to purchase a sound bar from a speaker manufacturer, and not from a multifaceted electronics company which may make speaker systems as a sideline. In addition, I've had experience with Polk speakers, some of which make up part of a home theater setup that I have in my living room. The 3000 was purchased for a weekend house master bedroom where I didn't want to fuss with wiring a surround sound setup. The sound bar is not perfection, but it is 1000 times better than the speakers that came with my 46" Samsung LCD TV (those speakers fire back towards the wall creating a somewhat muddled sound). Setup was a breeze. So was programming the sound system to work with my TV and Satellite remotes. The sound from the sound bar is clear and precise, and it seems to pick up nuances that are in movie tracks, which I had never noticed previously. The subwoofer nicely rounds out the sound at the low frequency end. However, don't expect it to produce earth shattering bass. At very loud volumes, it will rattle, but under reasonably loud "normal" volumes it works just fine. All in all, it is far better than the TV's speakers, but if you expect true surround sound, forget it. If clarity and overall sound quality is your goal, you will certainly be satisfied. There is a definite sense of spaciality and a room-filling "largeness" with this system. If you like to shake your walls, however, you will be disappointed. The Sound Bar 3000 does exactly what I expected it to do, and no more. As an aside, the 3000 sounds great with music. I get Sirius radio through my satellite subscription, and the music is clear, open, and well balanced, which is a nice bonus. I can't comment on the unit's longevity, as it was purchased recently. If there are issues, I will revisit this review. For the moment, I certainly am satisfied.

Review by HYUNDEOK KWON : Easy setup and less wires

I got new SAMSUNG LCD TV the other day and started looking for a better sound solution. I reasearched it and liked the simple idea of IHT3000. The main reason of getting it was the fact that I do not need a HT receiver and there are less number of wires; one optical cable and two power cords. I disabled the TV speaker but, still was able to control volume with TV remote which was good. Note that you must select PCM(Uncompressed Analog) over DOLBY DIGITAL(Compressed Digital) for HD channels in the TV menu. Or, it won't work. This is an entry level HT speaker system and you shouldn't expect sound of $10,000 HT system. Compared to TV speaker, the sound was clearer and has direction toward me. Subwoofer was definitely a nice addition. It makes the sound fuller. I recommend this product to whom need a good looking, simple and affordable HT speaker system.

Review by Eileen M. Plunkett : Polk Soundbar IHT 3000 w/ Wireless Sub Woofer wi fi problem

Originally I bought a Boston Acoustics Soundbar (see explanation below for returning it) but now I have the Polk Soundbar and love it. I found one major problem with setup. I am a wi fi household and the wireless subwoofer had a conflict with my network wi fi. I am not terribly knowledgeable about routers but after going to Cnet forums got the answer which I would like to share with you. My problem was I have a Roku box and I was unable to stream. It would begin and then stop. If I turned off the soundbar it worked perfectly. I put the sub woofer in various places based on Polk's instructions, trying to shield it from the wi fi signal but nothing worked. The answer turned out to be very simple. (I had even gone so far as to buy a new router which also didn't work for reasons which will become obvious if you continue reading.) All I had to do was bring up my router's configuration screen and change the channel setting. The Soundbar was set for channel one as was my wi fi. I first tried channel five and it almost worked but after a few minutes, it stalled again so I then changed to channel 11 the farthest and last choice and bingo, it worked great and continues to work great. I live in a 1400 sq ft house and the living room is about 12' x 20'. This unit is actually a little too much for the size of the room but when I made the necessary changes in my tv sound setup and the Dish remote setup, it made a big difference. Sometimes the sound was shrill so I changed the treble and bass settings on my tv and they do work for the soundbar even when you are not using the tv sound which I found I don't really need. For music this soundbar is astounding. For speech it is excellent. I do have a hearing problem and since Netflix has no subtitles yet, I do need some help. My tv is an LG 55" LED and the sound is ok but this soundbar has solved our problems when watching a streaming Netflix movie. I also stream Leo LaPorte which is TWIT.tv and for him I don't need the soundbar because the sound is so clear but I still use it. The other night we watched a very old, 61 years, movie called Impact using the Polk soundbar and could hear every word clearly!! Programming my Dish TV remote was simple so I only use the Polk remote when I want to change the sub woofer if it is just too much bass. All in all, I love this unit. I have it standing on the cabinet in front of my tv with the sub woofer on the floor beside it. You can get even better bass if you put the sw in a corner of the room. I think it would be great even for a very large room since I sometimes have to turn it way down for some programs. For music, again, fantastic. Of course, you will be forced to turn it down for commercials, just can't solve that issue. When I was listening to the Boston A and the Polk bars, I really thought that the Boston A was better because I was unable to adjust the sub woofer on the Polk. The salesman told me it had no controls on it, well, he was wrong, I can control it so you can set it any way you choose. After having the Polk for a month I feel it is ALMOST as good as the Boston A and since the Boston A only has audio out RCA jacks I couldn't buy it anyway. This brings me to another very important point when shopping for any soundbar which is to be sure what your tv accomodates. (I suggest you download your TV manual and take the pages you need with you, showing what audio out jacks you have.) My tv, the LG, does NOT accomodate RCA jacks for audio out, only optical out. Remember, I had originally bought a Boston Acoustics soundbar and had to return it. Because I had to go back three times Best Buy agreed to sell me the Polk for $301, the same price I paid for the Boston Acoustics bar. I also could not get the enclosed optical cord to work but fortunately had bought one years ago which works great. The enclosed one is very thin and the one I had is much thicker, don't know if that was the reason. Optical cables are very difficult to insert so don't lose hope, eventually you will be successful. Since many people lambast BB, I want to say that when I returned the first Boston unit, (it had obviously been returned by someone and I thought it was defective) they apologized and said I should have been charged the open box price ($269) so brought out another open box, which was sealed and had a big label saying Open Box on it. He opened it up and set it up and thinking he had confirmed that I had a headphone jack I could use, I bought it. Well, as luck would have it, no headphone jack on my LG and no optical on the Boston unit, why I cannot figure out. He went to a lot of trouble for so low a priced unit and I appreciated his effort. When I returned it again, he actually tried to avoid me, knowing that I would take up a lot of his time. As I understand it, BB sales people get bonuses at the end of the month based on sales so even though they don't get commissions as many other electronics stores, if still in existence, pay, they do make money on their sales. The higher their number, the more they get. But he did come over, finally, when I tracked him down and once again, brought out the soundbar and set it up to check. So kudos to Best Buy, San Rafael, this particular sales guy and to Polk. Eileen Novato, CA

Review by Cancrippler : Unreasonably good sound for the size and price!!!!

This little unit is surprisingly good. This is great for someone who expects movie theater sound to go along with their big plasma or lcd. This slim soundbar can be mounted above or below your tv, and even attached to it with the novel brackets from [...] or can be purchased here on Amazon. Soundbar Brackets Universal Soundbar Bracket This little unit gives me details I missed with my Jamo 5.1 system attached to a Harman Kardon receiver I had before. The Wireless sub pounds bass that shouldn't be possible for a 6.5" woofer. If everyone heard this unit, I suspect it would become the new standard in home audio. There must be some Bose style DSP trickery or acoustic management going on, because this style of big movie theater sound shouldn't be possible from such a modest system. You will get a lot of ambient sounds from this unit, but not much surround originating from the back. It kinda seems that it projects sound forward into the room so that there is quite a bit of a 3 dimensional quality to the sound. I cheated and placed my wireless sub behind me, because I could. I'm running a wireless N network in the same room, and there is no interference with it. There are 4 channels to choose from. Buy this and try it in your home. Even my wife begrudgingly admitted it was pretty awesome the first time I plugged it in and fired up a movie. Great sound and great Wife Acceptance Factor. If the remote sensor was a little more sensitive, this would be absolutely perfect.

Review by T. C. Woods "tcwfalcon" : Great for its application

I have a fairly large living room, and this system has more than enough power for the space. It installs relatively easy and there are no settings to mess with (or up). I spent time shopping around a reading reviews before i purchased this system, picking this over the Yamaha soundbar(no wireless sub, and the proprietary cable is only 13 ft, so it would be a pain for me to try to splice into it and lengthen it). However, the system is relatively new, and there were a lack of reviews, so I just went with the Polk name and wasn't disappointed. In summary, if you're looking for a nice upgrade to your tv speakers, this is it. If you're looking for a true "surround-sound" system, i would look somewhere else.

Review by R. White "silverbullet_club3g" : Very impressed

I had just ordered this and got it today and must say I am very impressed with the easy setup and sound quality. I have it set up underneath my 50" Plasma TV and actually have the TV speakers turned off and only using this for the sound. Very great quality and sound. I recently had the Panasonic 7.1ch surround sound package with 6 speakers and subwoofer and although it sounded good, most times when watching a DVD the sound was too much for my condo. But this not only sounds great but is so easy to setup and maintain or adjust the volume. It does come with the optical audio cable which they suggest you use, so hopefully your TV will have this input like mine. If you are on the fence about ordering this, I would definately recommend it!

Review by Matt Smysor : Excellent Choice

Let me start off by saying that I am NOT an audiophile. Not that I can't or don't appreciate good, clean quality sound. Rather, I refuse to pay hundreds of dollars more for the pinnacle of home audio, when the upper layer will cover my needs 99% of the time. I did a lot of internet research into this product. I read a lot of reviews, both pro and con, and looked into the quality of sound that this unit produces. I love big, room filling sound with my movies. I like my audio tracks to be crisp and clean. This set up does a very good job with everything I have thrown at it. I have used it and stressed it since I purchased it in January. I has come through with flying colors. The wireless sub woofer has amazing room filling bass that can shake my couch when I crank it up. My living room is an average size (13x21) and it does a wonderful job filling the room with everything from classical music to the soundtrack from Tron: Legacy. Set up was a snap and virtually idiot proof. Polk was even nice enough to include a 3 foot optical audio cable, which allowed me to return the one that I had purchased. I mounted the sound bar on the wall below the TV and plugged it in. I situated the sub woofer and turned on the unit. It immediately connected to the sub and started projecting sound. The hardest thing to do was trying to decide how much bass was "too much". Is this a 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 system replacement? - NO. Will most people be happy and impressed with the quality of the sound? - YES. If you don't want to screw around with multiple speakers, tuning microphones, amplifiers and all the rest of that crap - Just get this system. Polk Audio knows what they are doing and they have done it quite well with this unit.

Review by Jack L. Walker : super

This is one the best things I have bought in recent memory. If you need 5 or 7 satellite speakers and a subwoofer, you will have to buy an AV receiver, not cheap, and 5x1 or 7x1 speakers. Then you can hear the airplane fly across your room. However, for probably around $1000 less you can get a soundbar and woofer like this product. It's simulated surround sound is plenty good enough for most users and it transforms your HD tv into totally awesome sound. It is relatively easy to hook up. At first it is a little tricky to coordinate the sound so your cable/sat. remote controls its volume and the TV's. You have to play around with it for a awhile to get the hang of it. Once you do, wow. The subwoofer is so awesome for its size and the wireless connection to the soundbar is great. Just run the optical from your HD tv to the soundbar and enjoy. I can't imagine any other product like this that could outdo the Polk 3000 soundbar.