Yet another PSW110 victim. Unreal.

nexcorp

So I buy a nice set of polk Center CS4 and a PSW110 sub and a set of RTi3 booksehlfs all in Rosewood, to replace my 30 y.o Sansui Towers. Also using 17 y.o Infinity satellites for surroud do to space requirements, but I held on to the powered sub and center as I dont want to break up the set. 3 months out of warranty the PSW110 retires. (bought at Amazon from Amazon). Ijust got around to looking into the problem as the wife stubed her toe on the expensive sub and told me use it or lose it. In the meantime, I plugged in the 17 yo Infinty sub and she still thumpin away loyally. But shes black. Now I have a real nice Rosewood $250 brick, which will be a $350 brick if I decide to "buy" an amp board that clearly, according to others will also probably fail. Reviews on amazon and here also clearly show the PSW110 entire product line to be unreliable. Great job Polk. I was buying polk exclusively since about 2009 for auto, outdoor bar, home entertainment. I pulled the amp board off the back of the Cab on psw110. Nice Chinese board. I dont think im going to fork over the $100 plus and risk it so my matching rosewood cab rejoins the other components, but only because others who have replaced boards, man many , have had them fail as well. SOme of them got the $350 brick. Instead, if the amp is gonna blow up under light use, I think I'll really blow it up, on video, and put it on youtube as a warning to others that Polk is putting cheap chinese amp boards in moderately expensive cabs and despite a huge number of failures, are charging CNOTES to replace the cheap chinese amps with the exact same cheap chinese amps. I'm tired of paying good moeny for cheap Chinese crap. I I had maybe just put some real power through this, Imay have thought I over did it, but really, a home theater and she burns up? Unacceptable.

msg

So's ranting on a smartphone with no punctuation or paragraph breaks.

Sorry about your sub, though. Truly.
You don't really expect a hundred dollar sub to last forever these days do you? Yeah, Chinese manufacturing sucks a lot of the time, but everyone's doing it these days. You're going to have to spend more for something to last longer, and even then, it'll probably be made overseas unless you're shelling out for Made in the USA.

I have to wonder whether owners are pushing these things too hard, though.

There are better options in the sub-$500 range.

davecurry3

Not sure if this where I should post this comment. My Polk PSW 110 amp recently failed. I contacted Kim at Polk. In a few minutes he initiated the process to ship me a new amp and gave me installation instructions. Within a week the part arrived and speaker is now working. High five to Kim and Polk customer service. Thanks

msg

This is a great place to post your comment.

nguyendot

Seems real to me. I've always told people to get Polk speakers but avoid their sub personally.

daddyjt

nexcorp wrote: »

So I buy a nice set of polk Center CS4 and a PSW110 sub and a set of RTi3 booksehlfs all in Rosewood, to replace my 30 y.o Sansui Towers. Also using 17 y.o Infinity satellites for surroud do to space requirements, but I held on to the powered sub and center as I dont want to break up the set. 3 months out of warranty the PSW110 retires. (bought at Amazon from Amazon). Ijust got around to looking into the problem as the wife stubed her toe on the expensive sub and told me use it or lose it. In the meantime, I plugged in the 17 yo Infinty sub and she still thumpin away loyally. But shes black. Now I have a real nice Rosewood $250 brick, which will be a $350 brick if I decide to "buy" an amp board that clearly, according to others will also probably fail. Reviews on amazon and here also clearly show the PSW110 entire product line to be unreliable. Great job Polk. I was buying polk exclusively since about 2009 for auto, outdoor bar, home entertainment. I pulled the amp board off the back of the Cab on psw110. Nice Chinese board. I dont think im going to fork over the $100 plus and risk it so my matching rosewood cab rejoins the other components, but only because others who have replaced boards, man many , have had them fail as well. SOme of them got the $350 brick. Instead, if the amp is gonna blow up under light use, I think I'll really blow it up, on video, and put it on youtube as a warning to others that Polk is putting cheap chinese amp boards in moderately expensive cabs and despite a huge number of failures, are charging CNOTES to replace the cheap chinese amps with the exact same cheap chinese amps. I'm tired of paying good moeny for cheap Chinese crap. I I had maybe just put some real power through this, Imay have thought I over did it, but really, a home theater and she burns up? Unacceptable.

It always astounds me that the very people that bemoan the Chinese manufacturing migration are the first ones in line to save a buck on the cheap import goods. You (save-a-buck consumers) create the storm, then complain when you get wet... unbelievable. AND THEN, when a company like Polk actually still attempts to cling to some vestige of customer service in an industry where it's been abandoned by everyone else, someone strolls along and kicks them in the teeth because they don't warranty an entry level product for 3 years? whats the warranty on your tv? Computer? Wow.

mantis

You get what you pay for. Buy cheap get cheap period.

Evermore

I guess I get lucky.... Have had two of these amps fail on me in the PSW110, each at right under 3 years... Polk has been good about replacing them, but sheesh, would be nice to get something a bit more quality....

http://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/comment/2356610/#Comment_2356610

rooftop59

When the cheapest sub from an internet direct company like HSU is $450 shipped, I am not sure what you expect to get from Polk for significantly less, especially when they pay a HUGE premium to get those displays in best buy. You are paying quite a bit for that display, in addition to the sub being cheap to begin with...

tonyb

mantis wrote: »

You get what you pay for. Buy cheap get cheap period.

Bingo, 350 bucks is not an expensive sub anyway. You'll find cheap Chinese parts in just about anything these days, even audio gear in the thousands. Trick is, who will stand behind their products, with or without cheap parts.

Polk has always stood behind there products, call customer service and see if they can help you which I'm pretty sure they can.

jeremymarcinko

You should have had it fail under warranty it sounds like to me. If you paid $250 for that sub you overpaid. Could have had a 505 and $50 bucks in your pocket.

msg

I misread the OP's post. Sorry, I got lost.
He paid $250 for the sub, not $100.
My mistake. That changes everything.

nexcorp

Look. When you pay $250 for a sub and it goes bad, just out of warranty thats one thing. When you see hundreds of people at various places on the web all haveing the same failure on the same exact product (and including the 12" version") that a whole nother story, It means the entire product line is gagbare. Dont give me that bs about ya get what ya pay for. Not everybody needs 450 dollar subs or 5k sound systems. I have other subs , the xfinity 17 years old and still works. Bought this to match the finish on my other polk speakers. POlk is selling junk. Nice looking cab with junk amp and they replace the failures twith the exact same junk, and charge you $100 for it. this was used for 7.1 television viewing , no resaon for this amp to fail other than it is complete junk.

msg

Okay, I got it, you're annoyed. understandable, but your attitude sucks. This is a community forum as well as a customer service point of contact - you're not just spouting off abusively to some poor, nameless customer service representative. Not that that would be acceptable, anyway, imho.

Back to the issue at hand - did you see @davecurry3 's response up above? (Boy, that DaveCurry sure does seem like a nice polite fellow, doesn't he?) He got a direct line, and Polk hooked him up, problem solved. Have you tried that yet, or did you leave off at your initial rant, opting instead to go kick some cats?

I'll loop in the good @KennethSwauger in for some direct Customer Service involvement. Polk CS may be able to get you straight.

warren

It happened to me also several years ago, I bought the board and its been good ever since, but it is in the back of my mind from time to time, nagging away in the distance.

F1nut

Some people's kids.

mrbigbluelight

I've had a PSW110, PSW125, and a PSW505 over the years, I can't say as I've ever had a problem.
Where they top end gear ? No, I wouldn't say that, but they got the job done while admittedly being abused like borrowed government equipment.

At present, the PSW505 is going for $243.97 with FREE shipping on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-12-Inch-Powered-Subwoofer/dp/B000092TT0?th=1

$243.97. For real wood veneer, decent MDf cabinet (1" front baffle). 12" driver.
300 watt rms amp.
Did I mention $243.97 with FREE shipping ?

Now is the PSW505 the be-all-and-end-all of subwoofers ? No, but it's not meant to be.

The PSB Subseries 450 also has a 12" driver, nice build, and a 400 watt rms amp.
For about $1500.
Their subwoofers are warrantied for ONE year.

$1500 with a one year amp warranty vs $243.97 for an amp with a three year warranty.

My question is, how do they do it ?

Viking64

I was perfectly happy with my sub.

ultrasoudproductions

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

I've had a PSW110, PSW125, and a PSW505 over the years, I can't say as I've ever had a problem.
Where they top end gear ? No, I wouldn't say that, but they got the job done while admittedly being abused like borrowed government equipment.

At present, the PSW505 is going for $243.97 with FREE shipping on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-12-Inch-Powered-Subwoofer/dp/B000092TT0?th=1

$243.97. For real wood veneer, decent MDf cabinet (1" front baffle). 12" driver.
300 watt rms amp.
Did I mention $243.97 with FREE shipping ?

Now is the PSW505 the be-all-and-end-all of subwoofers ? No, but it's not meant to be.

The PSB Subseries 450 also has a 12" driver, nice build, and a 400 watt rms amp.
For about $1500.
Their subwoofers are warrantied for ONE year.

$1500 with a one year amp warranty vs $243.97 for an amp with a three year warranty.

My question is, how do they do it ?

You can find the PSW505 new at Crutchflied and various others for $199.95 shipped. I found one for $60 used and another where I paid $100 for it with a CS10 and a Denon AVR1911 package.

ben2talk

nexcorp wrote: »

Nice Chinese board.... Polk is putting cheap chinese amp boards in moderately expensive cabs and despite a huge number of failures, are charging CNOTES to replace the cheap chinese amps with the exact same cheap chinese amps. I'm tired of paying good moeny for cheap Chinese crap.

I find your comments about 'Chinese Crap' to be rather offensive and racist. I guess this is normal for people from the USA who must try to believe that their overpriced system is the only way to get 'quality'.

After someone I know bought a German safety razor, I bought a similar one via Aliexpress. The quality is 95% as good as the German razor, the function 100%, and the price was 8% of the retail of the German one.

It is definitely not crap.
My wife also works in a large electronics company (KCE in Thailand) which produces extremely cheap electronics. It is a tier 5 factory (certification - this is a top level quality factory producing top level quality).

I think the issue with the Polk subs is that the electrolytic capacitors are failing - and so it falls to Polk to produce an alternative design or upgrade the current design.

What is annoying is that this company promises speakers for life (I have a pair of B&W speakers that are going very strong that I bought in 2001 with a sound quality comparable to a brand new pair of Monitor Audio Bronze that I bought 18 years later.

Speaker warranties (just 3 to 5 years isn't long really) should cover manufacturing defects and premature failures. Speakers (like TV's) should NOT expire so soon - and that's nothing to do with manufacturing in China, Korea, Japan, or Birmingham UK. It is about design and quality.

Subwoofers are basically very expensive (compared to a PAIR of amazing bookshelf speakers, just for a limited range of 30Hz up to maybe 200.....) and I think the guarantees should be at least 5 years and with more reliable amplifiers (like my Yamaha receiver - the last one worked for 17 years before I had issues with mechanical parts - switches and knobs). For a relatively simple BASH (actually much lower quality audio quality, just a high efficiency amplifier, I think it should be easy.

Polk should actively support speakers for at least 10 years - upgrade this board and release an alternative replacement.

F1nut

I find your comments about 'Chinese Crap' to be rather offensive and racist. I guess this is normal for people from the USA who must try to believe that their overpriced system is the only way to get 'quality'.

Seriously dude........grow up.

nooshinjohn

F1nut wrote: »

I find your comments about 'Chinese Crap' to be rather offensive and racist. I guess this is normal for people from the USA who must try to believe that their overpriced system is the only way to get 'quality'.

Seriously dude........grow up.

Agreed , and when China stops importing dog food that poisons and kills our beloved pets, using lead paint on children’s toys, and other products that find their way into a garbage dump faster that it took for them to clear customs, and stealing our patents and intellectual property, then maybe the reputation of Chinese products will improve... until then, it’s just crap. And I can’t be racist because I made Chinese food tonight. If anything, I am guilty of cultural appropriation.

msg

Wow. This kid's angry! Someone get him a juicebox and a fruit chew, stat!

Such a shame. You sound like you could be smart, but your attitude sucks, too, just like that other dude's. Epidemic. At least you seem to be able to write properly.

Racist. Shaking my head at that one. Disappointing. Weak and inaccurate call of a really ugly term. If you've experienced it, you wouldn't cheapen it with such haphazard use.

Viking64

nexcorp wrote: »

It means the entire product line is gagbare.

Reading "gagbare" made me chuckle.

codycatalist

Sheet at this rate let's make Toyota support and maintain my car for 10 years. Anyone with me?!

mouseman31

Yes, the plate amplifier on the PSW110 was not built to last. Poor quality capacitors are the main culprit. That said, the enclosure & speaker put out great lows so I decided to save them by replacing the failed amp with a Dayton Audio SPA100-D amp, which has much beefier looking capacitors. BOOM, it sounds great again and I'm crossing my fingers that I was right about the quality improvement of Dayton Audio amps.

VR3

The psw110 was released over 20 years ago and sold for a couple hundred dollars retail.

If they are selling it at a store for 200, all in cost is between 75 and 100 dollars in net materials and labor maybe less.

Im just not sure what is expected to happen for that price point? Seems like if it lasted 5 to 10 years you are good?

Clipdat

If he thinks that sub has "great lows" imagine if he heard a Rythmik or Velodyne!

mrbigbluelight

Remember:
'Get what you can with what you got and be happy with what you get

A wise man once said that.
....okay that was me who said it but that just goes to prove the point👍😇

There's ALWAYS going to be something better. 🤗

treitz3

Can you say, "Disposable"?

You get what you pay for. Not always but even the cheap/low cost folks had to have known that this was the lowest price sub on the market at the time and that it was not a "Lifetime" sub.

I would venture to say that total cost in manufacturing was around $40. Add shipping, marketing, retail costs and you end up with what you bought it at. At the end of the day, it was a cheap mid-bass driver with a cheap amplifier plate that wasn't designed to last a lifetime. In other words, "disposable".

1K phones today are the same way. Polk just lead the way.

Tom

msg

Man, I posted a buncha crappy stuff on here. What a DickTracy.