How Polk does C/A Amps

LittleCar_w/12s

I start this post as a place to discuss future plans at Polk, and maybe how things are run, etc... Feel free to post within, and hopefully we'll get the Polk-ans themselves to post as well.

My questions:
(First ? is general...)
. Well, I was wondering, does Polk have separate teams for its speakers and amps R/D/D dept? On that note, do the same teams work on the R/D/D of the H/T and the C/A divisions? I would almost be certain the marketing is different, though.
(Second is about C/A amps from Polk...)
. I am pleased with the amps, though I haven't owned one to test it thouroughly I was wondering in what direction they are moving in... H/Q or High Power? What is your future marketing plans, ie. are you guiding them towards car-audiophiles or the younger "Luuk hOw mie CAr is PIMPed OuT ... lol" generation (I'm sure whe know who we're talking about)? Also a request... don't let your speaker quality be bogged down by making the amps.
(Third is about Speakers form Polk...)
. When are you planning the H/Q line to be dropped on the market? What plans do you have for aesthetics and quality standards? Request here as well: maybe you can offer a beta-test run of it to club members at close-to-cost prices? Perhaps offer a few of each kind of driver, and have an application for buying teh beta-run.

-Jerry

MacLeod

I really like the idea of testing the new speakers with club members.

When you think of it guys like Cody, Jstas, me and others are almost honorary Polk employees seeing as how we're on record as recommending countless Polk products and talking many people into buying Polk gear. Not that Im complaining or anything, we do it gladly and enjoyed it but it would be a big ego stroke if the Polk big-wigs offered us the new comps before they hit the market!

Im planning on competing in the amateur or stock ranks of some MECA SQ competitions when I get my system up and running. I first have to get my subwoofer situation squared away and an amp rack designed and built then Ill be buying a new set of components. I would love to compete with some high end Polk speakers especially when I know that nobody else will have em! LOL !

bknauss

Originally posted by LittleCar_w/12s
I start this post as a place to discuss future plans at Polk, and maybe how things are run, etc... Feel free to post within, and hopefully we'll get the Polk-ans themselves to post as well.

My questions:
(First ? is general...)
. Well, I was wondering, does Polk have separate teams for its speakers and amps R/D/D dept? On that note, do the same teams work on the R/D/D of the H/T and the C/A divisions? I would almost be certain the marketing is different, though.
(Second is about C/A amps from Polk...)
. I am pleased with the amps, though I haven't owned one to test it thouroughly I was wondering in what direction they are moving in... H/Q or High Power? What is your future marketing plans, ie. are you guiding them towards car-audiophiles or the younger "Luuk hOw mie CAr is PIMPed OuT ... lol" generation (I'm sure whe know who we're talking about)? Also a request... don't let your speaker quality be bogged down by making the amps.
(Third is about Speakers form Polk...)
. When are you planning the H/Q line to be dropped on the market? What plans do you have for aesthetics and quality standards? Request here as well: maybe you can offer a beta-test run of it to club members at close-to-cost prices? Perhaps offer a few of each kind of driver, and have an application for buying teh beta-run.

-Jerry

Answer #1 - There are seperate teams for speakers (the transducer guys) and almost all electrical stuff (the EEs). The EEs basically take care of anything electrical other than crossovers. Car audio and home theater are done by the same guys, but some of the guys tend to lean toward HT to car stuff. Marketing is DEFINITELY a different group of people
Answer #2 - The quality of the amps will most likely stay the same (which has been praised at least in one article, if not more), but if all goes as planned, you will see a couple directions:
-If the Momo amps sell well, there might be an additional less expensive line.
-The sub amps will definitely be higher powered.
-Based on how other amps are selling, you might see different things like a 5.1 amp.
I personally think the amps lean more toward a sound quality crowd right now. They aren't cheap enough like Audiobahn to cater toward the 15 year old "I WAnT 100000000 wAttS iN mY CAr" crowd. Since the speakers and amps are taken care of by two totally seperate groups of engineers, the speakers aren't going to bog down the amps.
Answer #3 - Don't hold your breath, but there MIGHT be a high end component set coming out next year... but possibly the next next year (2006). Its aimed to take on the Quart Q line, JL XRs, Boston high ends (forget the line off hand), Alpine lower end X line, etc etc. Expect higher end subs too, but no specific date.

VR3

Car Audio and Home Audio departments are seperate, infact there is an HT department in the Polk HQ, and then there is a seperate Car Audio department where they test, install, etc...

I am sure though they base their drivers on similar equipment...

exalted512

bknauss...do you work for Polk...how do you get all your info?
jerry--as far as your request for not letting the amp line hurt the speaker line...
what id like to know if polk even makes their amps at all...
-Cody

MacLeod

I was wondering the same thing.

Hey BK, arent you one of the moderators over at the Carsound.com forum?

I recently joined up over there but am a little intimidated to post much. Theyve got IASCA pro competitors, competition judges and grandmaster champions which is bad enough but when I saw Scott Buwalda, my personal favorite competitor, posting there too I felt like a little kid trying to play with the adults and all at once, all my ignorance was suddenly apparant! LOL

exalted512

dont be scurred!!
-Cody

bknauss

Eeep! Lots to answer:
-Car audio and home audio aren't exactly seperated, but they're not exactly the same. Some engineers work strictly on HT stuff while some work on both. Non-engineer jobs can also be crossover or strictly 12V or home stuff.
-Yes Cody, I do work for Polk. You get a cookie
-To answer if we make our own amps, you need to really define what "make" means.
-Yup, that's me over at carsound. Don't worry about posting... a lot of those big name guys are the most willing to help out. Yea, you might get some guys that will say "sheesh! why didn't you hit the search button?!!??!?!", but its generally a very helpful forum... and yea, it doesn't hurt to search first.

MacLeod

Originally posted by bknauss
-Yes Cody, I do work for Polk. You get a cookie

-Yup, that's me over at carsound. Don't worry about posting... a lot of those big name guys are the most willing to help out.

You work for Polk?! Thats cool! And good on ya for frequenting this forum. Its good to hear things from the horses mouth.

Glad thats you over at Carsound too. Its cool to know there will be somebody else represent'n (a little hip-hop lingo there) Polk Audio over there. You dont see em mentioned too much. Most of the guys over there are all into stuff like Scan Speak, MB Q's, Focal and the like.

bknauss

Just started working a couple months ago (just noticed my location is still old). No problem with frequenting the forums... I hit up forums anyway, so why not give some info straight from the horse's mouth?

LittleCar_w/12s

Wow, I had considered applying to work for Polk, but I decided to move to TX where I have a better chance of finding a college that I can afford and also offeres Physics as a major. I lived about 30 mins from Polk then, but there are too many expensive Lib Arts colleges up there and not enough pure sciences offered.
-Jerry

MTXMAN

Originally posted by LittleCar_w/12s
"Luuk hOw mie CAr is PIMPed OuT ... lol" generation (I'm sure whe know who we're talking about -Jerry

*COUGHronaldCOUGH*


Yeah, a beta test would definately be a good way to get good input on it.. and ap could consist of current polk equip, amp it'd be running on (to make sure it's properly powered) etc... and you know we'd praise it to high heaven... heck i already reccomend polk to everyone who asks my opinion on upgrades around town (and my opinion on car audio get's voiced a lot lol :cool: )

I'm pretty sure by "built" he ment "do you put the amps together yourselves or have them assembled to your specs at another factory" cause you get companies like US Amps who hand build every amp in their shop in flordia (i hope the huricane isn't hurting them :eek: ) and then there's the bigger companies that send their blueprints to a 3rd party manufacturer to have them built to save on the cost of getting the machines etc...

bknauss

Choice b. (for making amps). There's more to it than sending specs to another company to build stuff, but its a watered down version of what goes down.

MTXMAN

yeah, i figgured as much...

I understand what you mean about there being more to it than that... i work for a small shop that makes several lines of cylinders for Parker Hanifin so i know what all goes into using a 3rd party manufacturer...

MacLeod

Polk makes their speakers in-house though right?

exalted512

what do you do at polk? designer, installer, something else?
-Cody

bknauss

-I'm not exactly what is done in house with speakers. I'll wait for Thom or Josh to comment on that.
-I'm an electrical guy.

exalted512

care to be more specific?
if you dont mind, what did you major in in college and what college do you attend?
-Cody

bknauss

I was an electrical engineering major at Virginia Tech. I technically have a concentration in power electronics (I keep forgetting to fill out that paperwork).

Power electronics is basically the "low power" version of the power system/grid stuff... although power electronics is starting to creep into that area since there are some technologies that could make our power grid a hell of a lot more efficient. Power electronics deals with anything from a couple watts up to megawatts, but is mostly into stuff like high efficiency power supplies for stuff like computers and motor drives for cars.

Anything else needed?

exalted512

yes:)
how does that relate to what you do at polk?
im majoring in electrical engineering so i would like to know what ya do..
-Cody

bknauss

Well, I haven't started on any upcoming projects (just started work at a bad time), but I'll mostly be doing 12V electronics (amps, head units if we get into that stuff, etc). Don't ask me how that relates to EE since I haven't seen exactly what goes on in the process of building a product from the ground up. What I have been doing is helping out with misc stuff... mostly testing, soldering stuff together, and putting my 2 cents in. The things I've helped out with the most are the XM home tuner and the LSiW (top of the line home sub if you guys didn't know).

From what I've been doing, its mostly not been things that only an EE would know. Obviously soldering and hooking stuff up to test equipment could be done by someone else, but the background has helped on more than a couple occasions, especially with debugging stuff. I know once we start revamping amp lines or releasing new ones, the EE stuff will definitely kick in since I know how to design amps among other things.

Did that answer anything? Seems like I went off on a tangent and didn't make any sense.

neomagus00

cool, an inside source...

bknauss

*scratches head* I thought Josh, Thom, and Kim were inside sources too!

exalted512

that explains it:)
Josh, Kim, and Thom are inside sources too...but they dont come on here as much...Kim used to come on here everyday almost a few years ago...but he's the rarest one now...
i should try to land a job at USAmps...lol
-Cody

MacLeod

Oh come on! Please tell me you didnt say 'head units'.

Im having a hard enough time with Polk and MB Quart making amplifiers. If they start cranking out head units too Im gonna have an **** attack.

I know, I know. They have to make money and blah blah blah...

You dont see Dynaudio, Morel, Focal or Rainbow head units do ya?

However you do see Rockford Fosgate and Audiobahn head units and I consider Polk to be in a league above those products.

Im pretty sure Im all alone on this one but, hey, my genius is often misunderstood! :cool:

exalted512

Originally posted by MacLeod
Im gonna have an **** attack.

care to explain that one?;)
-Cody

MacLeod

This dude that used to go to my gym when I was in Tejas used to say it. He was usually referring to his wife tho! LOL

"Dude, if I were to come to the gym by myself, Cynthia would have an **** attack"!

bknauss

Originally posted by MacLeod
Oh come on! Please tell me you didnt say 'head units'.

Im having a hard enough time with Polk and MB Quart making amplifiers. If they start cranking out head units too Im gonna have an **** attack.

I know, I know. They have to make money and blah blah blah...

You dont see Dynaudio, Morel, Focal or Rainbow head units do ya?

However you do see Rockford Fosgate and Audiobahn head units and I consider Polk to be in a league above those products.

Im pretty sure Im all alone on this one but, hey, my genius is often misunderstood! :cool:

Head units are only a *possibility*, just like anything you can dream up is a possibility. As always, its all about the $... are people going to buy it and can Polk make $ off of it. Some ideas make it off the drawing board, and some stay on the drawing board forever. I've seen a project that was dead, was somewhat ressurected, and looks like it has fizzled out in the short time I've been at Polk.

To get back to an older topic, I like the idea of consumers doing beta testing. The voice in my head says there probably is too much red tape though... Anyhoo, I like the idea of people who might purchase the product getting a chance to play with the product, test it, do a little quality assurance, and give some feedback about what's good and what sucks.

As for the other inside sources, they seem to be pretty busy lately. I know Thom and Josh have cars to install and also just built a car lift... looks pretty sweet. And Kim was doing that weird thing... what's it called... oh yea... serving customers!

BTW - can you guys start making some noise about Polk making a digital crossover/EQ? It should have digital ins and outs, and 4 way crossovers or 6.1 outputs, and 31 band EQ on each output. I wouldn't mind having a system with completely Polk product

MTXMAN

Originally posted by bknauss
BTW - can you guys start making some noise about Polk making a digital crossover/EQ? It should have digital ins and outs, and 4 way crossovers or 6.1 outputs, and 31 band EQ on each output. I wouldn't mind having a system with completely Polk product

lol, now that's an abuse of your position if ever i saw one

exalted512

does polk really look at this forum to see what they could do with their stuff?
i noticed a lot of people on here said they would like the all black speaker to come out...and behold the new mm comps were all black...coincidence or not?
i am with macleod on this one...to me polk is getting a little too big for its britches if theyre thinking about making HUs....even if it may be farfetched
they need to work on their speakers more first and get them to sound better...the mm6 set is lacking in detail compared to the diamond m661s which are priced at $360 from a local shop...i dunno if thats retail or not...but the mm6s are retailed at $350
and to be honest, i like the diamonds better
id like to see polk's car audio line to be a high end speaker line...not a midgrade everything line
i mean...thats essentially what theyve done for HT
-Cody

bknauss

Hasn't it been mentioned more than a couple times that we're looking into a high end component set?