I went into Circuit City tonight for the first time in 2years and came out depressed.

aaharvel

Is this what the industry has come down to?

Every speaker brand I saw has went so downmarket it's just pathetic.
Why? For higher profit margins? Is nothing sacred in this business anymore? Does everyone's bottom line scream Bose and Monster?

And Polk Audio is the worst. Maybe not the worst I don't know but to me it is. This is the one company i've believed in for years. The one company that I thought would maintain or better yet improve it's rep as time goes on while everyone else replaces their good gear with mediocre offerings.

All they've done is fall in line with everybody else.
Reputation- expendable. Profit #1 priority.

God bless Matt and Paul- this is their company. They have stockholders to please and board members to reassure. The rest of us are merely along for the ride. And man I gotta tell ya- it's been one hell of a ride. I mean we're like family here but now I feel like the direction this company is taking reminds me of the Goodfellas. When I would go into an authorized Polk dealership 2-3 years ago.. or longer.. I would see gear and the name Polk to me screamed "Innovation". Now it whimpers "also-ran". I just don't get it. I guess for most RTi owners, and now so bad as even Monitor owners, this would be kinda cool- knowing that your speakers have moved up in the food chain so to speak but all it does is make me sad.

I've heard from many sr. members on these forums since I started out that Polk's earlier gear was the best. I never realized how true those words were until tonight.

~edit~ if this offends anyone i apologize.

AzN_plyR

i bought a pair of r30 for 80 bucks, what are you talking about? hehe

cfrizz

Well look at it this way Andrew, if you don't have a business, you don't have to worry about your reputation.

They are simply trying to capture as much of the market that they can to stay in business. If that means selling in CC or BB or Tweeter or where ever & they manage to make money to continue to make speakers, that is all that should matter.

Forget about what store they are selling in and focus on the speakers. If the Polks in whatever store sound the best amongst all of their competitors & they sell, than that is what is important.

Or to put it bluntly: Stop being an audio snob!

Polkersince85

I sitting here with SRV Flooding Texas with the Carvers at 10 o'clock feeding the SRS 2s. No problem here.

shack

No offense.....but you are missing the point. At CC you stock what sells to the customer that frequents CC. Polk has a product for that. Polk has not replaced their "good" gear with mediocre. The average buyer that walks into CC is not going to buy the LSi. The top of the line for that customer is the RTi. On the other hand, Tweeter (whether you like them or not) is not going to sell the R or Monitor series. Their low end customer might be interested in the RTi series vs the DTs. The LSi is competing very favorably with the Martin Logans. There are a few high end shops that sell the LSis and the hold their own with most of the competition. I own early Polk SDAs and there is no question in my mind the LSi series is everybit as good in sound and build quality.

Polk is in several price-point markets. From the low end of the spectrum to somewhere into the upper mid-fi range. In each segment they are at the top of the "value for the price" IMO. Are they at the top competing against Dynaudio, Revel, Wilson, B&W Nautilus? No....But I don't think they ever were.

You have a much dimmer view of Polks status in the market than I. Even a lot of the review rags generally give Polk high marks. I think Polk is doing just fine.

Early B.

One thing to keep in mind is that HT has taken over the audio world, so two things, IMO, are happening: 1) SQ is less critical for HT; and 2) with HT you're typically gonna buy at least 5 speakers and a sub, so folks like Polk have to keep their prices in line with their market. For many Polkies, spending $3K on an HT system is no big deal, but for most budget-conscious people who shop at CC or BB, that ain't gonna happen. So manufacturers have to meet this demand and it includes making cost and pricing decisions that may impact quality.

deepinya

My CC doesnt even sell the RTi line anymore. Its all monitor series and one room FILLED with BOSE!!

masanz1

Hardly anyone sells Polk in Oregon, CC has maybe a couple of Monitor bookshelves now, Fry's has some but very few models, tons of R series. Both are heavy with Bose

F1nut

My CC doesnt even sell the RTi line anymore.

Rip Van Winkle strikes again.

aaharvel

cfrizz wrote:

Forget about what store they are selling in and focus on the speakers.

thank you so much for cliff-noting my entire point.

cfrizz wrote:

Or to put it bluntly: Stop being an audio snob!

yes that is so me. :rolleyes:

aaharvel

shack wrote:

The average buyer that walks into CC is not going to buy the LSi. The top of the line for that customer is the RTi.

not anymore. Also my point. :cool:

aaharvel

deepinya wrote:

My CC doesnt even sell the RTi line anymore. Its all monitor series and one room FILLED with BOSE!!

precisely.

VR3

Circuit City has always sucked.

aaharvel

i thought they were decent 2years ago and awesome 4years ago, but that's just because i wasn't an audio snob like I am now. :rolleyes:

but yeah Sid you're right- it's basically a place to buy dvds and accessories now- kinda like an over-sized RadioShack.

krabby5

Yeah,,,I don't even go there anymore..it's worse than BB now..

4 years ago, you could go there for some higher end gear that BB didn't stock...not anymore..they even lost their Alpine line to BB..

Guess they were tired of getting their a$$ handed to them by BB


At least Ultimate Electronics has SOME higher end stuff...but no Polk

and BB has Magnolia..

Circuit City is junk

F1nut

CC never carried high end gear.

krabby5

F1nut wrote:

CC never carried high end gear.

highER end gear...all they have now is a few Harmon Kardon receivers....

F1nut

I quess our reference points may be different, no biggie. I always thought that CC was only good for buying TV's and phones, but that's just me.

HiPerf360

I remember about 10 or more years ago CC had some pretty decent stuff...

But then again even the cheap separate components were much better than most of the **** today.

krabby5

F1nut wrote:

I quess our reference points may be different, no biggie. I always thought that CC was only good for buying TV's and phones, but that's just me.

yeah you may be right....I just always remembered them as a notch above BB for gear..

F1nut

krabby5 wrote:

I just always remembered them as a notch above BB for gear..

And you're probably right about that.

As for mass market stores these days, Tweeter seems to at least make an effort to carry some better speakers. Now, if they would improve the quality of power and source gear, then their listening rooms..........

mantis

F1nut wrote:

And you're probably right about that.

As for mass market stores these days, Tweeter seems to at least make an effort to carry some better speakers. Now, if they would improve the quality of power and source gear, then their listening rooms..........

Right now they are still searching to fill the gap between receivers and Krell.

I'm hoping for Rotel due to the fact they would be perfect with there seperates and High current receivers. But I'm not holding my breath.


Dan

george daniel

Demographics=product line
Location,marketing=sales


Bottom line,, keep it in the black,,Profit,,Market share.

keith allen

Ya gotta stick with the local mom & pop stores to get the good stuff,but Im sure you all know that

Gaara

I've gotta agree with Andrew, it seems that the world is going for lower and lower quality surround sound systems. I remember working at Circuit City and I would be dissapointed when someone would settle for a Onkyo 501 and little polk speaker packaged like the 6700.

When I first started my current location we had Onkyos from 501-901 and could special order the top of the line. We had the HKs from the 13x-63x and could special order their top of the line. We had polk RTi, and monitors and could special order the LSi line.

Fast forward a year and a half, we now have the onkyo 503-703, can special order the 803 (only if the customer requests it), and can't get anything higher. For HK we now have the 140-435, and can't get anything higer. As for polk, we mainly have the RM speakers, have a limited amount of the Monitors, and can no longer get the LSi.

When I sell a system now I am happy to get them to buy a Onkyo 780, and buying a seperate receiver and speakers (which is now called seperates in our store, and deemed "high end") is a big deal for people. It is sad the way things are going, people buy $3000+ systems and complain about the price of the $299 system. I show them the benefit of going better and they say I am just playing the better system louder, and that they all sound the same.

Jared

tommyboy

Ok where do I start...

Everything I am going to say if from experience of working at Circuit city. I started to work there a little more than a year ago and I was told that CC was a place to buy decent audio four years ago. But then CC took their employees off commision... everything fell apart from there. Do you really want 18 year old kids selling you a 4000 dollar system (90% of employees in entertainment which is tvs and home audio couldn't even hook up a surround system) but what do you expect for no commission...

See CC does not compete with tweeter or any other high end stores, they are competing against one store... Best buy. BB is known to have cheap stuff, not the best stuff, and thats why they are the number one electronics store. And now CC(now owned by previous BB owners) feels the can get just as much profit having cheaper electronics and paying their employees crap .

And most people that come to CC want to put all their money towards big screen tv, not an audio system. About 95% of what we sell in home audio is HTIB. See here in polk land, everyone had high end systems but that is not what CC is after. They want to sell quantity over quality, and thats what most people want. I have trouble trying to sell anything over $400 in home audio! you guys prolly spent double on your subwoofers. people coming in only having a budget of $200 or $300 would not be buying any polk speakers.

I do have to agree with you about the quality of audio going down hill. I always hate putting out new audio equipment just because the only reason the brand came out with a new speaker or reciever is to drop the cost for more profit. I was always told from commision guys that the old rtis and monitor sounded much better in quality than the new ones, the old infinities sounded much better, Onkyo has really gone down hill... but that is the reason these companies are in business is to make profit.

This is a little longer than I expected... sorry
tommyboy

heiney9

CC & BB are the Walmart of audio stores. People who go there, for the most part, don't give a damn about the product but are more interested in price and HTIB type items that they can purchase with little or no effort. These are people who don't care at all about quality sound and aren't willing or capable of doing the research necessary to become informed before making a decision to purchase audio. They read Consumer Reports and believe every word about their audio recommendations. Polk has to cater to this market segment because that's where the bread and butter is, so to speak. Does that mean that all their products are entry-level, NO. They work on the same principle many auto makers rely on. They sell a low priced entry level product with the hopes that when the consumer is either, more financially set or more audio educated they will move up the line with the same company.

There is a lot of crap/junk out there and although Polk R series and Monitor line are inexpensive they are still a cut above many others out there. They perform decently and they are attractive, well constructed alternatives to many inferior other products. Are they all world beaters? NO. Are they as revolutionary as the original Monitor line or SDA's? NO. The audio market has completely changed and Polk had to adapt. They still offer the LSI line which continues their long tradition of excellent sound vs. price. This industry is a shell of what it used to be. The consumer needs to be much more informed today if they want to weed out all the marginal crap, but guess what....most people don't care or are just unwilling to make the effort it takes to become educated. We've taken many steps ahead as far as innovation and convienence but at the same time we've moved steps back in quality audio reproduction. There is room for both, but it's up to the consumer to become educated enough to make the right decision for themselves.

H9

wingnut4772

I got a lot of my stuff from CC open box when I first started this almost 3 years ago but now they don't have anything that interests me except maybe TVs.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Let's not do the whole 'Polk is selling out only trying to make a buck' thing again...that's old...

As soon as Polk quits making good speakers and makes only crappy ones, then you can say that. Until then, I see it as Polk making speakers in another price bracket - that's all. The Monitor and R series may not be the best, but find me another pair of towers better than the R30 that you can buy in the store for that same price. Not everyone needs or wants high end gear...

As long as they keep making stuff like the LSi line, I don't give a rats **** what else they sell.

Plus you need to be looking at the big picture. Sure they can make a buck on their cheaper speaker line....where do you think that money goes? Could it be in to R&D so that they can continue to improve on their design and offer stuff like the Lsi and RTi at good price points???

dorokusai

The problem lies in Polk's attention to detail when it comes to the B&M stores such as CC. They are always setup poorly and I'm suprised they sell any speakers at all.

In regards to why they do what they do, who cares, it's a business that's been running just fine from my perspective.

ND13

What's a Circuit City???

It's probably been 7-8 years since I've purchased ANYTHING from a Circuit City.

I remember them having their "high-end" room. It actually had Onkyo's nicer seperates(the amps with the bigass analog meters) and HK seperates, then. Seems like I remember them carrying some of the Carver components for a short time in the Mid to late 80s, too??? I also remember them carrying a FEW examples of well above average loudspeakers. Those days are LONG GONE and will never return to the large chains, excluding Tweeter I guess.( I've never seen a Tweeter before).