Polk Audio coming to Best Buy in June

TroyD

I'm not sure why the angst with BB, to be honest.

If you are going to make a big ticket purchase and you haven't done your homework and you get suckered by a salesman, shame on you. Retailers make money by selling things. What a novel concept.

I've never really had an issue with BB.

BDT

VR3

Best Buy is -a-ok- in my book.

Great CD selection, good prices...

Wa la!

Face

No angst against BB here, just with their cable selection.

I frequent my local BB every other week or so. I have a Circuit City that's slightly closer, but only go there on a rare occasion.

shadowofnight

I guess I am just spoiled by having so many Frys stores local to me...everytime I stop by a Best Buy the prices are WAY higher then Frys.

Their only purpose for me is to grab a CD or Blu Ray when I want it NOW.

Yashu

Sure, Polk COULD go back to being a boutique brand. That's what, in essence, you are saying. That's bad for Polk in a myriad of ways.

Good thing i never said, or implied, that then. I never said any such thing, nor meant anything like that.

AR is probably better than Monster... their mid line (blue) cables are better than Monster's best but are really cheap. Their TOTL is not much better though, but they don't cost much more. AR is a good deal, both in ICs and Speaker cable. Both are better than Monster at a fraction of the price. AR's speaker cable is great, but when home depot heavy duty orange cable is so cheap and still sounds great, it is hard to justify speaker cable with weird gimmicky buzzwords. I do, though, still like AR's cable, and would buy it any day over monster's, even though a big spool of 12g won't get you much cable in length. I am not bashing best buy in that respect, just I wish they would put some better gear in their Magnolia stores. ML, Polk, DefTech... and Focal at Tweeter, you would think there would be some big iron around somewhere, but oh well. BB is a good deal with some stuff, like AR, Car Audio, and JBL has a little mini control monitor that is one of those sleeper deals, great for little bedroom systems.

Every once and a while BB will come out with a good deal on something, making it a cheap mod toy or something like that. For a while a certain cheap coaxial driver speaker was the hot thing to mod, but when it wasn't on sale it wasn't worth it. I got the AR 12g wire on sale to try, and it was pretty good.

jdhdiggs

Sweet, now there's going to be a cable debate, awesome!!!

TroyD

I've never seen anyone switch feet so often in my life.

BDT

jakelm

Lets all just take a deap breath and let this one slide ok?...

cfrizz

Unfortunately yes.

James & Troy, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!:D:D:D

Keiko wrote: »

Does he always pontificate like this?

ohskigod

there is no way around it, going with Best Buy is a good move for future market saturation, plain and simple. Do morons work for them at times? yes. Will they demo the speaks the way they should? probably not. Will they be any worse then circuit city???????? honestly??? NO!!!!

I've heard the RTi's and Monitor line (now TSi?), there definitly a little forward, but sure as heck not bright? Forward actually comes off damn good since you know these speakers are being used 95% for movies. I had the older RTi's for a while and adored them for movie use.

Monitors and RTi's are great speaks, especially at there price point. and others have said, you can stick them in the middle of a glass room and there gonna trounce over most, if not all the stuff Best Buy has in it's non Magnolia section, and dollar for dollar will embarrass alot of what is in the Magnolia section.

The LSi's will CRUSH anything I've heard in the Magnolia section, at the risk of sounding like a d*ck, but it's the truth. Thats why I'd love to see LSi's in the Magnolia section.

Yashu

LSi would be a good fit for that section. The problem is, consumers are going to have to, like the rest of the speakers in that section (magnolia), visit a small boutique or online seller, to get amplification to go with them. Polk's parent company could use their weight in the market to get some recommended associated components into the stores that Polk's speakers are sold. It would be a win-win for both Polk and the associated manufacturers. OR, Polk could lend their experience to Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, and help them improve their amps to exceed requirements. It would be nice if people came here and didn't have to be told to go out and buy separate amps to get the most out of their new LSi HT. It's bound to be frustrating for new buyers, to be told their, otherwise good reciever, is not good enough to get the most out of their new speakers.

Face

I agree with Ski. The Magnolia section has some decent equipment, but none of the speakers there have impressed me, yet.

jakelm

Do any of your local BB stores have a sound room? My local BB shop has terrible speaker placement. All on shelves and hard to fing the matching left or right. I cant see how they can sell any speaker.

On the other hand, right across the street is a Circuitcity. They at least have a seperate sound room filled with Polks and other speakers.

fireshoes

TSi Series product preview:
http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/product-sheets/TSi.pdf

mule

WOW!! seems some people need to switch to decaf

Me being a relative newb to "hifi" (maybe I'm showing my age by the term) I get the point of Polk speakers coming off bad at BB.

When I listened to the monitor 50 and 60 series at cc I thought they were overpriced junk. The sound was horrible compared to the Boston Acoustic book shelf speakers, horizon 60 I think. Now I am learning that maybe that is because they were completely under powered when I listened to them. But as most cc or bb customers I just hear them as sounding poorly and blaming the speaker. I would guess that is why Bose are thought to be great speakers by the average Joe, because they are usually matched as a whole system.

I did however stop at a local "boutique" shop to listen to speakers, in a way it was a big mistake, Ignorance is bliss.

They had a setup there, I think it was Krell or something like that, over $100,000.00! The salesman told me he sells about 6 a year! holy S!

cfrizz

LOL! Welcome to Club Polk Mule!

Yashu

That is basically what I was saying. Polk expects everyone to either have, or know they need to have, high quality receivers and amplification to get their speakers to sound correct. Expecting the average consumer to know that is very shortsighted. Polk should be working on a speaker that is easy to drive, that sounds consistent across a wider spectrum of equipment, and they need to work with these large dealers to improve demo conditions. Even providing customers with Polk approved equipment lists for a particular speaker line would be a start. A list of equipment to best match with RTiA, or TSi, or LSi, then perhaps many of these problems would be eliminated. Maybe they don't want to do this because the recommended list for LSi wouldn't include anything that is in the same store as the speaker... who knows... but it would help educate the consumer. There is nothing wrong with wanting to educate the consumer, put him on the right path. It would only help Polk sell more speakers.

TroyD

Are you REALLY this deluded or are you just trying to make an impression?

Apparently you know nothing about how Polk goes about it's business and there are a NUMBER of people who report STELLAR results with Polks on a WIDE range of gear. That's how they are designed (from the mouths of the higher up at Polk, not my words). Why? Because, if you start designing speakers to sound good with only Brand X, that's eliminating a LOT of other potential sales, no?



BDT

cfrizz

Education = WWW.PolkAudio.com/forums/:rolleyes:

Yashu wrote: »

... but it would help educate the consumer. There is nothing wrong with wanting to educate the consumer, put him on the right path. It would only help Polk sell more speakers.

Yashu

Maybe they should put the website on big bold huge-**** letters on the box, the wrapping of the speakers, the instructions, and big obnoxious stickers on the grilles, kindof like buying a new laptop.

TroyD

Maybe most people aren't as dumb as you perceive them to be.

BDT

MGPK

This is directed to the person on his soapbox preaching marketing. Polk does an excellent job marketing their products. Just because this company doesn't put a ton of cash into high gloss photos in every magazine out their doesn't mean the are not getting their message out effectively.

When I started selling audio years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Walter Moser, our PA rep for our area. Compared with the other reps out there stating that their products are the best without providing reasons why, he actually taught me about speakers and showed the differences of Polk to other speaker lines and always kept an open line of communication. So, to me, if you design a line of speakers of good to excellent quality, put those speakers in a high volume big box retailer and train the staff properly in regards to construction, quality of materials used in construction backed up with unparalleled customer service you should have success in sales. All the excessive advertising I see from some manufacturers shows me how much I am spending to cover those costs if I were to buy that product.

If you are speaking globally of PA's products to be hooked up to high end components for complete optimization of a system, you are in for a big suprise.

More companies should follow the philosophy that PA has as to marketing of their products.

SKsolutions

What lap is this?

07maximan

I realize Im new here ,but I do have a question.

How is it possible that this thread is still open??I mean 6 pages of bashing.This is a little disheartning for some of the new people who might come along.This thread makes it seem like shopping at BB is for idiots.Alot of people do shop there and after reading this thread they might be afraid to post in these forums for fear of being laughed at or made fun of.

I think its cool Polk will let you come to THEIR forums and talk about other manufactures stuff,I mean thats very cool,but this thread is so far off topic.

Cant well all just get along :cool:!!

dorokusai

07maximan wrote: »

I realize Im new here ,but I do have a question.

How is it possible that this thread is still open??I mean 6 pages of bashing.This is a little disheartning for some of the new people who might come along.This thread makes it seem like shopping at BB is for idiots.Alot of people do shop there and after reading this thread they might be afraid to post in these forums for fear of being laughed at or made fun of.

I think its cool Polk will let you come to THEIR forums and talk about other manufactures stuff,I mean thats very cool,but this thread is so far off topic.

Cant well all just get along :cool:!!

That comment is ridiculous.

"submit reply"

works pretty well for me.

Yashu

07maximan, Don't let a few bad apples spoil your time here. I get put down constantly for not blindly agreeing with the inner circle here, but 99% of the people here are great, and they will read what you write and want to help or have a discussion. Some of the older members have a chip on their shoulder and feel they are better than everyone else, but it's just a few older members. If they insult, threaten, or harass you, do what I do and just report them and their offensive posts and never stoop to their level. Stay on high ground, never let them draw you into a flame war, they have friends in the moderation staff, however, like I said, 99% of the people here share our passion for audio and are going to do our best to help you out.

If this forum wasn't such a good place, I would have never stuck around and taken the abuse, but that goes to show what it's worth to be here at Club Polk. Don't be afraid to respectfully speak your mind and share your ideas. Stay on the high ground and you will never get dirty, eventually the moderators do step up and rein them in, so not to worry.

---

So, to me, if you design a line of speakers of good to excellent quality, put those speakers in a high volume big box retailer and train the staff properly in regards to construction, quality of materials used in construction backed up with unparalleled customer service you should have success in sales.

You are right. I can't disagree with that. I was only saying that selling great speakers isn't enough, you have to sell great speakers that sound their best with the gear that can be had at the store the speakers as sold in. I already said that can be done in two ways.

The Judge

Selling Great speakers is enough. Do you think the guys at ML sit around pondering about the related gear that BB sells for its speakers? I don't think they do, I bet they are happy to get the exposure that BB is able to offer them. If you sold ANYTHING, getting your gear in Best Buys would be a win-win situation. Great move for Polk Audio.

TroyD

do what I do and just report them and their offensive posts and never stoop to their level. Stay on high ground, never let them draw you into a flame war

Some examples:

Ok... was that enough of a rant for ya Troy? I have not been on the forums much lately, maybe you just missed the joyous times of the past, eh?

Troy, you're an idiot

Troy, you are an ****, I don't care if your submissives, or you, cannot read what I said

Is that how it's done?

For the record, I never threatened you nor did I ask anyone else to contact you in any way shape or form. I also never offered you an apology. You made several unsolicited contacts. I asked you to stop and you continued. If you are going to be deluded, at least be factually correct. As far as my friendship with the moderators, I have never asked for any sort of special treatment and when I have crossed the line, they let me know.

BDT

F1nut

That's going to leave a mark! :eek:

dkg999

At this point I would put my kids in the "get-along" corner, make them hug and sing "Can you feel the love tonight" from the Lion King, until they agreed to be friends again