New Polk Audio "Legend" Speaker Series shown at 2019 Hong Kong High End Audio Video Show

nooshinjohn

Which is 4 hours south of the northern side of Los Angeles. My point is that people from a city of 18 million should not need to go book a hotel room to go see a pair of speakers. Polk is missing a huge market by not at least trying to get these into the Magnolia stores, and why I question the distribution options. They may move a lot of product, but you are also missing out on possibly the biggest single market for getting these speakers out there. All I can find in stores is the Sig line at Best Buy.

[Deleted User]

I totally understand where you are coming from John. I can't comment on Polk strategy for distribution, only tell you what it is at this point.

VR3

What about Charlotte nc

[Deleted User]

From what I can find @VR3 there is no one in Charlotte that will have them to demo.

But like I said, we are updating the list daily as more dealers sign on.

WLDock

nooshinjohn wrote: »

My point is that people from a city of 18 million should not need to go book a hotel room to go see a pair of speakers. Polk is missing a huge market by not at least trying to get these into the Magnolia stores, and why I question the distribution options. They may move a lot of product, but you are also missing out on possibly the biggest single market for getting these speakers out there. All I can find in stores is the Sig line at Best Buy.

God man, I agree wholeheartedly. Again, I'm no Pro but I've seen Pro's in action that were able to move a warehouse full of product.

Someone needs to make some deals in the LA area. If they are not listening, make them listen! If the product is that good then there should be a way to make up for it in volume. However, the dealers have to be on board.

nooshinjohn

KenCustomerService wrote: »

I totally understand where you are coming from John. I can't comment on Polk strategy for distribution, only tell you what it is at this point.

Thanks Ken... please understand I am not trying in any way to give you a hard time. I want these speakers to have the best shot at success, and basically closing off a HUGE market does not make sense to me. As you already said, you will be mentioning these concerns to the powers that be after CEDIA. Perhaps you can update us on this after that conversation has taken place.

Maybe the solution will be a simple one like adding information regarding DS members that will be carrying them and willing to show them off to the dealer locator on Polks website and updating which lines they are authorized to carry.

[Deleted User]

I can definitely update you when I hear more after the show.

We do have that function on our Legend Dealer Locator right now. It will tell you if there is a listening event, if the dealer has them in store, or if they are selling online.

https://www.polkaudio.com/dealer-locator?q=Denver, CO, USA

And if anyone else has questions feel free to direct them my way by tagging me in a post or DMing me.

nooshinjohn

KenCustomerService wrote: »

From what I can find @VR3 there is no one in Charlotte that will have them to demo.

But like I said, we are updating the list daily as more dealers sign on.

If there is nobody in Charlotte that can show these speakers, it means the distribution model has some big holes to fill.

mhardy6647

Bank Robber Willie Sutton, famously (or maybe just apocryphally), was once asked why he -- umm -- robbed banks.

His reply, of course, is legendary:

Because that's where the money is.

Polk "needs to" (i.e., you would think Polk would want to) ensure visibility (audibility!) of its premier loudspeakers in the big bucks markets in the world. In the US, those are pretty obvious --- and I would think, e.g., Charlotte is one of them.

Romo11

nooshinjohn wrote: »

KenCustomerService wrote: »

From what I can find @VR3 there is no one in Charlotte that will have them to demo.

But like I said, we are updating the list daily as more dealers sign on.

If there is nobody in Charlotte that can show these speakers, it means the distribution model has some big holes to fill.

It’s amazing. Charlotte NC is large enough to have an NFL team (Panthers) and an NBA team, (Hornets) but not big enough to carry Polk Audio. If it had not been such a great price on the LSIM speakers close out from Polk and Adorama, I would have not purchased Polk speakers. At the close out prices, I just took a chance of never hearing the LSIM line but willing to give them a try. I will never spend $6000.00 on a pair of the Legends without a demo.
Also, I have owned Polk speakers since 1985 but, I always had a demo until the last ones.
Please reconsider.

stangman67

“We are updating the list daily as more dealers sign on”.

Maybe we all just hold our horses until the dealer lists are finalized. These speakers were literally released days ago.

nooshinjohn

stangman67 wrote: »

“We are updating the list daily as more dealers sign on”.

Maybe we all just hold our horses until the dealer lists are finalized. These speakers were literally released days ago.

They are 6 to 8 weeks out. This is the time of year floor plans are being set for Christmas. If they don’t have a list yet, I don’t mind at all being the guy to sound that alarm.

F1nut

Kurt300 wrote: »

KenCustomerService wrote: »

@F1nut True, I am with Definitive now, but I still know everything that goes on with Polk, Denon, Marantz, and Classe. We are all in the same office. I sit next to the Brand Manager for Polk. I still want to help out when there are issues.

I reached out to the customer on the 9th, I am looking into it for him.

Also, glad everyone is excited about the new Polk Legend speakers, the team has been working hard on them for a long time!

Ken, nice to see you here! Hey, does anyone at Polk have any feedback for anyone here claiming to have particular "titles" or "offices" related to this forum? Because otherwise, I'd swear that my "Grand Poobahness" outranks anyone claiming to be, say, "President". Is this true?

I was elected by the members long before you joined. Nice to see you back causing trouble once again.

nooshinjohn

The dealer search tool on the Polk front page shows me a Home Depot store some 40 miles from my home as the nearest Polk Dealer, when there is a Best Buy and a Fry’s that both carry the brand less than three miles away... I would say that tool is broken.

Nightfall

I self appointed myself an appropriate title. I know you were all just being too nice to give it to me.

Aw crap, the red isn't working. How do you make it red?

Hyme2019

Kencustomerservice as I said in an earlier post in mn sd and nd I anticipate maaayyybe one dealer to potentially carry them and he has golden ear, Klipsch, focal, paradigm, Martin Logan, kef, paradigm svs, and we as distributors I’m told won’t have access. While there are a lot of “prosource” members nationwide there aren’t that many in this territory especially that would display Polk Legend, your missing potential dealers that may make sense who are not prosource and some prosource dealers are oddly just tv and appliance dealers who don’t do home audio or home theater. At least in this territory big loss for Polk by limiting yourselves too much. No exposure.

[Deleted User]

@nooshinjohn

The actual dealer locator is being replaced as well. We have two separate locators right now.

One for Legend dealers and one for regular Polk dealers. Home Depot does carry in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. But you are right, Fry's and Best Buy should show up too.

nooshinjohn

My zip code is 91367 Ken.... enter that into the locator and see what you get.

Emlyn

I have an in store demo dealer ten minutes away from me.

The location used to be a Tweeter store before that company folded.

[Deleted User]

@nooshinjohn

A few Best Buys, Home Depots, Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath, and Crazy Stereo.

All those make sense to me. Pacific sales sells our Kohler collaboration we did.

Then the Legend dealer locator shows the store in Orange County that I shared before.

The dealer locator for Polk and DT are both being re-worked.

nooshinjohn

But those you found, they are all 40 miles away...
Once again, I know you are looking into it, but as Hyme2019 and I are pointing out, there are some massive and glaring holes in the marketing strategy if huge swaths of the country are not able to see or hear anything else Polk makes beyond a soundbar at Walmart and Best Buy.

nooshinjohn

As far as I can piece together, ProSource is not a distributor, vendor or supplier. They are a marketing tool for the home automation/home theater/integration business. They do not buy or stock product. They offer their members a wide list of companies from which their members can potentially buy product from, but do not pick and choose with whom they must do business.

https://www.prosourceinfo.com/

As a member, one can obtain product from any vendor they do business with, which is a huge benefit to the member, but I fail to see how, with Polk not selling the Legend lineup direct to consumers, how a closed purchase network is going to get these speakers into the hands of those that want them if nobody within that group will carry or demo them. I have contacted 17 members of the ProSource network of dealers within the Los Angeles market, and NONE of them are willing to get their hands on them for me to listen to if I wanted to make a purchase, but are more than happy to sell me what they want to sell. There are only 4 members of this group that even have a customer showroom for gear to begin with.

Again, all I am trying to do is raise the concern and I am 100% confident that Ken will come through with answers.

VR3

The closest dealer for me is Crutchfield... I would consider the drive if they had a really good show room. But it's still 8 hours round trip

nooshinjohn

DSkip wrote: »

There is a reason they chose this company to work with. How about some optimism prior to pessimism for once about a Polk launch? We don’t know what all goes on behind the scenes - it’s a new structure so let’s see how it plays out.

If the pessimism gets the good folks at Polk asking the right questions and thinking of solutions, then it is a good thing. I want these speakers to succeed beyond their wildest expectation, so that maybe we will see more SDA-enabled speakers in all pricing categories.

Hyme2019

We also distribute for Kef and one thing they do is we can sell Kef Reference, but dealer needs individual authorization to sell anything above Q series, as well as, Kef makes sure dealer isn’t just trying to steal undercut a Kef direct or preauthorized dealer. You could do the same thing with Legend, get more exposure to dealers and still protect the line. Again in this territory, 3 state area, just ball park guessing maybe 15-20 total prosource dealers less than 5 would be serious candidates of the Legend series and of those I can think of one that I see doing it, but Polk will be their 7-8th speaker line which he’s very committed to, but I can think of numerous serious 2 channel stores that would be perfect who aren’t prosource. Even companies like b & w and McIntosh are opening distribution of their lines more than what you guys are proposing for the Legend series.

displayname

I think everyone is forgetting about the length of the product lifecycle on products like the Legend series. I believe the LSiM series was announced 9 years ago. I'd expect the L800s to have a similar lifecycle. It's not like Bluetooth speakers that launch a model at CES and a new model before Christmas. They have time.

Honestly, for a big company like Sound United, reviews are going to hold more value than dealers for this initial launch period. A comparable product was the JBL L100 (and really the retro-revamp of the majority of the JBL Synthesis line). Those speakers were announced Jan 2018, taken to countless shows, advertised in all the big publications, and reviews were flowing like wild over the first 6-8 months. But you still couldn't find them anywhere for almost a year except for Harman's long term specialty installers (similar to what's happening with L800).
But the hype train was moving as the review units made their rounds while dealer and customer interest was growing.

Then Music Direct picked them up as a major ecomm vendor.
Then bigger chains of specialty dealers started to pick them up (Star Power, most places that carry Revel lines).
And now, about 18-20 months later, they are finally starting to trickle into specialty audio stores.

Give it time. If these live up to the hype, they will end up in more and more stores. Especially at their price point. It just might take a year or two to make it into places that seem like very obviously choices.

Hyme2019

Prosource is a buying group. Marketing company is a good way to describe them, but in essence they are a distributor. Dealers pay a fee say $250 a month, every month and as part of that they get discounts on supported brands. Years ago it maybe wasn’t uncommon for there to be a 7-10 percent difference between distribution and buying groups, but that’s all gone due to various reasons including competition and low margins the difference now I would say is 3-4 percent on average, 5-6-7 percent max. Besides you have to figure in that a dealer pays the fees every month, dealers who don’t do At least $150,0000 in. Purchases a year it doesn’t make sense.

Hyme2019

Nooshinjohn your perception of what prosource is is pretty accurate. Please don’t take what I’m saying is that they are bad in any way, it’s just there are a carrying degree of dealers many who are prosource who again aren’t candidates for this product. Furthermore if you look up avb BrandSource that is the parent buying group, prosource is designed specifically for electronics and CI channels, I got a list recently and there were dealers who were listed as prosource that by my count should be just BrandSource so the numbers can be deceiving. Again prosource equals CI and BrandSource is appliances and tvs.

Hyme2019

Ahh sorry varying degree not carrying, sorry

Hyme2019

DSkip up here McIntosh has hired a rep firm not too terribly long ago and trust me the protected dealers of which there were few are less than happy because the rep firm has been signing on new dealers left and right. And just this last week same thing happened with b and w but different rep firm.