This is sad

KenCustomerService wrote: »

Good afternoon Forum Members, sorry it took so long to reach back out to you. My name is Ken and I work in Customer Service at Polk Audio. I would like to reach out and be an olive branch between the Forum and the employees here at Sound United. We do appreciate and thank you for your continued support of Polk Audio in all our endeavors.

The head of Marketing is still well aware of the forum and the daily discussions here. We spoke and there was no purposeful slight to the forum, however, the goal of this particular email was to inform the novice of how to set up speakers.

As for the suggested sites for consumers to reference, we wanted to offer up a mix of credible third party resources. While the forum is credible, it is (like the Polkies that inhabit it) fairly advanced in product knowledge and enthusiasm. For someone that might be entering the brand for the first time or updating from a sound bar to component speakers, it could be a very intimidating experience. With that being said, we love the enthusiasm for the brand on the forum and would like to harness this in a positive way. And would like to prepare future email tips from the actual forum to get general customers excited about engaging in it.

Please send suggestions or the tips you’d like to suggest, both general and Polk related and we’ll feature you (screen name) in the email. We’re all enthusiasts about the Polk brand and the speakers we make, our collective goal is to grow our fans and most importantly audio enthusiasts!

You can send the suggestions to myself at ken.carter@soundunited.com. If anyone has questions feel free to send them my way too.

We are looking forward to the feedback and response's from everyone.

Thank you!

-Ken

Inform the novice how to set up speakers ? Uh.....right here.

Intimidating experience ? If you consider every customer a snowflake, then life in general is an intimidating experience no matter what forum you suggest. I've personally not noticed anything of the sorts when it comes to soundbars, or moving up from them. We do however like to inform people of ALL their options, and sometimes because they are novices, they are unaware of those options. The novice also have grand ideas, but know little about what works together, what sounds good together. We like to avoid the customer blaming Polk speakers if they are experiencing bad sound. In these cases it takes some detective work, questions, solutions....otherwise the Polk brand takes a hit in their mind and they move on to another brand.

If you want to get future customers excited about engaging in the forum, here's a tip.....mention the forum in your advertising. Just sayin'....

I do appreciate you taking the time to respond to this. Polk's customer service has always been a crowning achievement. One that should have it's horn tooted along with the faceless people who make it up.

Gatecrasher wrote: »

DarqueKnight wrote: »

cfrizz wrote: »

I can understand why they did it. We are more of a "What speakers, gear should I get?" Rather than a "How do I set up my gear kind of a board."

I partially agree. This forum offers a lot of setup advice, but it is heavily oriented toward audiophile two channel systems, which the majority of Polk's customers are not interested in.

Conversely, a home theater built around a receiver is not a system most of the active members of this board are interested in.

How many times has someone stopped here asking for advice on receivers and they get twenty recommendations for a separate amp and preamp or a receiver with pre-outs for future upgrading at the very least?

So yeah, I would understand why an ad advising people to research the right receiver would not point to this forum.

I agree with you but a receiver is more useful for a home theater system than it is for one that is purely audio. Not everyone on here wants only tube amps and vinyl records either although there is nothing wrong with that. The best-sounding systems I've ever heard used tube amps.

AV Receivers have come a long way in just the last 10-15 years though. Some of the people on here who always seem to be talking down other member's AVRs probably haven't owned a receiver since the 70s. I know I was surprised when I started shopping around for new one a few years ago.

I think some of the more opinionated commenters on here who like to trash modern receivers might want to be a little more objective and do some first-hand research before they turn their noses up and parrot the old separates are always better than receivers mantra. A lot of today's receivers are pretty-impressive and can hold their own against similarly-priced separates in both environments.

I hear what you are saying about getting one with pre-outs though. Most respectable models do have them now days. It's nice to have as much flexibility as possible with a piece of equipment. Especially one that is a significant investment.

That's the kind of constructive advice that we should be giving people. Give them both the positives and negatives.

@KenCustomerService , there's a way to point people to this forum's excellent advice on setup while avoiding the ephemera - direct customers to a particular category. Technical/Setup or Speakers for example.

Or better yet, create a new sub-forum with categories focused on individual products or product lines. This would allow Polk Audio to:

• promote new products
• promote sister company lines
• bolster technical support
• encourage maximum enjoyment of its products
• nurture closer customer relationships and brand loyalty

All on its own forum.

Instead of simply allowing the Polk forum to exist, why not make it better? Make it something you can be proud of. Proud enough to promote elsewhere. You've gone to some expense to create and maintain this forum. Why not get the most out of it?

Great point gents ^^^^. Imho though, in order to promote forum activity in all areas mentioned....you have to direct people to your own forum. I'm not a rocket scientist or anything but come on.

Some of the other complaints I'm reading simply don't hold water.

Receivers with pre-outs being recommended ? Seriously, that's a complaint ? That's called saving people money down the road when they start moving up the Polk chain to A9's or LSI's. I was under the impression moving up the chain within the Polk brand was desirable. It's an option that many novice know nothing about, granted it doesn't apply to all, which is why we ask questions. It's inevitable the novice who buy an entry level receiver for their A3's, will sooner or later be looking at bigger and better speakers from Polk and wondering why their entry level receiver isn't good enough. Their is a basic learning curve with audio, a basic education process many novices know zero about. Many here seek to not just hand out advice willy nilly, but to also educate so the Polk consumer can make the best decisions.

Many novices are simply not that into audio like some members here. They don't peruse audio forums, research much, or take the time to discuss their own experiences. They just want something that fits their needs and sounds good. Then you won't hear from them until that need arises years down the road. Which is fine...but forums thrive on participation. It is that very participation that has created many friends, connections, get togethers, product support over the years.

I'm also not buying the HT aspect of being 2nd Fiddle to 2 channel. While many here certainly prefer a good 2 channel system, the forum is loaded with HT advice, systems, support, graphs, pics.....just tons of information.....and guess what speaker brand is at the forefront of those discussions ?

Speaker set up ? Ken from CS mentioned in his response. Look on the forums home page....under "Speakers", read what it says. Now look to the right, how many threads were started ? How many responses given ? Plus we lost a lot when the forum changed to Vanilla.

Like I said, I certainly appreciate Ken's input and response, but someone down in marketing needs a good old fashioned Italian slap upside the head.

F1nut wrote: »

K_M wrote: »

The average person that likes good sound, even many audiophiles, do not even care about all the "expensive wires", and does not want to be bashed for not wanting to get expensive separates or disagreeing about needing those wires or cables.
That is why every cable or wire thread turns into a silly bash fest.

If some of you like some uber expensive "out there" stuff, fine. But just do not expect everyone else to share the same view or think it is a good idea.

Also and this may be crucial. I see good effort to welcome new people, until they disagree wtih "Advice or opinions" being given.

The overall vibe seems to be "Helpful", but do not disagree with us.
But fortunately overall there are many great people, but the bad seeds bring the place down a lot.

It's amazing how wrong and out of touch a person can be, but you make it look easy.

Says the guy that started this thread.......Ironic!