Help us shape the future of Polk
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^ Turned 65 September… there’s a shart-pot of boomers retiring.
Retook the survey and made it to the end this time.
Would be fun to participate. -
I really like what you said here.Slightly on/off topic.
I've had countless discussions with folks that would listen that this industry is slowly pricing itself to an eventual death.
The cost to entry for younger people is simply unobtainable. When I first started the hobby at 14 years old, I bought a set of Polk rt35i from Crutchfield for 300 shipped to my house...
That same caliber of speaker from Polk now is over 600 a pair.
Ultimately, I think if the industry as a whole is not careful, particularly the high end market... The next twenty years will see a drastic decline in clientele as... Ahem... The older clientele simply are no longer there anymore and there are far far less younger people there to take their place.
As an industry there should be some type of something that gathers the attention of the younger generation in an aspiring way.
The products that were out when I was younger were very cool! The Polk SRT, statement musical fidelity, things that really made you go wow.
Most manufactures now a days seem more interested in hitting size and weight specs for import and export than overall performance.
As a relatively young person, 34, looking back on what made me excited about the hobby and where the industry is today.. M I honestly am not so sure I would have ever started the hobby like I did in this day and age.
The other difference is that the forum exposure is much less with lesser participation. This forum from a personal and audio perspective has been literally life changing. I have met people on this forum I consider to be friends and family and literally everything about my life can be traced back to this forum in some way or another.
Facebook groups simply don't have that environment and frankly they suck. Polk should be doing everything it can to build and flourish this community and steer them away from Facebook and other social media platforms. There should be more Polk fests and gatherings, invitations to Polk hq and engineering and trying to build back the loyal fan base that frankly will dissappear in time.
I am willing to bet most everyone on this forum is 40 years or older with a very small amount under 30. This really is a problem for Polk and every other audio brand.
Just my 2 cents, take it for what it's worth!
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time. -
The real boost was albums and entry level turntables. Many actually had the opportunity to hear uncompressed music.
I do realize that is likely a fad the is soon fading away again, but I will take what us audio aficionado's can get!!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 -
Made it through first time on the application. Will see what happens.____________________________________________________________
polkaudio Fully Modded SDA SRS 1.2TLs + Dreadnaught, LSiM706c, 4 X Polk Surrounds + 4 X ATMOS, SVS PB13 Ultra X 2, McIntosh C2300, Marantz AV7704, Bob Carver Crimson Beauty 350 Tube Mono Blocks, Carver Sunfire Signature Cinema Grande 400x5, ADCOM GFA 7807, Panasonic UB420, Sim Audio Moon 380D DAC, EPSON Pro Cinema 6050 -
The survey worked fine for me the first time and I'd love to contribute.Home Theater 5.1.2: Marantz SR5012 receiver, Polk R700 and R400 across the front and Klipsch CDT-5650-C II In-Wall/Ceiling surrounds, SVS SB2000 sub, Epson 5050 projector, Apple TV 4K
Family Room 2.0: Yamaha RX-V373 receiver, Polk RTi A9 speakers, TCL 4K TV, Apple TV 4K, Squeezebox Duet
Office 2.1: Rotel RA-11 Integrated amp, GoldenEar Aon3 speakers, SVS SB2000 sub, TCL 4K TV, Apple TV 4K, Squeezebox Duet
Master Bedroom 2.0: JVC RX-318 receiver, Polk R15, Squeezebox Duet -
Survey is closed, but probably would not have qualified due to working for another audio company.
The industry has many challenges:
- Shift away from quality and more towards convenience.
- Along with that, lots of low-brand, inexpensive competition.
- Approaching recession
- Difficulty to overcome the reason why higher-end audio is needed. "Higher end" being anything more than a BT speaker. There's also a lack of show-rooms to hear good audio.
I personally experienced #1 recently. My daughter (20 yo) said she wanted to get into Vinyl or CD collecting. I asked why, and could only get "because it sounds cool". Then I turned the conversation to upgrading from her BT speaker and over-ear headphones to a nice 2 channel rig and she wasn't interested. She doesn't have the room and doesn't see the need (even though I have several nice setups to hear). I offered to get her setup with an LSi7 based rig (amp, pre, stands, etc.) for CD playing but she turned it down.
That said, my wife does appreciate the sound of my R100's in my home office. But she also uses headphones mainly.
Lastly, I am still a Polk fan and have many products from Polk. I occasionally lurk here nowadays, and don't participate much. The forum has changed from when I first joined and it doesn't seem as engaging and fun.
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We stink.
This:
$130.00
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
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Oh, you have been selected;
Speakers: Polk Lsim, ATC SCM19 v2, NHT SuperzeroSpeaker Cables: DH Labs, Transparent, Wireworld, Canare, Monster: Beer budget, Bose ears -
maximillian wrote: »Survey is closed, but probably would not have qualified due to working for another audio company.
The industry has many challenges:
- Shift away from quality and more towards convenience.
- Along with that, lots of low-brand, inexpensive competition.
- Approaching recession
- Difficulty to overcome the reason why higher-end audio is needed. "Higher end" being anything more than a BT speaker. There's also a lack of show-rooms to hear good audio.
I personally experienced #1 recently. My daughter (20 yo) said she wanted to get into Vinyl or CD collecting. I asked why, and could only get "because it sounds cool". Then I turned the conversation to upgrading from her BT speaker and over-ear headphones to a nice 2 channel rig and she wasn't interested. She doesn't have the room and doesn't see the need (even though I have several nice setups to hear). I offered to get her setup with an LSi7 based rig (amp, pre, stands, etc.) for CD playing but she turned it down.
That said, my wife does appreciate the sound of my R100's in my home office. But she also uses headphones mainly.
Lastly, I am still a Polk fan and have many products from Polk. I occasionally lurk here nowadays, and don't participate much. The forum has changed from when I first joined and it doesn't seem as engaging and fun.
So, I agree, by and large, but I think that economics has dealt "us" (the "average consumer") a weird hand in the past 20 years or so -- there's not much in the middle (heck, there's not much "middle class" left); markets for most things have bifurcated: there's inexpensive/massmarket and then there's "high end"/luxury/"lifestyle". The price gap has widened just as the chasm spread in personal wealth has widened.
Here's a hamfisted attempt to visualize this for hifi. In the old days, there was (I think) a fairly "normal" (Gaussian) distribution of products available from the low end (Soundesign, Yorx) to the high end (conrad-johnson, Audio Research, McIntosh) -- pick your favorite examples. There was plenty of stuff in between, and the price spread from the bottom to the top of the market was fairly limited (say $100 to $10,000, i.e., three orders of magnitude).
Nowadays, there's an explosion of value-priced stuff, mostly from generic Asian manufacturers and brands -- and still a healthy (if smaller) niche at the high end, with concomitant, stratospheric pricing. Today, that price spread is from $10s of dollars (Amazon Basics-level products) to millions of dollars (five orders of magnitude!). Worse, there's -- maybe (?) -- not much in between.
(not to scale!)
It's the change in distribution, and the nonlinear increase in the spread (from ca. three to five orders of magnitude, a 100-fold change) of prices that are the big challenges, I'd opine.
Right now today, Polk's R and L series are pretty reasonably in- between. Maybe (??) there is still a market for high-value, reasonably-priced entertainment components?
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I agree with you, but I think the middle ground presence varies by product type. For headphones, especially in-ear it's definitely two humped. But for bookshelf and floor speakers there's still mid-priced options (some may call this mid-Fi). Of course, depends on how you define the middle. But Polk still sells the Monitor and T-series. Some may argue that the $500-$800 price point is mid-priced, and that would place the smaller Signature and Reserve products at this price point. That's always been Polk's strength - selling quality sounding speakers for <$1K.
Again, in-ear, wired products, totally agree. Lots of cheap junk, some high end expensive stuff (>$300) and not too much in the middle ($100-$200). I can't seem to find a comfortable, good sounding wired set for portable gaming (low latency). A lot of products that used to be here (such as Grado iGe3) seem to be discontinued in favor of wireless or more expensive sets. -
Polk and others presumably have the “good, best, better” approach for that very reason. One reason the R200’s are popular is because they are in that average consumer range, albeit within the audio set.
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Polk and others presumably have the “good, best, better” approach for that very reason. One reason the R200’s are popular is because they are in that average consumer range, albeit within the audio set.
I would say look at the edifier's above. The R200s are very expensive for most people, especially when you consider that you have to buy an amp, stands, cables, etc. WE think of them as mid-fi or even great sound at a reasonable price; the masses do not...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
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 Harmon Kardon HK3490; Bluesounds Node N130; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer -
nooshinjohn wrote: »
John, I'll need to make an inquiry. I was just helping get the forum members involved, but I am not that involved in the project. Stay tuned. -
Polk and others presumably have the “good, best, better” approach for that very reason. One reason the R200’s are popular is because they are in that average consumer range, albeit within the audio set.
I would say look at the edifier's above. The R200s are very expensive for most people, especially when you consider that you have to buy an amp, stands, cables, etc. WE think of them as mid-fi or even great sound at a reasonable price; the masses do not...
That’s why I qualified the statement, “within the audio set.” -
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maybe we're just, you know...
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Gustard X26 Pro DAC
Belles 21A Pre Upgraded with Mundorf Supremes
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 -
Geesh, give them a chance.
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Nothing yet, a little too soon?
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In all seriousness, yes, I reckon so (a little premature, that is).
It's a journey, not a destination.
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maximillian wrote: »Survey is closed, but probably would not have qualified due to working for another audio company.
The industry has many challenges:
- Shift away from quality and more towards convenience.
- Along with that, lots of low-brand, inexpensive competition.
- Approaching recession
- Difficulty to overcome the reason why higher-end audio is needed. "Higher end" being anything more than a BT speaker. There's also a lack of show-rooms to hear good audio.
I personally experienced #1 recently. My daughter (20 yo) said she wanted to get into Vinyl or CD collecting. I asked why, and could only get "because it sounds cool". Then I turned the conversation to upgrading from her BT speaker and over-ear headphones to a nice 2 channel rig and she wasn't interested. She doesn't have the room and doesn't see the need (even though I have several nice setups to hear). I offered to get her setup with an LSi7 based rig (amp, pre, stands, etc.) for CD playing but she turned it down.
That said, my wife does appreciate the sound of my R100's in my home office. But she also uses headphones mainly.
Lastly, I am still a Polk fan and have many products from Polk. I occasionally lurk here nowadays, and don't participate much. The forum has changed from when I first joined and it doesn't seem as engaging and fun.
From my experience, " Hifi audio" is definitely coming back.
/r/audiophile has almost 2 million members ( and growing) most of them are GenX, millennials & GenZ
I hope this hobby doesn't die. Im going to teach my kids to appreciate a good 2 channel system with proper components & proper set up. -
Well, I was declined again (via email), but I have to say they were quite nice about it. Lol Best of luck to all the others.Brian
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They are processing them as I got a “thanks but not this time” response.
Hopefully someone else gets selected"....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
EndersShadow wrote: »They are processing them as I got a “thanks but not this time” response.
Hopefully someone else gets selected
SamePio Elete Pro 520
Panamax 5400-EX
Sunfire TGP 5
Micro Seiki DD-40 - Lyra-Dorian and Denon DL-160
PS Audio GCPH phono pre
Sunfire CG 200 X 5
Sunfire CG Sig 405 X 5
OPPO BDP-83 SE
SDA SRS 1.2TL Sonicaps and Mills
Ctr CS1000p
Sur - FX1000 x 4
SUB - SVS PB2-Plus
Workkout room:
Sony Bravia XBR- 32-Inch 1080p
Onkyo TX-DS898
GFA 555
Yamaha DVD-S1800BL/SACD
Ft - SDA 1C
Not being used:
RTi 38's -4
RT55i's - 2
RT25i's -2, using other 2 in shop
LSI 15's
CSi40
PSW 404 -
Declined 😢- Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
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I really wonder if they are just looking for the sound bar market…2 Channel in my home attic/bar/man cave
2 Channel Focal Kanta 3 I Modwright SWL9.0 Anniversary Pre I Modwright PH9.0X I Modwright KWA-150SE I VPI Prime Signature w/ Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC I Lumin U2 Mini I North Star Designs Intenso DAC I Audience OHNO ICs/Audience Furutech FP-S55N and FP-S032N Power Cables/Acoustic Zen Satori I Isotek Sirius
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