Polk L200 Speaker Demo Reviews

Alright, review(s) incoming. I’m going to break it into a few parts.

I was able to take the L200's on a bit of a tour of DFW and got to try them side by side with several speakers and with a pretty decent range of equipment thanks to the help of Marvin and Skip. I'm going to share my thoughts mostly by comparison of what we heard that day. Some things could be considered direct competitors, some things are in a different price point entirely. I'm just going to share comparisons of everything so if you've heard any of the gear I mention you have a frame of reference. I'll also include a few playlists I put together to give an idea of the music that was sampled. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll elaborate on whatever.

Here’s the main thoughts and input right up front:
I think the L200’s might be priced a touch high, but not offensively priced. When I consider Nebraska Furniture Mart, Music Direct or other vendors that may be carrying this line, I figure they will most commonly be seen up against Revel, Martin Logan, B&W, Klipsch, SVS, and maybe less commonly JBL, Elac, Warfedale and Kef. Not all those brands have direct price point comparisons currently, but that’s what I’d expect to see in the same test rooms. I’m not overly familiar with everything from all those lines, but from what I am familiar with I do think the Polk’s will hold their own in that line up and they will sell plenty of these.
Having said all that, the tone on these was not my favorite. Bass performance is better than expected in small to mid-size rooms, but that didn’t carry over as well in a larger room. They are detailed, so if that’s a big factor for you, these will likely be a great fit. You also don’t need the most powerful amp if you’re working with a smaller space.

Stop #1 – My House
The speakers obviously spent the most amount of time in my house. My room is my living room which is fairly small and it’s a bright room. 12 x 15 with 8ft ceilings, speakers on the long wall. The left side of the room opens to the dining room. Tile floor, a bay window to the right, and the biggest challenge is because of my front door placement, I need to keep the speakers much closer to the wall than I would prefer, and the couch is up against the back wall. It’s either that or give up the primary walkway. This is not an audiophile’s ideal space, but it is very much a “real world” room.

My speakers are the JBL Studio 580.
Associated Gear:
Digital – Cambridge CXN v2 streaming Tidal
Analog – MoFi Ultradeck, MoFi MasterTracker, Sutherland 20/20.
Amps – MasterSound Duventi and Kinki Studio EX-M1 (on loan from Marvin)
Interconnects – Zu Mission
Speaker Cables – Wireworld Mini Eclipse 8

I did some streaming, but the majority of listening is with the TT. But I did use a lightly expanded version of Skip’s old setup playlist so I’ll attach that: https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/28d8ad38-27d1-4f9a-9a35-aaad55382be4



Compared to the JBL’s, the L200 had a narrower stage, but it also had more depth. My room obviously present so challenges for creating depth, but the JBL sound never gets more deep then the front baffle. But the JBL’s best attribute is probably the wide soundstage they project. In my room the effect of the power port on the L200s was probably the best attribute. I gave up some of the slam/impact of the JBLs, but they generally felt like they were digging just as low. The power port also helped clean up a lot of boom caused by the proximity to the back wall. I honestly think the Polk power port is a great design and I’m surprised more brands don’t create something similar. Because I hadn’t picked up the EX-M1 yet, I figured I’d just see how these would do with my Duventi. Set for 20 watts using the 4 ohm taps I was surprised to find that they had no problem getting up to comfortable volumes in my room. With the EX-M1, I found the top and bottom end both picked up. A little more slam, and more bite on the top end. Somewhat annoyingly so if I’m honest. When I had the L200’s pired with the EX-M1 I found myself always overly focused on high end. It wasn’t grating, but when tracks would have a continuous high hat, I felt like that’s all I could hear. I kept thinking “why is that f’ing cymbal tap all I can focus on???” I had trouble getting lost in the music with that amp combo in my room.
The Duventi didn’t present this same sound, and I ultimately spent more time with the Duventi + L200s. The tubes did a great job smoothing out the top end, but the bass was also a little slower and less textured as the tradeoff. That was the same issue I had with my JBLs that lead me to the Duventi in the first place. I will say that the L200s undoubtedly had more detail than the JBLs. Nothing felt as fluid to me, but it certainly created more defined imaging and brought out some extra detail.

More to come with some in depth comparisons from Marvin’s…

That took a while to assemble and write up, not to mention do! Well done, Willie. Well done.

Tom

When it comes my time for the review, I'm going to use the Copy & Paste approach

A lot of members here could very be Professional Reviewers. Very well done!

K_M wrote: »

@displayname

So would you characterize them as somewhat boosted top end, or more than a bit?

I noticed several comments about "Detailed" and the top end...

We have Lsi9's the only one I can compare to, and they sound quite neutral, tone wise to me.

Compared to the LSi9, the top end is certainly boosted. You'd notice it right away coming from the LSi9 regardless of amp pairing. Like Marvin just said, higher volumes and more power didn't do it any favors either.

But I can't deny more detail is there. One good example was at Marvin's we listened to Stairway to Heaven. On all the other speakers, you could hear the tape hiss, but it wasn't really distracting. On the L200, it was hard to look passed in the softer intro, and it really was a factor right up until the larger instrumentals picked up. That's not really enjoyable detail in that case, but it is detail.

... gonna have to come back to @displayname's triptych; lots to chew on there!
Thanks!

treitz3 wrote: »

For reference, what volume levels was "Stairway to Heaven" being played at?

Tom

I would guess mid 70dbs with peaks in the 80s. We didn't measure that, but Marvin and I tend to listen at about the same volume and that's about where I've measured things in my house. Measuring via phone app, nothing crazy.

I should also point out that the mastering in the Tidal playlist is likely different from the CD Marvin had. I don't know which exact mastering we had, but it was from Mothership and it was in a card sleeve, not a jewel case: https://www.discogs.com/Led-Zeppelin-Mothership/master/4787

I noticed this tendency to become harsh at higher volume levels on other songs that with my reference speakers just gets louder and louder with the strain in the upper region.
I also felt that the sound was not balanced across the frequency spectrum.

Nice review, seems there are many here with the same general "thread" on these...

yes.
even the onix ref 1 with a tweeter in the same family did not exhibit this harshness.
note that in it's day the ref 1 was known to be a little hot in the highs.

indyhawg wrote: »

displayname wrote: »

Stop #2 – Marvin’s Place @marvda1

The Chris Jones tracks served as our main constant for the day, and we listened to those two tracks on every speaker that day.

Those Chris Jones tracks are two of my favorite tracks to use when demoing speakers.

They were new to me. I keep my phone out so I can quickly shazam anything when I'm with Marvin. He always has good stuff that I'm not familiar with.