In-Home LSiM/TL Demo - Hosts

TECHNOKID

Willow wrote: »

What are the chances of having a Canuck set up? Doesnt polk want to know if they sound good in igloos?
In all seriousness, would this be considered?

1. From experience Mark knows it is a pain and costly to ship some to Canada for demo. We went through this with the Hitmaster early this year.

2. However, this might be a good way to do demo as you hit more people at once and make it that much more worthwhile for Polk...

3. Would you be willing to host such event?

4. In order to twist Polk's harm we (Canucks) would potentially need to show some seriousness and maybe provide a list of interested people in the demo. If there is any interest at all from Polk, I'd be willing to start a poll on our Canadian site to see if there is any potential interest in our area (Ottawa/Outaouais).

5. I'd say if there are other Canuck regions that shows serious interest that might be of help to Polk as the more potential customers the better it is for Polk.

6. Suggestion, it would be to Polk advantage not to limit such demos to single product / model but to provide for most of the new comers (LsiM = LCR and bookshelf and some of the other new products such as the TL, maybe the new 6000?).

7. Depending on Polk budget for such demo, maybe considering renting facilites (IE: Hotel boardroom?) which in many instances are easier for accoustic and can accomodate multiple set-ups.

Just food for thoughts...

EndersShadow

This is a great idea. I would not be able to demo as my wife wouldnt want me to, nor do I have a house, nor am I known that well on this forum yet so my knowledge/advice is more novice than many members. However from my recent readings there are more than enough active members in the Indiana/Indianapolis region that might be willing/able to host.

I would like this very much as with the exception of Frye's there is nowhere for me to really go to listen to Polk stuff, especially the LSI models (Fry's has the 7's 9's and 25's but they are running off lower end AVR's so you dont really hear what they can do and cant really really crank it either)

nadams

I so wish I could throw my hat in the ring for this... sounds like a great idea. But, as you know, Mark, my house isn't that great, nor am I in a major metro area. I do meet at least a few of the prereq's, tho. I have a house, and I'm willing to do it.

megasat16

Sorry! I can't help coz I live too far away from city dwellers and I am not sure I want to let a bunch of total strangers come to play, eat, drink and talk and argue and disagree.

I've been to places for this kind of purposes but it's not always a good and pleasant experience. At least, a lot of details need to iron out such as maximum number of people, date, time, and length of the demo session, etc.

I suppose it's OK with a small group of people but too many people will just get the host distressed. And a guy or two in the group just don't know not to mess with the host nice gears. Personally, I think it's still OK to mess as long as they don't put a scratch on the front of your gear or something so you won't lose a lot of resale value on it.

messiah

I'd imagine that it wouldn't be a large group of people all at once, rather more like a few people here and there, right? Also I'd think people would tend to be rather respectful knowing that they are going into someone's home, and a stranger's home at that.

messiah

megasat16 wrote: »

Personally, I think it's still OK to mess as long as they don't put a scratch on the front of your gear or something so you won't lose a lot of resale value on it.

I'd look at it like this: If you want to turn it up, go right ahead, no problem. If you want to change songs, or cd's, go right ahead, no problem. If you change my settings, unplug wires or cables, or set your drink down on the speakers, I'll break your hands, and puncture your eardrums, demo over.

TECHNOKID

messiah wrote: »

I'd look at it like this: If you want to turn it up, go right ahead, no problem. If you want to change songs, or cd's, go right ahead, no problem. If you change my settings, unplug wires or cables, or set your drink down on the speakers, I'll break your hands, and puncture your eardrums, demo over.

Yep, that's the spirit

thsmith

Put me down as interested but needing more details.

dorokusai

Keep the comments coming guys, great stuff. I'm taking notes and names for down the road.

Canada? I'll make sure we talk about this and see what we can come up with. I may work with the Canadian rep on this and you folks can deal with him.

TECHNOKID

dorokusai wrote: »

Keep the comments coming guys, great stuff. I'm taking notes and names for down the road.

Canada? I'll make sure we talk about this and see what we can come up with. I may work with the Canadian rep on this and you folks can deal with him.

I wish he weren't so transparent / invisible. I guess he is more of a business rep rather than user rep? Does he even have an account here at CP?

dorokusai

TECHNOKID wrote: »

I wish he weren't so transparent / invisible. I guess he is more of a business rep rather than user rep? Does he even have an account here at CP?

You're correct, he's a business rep but pretty much is the POC for anything Canadian. It's not his job to handle CS issues even tho' he has done so in the past and is a very nice individual.

Don't fret, we'll get it all handled.

dpowell

Mark,
Put me down as interested pending further details of what's involved. I plan to host another Southern Ca Polk gathering later this fall and have a lot of interest thus far.

doug

cnh

Here's one for you Mark. I live in a small college town--private college where tuition and board is upwards of 50k a year. Our student population might easily have some individuals or even parents within it who have the resources and even interest in buying some upper level Polk stuff. Demoing for students and faculty would be quite 'safe' and pretty easy. We could do a mass e-mail announcing the 'event'--not that I'm offering my house yet. I'm still thinking out loud.

It's certainly a venue for those of us in the teaching professions? How would Polk feel about that? We also have a pretty good Music department that has reasonably good recording equipment and studios and a few Profs who also compose music.

Carry on!

cnh

greyford1979

Really cool idea, however definitely not for me. I would have to worry more about my fiance coming home to find all these people in our home and killing me than any strangers:eek::eek::eek::eek::p:p looooooooooooooool.

dorokusai

cnh wrote: »

Here's one for you Mark. I live in a small college town--private college where tuition and board is upwards of 50k a year. Our student population might easily have some individuals or even parents within it who have the resources and even interest in buying some upper level Polk stuff. Demoing for students and faculty would be quite 'safe' and pretty easy. We could do a mass e-mail announcing the 'event'--not that I'm offering my house yet. I'm still thinking out loud.

It's certainly a venue for those of us in the teaching professions? How would Polk feel about that? We also have a pretty good Music department that has reasonably good recording equipment and studios and a few Profs who also compose music.

Carry on!

cnh

Scout your campus audio and let me know what you find.

cnh

I'll take a look. It's been a while since I visited that Department probably 10 years ago...I remember some JBL Studio Monitors from the mid to late 80s. The BIG ones and probably some TASCAM mixing boards. Not sure what they're using now. I know they use a lot of APPLE composition software...But I'll find out.

cnh

HHStuart

I would consider it but I would need to know more. I have a house so loudness would not be a problem. Would love to hear the new speakers, of course.

dorokusai

Zero wrote: »

Cool concept, but...

What's Polk trying to achieve here? Do they plan on offering the LSi direct, or are they looking to bring on dealers?

The latter is going to be a tough gig when you allow a number of Joe Lunch Buckets access to loaner product for the sake of conducting professional in-home demos. Still, it could work out alright so long as the Joe Lunchbucket's are aware of their local dealers, understand territory contracts, and agree to lead the customer to a dealer for an actual transaction.

Dealers are a different subject and out of my hands, nor do I care in regards to this question. Every Polk product is available direct now, so nothing changes there.

The purpose is to get more grassroots and bring the high end line into the home, get more personal. It allows the product to get some buzz in real time, real homes and skip the wash of what you may encounter in a store. Look, not every salesperson is a audio genius.

Would you rather have a good demo or a bad demo? Would you rather have a demo in a closer simulation of your actual home or with a kid screaming in the background? Would you like to play your own music, of which you know every nuance, or listen to some demo disc tripe? You should know the answers to that already Sean.

MillerLiteScott

Cool idea Mark. My house would work reasonably well but I don't know how my wife would feel about Joe Random coming to our house, and I may be to afraid to ask.

Ever since the new LSiM thread was started my thoughts were it would be cool to have Sound Scape host a Polk Audio new product line demo. I have no affiliation with them and I am Joe Random to them but since they were the first to carry Polk Audio products and currently carry Polk Audio products they may open to such an event for the Baltimore area. It would also bring some potential new customers and foot traffic into their soul surviving Ma and Pop Audio shop. They have those two rooms upstairs that could lend themselves to a good demo room.

Scott

dorokusai

That's not a bad idea and Soundscape is one of the oldest dealers Polk has historically. I'll shoot that idea up.

quadzilla

Like I said in another thread, I have the equipment and my wife would actually allow this. I'm afraid my house is decorated in early "crazy stereo guy" though. But I'm working on that. I'm in D/FW and don't have a problem with strangers. After all, every single one of my friends was a stranger at some point. I would, however, want to be able to reject someone at the door if I got a really bad vibe from them and/or could see the needle tracks on their arm.

j allen

I may be willing to lend an assist here, if it's something that's coming several months down the line. We've been looking at moving sometime in the near future, and I've been getting the urge to revamp/upgrade amplification. If it's something in the very near future, though, I think I would be the next best thing to useless, due to space and gear constraints. Still, a neat idea, as long as there is some way to screen clients.

edit: Also, not sure if there's a decent sized, untapped market in the Dayton area. There might be enough enthusiasts from the Cincinnati/Columbus metro areas to be worthwhile though.

unc2701

Sell a fixed number of sets to Club Polk members at like 40% of MSRP. The buyers will:
1)Demo them for themselves and return feeback to Polk
2)Agree to sell them locally (if they choose to sell them)
3)Must leave them setup for demos when selling them

Any profit them make is theirs to keep (and there will be some room for profit); if they like them enough, they may choose to keep them. All risk in selling the speakers is theirs; they bought them from you, not your problem after that.

Polk probably can't enforce 2) and 3), but if you keep an eye on Audiogon, you can out anyone that breaks the rules. And maybe allow non-local transfer among members with Polk approval.

Might be a little too grassroots, but it'll probably get the impact you want.

Ricardo

I mentioned earlier that there are lots of details to be worked; here are a few I cosider critical for this to work:

-Setup: Polk should make sure that the setup is ok for a demo to be successful. This does not necessarily mean top $$$ gear and a dedicated room. Just make sure there's good enough amplification and that there's nothing obviously wrong with the room/positioning. A list of equipment and a couple of pictures should take care of this.

-Schedule: There should be clear schedule terms. Some will be happy to receive people any day, any time, and others will want to assign a couple hours a week for this, and require advance notice. Some will be ok with having 8-10 people at the same time, some will want to limit to 2 or 3. All these terms should be agreed and respected.

-Screening: probably the most important and the most difficult. Who will make sure there are no thieves coming to a demo, and what process will be followed? I would be comfortable letting any long term polkie in my house (ok...there might be an exception or two...), but not so much with the general public. The first question that comes to my mind in this topic is, how will the general public know about these in home demos? If this is publicly announced in media and such, then the risk of attracting people with "bad ideas" is huge. Of course if there's a strong screening process they would never make it to the demo, but you could have hundreds if not thousands of applicants and it would be impossible to manage unless you have hundreds of people working full time on screening. I think the demo should be offered to a limited number of potential buyers. Can't offer an idea of how to do this for now.

Face

If I answer the door in body armor, that should scare the baddies away, right?

I have a good friend who runs an audio dealership in part of his home, I'll ask him what his guidelines are as far as letting strangers in his home.

fishbones

Ricardo wrote: »

-Setup: Polk should make sure that the setup is ok for a demo to be successful. This does not necessarily mean top $$$ gear and a dedicated room. Just make sure there's good enough amplification and that there's nothing obviously wrong with the room/positioning. A list of equipment and a couple of pictures should take care of this.

Ricardo brings up a good point. I would add that if Polk wanted to make sure their equipment was setup correctly, they should have representatives go to each "Authorized Demo Room" (see what I did there - gave it a name for ya) and actually approve/assist in setting up the speakers. Wilson Audio does a personal in room setup for their customers with a clap technique that allows them to read the acoustics of the room to have the speakers optimally setup.

quadzilla

Ricardo wrote: »

-Screening: probably the most important and the most difficult. Who will make sure there are no thieves coming to a demo, and what process will be followed? I would be comfortable letting any long term polkie in my house (ok...there might be an exception or two...), but not so much with the general public. The first question that comes to my mind in this topic is, how will the general public know about these in home demos? If this is publicly announced in media and such, then the risk of attracting people with "bad ideas" is huge. Of course if there's a strong screening process they would never make it to the demo, but you could have hundreds if not thousands of applicants and it would be impossible to manage unless you have hundreds of people working full time on screening. I think the demo should be offered to a limited number of potential buyers. Can't offer an idea of how to do this for now.

This is, I think, part of the risk that would have to be accepted. You really can't be absolutely sure that who ever is coming for the demo isn't a thief. I don't have a problem with strangers, and really, even that guy you haven't seen for a year and just invited over for a reunion dinner may have turned into a crack monster since you saw him last, so it's just something I choose not to dwell on too much.

It could be mitigated somewhat by requiring some sort of ID verification prior to the demo, but even that has it's limits with the rampant ID theft going on now.

One thing that might actually help pre-filter the baddies from the people that just want a demo, is if the link on the site only says "click here to find a demo location near you", then takes them to a map with locations and phone numbers, but no other information, rather than advertising the fact that it's a demo at someone's home. That, and of course, who ever shows up at my door will typically need to be more worried about me than I will about them

megasat16

Face wrote: »

If I answer the door in body armor, that should scare the baddies away, right?

+ a SWAT Team. That should do it. No need to check ID coz you never know what he is actually pulling out from his jacket anyway.

reeltrouble1

I have done demo's for other companies/dealers.

I will do it for the Lsi and the Lci/Csw speaker lines.

RT1

Larry Chanin

dorokusai wrote: »

How many of you would be interested in hosting a in-home demo of the new LSiM/TL series for not only yourself but for others?

I know it's been asked, and/or hinted elsewhere but who is willing to open their home to this idea? You have to be serious and you have to be very motivated in regards to room and setup. This is the formal thread for conversation concering this subject.

I mean, it can't be your dorm or apartment/condo that you can't exceed nominal noise levels, constantly. Houses are pretty much the bar standard in regards to the general consensus from the meetings.

There are safety and legal concerns here as well, so don't think this is a flag waving introduction to open your doors. The safety of our members is paramount....this is just a question to active membership.

What do you think? What would motivate you? What would make it viable? Would an incentive to do so make a difference? What are your boundaries? I'd like to keep everything but very personal nature stuff public so we can talk about it all and determine a course of action.

Polk wants to know what you think about this idea....post it.

Keep in mind that you can't half commit to something like this and in regards to the legal portion of this idea, may be asked to sign paperwork. Just saying.

If you have any particulars and/or concerns simply post or contact me directly thru here. Just highlight my name and email me.

-Mark

Hi Mark,

I might be interested in hosting a few sessions, depending on the details.

I have a dedicated home theater that seats 8. I live in Sarasota, Florida in a medium-sized home. The theater is conveniently located adjacent to our great room and two bathrooms. So we should be able to handle a reasonable sized "crowd" given that we could seat several people in the great room discussing the merits of the speakers, partaking of refreshments, and then circulating members into the theater eight people at a time.

My theater is acoustically treated. It is a 7.1 setup with LC265i in-walls for the surround back channels that can not be replaced by new demo speakers. In addition, I have LSiF/X for surrounds, SDA-1C'S for the mains and a pair of SDA-CRS+ for centers, and I would consider replacing them with the appropriate LSiM demo speakers.

Ideally, a Polk Audio representative, or a local Polk Audio retailer, would be available to assist me in setting up, demoing the speakers answering questions, and restoring my setup.

I am using Parasound power amplifiers to power my speakers, and currently an Onkyo PR-SC866 preamplifier that handles the lossless formats and has Audyssey room correction.

Here's some information on my setup:

Now you see them…Now you don’t

Larry's Home Theater

In addition to being interested in obtaining more details about the logistics of the demos, I am very interested in learning more about the specifications of the soon to be released LSiM series. In particular, I am interested in knowing whether the LSiM series is reasonably timbre matched to the LC265is LSiF/Xs that I have. Also I would want to be reasonably sure that the new LSi M 707 tower speakers are as adept as my SDA-1Cs in reaching reference levels, and likewise with the LSiM 706c Center Channel Speakers in replacing the SDA-CRS+. In other words, what will the efficiency and power handling limits of these new speakers.

One other consideration is that my SDA-1Cs are designed to be placed close to the front wall and they are not too deep since they are placed inside an acoustically transparent shadow box that is 16" deep. My surround speakers are concealed in columns that are 13" deep. So I would need to know the dimensions of these various speakers.

Thanks for coordinating this concept.

Please feel free to contact me directly at lfchanin@verizon.net.

Larry