Polk L600 Quick Review

crazy098

I purchased the L600's a few weeks ago as an upgrade to my LSi 15's. The difference isn't quite night and day, but almost. If you use a low pass filter (I use a minidsp) on the l600's @40hz then send that to a sub, THEN it becomes night and day.

First, the L600's are the first speakers I have not had to use DSP on. They sound great out of the box. I mainly listen to classic rock, but listen to all genres depending on my mood. Bass is deep, tight, and has authority. Mids are crystal clear, female voices @ 192khz give me chills (and I actually prefer male vocals). Details are very good to excellent, you can hear the bow being drawn across the strings on stringed instruments. This is the only place I feel the speakers could be better, but I feel the improvement would be marginal. I'll take the impactful bass in exchange. Highs are well defined and not harsh. There is zero listening fatigue here. In fact, I have listened to these speakers for well over 2 hours on multiple days.
Polk has really done an excellent job with these speakers and I feel they can compete with speakers twice the price or more easily. These speakers are truly something special and if you send 40hz and below to a sub, they become something magical. The highs and mids gain greater clarity and precision once the speakers don't have to work so hard to drive the woofers. It's really something that has to be heard but it makes a huge difference.
The speakers are power hungry and really open up if you give them more power, they like to be driven at volume. The soundstage is wide and deep. The speakers disappear into my room with a clear center image. The Lsi15's have now been relegated to rear speaker duty in my home theater setup.

I chose the l600's because the l800's were too large physically to fit in my apartment. I'll try to post a video review with some comparisons to the Lsi 15's on youtube in the next few weeks. I'd really like to edit the footage but if I don't get around to it and there's enough interest I'll upload the raw footage for users here. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll try to answer them as best I can.

For those that are interested, my system:

Media PC running roon
Singxer SU-6 to Gustard R26 via IIS
Audio-GD HE1 MK2
2 X NAD 2200PE Refurbished and Upgraded by Peter Williams @ quirkaudio.com in bridged mode
Polk L600
Rythmik L12 (F12 is my next upgrade)

Emlyn

Congrats!

mantis

Nice man. Try moving your crossover point even higher like 60 or even 80 hz. You will continue to hear those benefits plus now you have more control over the bass in your room.
I find all floor standing or even big bookshelf speakers to benefit from removing low end bass and redirecting those frequencies to the subwoofer's. I can really dial a system in when doing so.
When you leave all the bass at the speakers, it's much more difficult to get a good response.

treitz3

Hello @crazy098 and good morning to you. I don't believe I have ran across a post by you yet. First off, nice review. Secondly, if you have not been welcomed to the forum yet, please allow me to offer you a very warm welcome to Club Polk.

Tom

heiney9

I own the L600's and the bass is almost as good as a sub.....atleast in my listening room. It's odd that you feel the need to use a sub, but everyone is different.

L600's are a grand slam homerun in my book.

H9

Milito

Welcome to the forum and glad you're liking the L600's.
Like Mantis said, run your crossover point at 60 or even 80 Hz. I run mine at 80 Hz with my L600's with a sub.

audioluvr

Nice review. Welcome to Club Polk.

nooshinjohn

Let me also welcome you and thank you for the nice review. The Legend series is an amazing achievement for Polk Audio. By no means do I intend to disparage your gear, but let me add that the performance of your speakers will DRAMATICALLY improve if you have better gear upstream. The L600’s are the type of speaker that can easily highlight every improvement you make in your system.

CottageChz

Thanks for posting your thoughtful review and welcome to the forum. Can’t wait to upgrade to these from my lsim705 someday.

msg

Nice! I've heard those L600s have great bass @Milito commented on this as well at time of upgrade to the L600s.

Could you share some info on your miniDSP, please? That's a brand, right? Do you set this up with a UMIK mic?

Nice DAC, too. I like the Gustard stuff. I once had a need for a USB to SPDIF converter, and ran a Gustard U12 for a while. Nice build, I thought.

With your Singxer SU-6... I was skimming briefly earlier this morning about this. Another sweet piece of gear. I think I saw something talking about USB noise being non-existent. Some kind of isolation in the design? When I was last working with computer audio, I installed a second, dedicated USB controller for audio since I was experiencing noise and USB performance issues.

crazy098

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes everyone. I've been lurking here over the years but mostly stuck to posting when I had questions. I felt there really haven't been that many reviews on the l600's and more people should hear about them.
I was going to get the KEF R11 Metas, but I really like the Polk sound. I was unable to demo the R11's but from what I've heard they would have greater clarity but don't have the extension and authority in the bass that the Polks do. I'm not a bass head by any means but man that bass is a lot of fun to listen to.

@heiney9: A sub isn't needed with these speakers. It's personal preference and I feel it helps to eliminate the nulls in my room. I plan on adding a 2nd one.

@nooshinjohn: I'd love to upgrade my gear further and I plan on it at some point. However, further upgrades are going to cost (at least for me) serious money so that's going to be further down the line. On that note, I can't recommend the work Peter Williams does enough. Once his upgrades have had some time to burn in, his amps are really, really good. I feel I'd have to move to the NAD M33 to consider an upgrade and a pair of them is a significant expense for me.

@msg: Funny you should ask about the su-6. Yes, it eliminates usb noise but also corrects clock errors. It also does more than that. When I first got it I emailed the place I bought it from telling them that I thought it was a slight improvement that wasn't worth the money. They basically told me to wait, and they were right. Once it burns in it really helps to open up the sound and is a noticeable improvement. The R26 has made a Gustard fan out of me as well.
Yes, minidsp is a brand. I use a minidsp 2x4 HD that I upgraded to a DDRC-24. In the software you can set the crossovers for both your mains and your sub. It does have a sampling limit of 96khz if using digital inputs but I use analog inputs to bypass the internal dac. Minidsp does make other units with various inputs and outputs depending on your needs. There is no need to do measurements when setting the crossovers unless you want to find the optimal crossover point for your system, and yes you would do that with a Umik-1 or any other measurement mic and REW. In my case, I tried crossovers of 80, 60, and 40hz but 40 sounded best to me in my room so I just went with my ears. I'll give the other crossovers another go though based on the recommendations of the other users here.

crazy098

Thanks everyone for the replies and the welcomes. I've lurked here over the years but mostly stuck to asking questions or recommendations about gear. I felt that there really weren't a lot of reviews on the l600's and that more people should hear about them. I was going to buy the KEF R11 Metas but I really like the Polk sound. I was unable to demo the R11's but from what I've heard they would offer greater clarity (to what degree I'm not sure) in the highs but lack the extension and authority in the bass that the Polks have. I'm not a bass head by any means, but man that bass sure is fun to listen to.

@heiney9: A sub isn't needed with these speakers. However, I feel that a sub helps to eliminate any nulls in my room and it allows me to move the low frequencies off the Polks. I plan on adding a 2nd sub in the opposite corner of my room. My neighbors are going to hate me though.

@nooshinjohn: I would love to upgrade my gear and plan to eventually. However, upgrading from this point requires components that are a significant amount of money for me. On that note, I can't recommend Peter Williams's work enough. Once his upgrades have had time to burn in, the NAD becomes a gem. I'd have to move to the NAD M33 for similar power and greater performance and a pair of them is a significant expense for me.

@msg: Yes, minidsp is a brand. The one I have is a minidsp 2X4 HD that I upgraded to a DDRC-24. It's basically an active crossover that can also do limited dsp and has dirac. They do offer various models that can do more and come with various inputs and outputs depending on your needs. For example, when I get my 2nd sub to keep everything the way it is now I'll need a minidsp ht-x in order to use analog connections and bypass the internal dac. And thanks, the R26 has made a Gustard fan out of me.
As for the SU-6, yes it eliminates usb noise and also corrects clock errors. I don't remember the specifics, but Sandu @ Soundnews on youtube goes into that. It also does more. When I first got it, I emailed the place I bought it from telling them that I thought it was a slight improvement that wasn't worth the money. They told me they felt the same way initally but to wait, and they were right. After burn in, the sound really opens up. It's a noticeable improvement and doesn't happen slowly but all at once, it just takes time.

crazy098

Just a quick update: I've had the L600's for a couple of months now and they've had time to break in. They now sound even better and any issues I had with detail retrieval are gone.

erniejade

Nice! I remember a lot of people saying the L series in general need time to break in.