Polk Signature Series Official Discussion

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  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    @rooftop59 The HTS12 reaches down to 22hrz and the HTS10 goes down to 25hrz.

    Those aren't +/- 3 db ratings, those are -10 which while somewhat helpful are a little deceptive.

    I should have been clear: a true sub, especially for HT, is flat (+/- 3 db) to 20 hz. The HTS12 only goes to 28hz, which as I said in another thread, makes it one amount many at that price...
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
    Game Room 5.1.4:
    Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra

    Bedroom 2.1
    Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
  • I have been looking at the Hsu vtf3 mk5 for a while now..
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    Ctxx24 wrote: »
    I have been looking at the Hsu vtf3 mk5 for a while now..

    That is bass you can feel. I've had mine for about 6 months and love it
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • mrloren wrote: »
    Ctxx24 wrote: »
    I have been looking at the Hsu vtf3 mk5 for a while now..

    That is bass you can feel. I've had mine for about 6 months and love it

    Looks like we will have close to th same setup.. Except the 60s and 55s..lol
  • cfrizz
    cfrizz Posts: 13,415
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    @D2Lo is gone from this forum brother. You are barking up the wrong tree!

    Did he leave the company?

    Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2
  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    cfrizz wrote: »
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    @D2Lo is gone from this forum brother. You are barking up the wrong tree!

    Did he leave the company?

    Based on a previous comment by @KenCustomerService, yes.
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
    Game Room 5.1.4:
    Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra

    Bedroom 2.1
    Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    edited September 2017
    Rick88 wrote: »


    We have a few subwoofers from Definitive Technology that will reach below 16hrz.

    LOL. :)

    That is actually true, but they cost like $1500 or more. You can get that from svs or hsu for under a grand...

    EDIT: after brief research, I stand corrected. Def Tech used to have subs that could do this (the trinity and the reference), but sadly, no longer. The new top of the line sub - the supercube 8000 - measures three decibels down at 32 hz! for 1500 bucks!!! To quote our esteemed (cough) president, that's just sad...

    https://www.soundandvision.com/content/test-report-definitive-technology-studiomonitor-sm65-and-sm45-speakers-supercube-8000-1
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
    Game Room 5.1.4:
    Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra

    Bedroom 2.1
    Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    cfrizz wrote: »
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    @D2Lo is gone from this forum brother. You are barking up the wrong tree!

    Did he leave the company?

    Based on a previous comment by @KenCustomerService, yes.

    Bummer day, No big center, no more Michael.... cool guy gave us a tour of the Vista facility
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    Rick88 wrote: »


    We have a few subwoofers from Definitive Technology that will reach below 16hrz.

    LOL. :)

    That is actually true, but they cost like $1500 or more. You can get that from svs or hsu for under a grand...

    EDIT: after brief research, I stand corrected. Def Tech used to have subs that could do this (the trinity and the reference), but sadly, no longer. The new top of the line sub - the supercube 8000 - measures three decibels down at 32 hz! for 1500 bucks!!! To quote our esteemed (cough) president, that's just sad...

    https://www.soundandvision.com/content/test-report-definitive-technology-studiomonitor-sm65-and-sm45-speakers-supercube-8000-1

    Yeah there are reasons why a lot of us have HSU or SVS

    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • MGinOttawa
    MGinOttawa Posts: 10
    edited September 2017
    I suspect for those who play mostly music and not at insane levels, or requiring subterranean bass depths the Polks (referring to the subwoofer conversation) could do quite well. I just put some Blu-tak as speaker feet and it does really seem to help tighten up things and likely even sharpened the focus of the S15s. Maybe placebo, but whatever. Listening to some Keb Mo at a pretty decent volume and it's all nice and tight.

    If anything the S15 is closing in on over controlled. The decay is very short on notes, so you get very quick response and a great deal of control for sure. Let me be clear, it is not a problem, in fact I could see many people preferring it and given a little more time I might also come to prefer it. Part of the issue for me might be that I have been using headphones almost exclusively for quite sometime so the presentation is different.

    Anyway, the S15 is fast, rich and tight so hard to say that the slightly truncated decay is a problem. With things like upright acoustic bass lines like in the Holly Cole Trio material I'm playing now you seem to lose just a tiny bit of the note sustain, but in compensation as I said you get very tight and controlled bass. It is also common to have under controlled bottom end where the decay goes on too long and can turn music into soup and obscure detail. I think I really do like this presentation style, it just takes a little acclimation.

  • That is really odd, I swear I had a post go live here that I did early and now it seems to be gone? Not that it was at all critical, far from it I thought, but would a comment be removed? All I said was that I found the decay on the S15 perhaps a little truncated so that notes from say an upright bass pluck don't seem to reverberate quite as long. While that can be construed as a negative, I did point out that it can also be rather positive in that the sound of the bass is very clean and tight and is more than a fair trade-off for any possible loss of naturalness in the decay.

    I did recently use Blu-tak to decouple as best I could from the desktop setting to clean up the sound and I'm wondering if the S15 may have been predominantly voiced in a coupled desktop setting and some of the decay may return if I remove the Blu-tak? And for the record, I'm not suggesting it is really bad, frankly it is fairly minor, but decay does tend to be something I notice as I have played drums off and on for more than 30 years and I as you might expect tune into bass instruments quite a bit by habit and as such decay is something that I retrieve from the music.

    I have had other speakers that allowed too much decay which can make the sound muddy and less sharp so it can cut both ways. I hope I'm wrong and my previous post didn't make it through for technical reasons as opposed to being removed which I'm pretty sure didn't happen. Anyway, really loving the S15 and quite glad I decided to try them out.
  • I must say these speakers are quite transparent, they create such a lovely sound field that even though I'm using them quite near-field, they almost disappear. Quite a nifty feat for such an affordable speaker.

    My personal feeling, and I admit that I'm rampantly speculating here, is that Polk is likely making a pretty low margin even by the standards of such a marginal industry in order to get attention and re-establish/reinvigorate their reputation which some seem to feel has perhaps fallen a little off of the good old days when Polk was commonly mentioned in many speaker conversations.

    I'm not saying any of this is true, but I look at the fit and finish, obvious engineering efforts that went into this line and based on the reasonable retail pricing, there just can't be much meat left on the bones (meaning profit). Companies will do that, sometimes you spend money to make money later. If I'm correct at all, it is irrelevant, I am quite impressed by the S15 and hope that more people start trying the Signature Series.
  • MGinOttawa
    MGinOttawa Posts: 10
    edited September 2017
    Really enjoying some well recorded Steely Dan. None of that flat stuff from the 1970s, sorry, 70s recordings are mostly like dry toast, bland. Now the album Two Against Nature has some really great tracks and is well mastered and actually has amplitude. I tried to play Aja, but even when really turning it up it still was sounding thin and sterile.

    The S15s really shine on the tracks Negative Girl and West of Hollywood.
    Post edited by MGinOttawa on
  • dromunds
    dromunds Posts: 9,969
    You are listening to the wrong '70's stuff. Lol.
  • dromunds
    dromunds Posts: 9,969
    Good to hear from you! Best of luck in your new endeavors!
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    D2Lo wrote: »
    mrloren wrote: »
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    @D2Lo is gone from this forum brother. You are barking up the wrong tree!

    Bummer, @KenCustomerService any insight here?

    True, I left about 6 months ago to start my own design consulting business. It was just time to do the next thing, though the next few releases will still have my influence on them and I stay in close touch with the design team I built.

    Cool, thanks for the update.

    Yes your team and you did a great job with the Signatures.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • I registered on this forum just so I could ask,

    what the heck do I put these bigass S20s on? Like what stands have a 12"x9" plate?
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,708
    edited September 2017
    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

  • DaveHo
    DaveHo Posts: 3,471
    Or if your not interested in paying more for stands than the speaker that rest on them, Sanus Steel foundations, while not the end-all-be-all, will do an admiral job.
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    edited September 2017
    I registered on this forum just so I could ask,

    what the heck do I put these bigass S20s on? Like what stands have a 12"x9" plate?

    make your own. not hard and can be done for less than $40 depending on wood used.

    If you're in SoCal I will make them for you. I do have a couple of designs I've been wanting to try out.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,708
    Stands are as important as the speaker that rests on them. The ability to mass load them is extremely important.
    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

  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    Well thanks guy's I didn't know that about stands.

    So now I might have to make the same design and try different woods. Oak, birch and Pine. Bummer I have two blanket chest to build this weekend or I might have given a try on some stands.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • mrloren
    mrloren Posts: 2,454
    Cool thanks @DSkip, I always thought the sand and shot were for just weight.

    I have some leftover Baltic Birch and some Birch 1" dowels. I know the BB use to be used in speaker cabinets something about the multiply. might try a top and bottom plate with the BB use 3 dowels at 3'.

    Now I want to give this a try... errr blanket chest are for profit so I have to get them done.
    When I was a kid my parents told me to turn it down. Now I'm an adult and my kids tell me to turn it down.
    Family Room:LG QNED80 75", Onkyo RZ50 Emotiva XPA3 GEN3 Oppo BDP-93,Sony UBP-X800BM. Main: Polk LsiM 705Center: Polk LSiM 704CFront High/Rear High In-Ceiling Polk 80F/X RT Surrounds: Polk S15 Sub: HSU VTF3-MK5
    Bed Room; Marantz SR5010, BDP-S270Main: Polk Signature S20Center: Polk Signature S35Rear: Polk R15 Sub: SVS SB2000
    Working Warehouse; Yamaha A-S301, Sony DVP-NS3100ES for disc Plok TSX550T SVS PB2000 Mini tower PC with 400GB of music
  • MrBond
    MrBond Posts: 1
    Hello.
    I'm new here polk sorry bad english.
    wanted to know opinion about S20 + HK3490 setting for movies on PC.
    Thank you
  • cfrizz
    cfrizz Posts: 13,415
    Welcome to Club Polk, it should sound just fine.
    Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2
  • Just purchase Polk s60 towers. Running a paradigm cc290 center channel. Am thinking about either the s30 or s35 center. Would this be a upgrade sideways move or just a better move in general to have all timber matched. Never had a matching center with towers so unsure. Was running energy cf 50 towers before the polls thanks
  • txcoastal1
    txcoastal1 Posts: 13,124
    That's a pretty decent center. Although most would actually say to timber match, I'd probably play with the paradigm to see if you can be happy with it.
    2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
    Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
    Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
    Gone to new homes: (Matt Polk's)Threshold Stasis SA12e monoblocks, Pass XA30.5 amp, Usher MD2 speakers, Dynaudio C4 platinum speakers, Modwright LS100 (voltz), Simaudio 780D DAC

    erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a
  • firsttimer
    firsttimer Posts: 87
    edited December 2017
    Yes full 3 way center and running it all through a dennon avrx 3300 so the receiver has done a pretty good job setting it all up. Not unhappy with it but just not sure if a timber matched center would be better
  • txcoastal1
    txcoastal1 Posts: 13,124
    I'd then consider it at best a linear move.

    If you come across an open box Signature series at a brick and mortar store, then I'd consider testing it out for a possible return...IMHO
    2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
    Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
    Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
    Gone to new homes: (Matt Polk's)Threshold Stasis SA12e monoblocks, Pass XA30.5 amp, Usher MD2 speakers, Dynaudio C4 platinum speakers, Modwright LS100 (voltz), Simaudio 780D DAC

    erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a
  • cfrizz
    cfrizz Posts: 13,415
    edited December 2017
    Welcome First timer! If you like how it sounds then keep it. None of the speakers in my system match, but all together they sound terrific. Unless Polk came out with a Signature CC that can match my Boston VR920, it is staying right where it is.

    If your ears can't pick up the different timbres of the speakers, then sit back and enjoy what you have.
    Marantz AV-7705 PrePro, Classé 5 channel 200wpc Amp, Oppo 103 BluRay, Rotel RCD-1072 CDP, Sony XBR-49X800E TV, Polk S60 Main Speakers, Polk ES30 Center Channel, Polk S15 Surround Speakers SVS SB12-NSD x2