SurroundBar 50 - Discontinued?

newsys

Has the SurroundBar 50 been discontinued? If so, is there a 2012 replacement planned?

Looking for a 5.1 single speaker system & the 50 was perfect - except it appears that it cannot be ordered anywhere, including the PolkAudio website!

Can anyone from Polk confirm?

WilliamM2

Nice review.

Topper

hang on for the upcoming new Polk Surroundbar CHT500 7channel component bar. Its going to be a huuuge leap in performance over the Surroundbar 50.



"The SurroundBar CHT500 Component Home Theater is two-piece, single-speaker surround system that measures 49 inches wide and a mere inch-and-a-half deep, making it the ideal aesthetic complement to a wall-mounted flat-panel display. The SurroundBar CHT500 features three of Polk’s high-end 0.75-inch ring radiator tweeters and nine proprietary 3.5-inch anodized aluminum dome mid-woofers, along with an external Stereo Dimension Array signal processor, which accepts the 5.1 or 7.1-channel output from any AV receiver."

Topper

My brother has a spot under his new flatscreen just waiting for the day-one release of this

TECHNOKID

Topper wrote: »

hang on for the upcoming new Polk Surroundbar CHT500 7channel component bar. Its going to be a huuuge leap in performance over the Surroundbar 50.

"The SurroundBar CHT500 Component Home Theater is two-piece, single-speaker surround system that measures 49 inches wide and a mere inch-and-a-half deep, making it the ideal aesthetic complement to a wall-mounted flat-panel display. The SurroundBar CHT500 features three of Polk?s high-end 0.75-inch ring radiator tweeters and nine proprietary 3.5-inch anodized aluminum dome mid-woofers, along with an external Stereo Dimension Array signal processor, which accepts the 5.1 or 7.1-channel output from any AV receiver."

IMHO, it would be very sad if the SB50 has been discontined. Again IMHO, those new products coming out do not seem to be upgrades but rather downgraded products to be able to compete with HTIB and the likes offerings (however, just personal opinion).

Topper

Downgraded? Its now coming with ring radiator tweeters and outboard SDA processing and with better surround effects supporting 7-channels and has an adjustable switch that allows you to configure it for LCR, 5-ch, or 7-ch and you feel its a downgrade over the Surroundbar 50? I think its a huuuge upgrade.

The models that compete with the HTIB are the IHT range (Sur 3000, 4000, and 6000).

TECHNOKID

Topper wrote: »

Downgraded? Its now coming with ring radiator tweeters and outboard SDA processing and with better surround effects supporting 7-channels and has an adjustable switch that allows you to configure it for LCR, 5-ch, or 7-ch and you feel its a downgrade over the Surroundbar 50? I think its a huuuge upgrade.

When I say downgrade, I should have stated in quality as I realize it to be a potential upgrade in technology.

The models that compete with the HTIB are the IHT range (Sur 3000, 4000, and 6000.

Point taken since they are the one I refer to when I speak of quality downgrade as I have not seen or heard the new model you mentioned (I however base my comments on what I have seen in the past years in regard of Polk offerings of the like). For example, I have seen the TL1s in store lately and to be honest I was not in the least impressed, many competitors offers such plastic toys speakers nowadays and IMHO, it makes the satellite speakers not as much of an option if you are serious about decent SQ. The only positive I found for the TL1 between its competitors (bose, samsung, LG, sony) is that the speaker has a tad bit more weight which leads me to believe slightly better quality but IMHO, still an HTIB toy technology. Matter of fact, the TL package was offered as part of a Samsung receiver offering (I'd never consider Samsung for my audio if serious about my audio).