Originally I bought a Boston Acoustics Soundbar (see explanation below for returning it) but now I have the Polk Soundbar and love it. I found one major problem with setup. I am a wi fi household and the wireless subwoofer had a conflict with my network wi fi. I am not terribly knowledgeable about routers but after going to Cnet forums got the answer which I would like to share with you. My problem was I have a Roku box and I was unable to stream. It would begin and then stop. If I turned off the soundbar it worked perfectly. I put the sub woofer in various places based on Polk's instructions, trying to shield it from the wi fi signal but nothing worked. The answer turned out to be very simple. (I had even gone so far as to buy a new router which also didn't work for reasons which will become obvious if you continue reading.) All I had to do was bring up my router's configuration screen and change the channel setting. The Soundbar was set for channel one as was my wi fi. I first tried channel five and it almost worked but after a few minutes, it stalled again so I then changed to channel 11 the farthest and last choice and bingo, it worked great and continues to work great.
I live in a 1400 sq ft house and the living room is about 12' x 20'. This unit is actually a little too much for the size of the room but when I made the necessary changes in my tv sound setup and the Dish remote setup, it made a big difference. Sometimes the sound was shrill so I changed the treble and bass settings on my tv and they do work for the soundbar even when you are not using the tv sound which I found I don't really need. For music this soundbar is astounding. For speech it is excellent. I do have a hearing problem and since Netflix has no subtitles yet, I do need some help. My tv is an LG 55" LED and the sound is ok but this soundbar has solved our problems when watching a streaming Netflix movie. I also stream Leo LaPorte which is TWIT.tv and for him I don't need the soundbar because the sound is so clear but I still use it. The other night we watched a very old, 61 years, movie called Impact using the Polk soundbar and could hear every word clearly!!
Programming my Dish TV remote was simple so I only use the Polk remote when I want to change the sub woofer if it is just too much bass.
All in all, I love this unit. I have it standing on the cabinet in front of my tv with the sub woofer on the floor beside it. You can get even better bass if you put the sw in a corner of the room. I think it would be great even for a very large room since I sometimes have to turn it way down for some programs. For music, again, fantastic. Of course, you will be forced to turn it down for commercials, just can't solve that issue.
When I was listening to the Boston A and the Polk bars, I really thought that the Boston A was better because I was unable to adjust the sub woofer on the Polk. The salesman told me it had no controls on it, well, he was wrong, I can control it so you can set it any way you choose. After having the Polk for a month I feel it is ALMOST as good as the Boston A and since the Boston A only has audio out RCA jacks I couldn't buy it anyway.
This brings me to another very important point when shopping for any soundbar which is to be sure what your tv accomodates. (I suggest you download your TV manual and take the pages you need with you, showing what audio out jacks you have.) My tv, the LG, does NOT accomodate RCA jacks for audio out, only optical out. Remember, I had originally bought a Boston Acoustics soundbar and had to return it. Because I had to go back three times Best Buy agreed to sell me the Polk for $301, the same price I paid for the Boston Acoustics bar. I also could not get the enclosed optical cord to work but fortunately had bought one years ago which works great. The enclosed one is very thin and the one I had is much thicker, don't know if that was the reason. Optical cables are very difficult to insert so don't lose hope, eventually you will be successful.
Since many people lambast BB, I want to say that when I returned the first Boston unit, (it had obviously been returned by someone and I thought it was defective) they apologized and said I should have been charged the open box price ($269) so brought out another open box, which was sealed and had a big label saying Open Box on it. He opened it up and set it up and thinking he had confirmed that I had a headphone jack I could use, I bought it. Well, as luck would have it, no headphone jack on my LG and no optical on the Boston unit, why I cannot figure out. He went to a lot of trouble for so low a priced unit and I appreciated his effort. When I returned it again, he actually tried to avoid me, knowing that I would take up a lot of his time. As I understand it, BB sales people get bonuses at the end of the month based on sales so even though they don't get commissions as many other electronics stores, if still in existence, pay, they do make money on their sales. The higher their number, the more they get. But he did come over, finally, when I tracked him down and once again, brought out the soundbar and set it up to check. So kudos to Best Buy, San Rafael, this particular sales guy and to Polk.
Eileen
Novato, CA Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000 Home Entertainment System (Black)
I was interested an alternate to the built in tv speakers for my bedroom. I wanted the enhanced sound; however, I did not want to have to run wires for the speakers/subwoofer, like I did in my living room. I didn't need a full 5 or 7.1 setup for the room, so I thought the Polk IHT 3000 surroundbar, and its wireless subwoofer, would be a great option. I went to my local big box store to play with the options, and to test the sound quality before I purchased. The sound is very crisp and the subwoofer does its job very well. Initially I was very satisfied after I received the item. The setup was very simple, and it sounded just as good in my home as I had tested on the demo unit; watching a dvd was perfect. However, the majority of media consumption in my bedroom is internet based: music streaming from my home server to my htpc, hulu, netflix streaming on my roku. I have an N/2.4 ghz wireless router and when using the Polk IHT 3000, my wifi connection was useless. All wifi traffic would come to a complete stop. The only way to solve the problem was to unplug the surroundbar. Once it was unplugged, all the wifi traffic would resume as normal. I read through some of the other customer's comment and found that other users suggested changing the channels on both the router and the subwoofer, so that they do not overlap, as a solution. I tried every possible channel configuration on both the router and subwoofer, and repositioning the wifi router and subwoofer. Nothing made any difference. As soon as the surroundbar was turned on, no data could be transmitted on my wireless network. As soon as it was turned off, all traffic would resume again. I do not have one of the newer 5 ghz routers to test it with, so this may not be a problem when used in conjunction with newer networking hardware, or if everything in your home is hardwired via ethernet. If all you are using the surroundbar exclusively for is television, dvd, or bluray I think it is an excellent choice. However, I would not recommend it to used in a home with only a 2.4 ghz wifi network. - Surroundbar - Sound Bar - Soundbar - Polk'
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