PSW505 - Hit or Miss / failed amp / moving to different brand.
JSPSW505
Posts: 1
This is not a rant or meant in anyway way to take away from the quality of products that Polk Audio provides, but rather a vocalization of a surprising result in terms of product longevity.
To summarize, I have owned a PSW505 for just over four normal non-abusive years. Prior to owning this item I have owned Bose and JBL studio Monitors both which have lasted for decades.
My PSW505 has gone through two plate amps in these four years which I find surprising. After opening a ticket and completing the testing and woofer inspection, I have been faced with paying $300 for a new plate amp or buy a new sub. I am not expecting any kind of sympathy but just surprised that the amp failure averaged 2 to 2.5 years and I truly do not understand this.
As such, I opened a ticket, incident number 190408-000246 and attempted to work with customer service. Sure, was I expecting some kind of exception, you bet, because I believe things should last more than 2 years. That did not happen. The service team was very professional, but facing the option to pay $300.00 to take a chance on another amp, I just can’t justify that.
Prior to awaiting my answer, I was looking at a new HTS 12 sub from Polk, however due to the failure rate of the amp and the unwillingness to work with me to replace the amp just puts a bad taste in my mouth even after I told the rep I was considering moving to another brand. I recently responded to the ticket but feel I have no choice but to move on and not fix this PSW505.
Good luck to all who have purchased Polk. Just wish they saw the anomaly as I did and were willing to work with me. If anyone on this board has a suggestion as to which other brand to move to, I am all ears ‘literally’.. thanks.
To summarize, I have owned a PSW505 for just over four normal non-abusive years. Prior to owning this item I have owned Bose and JBL studio Monitors both which have lasted for decades.
My PSW505 has gone through two plate amps in these four years which I find surprising. After opening a ticket and completing the testing and woofer inspection, I have been faced with paying $300 for a new plate amp or buy a new sub. I am not expecting any kind of sympathy but just surprised that the amp failure averaged 2 to 2.5 years and I truly do not understand this.
As such, I opened a ticket, incident number 190408-000246 and attempted to work with customer service. Sure, was I expecting some kind of exception, you bet, because I believe things should last more than 2 years. That did not happen. The service team was very professional, but facing the option to pay $300.00 to take a chance on another amp, I just can’t justify that.
Prior to awaiting my answer, I was looking at a new HTS 12 sub from Polk, however due to the failure rate of the amp and the unwillingness to work with me to replace the amp just puts a bad taste in my mouth even after I told the rep I was considering moving to another brand. I recently responded to the ticket but feel I have no choice but to move on and not fix this PSW505.
Good luck to all who have purchased Polk. Just wish they saw the anomaly as I did and were willing to work with me. If anyone on this board has a suggestion as to which other brand to move to, I am all ears ‘literally’.. thanks.
Answers
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Man if you're literally all ears then I feel bad for you. I would go through so many qtips. All jokes aside SVS, Hsu and Rythmik come up a lot for good quality subs.Just a dude doing dude-ly things
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REL...The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
On the one hand I do agree that subs and sound are are killing Polk, and the CS is leaving a lot to be desired.
Having said that, even those who really like current Polk speakers would not recommend a Polk sub. On a budget, HSU or SVS all day every day...Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
Game Room 5.1.4: Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
Bedroom 2.1 Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
I think the last real serious sub Polk made was the PSW1200 which still fetches some coin used. Can't forget the ad where Matt Polk is literally standing on the woofer, lol- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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I'm another hard core Polk speaker lover, but as above, I would recommend taking a look at SVS for a sub.
My brother had a brand new Polk DSW sub that kicked the bucket after 2-3 years, which to me is just unacceptable especially when I had one pair of their speakers for 27 years before I upgraded to another pair of Polks.
Polk rocks as far as speakers go, but their subs just don't stack up to the quality and longevity of their speakers.Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2 -
I'm another hard core Polk speaker lover, but as above, I would recommend taking a look at SVS for a sub.
My brother had a brand new Polk DSW sub that kicked the bucket after 2-3 years, which to me is just unacceptable especially when I had one pair of their speakers for 27 years before I upgraded to another pair of Polks.
Polk rocks as far as speakers go, but their subs just don't stack up to the quality and longevity of their speakers.
Well, I will say that passive loudspeakers should last MUCH longer than amplified speakers or subs. But still, 3 years for a sub as expensive as the DSW series is unacceptable. For a psw10 on the other hand, I don’t think you should expect more than a couple years for what you pay imho...Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es
Game Room 5.1.4: Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra
Bedroom 2.1 Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
I had a PDW505 for 4 years and never had any trouble with it. I was lucky I guess. I read about all of the amps going out several years ago and I replaced it last year. I sold it and got a HSU sub and I'm very pleased with it.Yamaha RX-A2070, Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amp, Benchmark Dac1, Bluesound NODE 2i, Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport, Parasound Zphono USB Phono Preamp, Fluance RT85, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Polk L600's, L400, L900's, RC80i's, SVS 3000 Micro, Audioquest Interconnects and Digital Cables, Nordost Silver Shadow Digital Cable, Cullen Gold and Crossover Series Power Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 12AWG OCC Speaker Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha Analog Interconnect Cables, Douglas Connection Alpha 11 OCC Custom Power Cable, Signal Power Cable, Furman PL-8C 15 Power Conditioner, Sony 65" 900F, Sony UBP-X700, Fios, Apple TV 4K, Audioquest Chocolate HDMI Cables.
