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dromunds

My L800’s arrived today. Thankfully, they arrived after the blizzard. In fact, I had to plow snow so that I could use a hand cart to get them from the semi-truck to the house. The boxes had some snow on top when they came out of the truck, not sure where that came from but they were in Chicago yesterday so maybe somewhere along the line they were transferred during the blizzard. . Didn’t appear at first glance that the boxes were damaged tho, which if indeed not damaged is a relief. Both boxes were wrapped together on a pallet. Won’t be able to unbox today, but hopefully after a day or two of power squat sessions I’ll be able to he-man these beeches into the system. It’s going to be a good time for me to get a bit of cable organizing too. As an aside, I told the truck driver he should take a video of me pushing the hand cart with the monolithic boxes down the long snow covered post-blizzard apocalypto driveway and to the front door. Now that probably would’ve been pretty funny. His only response, however, was to say in a quaint Eb from Green Acres kinda way, “Well, at least it’s sort of hard-packed!” Then he snorted like that hillbilly in Deliverance right after he said You got a purty mouf. I avoided all eye contact and yelled “Those Packers sure played special yesterday, didn’t they?” as I closed the front door.

skipshot12

^ Dang sweet to know they get deliveries completed even when weather’s at it’s worst.
Enjoy your speakers.
Looking forward to your impressions.

Emlyn

I got a FedEx tracking number for each L800 on the 19th but no pickup from the warehouse yet. Not unexpected given the weather's negative impact on shipments and airline travel. Tis the season.

Edit: five minutes after posting a freight company called me to arrange delivery tomorrow. No FedEx involved.

msg

Yeah, those boxes are massive. They're even bigger once you get them inside the house.
Wait 'til you start opening them. That carton engineer is a genius. Be sure to leave yourself a trail of bread crumbs so you can get back out of the box again once you make your way in.

JayCee

Ain't that the truth. I kept mine and found a way to origami one box inside another. Waited out making sure we wouldn't move this past year and now I'm in the clear, so will recycle them and free up, like, half my basement storage! LOL

Toolfan66

Mine will be here Friday afternoon..

msg

^^^LOL

msg

I used mine to build an addition on my house.

heiney9

My L600's arrived last Wednesday at work. Way faster than I expected. I had them shipped to work because of Winter and convenience. Well, Thursday the storm hit so I left them at work until it was safer to bring them home and manhandle them into the house. That was tonight.

The fricking boxes are huge. Nice large chunks of styrofoam on the ends and a so-so sized one that is like a collar around the outside of the speaker in the middle. The rest of the space inside the box is wide open and fair game for damage..........I think you can see where I'm going with this.

These were shrink wrapped in colored plastic to a pallet. When FedEx freight was there I tried to unwrap to inspect. He told me he needed a pic before I unwrapped the speakers. Well he couldn't stick around to see me unwrap and after I unwrapped and moved them off the pallet I noticed a huge gash/opening in the side of the box, right below the center. Looked to me like a fork lift missed it's mark. All I could do is hope.

I opened the box tonight to remove the speaker and before I even looked at the speaker the inner plastic wrap had a tear and so did the cotton sleeve these are packed in. And a couple small horizontal scratches on the speaker. I am a bit pissed about it. I remember when companies actually put solid cardboard 4" thick around the entire speaker.

I really don't want to return a damaged speaker, these are behemoths and will be a real PITA to pack up and ship back and then have to get another one in the house on the snow and ice. I will contact Polk in the morning. I haven't heard/read great things about the customer service these days. I'd rather take a dollar credit as the scratches are on the back of the speaker and are light enough I could live with it for a credit.






I'll start a new thread about the set-up and listening impressions, etc

H9

heiney9

msg wrote: »

Yeah, those boxes are massive. They're even bigger once you get them inside the house.
Wait 'til you start opening them. That carton engineer is a genius. Be sure to leave yourself a trail of bread crumbs so you can get back out of the box again once you make your way in.

The carton engineer should have added 4" padding around the entire speaker. All that dead space is asking for trouble. My one speaker had trouble. Less origami and more protection please!





H9

heiney9

I will say I've had these running for about 5 hours (L600's) and they sound damn good right out of the box and where they are initially set up.

Still have much break-in and tweaking to do, but I am impressed right out of the box they bring it.

H9

Clipdat

Truly sorry to see that they arrived damaged. Hopefully Polk CS can make this situation right to your satisfaction. Let us know the outcome.

F1nut

Vintage Polk speakers had foam sheets around all sides about 1.5 inches thick IIRC, but even that isn't going to stop damage from a forklift. Neither would 4 inches of cardboard, which I've never seen in a speaker box.

I've seen how Polk and many other companies pack their speakers these days. It's actually a pretty good idea to leave all that open space as reasonable punctures will not come in contact with the cabinet at all.

Looking at the puncture and the scratches on your cabinet I seriously doubt it was caused by a forklift as the damage would be considerably worse. It looks more like the box hit the sharp corner of something. If there was packing material behind the outer box at that point it's likely the force would have caused more serious damage to the cabinet.

heiney9

We'll have to agree to disagree Jesse as far as packing goes. If there had been 4" of corrugated card board in the blank space this would have been avoided. And I fail to see how more packing of a completely open area could lead to more damage the contents. Air isn't a defense when it comes to solid objects

You're right. In thinking about it again, it probably wasn't a fork lift. But, I've seen IKEA stuff with denser packing than this.

I'm not even blaming Polk. The oversized box I'm sure has been helpful in avoiding minor damage. I mean the boxes are huge compared to the speakers. And the gap around the speakers is large.

It's an unfortunate accident.

H9

VR3

The only speakers I've seen with cardboard packing like you describe is definitive Technology

I think the legend and reserve series has great packaging compared to the lsim

Milito

Sorry to hear one of them was damaged. Look forward to your review.

heiney9

I'm over the initial anger/disappointment of the minor damage. These things happen and I'm sure Polk thought it through and would have changed it if it was a common occurrence. I had a hard time locating the scratch this morning peaking my head behind the speaker this morning.

Toolfan66

I called to see if they could move my date up since they made it to Denver this morning, they will deliver tomorrow afternoon.

nooshinjohn

heiney9 wrote: »

I'm over the initial anger/disappointment of the minor damage. These things happen and I'm sure Polk thought it through and would have changed it if it was a common occurrence. I had a hard time locating the scratch this morning peaking my head behind the speaker this morning.

Polk may just send you a replacement cabinet or speaker with no need to return the old one.

heiney9

nooshinjohn wrote: »

heiney9 wrote: »

I'm over the initial anger/disappointment of the minor damage. These things happen and I'm sure Polk thought it through and would have changed it if it was a common occurrence. I had a hard time locating the scratch this morning peaking my head behind the speaker this morning.

Polk may just send you a replacement cabinet or speaker with no need to return the old one.

They're not going to let me keep a $1700 speaker. If they do, they are nuts. I have zero interest in moving hardware and drivers from one cabinet to another on a brand new $1700 speaker. If that's what you mean by sending a replacement cabinet.

Maybe a solution for an extreme circumstance. But this is a very slight scratch.

Emlyn

Emlyn wrote: »

Edit: five minutes after posting a freight company called me to arrange delivery tomorrow. No FedEx involved.

Arrived safe and sound via Old Dominion Freight standing upright strapped to a pallet. Minor gouge in one box but just superficial on the outer box. First time I remember quoting myself here.

skipshot12

heiney9 wrote: »

I'm over the initial anger/disappointment of the minor damage. These things happen and I'm sure Polk thought it through and would have changed it if it was a common occurrence. I had a hard time locating the scratch this morning peaking my head behind the speaker this morning.

heiney, I feel ya.
I am one that keeps my gear in better condition than it arrived in. I clean and adjust to a point that’s truly anal. Physical appearance to me is as important to audible performance.

But I’m gonna add something to what you said above being over the initial…
Look at it this way.
If these are speakers you’re gonna keep for a very long time let it slide. Don’t let it get in the way of your enjoyment of these. If it’s on the back and you can’t see it while listening let the disappointment go and have fun.
May be too much work to get a replacement.

Other thing to consider is the price. Feel good at the price paid for them.

Not trying to dismiss the scratched gear you received just trying to add some thoughts that may help.

Still, looking forward to your impressions on how they sound to you.
Have fun….

Skip

dromunds

Here’s a little striptease ****. But it ain’t all coming off. Yet. You’re gonna have to wait for it, beeches.

msg

So, what you mean is, you haven't figured out how to get them out

Emlyn

Unboxed the L800s and replaced my venerable JMLab 920.1 in my two channel system. Even straight out of the box the L800s seriously outperform the older speakers and those are excellent. They're about the same size as each other. SDA makes the major difference. They'll need quite a bit of time to fully open up and settle in based on my experience with the first pair that I use in my home theater system. I need to do something about those feet on the speakers eventually because the floor in that room is carpeted and the spikes aren't great. They'll do for now though.

They're set up 18 inches from the front wall and 74 inches apart inside edge to inside edge. Powered by a Parasound JC5 amp and supplemented by a Rel S/812 subwoofer. Even with freshly deployed speakers this is the best that system has sounded.

msg

dromunds wrote: »

Here’s a little striptease ****. But it ain’t all coming off. Yet. You’re gonna have to wait for it, beeches.

Side note, I think it's kinda neat that Polk gives away a free set of Magnepans when you buy L800s.
You know, so you can compare real quick and then pitch the Magnepans.

heiney9

dromunds wrote: »

Here’s a little striptease ****. But it ain’t all coming off. Yet. You’re gonna have to wait for it, beeches.

Not joking, but I have dibs on these if you ever decide to move them along sometime in the future. Basically I can drive a few hours to pick them up. Just put that in the back of your mind for the future Don.

toucanet

I'm so angry with myself for missing this opportunity for a second time! I hope there is another opportunity for purchasing a pair of L800 speakers.

skipshot12

This is getting interesting.
It's like having to wait on the next episode of Gold Rush....

Toolfan66