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

Nightfall

ken brydson wrote: »

Jesse seems impressed. That's enough for me to be intrigued....

That's what I was thinking. I'm still Keen on giving them a listen and I'd like to see what they look like with the grills on, I always keep grills on speakers anyway. Jesse hasn't steered me wrong so far, we both had the same opinion on the SDA 1.2s even before I knew what he thought of them.

motorhead43026

mlistens03 wrote: »

Here is a picture of our living room, and I think a set of those with a light wood finish would look very nice in here. I offer this purely as a somewhat "trendy" living room.

(note, I'm not in charge of decor or speaker placement, so please save your criticisms. )

By the decor I am going to assume there is a powerful presence of estrogen in that household, looks good though.

mhardy6647

pitdogg2 wrote: »

They should have used a clean damp rag to clean followed by a dry one. That right speaker looks bad. I'd love to hear them and would hope there is a way to attach splkes

Or is that some sort of marbled finish? I had the same thought, but I was (am) up for givin' 'em the benefit of the doubt.

I am also thinking that the little two-ways (EDIT: both flavors of 'em -- I didn't notice at first they were different!) look considerably more promising -- not that looks necessarily correlate one whit with sound.

Based on their configuration, the floorstanders are of little interest to me a priori, but then again I can say with some certainty that I ain't their key demographic

mhardy6647

PS: I mean... things are kinda odd in Hong Kong at the moment.

TEAforONE

I kind of like them. I mean,I'm not like pulling out the check book or anything. I don't find them offensive. However,who ever was in charge of setting them up for display,should be fired! Water spots and finger prints all over your product. This is how you display a brand new product for the whole world to see???

hochpt21

I need to see more pictures, but the LSiM’s look way sexier to me.

Hermitism

mhardy6647 wrote: »

those drivers appear to be ribbed for maximum pleasure.

Listening pleasure, one would assume.

Nightfall

mhardy6647 wrote: »

those drivers appear to be ribbed for maximum pleasure.

Listening pleasure, one would assume.

Have you seen the movie about Howard Stern called "Private Parts"?

Maybe more than listening pleasure.

Kex

motorhead43026 wrote: »

By the decor I am going to assume there is a powerful presence of estrogen in that household, looks good though.

Ouch!

That said, there are not many speakers that most sane females would consider attractive. I got away with RT800’s and RT55’s for a while, but I’ll admit that they were never attractive. Now everything is in-ceiling (and temporary, which has been lasting for a few years already, but such are priorities in life sometimes)

The new “Legend” speakers don’t seem unattractive. Notice the nicer feet on the base of the larger models, with metal supports of some description. The bookshelves look more like replacements for the RTiA than the LSiM though, but maybe they look better in reality.

Speakers should really be gorgeous, if they’re going to be seen. Nobody ever said that a grand piano or baby grand looked unattractive. It’s part of the decor, not fighting with it. Similarly, if a speaker isn’t beautiful enough to be out from the corner wall, in the room, then the WAF is going to be low, and incurring displeasure over it is rarely (if ever) worth it.

Emotiva households are clearly NOT happy places (talking about the fugly speakers here, not the other stuff, but yeah... maybe some of that too... ). The price of such artworks tends not to be in the range of those offered by Polk, which brings me to another question...

What is the annual market for speakers anyway, so what are Polk fighting over? Speakers rarely break, so if one has a good pair (or more), then do owners ever even replace them?

OleBoot

pitdogg2 wrote: »

They should have used a clean damp rag to clean followed by a dry one. That right speaker looks bad. I'd love to hear them and would hope there is a way to attach splkes

I think it's still got the plastic film stuff on it.

mhardy6647

Gorgeous as in, e.g., Wilsons?




I mean, I am pretty tolerant of imposing loudspeakers -- but I'd prefer not to be menaced by them. Some of the bigger/'spensiver Wilsons are the stuff of nightmares.

Emlyn

OleBoot wrote: »

I think it's still got the plastic film stuff on it.

Looks like that's it. The bookshelf speakers have more of a flat blackish finish it seems, not shiny and wrinkly black.

Kex

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Gorgeous as in, e.g., Wilsons?

I was thinking more along the lines of beautiful wood... the WAF should be higher with that aherm... sorry 😐 🤭

Maybe along the lines of the Focal Scala Utopia, or some of the Sonus Faber lines... immaculate and meticulous craftsmanship, just like a piano!

OleBoot

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Gorgeous as in, e.g., Wilsons?




I mean, I am pretty tolerant of imposing loudspeakers -- but I'd prefer not to be menaced by them. Some of the bigger/'spensiver Wilsons are the stuff of nightmares.

Take me to your leader, earthling.

WLDock

Clipdat wrote: »

Another pic, quality isn't great though:

Something to consider....do they look any better or worst then theses:



IMO, I like the curved top of the LSiM more so than the flat top ELAC Adante.


So, if Polk can get more performance out of these for less money then the LSiM they might be on to something. Because from a distance the G.E. or overall general effect of their design is not far off from other brands out there like the ELAC. The hurdle is all of the other brands in the $5K retail price bracket. Many tend to gravitate to the so called "audiophile" brands.

When does the club Polk listening road show start?

mhardy6647

... and they don't even sound very good.
OK, I haven't heard the WAMMs, but the Wilsons I have encountered were, shall we say, not to my taste sonically, either.

I.e., one remains cautiously optimistic 'bout this new line of Polks.

F1nut

ken brydson wrote: »

Jesse seems impressed. That's enough for me to be intrigued....

I'm not sure impressed is correct. Let's say I didn't find anything objectionable in my short demos. I'll also say there is more to come.

As for the colors, as you can see there are 2 and IMO they look better than the LSiM colors.

teekay0007

F1nut wrote: »

Well, that cat is out of the bag.

mrloren

la2vegas wrote: »

So much for the blockbuster unveiling.

Yeah doesn't look like what we saw on the Polk tour either. Then again we only saw the bottom 1/2.

verb

Interesting. What’s the theory behind a dimpled surface on the driver?

tonyb

I would expect a re-worked crossover in these too. Aside from that mid woofer, everything else looks like parts they have on hand from previous models. All in all, I personally see not much to warrant chasing them. Especially given what you can pick up the LSIM's for these days.

Clipdat

The ring radiator reminds me of the Scan-Speak Revelator with the silver phase plug:

codycatalist

.... .... ....

Meh.

mhardy6647

verb wrote: »

Interesting. What’s the theory behind a dimpled surface on the driver?

Like razors with five blades -- gotta make things new and different.



Of course, the notion of little thingies to fight resonances or decrease break up irregularities isn't... umm... exactly new.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-116-page-3

Perhaps the best sounding coax driver evah (at least relative to my ears) -- I cannot afford a pair, though

And then there's that strong but light thing -- cf. corrugated cardboard

deronb1

I like that they are front ported. Sure would like to hear the rr tweet tho. Thought it was the 703s weak link.

mhardy6647

Clipdat wrote: »

The ring radiator reminds me of the Scan-Speak Revelator with the silver phase plug:

...which, in turn, looks to me like an armor-plated version of Roy Allison's 1970s n!pple-shaped 'dome' diaphragm (used in both midrange and tweeter drivers in Allison's superb early loudspeakers).




The Polk/ScanSpeak/Peerless style 'ring radiators' date back to the 1990s, if memory serves.
The notion of a 'ring radiator', though, dates back to JBL in the 1960s (at least), and again, AFAIK

http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?6368-Ring-Radiator-Comparisons



(borrowed image of the notorious JBL 075 ear-gougers, with lots of extra goodies, in this case )

tonyb

I do like that they are front ported also. The look though, for something deemed "legend', reminds me too much of the Sig. series, with a ring radiator from the Lsim series, with a new midwoofer.

To tell the truth, I was expecting something.....other than this. In the end though, let your ears judge as we like to say.

rooftop59

All I’ll say for now is that if you listened to @D2Lo’s discussion, it was clear that the streamlined lineup of good (t series), better (signature series), and best (apparently legend series?) would put the best somewhere better the old rtia and lsim series. Clearly Polk can’t or is no longer interested in selling speakers at the LSiM MSRP (I suspect its the former), so they had to cut costs with this new flagship model to get the MSRP down. Or so I speculate...

mhardy6647

rooftop59 wrote: »

All I’ll say for now is that if you listened to @D2Lo’s discussion, it was clear that the streamlined lineup of good (t series), better (signature series), and best (apparently legend series?) would put the best somewhere better the old rtia and lsim series. Clearly Polk can’t or is no longer interested in selling speakers at the LSiM MSRP (I suspect its the former), so they had to cut costs with this new flagship model to get the MSRP down. Or so I speculate...

^^^ Great post.

1) I didn't recall any of that; thanks for the reminder!

2) ... and I think it could be fairly and reasonably argued that superior sound at affordable prices would fit right in with the classic (dare I say Legendary Polk [Audio] ethos.



Ad from September 1977 (42 years ago )

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/180156/a-project-for-2018-compendium-of-polk-audio-ads-etc/p1

hochpt21

mhardy6647 wrote: »

rooftop59 wrote: »

All I’ll say for now is that if you listened to @D2Lo’s discussion, it was clear that the streamlined lineup of good (t series), better (signature series), and best (apparently legend series?) would put the best somewhere better the old rtia and lsim series. Clearly Polk can’t or is no longer interested in selling speakers at the LSiM MSRP (I suspect its the former), so they had to cut costs with this new flagship model to get the MSRP down. Or so I speculate...

^^^ Great post.

1) I didn't recall any of that; thanks for the reminder!

2) ... and I think it could be fairly and reasonably argued that superior sound at affordable prices would fit right in with the classic (dare I say Legendary Polk [Audio] ethos.



Ad from September 1977 (42 years ago )

https://forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/180156/a-project-for-2018-compendium-of-polk-audio-ads-etc/p1

This is actually where I thought they might go. Given Klipsch and JBL's recent re-introduction of some vintage lines.