[BC] A Pig in a Polk

[Robert Orban]

At 09:00 PM 8/23/2006, you wrote:
>From: Rich Wood <richwood at pobox.com>
>Subject: [BC] A Pig in a Polk
>To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20060823203125.05b686b0 at pobox.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>------ At 02:53 PM 8/14/2006, Mark Humphrey wrote: -------
>
>I had the chance to play
>with the Polk receiver the other day and, believe it or not, its AM
>section is far worse than the BA Receptor with both receivers side by
>side. This time I wasn't able to disconnect the rooftop FM antenna,
>so I have no idea how well it works without an outdoor antenna. This
>receiver certainly isn't worth $600. I was hoping for better from a
>high end manufacturer like Polk. Even though it's the layered display
>it displays more information in a single scroll. It's audio is also
>very bottom heavy.

I tested one today and I mostly agree with Rich. FM sensitivity is poorer 
than the BA. Unlike the BA, the Polk's AM section did not overload at my 
location, but it was also unable to lock to any of the HD-AM stations on 
the air in the Bay Area.

Ergonomically, the Polk is a disaster compared to the BA. The Polk makes 
you do everything with button pushes, including tuning the radio; there is 
no rotary encoder in the Polk's UI. Dimming the display requires drilling 
down through a menu. (Compare and contrast to the Bose Wave Radio, which 
dims its display automatically in a darkened room--a feature ever since I 
replaced my Wave radio with the BA..)

On the plus side, the Polk sounded much better than the BA, with much more 
defined treble and better balance throughout the audio frequency spectrum. 
Soundstage was wide for a all-in-one. I did not hear the bass as being 
bottom-heavy. However, the Polk offers bass and treble controls, so it's 
possible that the unit Rich heard had its bass turned up.

The improved sound quality could not justify the Polk's $600 price tag, 
particularly with its basic RF problems.  There is no excuse for such a 
poor tuner in a $600 tabletop entertainment center. The radio is already on 
its way back to Polk for a refund. It's astonishing to me that after the 
BA's well-publicized RF problems, Polk didn't get this right.

Bob Orban