Polk Audio Reserve Series Loudspeakers Press Event - YouTube
Polk Audio’s Reserve Series Speakers Bring Legend Innovations At Lower Prices | Audioholics
https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/reserve-what-better-sounds-like
Thanks to Sin Phi for the heads up. Apologies if this is a repost.
Lots of cool tech here to see. Internal resonance control, both in the cabinet as well as in the port, and a nifty woofer cone design. I'm surprised it's taken so long for big manufacturers to incorporate the third dimension, so to speak, to make cones stiffer, even after Fostex, KEF, SB Acoustics, etc. have demonstrated tangible benefits.
EDIT: Apparently most (or all?) of this tech was in the earlier Legend series. Oops.
Polk Audio’s Reserve Series Speakers Bring Legend Innovations At Lower Prices | Audioholics
https://www.polkaudio.com/en-us/reserve-what-better-sounds-like
Thanks to Sin Phi for the heads up. Apologies if this is a repost.
Lots of cool tech here to see. Internal resonance control, both in the cabinet as well as in the port, and a nifty woofer cone design. I'm surprised it's taken so long for big manufacturers to incorporate the third dimension, so to speak, to make cones stiffer, even after Fostex, KEF, SB Acoustics, etc. have demonstrated tangible benefits.
EDIT: Apparently most (or all?) of this tech was in the earlier Legend series. Oops.
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I don't know why these would be of much interest to DIYers who can achieve the same or superior performance at a fraction of the cost.
i did take a one second look at the legend l800 or whatever its called. then i laughed and disregarded the whole company for forever in the future.
I'm not sure it matters if you are dealing with really cheap drivers to begin with.
OK. Don't discount all the really cheap drivers out there. Some of them have surprisingly good if not even excellent performance if utilized properly.
Looks like any other mass produced soulless forgettable speaker series from the last two decades by no name brands. So many vendors so little variations and creativity. I’m so glad I can build my own speakers because the consumer market is polluted with garbage.
None that I have ever heard by auditioning relatively expensive commercial speakers in high end audio stores. They all sound terrible compared to what can be built for a lot less money on a DIY basis.
I see no reason why these Polks are going to be any different despite the claims for some new magic tuned ports and "3D" fairy dust being sprinkled on the cones.
Notice that both links you cited are nothing more than marketing BS. No measurements, no blind listening tests, not even a comment from Audioholics about how they actually sound.
Sorry, but there is nothing here to get very excited about.
The links are just for general info. The real details are in the YouTube video. Since you have already closed your mind to anything new I won't bother giving you the timestamps, but suffice to say the tuned ports actually are supposed to work to reduce port resonance.
As for "3D fairy dust" being sprinkled on the cones, it really just sounds like you want a confrontation. Want to tell me why the SB65WBAC25 drivers are pieces of **** too?
As for "3D fairy dust" being sprinkled on the cones, it really just sounds like you want a confrontation. Want to tell me why the SB65WBAC25 drivers are pieces of **** too?
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Polk Audio is company with long history, with some good quality loudspeakers. Their SDA technology (used in Legend L800) dates 35 years ago and creates enhanced "3D" stereo effect, which may or may not be to someone's liking. Nothing to laugh at. There is some serious engineering behind that.
Vintage Polk SDA 1:
Their plot showing how much the X-port dampens pipe resonance is impressive. Good enough for me to investigate with a 3D printer. If it pans out, that alone is worth knowing for DIY'ers.
I wonder how true the idea it that DIY speakers must sound better than commercial speakers at the same cost. Could depend on cost. For example, take a well designed speaker, say Troels for example. One of his £1500 kits could cost £5000 or more ready made from a company. But I wonder if a £150 kit would sound better than a model of a similar price in the shops. Obviously big companies have more spending power so parts cost less. The type of companies that use the best components are usually much smaller and are offering a product aimed at audiophiles who care what capacitor was used. This is the area where DIY saves money IMO.
Where DIY saves money is on all of the cost for cabinets, finishing, assembly labor, testing, stocking, shipping, and corporate overhead to cover R&D, marketing, salaries, profit, etc. On top of that are distributor and retailer profits, which can be considerable.
The equation doesn't change just because it is an inexpensive product. All of those same elements are there. And now you are getting really cheap drivers and crossover components.
If there wasn't a significant cost and performance advantage to DIY this website wouldn't exist and we would all be over on one of the home theater sites instead.
The equation doesn't change just because it is an inexpensive product. All of those same elements are there. And now you are getting really cheap drivers and crossover components.
If there wasn't a significant cost and performance advantage to DIY this website wouldn't exist and we would all be over on one of the home theater sites instead.
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Of course it does. DIY components are sold in single units via distributors and shops into a tiny market segment. The markup has to be large regardless of whether it is budget component or an expensive component.
A commercial budget speaker will be manufactured in massive numbers in a low cost country and sold into a very price conscious competitive market sector. This is what enables a decent active speaker like the JBL 305p to be available for a touch over £100 each. There is no chance whatsover of DIY folk being able to buy DIY parts for such a speaker for anything like this price.
If we step up from a decent budget desktop speaker to a high fidelity mains speaker then the size of the market segment reduces greatly driving up the relative cost of a commercial speaker compared to an equivalent DIY speaker. So the equivalent of the £100 JBL now becomes something like a Neumann KH 420 at £3000 each (actual model unimportant more a competitive price for a well designed and engineered example). Now DIY folk might be able to buy the parts for a bit less than this price despite the huge markup on the equivalent DIY electronics compared to a manufacturer's. Of course we DIYers have the flexibility to tackle this using cheaper alternatives such as PCs, video chips for DSP, AV receivers, etc... albeit at the cost of clumsier packaging.
I like how you completely changed topics.
Where did I say that these products were worth the money?
They look like magicos at much less $$. There are definitely better ways to spend $3,500 on speakers, but there are also much, much worse. Higher end audio is full of garbage, at least these are a solid platform with a 5 year warrantee. Good enough for the people who don't come to DIYaudio. The old SDA era polks were actually pretty great speakers- not by our standards and era, again, but we're not the target market for any of their systems really.
The reason I changed topics is that this forum, as its name states, is about DIY. As such I don't see why anyone here would be interested in these particular commercial speakers.
There are hundreds of commercial products on the market and if all of their fans starting posting about them here this would turn into just another AudioCircle or home theater forum.
Ha. Well thanks for the gatekeeping efforts, seems we are barely managing to keep the hordes at bay.
If the technology does not interest you, fine by me. Just feels rather unseemly to be so fervent about the defense of DIY to the exclusion of all else.
If the technology does not interest you, fine by me. Just feels rather unseemly to be so fervent about the defense of DIY to the exclusion of all else.
I'm a DIYer, but if one wants to spend USD 240 on a pair of speakers + amp (including boxes), it'd be hard to beat a pair of LSR305, ready made & plug & play.
The least expensive kit I know is Parts-Express's C-note @ USD 110, but you need to bring your own amp. Can you DIY your own amp @ 130, chassis & PS included? it's a stretch...
So at the low end of the budget, I don't it think it makes sense to DIY.
The least expensive kit I know is Parts-Express's C-note @ USD 110, but you need to bring your own amp. Can you DIY your own amp @ 130, chassis & PS included? it's a stretch...
So at the low end of the budget, I don't it think it makes sense to DIY.
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