Polk Woodbourne - Prettiest Paperweight Ever!!!

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Comments

  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,420
    Jstas wrote: »

    I'm a graduate of that program. It makes you a master of telling someone they are a Fkn idiot and go fk them selves and they still totally respect you for your opinion. :D Now that's Jedi ship everyone needs to know!
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)


    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
  • F1nut wrote: »
    BrnHrnt wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    BrnHrnt wrote: »
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    Do what others do in a situation like yours with a dead piece of consumer grade electronics. Take it to a local electronics repair shop.

    Well I don’t think one exists within 100 miles of me and it’s not like I live in the sticks…thE OP might be in a similar situation…

    It's not horrible advice and I might be able to find a generic shop but they certainly won't be a Polk authorized repair center. Also, Polk has advised me that they no longer make any parts for the Woodbourne. So it might be a bit of a wild goose chase given I have no idea what's wrong with it. I'm reluctant to throw good money after bad when a replacement purchase looms and given it wasn't "cheap" to begin with.

    Polk has 3 "authorized" repair centers, which are just regular electronics repair businesses. Try contacting them directly as they would likely know more about what's going on with your item than Polk's customer service rep.

    This is a great tip. I'm not near any of the three. If they know the common fix for this issue (assuming it doesn't need Polk specific parts) maybe I can have a local shop take a look. Shipping is a non-starter given the cost.

    You'd have ship it to Polk or one of their authorized repair firms if they offered a repair and since it is out of warranty you would have to pay the shipping. So why are you now objecting to shipping it?

    Shipping it to Polk or one of their centers knowing it would be repaired is totally different than shipping it with a hope and a prayer.
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,708
    It's always a hope and a prayer when it comes to electronics.

    I tried.....I'm done.
    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

  • Jstas
    Jstas Posts: 14,707
    BrnHrnt wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    BrnHrnt wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    BrnHrnt wrote: »
    rooftop59 wrote: »
    F1nut wrote: »
    Do what others do in a situation like yours with a dead piece of consumer grade electronics. Take it to a local electronics repair shop.

    Well I don’t think one exists within 100 miles of me and it’s not like I live in the sticks…thE OP might be in a similar situation…

    It's not horrible advice and I might be able to find a generic shop but they certainly won't be a Polk authorized repair center. Also, Polk has advised me that they no longer make any parts for the Woodbourne. So it might be a bit of a wild goose chase given I have no idea what's wrong with it. I'm reluctant to throw good money after bad when a replacement purchase looms and given it wasn't "cheap" to begin with.

    Polk has 3 "authorized" repair centers, which are just regular electronics repair businesses. Try contacting them directly as they would likely know more about what's going on with your item than Polk's customer service rep.

    This is a great tip. I'm not near any of the three. If they know the common fix for this issue (assuming it doesn't need Polk specific parts) maybe I can have a local shop take a look. Shipping is a non-starter given the cost.

    You'd have ship it to Polk or one of their authorized repair firms if they offered a repair and since it is out of warranty you would have to pay the shipping. So why are you now objecting to shipping it?

    Shipping it to Polk or one of their centers knowing it would be repaired is totally different than shipping it with a hope and a prayer.

    Look, dude, if the thing is broken, you have nothing to lose except the cost of paying someone to tell you if it's repairable or not. It's out of warranty so whether you send it to Polk or Jim Bob's House Of Stereo Repairs, you're gonna get charged to diagnose and fix it.

    But you can't look at it as a guarantee that it will be repaired. You obviously do not know how to bench test and troubleshoot failed electronics. There's noting wrong with that. So the solution is to take it to someone who does. You're not paying that person for their labor, though. If it was as simple as getting someone to just do some work for you, anyone could do it. But that guy has years of experience and training under his belt that makes him an expert. He also has a large collection of tools that enables him to do the repairs correctly, well and expediently.

    That is what you are paying for, his expertise to analyze and tell you what needs to be repaired and if it can even be repaired. The labor is just secondary and there's probably 2-3 times as much labor in the analysis than there is in the fixing.

    Trust me, I've been there. Recently too as I just bought an whole new subwoofer amp because of a single board, 3 inches by 4 inches, that had a single failed component on it and 3 different repair shops didn't want to touch it because they couldn't guarantee the work because it was a specific piece of tech that wasn't common and they didn't know if they would screw something else up in the process of fixing it.

    I got off easy because none of the shops took any payment to look at the problem but even if I had to pay $50 to know what the problem is and what needs to be fixed, that's money well spent because now you know what the issue is.

    But Polk doesn't use fancy, esoteric parts in their stuff. Common problems with common parts are easily fixed by any electronics tech. You're not taking a risk here. Seriously.
    Expert Moron Extraordinaire

    You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
  • Now the bad news is:
    it's broke.

    The good news is:
    It's broke in a good way

    It's a Go/NoGo problem.
    It won't turn on.

    Not an intermittent, occasional,, only on the 1st, 3d, and 5thbday between the hours of noon to 5, etc.

    IMO it would be interesting to open up (and the video shows that that can be a little bit of a pain in the a$$).
    You don't have to be an ET to ballpark some basic issues: burnt odor smell, visual burnt component, bulging caps, etc
    .
    That kind of stuff is fun IMO.

    Get a little fancy and maybe buy a BASIC multimeter from home depot to verify a suspicion.

    Just a thought.
    The hardest part for me would be getting the case opened without breaking something.

    In any event, have some fun !


    Sal Palooza
  • Emlyn
    Emlyn Posts: 4,346
    Frankly, I am surprised it lasted as long as it did. Polk has had more than a few issues with electronics over the years. I had an iSonic or whatever it was called that blew out after about three years. It wasn’t worth fixing.

    Interestingly, the guy in the repair video diagnosed the problem and said he would show in a subsequent video how he actually fixed the burned out power supply but he doesn’t appear to have followed through with it. Could be he gave up on it.
  • audioluvr
    audioluvr Posts: 5,420
    My guess is that gold ring of his came in contact with something hot and, well, let's just say we won't be watching the part 2 video.
    Gustard X26 Pro DAC
    Belles 21A Pre modded with Mundorf Supreme caps
    B&K M200 Sonata monoblocks refreshed and upgraded
    Polk SDA 1C's modded / 1000Va Dreadnaught
    Wireworld Silver Eclipse IC's and speaker cables
    Harman Kardon T65C w/Grado Gold. (Don't laugh. It sounds great!)


    There is about a 5% genetic difference between apes and men …but that difference is the difference between throwing your own poo when you are annoyed …and Einstein, Shakespeare and Miss January. by Dr. Sardonicus
  • boston1450
    boston1450 Posts: 7,438
    TroyD wrote: »
    I get both sides of the argument here.....and many of us can attest that there was a time that Polk CS was on par with LL Bean (which isn’t what it used to be either).....but consumer electronics aren’t BMW’s. They are consumables, essentially. Sucks but it’s the way of the world now....

    LLBeans that's in the next town from me. I shop there all the time. The return policy now I do believe is only 1 year with receipts. It use to be LIFETIME. Every time I go there I want to hop into the water & snag a trout :) I love the place. I bought a pair of wool pants in 1983 a year before my oldest was born. I still got them & they still fit lmao. Love LLBeans. Carry on
    ..
    ..
    ..
    Randy/Maine
  • boston1450 wrote: »
    TroyD wrote: »
    I get both sides of the argument here.....and many of us can attest that there was a time that Polk CS was on par with LL Bean (which isn’t what it used to be either).....but consumer electronics aren’t BMW’s. They are consumables, essentially. Sucks but it’s the way of the world now....

    LLBeans that's in the next town from me. I shop there all the time. The return policy now I do believe is only 1 year with receipts. It use to be LIFETIME. Every time I go there I want to hop into the water & snag a trout :) I love the place. I bought a pair of wool pants in 1983 a year before my oldest was born. I still got them & they still fit lmao. Love LLBeans. Carry on

    Randy, do you need a boat anchor?
    "Sometimes you have to look to the past to understand where you are going in the future"


    Harry / Marietta GA
  • gudnoyez
    gudnoyez Posts: 8,056
    Those Woodbournes sound pretty darn good for what they are definitely worth finding a place to repair it.
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  • dhb1
    dhb1 Posts: 1
    Powered on the Woodbourne one day in 2019 , heard a pop, and that was the end of a great sounding and attractive looking speaker. I feel your frustration. It’s allot of money to pay for less than 4 years of light use. I’ve been holding onto it in its unusable state for another 4 years. If you ever get it fixed I’d like to hear about it. I just haven’t had time or inclination to pursue it. I have a basement with 3 different pair of Polk Audio passive speakers. All great sounding speakers that I used for many years; they just kept sounding better. Unfortunately, I no longer have room in the smaller retirement (empty nest) home we now live in. Polk Audio brought me many years of reasonably priced, great sounding, passive speakers. But, as mentioned, the Woodbourne ended up being a big disappointment.