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The sound is very convincing and the sub blends in nicely with the Polk. However, it's not a contrived, unnatural sounding system. The overall effect gives you a 3-D feel without the rear speakers. The center channel and vocals are spot on and the system plays music quite nicely. Is it the full-fledged 5.1 sound from a traditional surround system. I would honestly have to say no. Polk Audio SurroundBar 50 Surround System (Single Speaker) - Black I was searching for an audio solution with a clean look and good performance to compliment my new Pioneer Kuro plasma display.
To compliment the Surroundbar I purchased a very nice low profile receiver, 80 watts per channel and I added a subwoofer. First off, this speaker was literally made to fit perfectly under this display, which is a big plus. Since I already have a traditional surround system in another room, I was looking for a simple uncluttered solution. In summary, I'm very happy with this speaker and if matched with decent electronics and subwoofer, it creates a very respectable surround system.
I was skeptical even as I unboxed this speaker, wired it up, and hung it on the wall. There's nothing like experiencing a movie encoded with an aggressive 5.1 surround mix on a set of speakers that really put you in the center of the action.But in the course of redecorating my living room, I had to shift around the furniture in a way that prohibited me from wiring up the left and right surround speakers. To my amazement, as the different tones were generated for the five channels, I heard sound from the left and right surround speakers from this single bar located 16 feet in front of me. This speaker uses some of that SDA magic to recreate all five channels of sound from a single sound bar.
The surround was not as discrete and powerful as you would have gotten from an actual speaker, but it was probably 80-90% of the way there. I'm a fan of Polk Audio from the old days; I owned a set of SDA-2s for a number of years and loved them.
Enough said). Installation tip: Really crank down on the nuts holding the speaker wire to the speaker with a ratchet, or they will slip out when you hang up the speaker.
Otherwise, installation was simple and straightforward.Once it was properly installed, I put it to the test with a home theater sound test DVD. I have been a fan of surround sound for some time.
Then I ran across this speaker. I was even going to have a hard time with the left and right front channels.
(I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say an old hippie owned my house for 30 years before I bought it, and did a lot of work on it himself, leading to some unique interior features. For unique installations like mine, or if you just want a cleaner look or simpler installation, the Surround Bar 50 is definitely worth it.
And the surround sound is good. It is an excellent product that will deliver very clean, if not a little sharp, sound. You can crank it up pretty loud and it still sounds clear and undistorted. There's no signal processing done by it, so you'll need a receiver for the dolby digital and DTS effects. I set mine up this way and the blend between the subwoofer and surroundbar is surprisingly good. This allowed me to see the quality of the surroundbar 50 by itself. The speaker is great for audio as well. Sure this speaker won't beat a 5.1 or 7.1 system with individual speakers for each channel, but I use this in my open plan living room and it is so much sleeker than the typical 5.1 system.
Overall I think this is a great solution for people who want surround sound without 5-7 speakers. Plus I don't have to run wires everywhere. When I first installed it, my subwoofer (HSU Research VTF2-MK3) had not arrived. In fact, it's exceptional. Again just make sure you have the subwoofer in place if you want bass response. The surroundbar50 is just a speaker.
One more thing. Plus with the surroundbar, you really do get quality surround sound with DVDs or broadcasts in HD. I've had this product for a month now and love it. It sounds like the bass is coming from the surroundbar even though I know it isn't. Given the size of the midrange drivers you can't get a real bass response without a subwoofer, but you do get crisp treble and solid midrange. Polk actually recommends that you use a subwoofer for best sound quality and attach the subwoofer to the L/R inputs of the receiver.
I can't speak for the 42" surroundbar as I haven't heard one, but the surroundbar 50 is great.
I chose a PSW505 and it's the ideal match for the SB50 in a room 20'x40'x11' ceiling. Now that I better understand the surround options on the receiver I'm going to try it again. When surround effects are active in a movie or XM radio I can 'hear' sounds all around me. Not sure how I'll sell that to the wife.The description and photo on Amazon for the SB50 is actually for the original SB. The only place the SDA doesn't reach is creating sounds 'behind' me. I experimented with a wired speaker directly behind the seating area and it didn't seem to add much. I didn't want to run wires all over ant the wife acceptance factor played heavily in choosing a Surroundbar.
Definitely needs a subwoofer for home theater and base-heavy music also benefits. The SB50 perfectly fit the width of our TV stand and having SDA for both front and rear pairs improved the surround effect compared to the original SB. It also performs well with music by using Dolby PL-II music setting on my Onkyo SR605. The SB50 has 9 drivers (4 pair of SDA drivers and a single center channel speaker) and is ported.
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