Polk Signature Elite ES Speakers - Build quality
Hello,
I just recently purchased a few speakers from the Signature Elite line and had some build quality observations I wanted to point out to understand how common they are.
I purchased the following: ES15 pair, ES20 pair and ES60 pair.
While the wooden cabinets are solid and have no defect, I found the quality of the vinyl laminate (the fake wooden texture) quite disappointing. At the seams, where the front MDF panel is joined to the rest of the cabinet, the vinyl is interrupted and clearly shows the underlying wood. In most places Polk used some kind of gray glue to try and hide it but this comes off quite easily and is not applied uniformly.
It is clear that the vinyl was applied to each panel making up the cabinet instead of wrapped around the completed cabinet.
I am not really intending to go through a return process for something like this, as it is present more or less on all the speakers I purchased and I therefore assume it is potentially a wider quality control issue.
Even the ES60s have this issue, although to a lesser extent.
Can you guys confirm whether this is common?
I know that the ES Series is more budget oriented but still...
Grateful for any insight you can offer.
I just recently purchased a few speakers from the Signature Elite line and had some build quality observations I wanted to point out to understand how common they are.
I purchased the following: ES15 pair, ES20 pair and ES60 pair.
While the wooden cabinets are solid and have no defect, I found the quality of the vinyl laminate (the fake wooden texture) quite disappointing. At the seams, where the front MDF panel is joined to the rest of the cabinet, the vinyl is interrupted and clearly shows the underlying wood. In most places Polk used some kind of gray glue to try and hide it but this comes off quite easily and is not applied uniformly.
It is clear that the vinyl was applied to each panel making up the cabinet instead of wrapped around the completed cabinet.
I am not really intending to go through a return process for something like this, as it is present more or less on all the speakers I purchased and I therefore assume it is potentially a wider quality control issue.
Even the ES60s have this issue, although to a lesser extent.
Can you guys confirm whether this is common?
I know that the ES Series is more budget oriented but still...
Grateful for any insight you can offer.
Comments
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Hello,
I've forwarded your post to a friend at Polk and this is the first problem, of this type, that he is aware of. Could you please send him the serial numbers of your speakers and some photos of the problem areas? If so send them to: Kim.Jasper@masimo.com and he will rectify the situation. -
SeleniumFalcon wrote: »Hello,
I've forwarded your post to a friend at Polk and this is the first problem, of this type, that he is aware of. Could you please send him the serial numbers of your speakers and some photos of the problem areas? If so send them to: Kim.Jasper@masimo.com and he will rectify the situation.
Hello SeleniumFalcon,
Thank you kindly for your response.
I will certainly forward some pictures and serial numbers to the above address as soon as I get home from work.
Kind regards -
I have a pair of S55's and while nobody is going to be fooled into thinking they are real wood, the vinyl application is very nice. Sorry to hear of your disappointment. Kim will take care of you.
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Thank you for bringing this to Polk's attention and sending the information.
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Hello,
I sent everything to Kim.
In the meantime I wanted to post the pictures I took of the affected areas on all speakers: ES15, ES20 and ES60.
In addition, the Polk logo on one of the ES20s was applied at an angle and is not straight.
I know that some may not care about these issues as long as the speakers sound good, but items like these are kept for many years and I feel should not have these defects, especially because they don't cost pennies.
Honestly, I have purchased entire office desks for half the cost of an ES20 pair that don't have these defects with veneer/laminate.
PS: none of this is shipping damage, boxes and packing foam were both intact.
Kind regards,
Gabriele
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I'd return them. They're not supposed to be like that where the gaps between the laminates need to be touched up with a furniture pen.
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SLOPPY!!!Brian
One-owner Polk Audio RTA 15TL speakers refreshed w/ Sonicap, Vishay/Mills and Cardas components by "pitdogg2," "xschop" billet tweeter plates and BH5 | Stereo REL Acoustics T/5x subwoofers w/ Bassline Blue cables | Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III integrated tube amp | Technics SL-1210G turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 MM cart | Sony CDP-508ESD CD player (as a transport) | LampizatOr Baltic 4 tube DAC | Nordost & DH Labs cables/interconnects | APC H15 Power Conditioner | GIK Acoustics room treatments | Degritter RCM -
Maybe the furniture touch-up pen guy at the factory was taking a smoke break.
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I am glad I am not the only one that sees this as a problem, the issue is that in total I have purchased almost 10 speakers from the Signature Elite line (from different retailers) and all of them had those gaps in different spots.
If I return them I can't really justify buying the same ones, the likelyhood of them having the same problem is too high. And shipping back those ES60s is no fun.. -
Maybe the furniture touch-up pen guy at the factory was taking a smoke break.
Or they put out the cigarettes on the speakers 😔
It's too bad really, I like how they sound but to pay full price for this rubs me the wrong way. -
Just that lopsided logo is a show-stopper, IMO, not to mention the marks on both corners directly above from applying it (I guess??). Don’t dork around with your company’s logo.
I’m hopeful you will be taken care of.
Brian
One-owner Polk Audio RTA 15TL speakers refreshed w/ Sonicap, Vishay/Mills and Cardas components by "pitdogg2," "xschop" billet tweeter plates and BH5 | Stereo REL Acoustics T/5x subwoofers w/ Bassline Blue cables | Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III integrated tube amp | Technics SL-1210G turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 MM cart | Sony CDP-508ESD CD player (as a transport) | LampizatOr Baltic 4 tube DAC | Nordost & DH Labs cables/interconnects | APC H15 Power Conditioner | GIK Acoustics room treatments | Degritter RCM -
Looks like these were built on a Monday versus a Friday. Unfortunate.
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Everyone,
I decided to return them to Crutchfield and wish to report here what they said.
They said on the phone that it is defnitely not the first time this has happened (with other manufacturers as well) and that the manufacturer's position is that these problems are to be expected when using laminate and that they do not recognize them as defects.
This is pretty ridiculous honestly.. If these gaps are to be expected then why are they not shown on the marketing material? On Polk's website the speakers are shown as flawless.
Despite the effort and cost, this reinforces my decision to return them.
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Glad to hear that Crutchfield is taking care of you, they have good customer service in my experience.
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Just that lopsided logo is a show-stopper, IMO, not to mention the marks on both corners directly above from applying it (I guess??). Don’t dork around with your company’s logo.
I’m hopeful you will be taken care of.
No the marks are actually the plastic film, which was also not straight. It is basically a metal logo applied with glue.
One could probably warm it up and reposition the letters, which is something that Polk should have done. -
From what I gathered Kim was planning to replace them for you.
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Glad to hear that Crutchfield is taking care of you, they have good customer service in my experience.
They really do have great service, but this whole thing has really turned me off to this... Most hi'fi store carry stuff well beyond my budget and my only choice is to buy online and go through this every time..
I might just turn to the used market -
They'll likely end up back with Polk as B-stock items to be sold on Ebay or Crutchfield may sell them as scratch and dent customer returns. The join defects could easily be hidden in quality control if the factory wanted to. It's also true that Crutchfield is first rate for delivery and returns.
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SeleniumFalcon wrote: »From what I gathered Kim was planning to replace them for you.
Hi,
I have yet to receive a reply from Kim, but regardless, the new ones will probably be the same so I am not sure I want to go through this again as time has value and the customer should not have to bear the cost of a cheaper production process.
I would appreciate Polk refunding the $48 that Crutchfield will charge me to ship them back though.
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Just that lopsided logo is a show-stopper, IMO, not to mention the marks on both corners directly above from applying it (I guess??). Don’t dork around with your company’s logo.
I’m hopeful you will be taken care of.
No the marks are actually the plastic film, which was also not straight. It is basically a metal logo applied with glue.
One could probably warm it up and reposition the letters, which is something that Polk should have done.
Ah, I see it now on my laptop. Unacceptable.
Brian
One-owner Polk Audio RTA 15TL speakers refreshed w/ Sonicap, Vishay/Mills and Cardas components by "pitdogg2," "xschop" billet tweeter plates and BH5 | Stereo REL Acoustics T/5x subwoofers w/ Bassline Blue cables | Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III integrated tube amp | Technics SL-1210G turntable w/ Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 MM cart | Sony CDP-508ESD CD player (as a transport) | LampizatOr Baltic 4 tube DAC | Nordost & DH Labs cables/interconnects | APC H15 Power Conditioner | GIK Acoustics room treatments | Degritter RCM -
To me it looks like they have been stored in a humid environment- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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Humidity won't do that, but heat will.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
