Club Polk's bashing Audioholics

[zumbo]

This is a prefered audio and video vendor list by Audioholics. If you click on P, Polk Audio is there:
http://www.audioholics.com/about/venders/venders_list_all.php

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

I mean no offense by this, but I figured Bose was the best selling speakers?

The best selling speakers are those installed in telephones/cell phones - most likely by Pioneer.

But you are correct, the best selling home audio speaker may be Bose, with companies such as Klipsch and Polk close behind. Sales don't equate to quality, as we all know.

If one is interested in Polk speakers, this site is not the one to get reviews. There's only a handful of members here that own them. I'd suggest AVS as they have many more members that can tell you their opinions of Polk.

To be totally honest, anyone in the market for speakers really needs to demo them for themselves. To trust reviews is not giving yourself enough credit - after all, it's your money. Someone with a tin ear may prefer one type of speaker over another. You may not have the same tin ear as the reviewer.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

You are right Buckeye. it just seems odd that the so called best products are ones we can not audition. Internet sales. Axiom, SVS, Hsu, and not sure but i would bet RBH is in there too. We have to take somebody else's word for it.

JC

 

[zumbo]

http://www.rbhsound.com/unauthorized_dealers.shtml

As far as Axiom, SV, and HSU, you get to take your word for it. They all offer at least a 30 day in-home trial.

 

[ltheis]

Can't you just FEEL the love here. You Know opinions are like *******s eyeryone has one,Get over it. I find this site to be really informing, but the brand bashing has to go. I mean come on really, I bet if bose had a forum pepole would rant about all of the negitive stuff posted about them here and vice-versa.

 

[highfihoney]

are you kidding me?

Sorry, your wrong. Audioholics only advertises products that are GOOD. They havent reviewed any polk speakers YET, so they won't advertise them.

How do they know the performance of polks if they havent reviewed them? They don't, so know ads for them. Its very simple, and has been stated numerous times around the forum. Thats why there is only ads for companys they have reviewed and performed well.

SheepStar

anybody who blindly trust's ANY reviewer as having the best interest's of the consumer ahead of their own interest's is nut's,high end audio & home theater is an extremely cut throat business.

most reviewer's require that the manufacturer send them the product that they want reviewed for free & also require that the manufacturer allow them to keep the product after the review,there are many reviewer's who make their living re selling the gear that was submitted to them for review,this might not be the case with the reviewer's here but it's rampant in the industry.

imagine this scenario,Rowland Research send's a reviewer a brand new pair of their model # 9 t reference monoblock's for a review,that's a $30,000 set of monoblock's that the reviewer get's to keep after he has finished the review,what reviewer in their right mind is going to give a nasty review because if they do they will not be recieving any more gear to review plus the company that publishe's the review will lose all the advertising revenue.

ok so you say what does rowland research have to do with the review process at audioholic's being that rowland does not advertise here,you would be right but to a point only,why would the reviewer for audioholic's spend any amount of time reviewing their gear being that they dont advertise here or send the reviewer's here gear for review,when the reviewer's go to C E S they only have a limited amount of time to review literaly thousand's of peice's of gear & common business pratice's dictate that paid advertiser's will surely get reviewed first,that's just good business.

polk used to be a major player in the big dollar high end hifi market where the profit margin's are highest but the industry sucess rate is the lowest & directly tied to big dollar gear freebie's & big dollar advertising budget's,polk has went after an entirely different group of buyer's,we are just now starting to see the same from martin logan with their leap into the mass market store chain's where they can get way more exposure from walk in customer's then they ever could by advertising or review's,just because polk dont get reviewed dont mean they are bad all it mean's is that they dont spend advertising dollar's & why would they,polk has targeted the mass market buyer who buy's on impulse & just want's to get out of the store as quickly as possible & go home,klipsch has entered this market share also & bose is the master of that market share.

your statement appear's that your saying that the reviewer's here at audioholic's are beyond reproach,im not implying that any reviewer here is doing anything dishonest but their review's are not beyond reproach either.

im new to this site but i have been reading the review's here,ive seen one review that was so poorly wrote that it appear's to me that the reviewer didnt even want to be there or wrote the review from word of mouth,the review contained so much wrong information that the whole review is suspect,not only is the entire review suspect but the reviewer couldnt even keep the model # of the gear straight & then even made claim's to the fact that the manufacturer was trying to fool the public,just about the entire review was based on assumption's that could have been easily checked by simply reading the brochure yet the reviewer used the false assumption's to reinforce that the manufacturer was trying to fool buyer's.

not only did this reviewer make unfounded accusation's but he used them to help proclaim that particular brand of gear to be horrible sounding,im not doubting that the gear sounded bad but when any reviewer is going to give a scathingly bad review it smell's of retribution for not paying for advertising when he cant get the spec's or the fact's straight in the review.

the reviewer in question covered his statement's by saying that there was a large crowd & he was rushed but i ask you this,would the reviewer had taken more time to cross check his statement's against hard nailed fact's if the manufacturer in question was an advertiser on this site?

just some food for thought

your best bet is to hear thing's before you base any opinion on any gear no matter the brand or cost or who reviewed it.

have a good evening.

 

[Sheep]

Johnny,

You keep saying you bought a Hsu subwoofer but never say what you think of it. If its good, you could then say, Audioholics promotes good products.

I never said audioholics only reviews GOOD products, stop and read.

You:

And yes, you said Polks were not reviewed her because Audioholics only reviews GOOD products.

Me:

Audioholics only advertises products that are GOOD.

Theres a difference between those 2 statements. Stop changing around words so they're the way you want them.

Audioholics hasn't had the chance to review Polk speakers yet. I'm pretty sure they said Polk refused the review.

What does that say about polk? They have real wood, they must be good right? Maybe its because they don't want something found out about their speakers cause Audioholics takes them apart?

SheepStar

 

[Sheep]

im new to this site but i have been reading the review's here,ive seen one review that was so poorly wrote that it appear's to me that the reviewer didnt even want to be there or wrote the review from word of mouth,the review contained so much wrong information that the whole review is suspect,not only is the entire review suspect but the reviewer couldnt even keep the model # of the gear straight & then even made claim's to the fact that the manufacturer was trying to fool the public,just about the entire review was based on assumption's that could have been easily checked by simply reading the brochure yet the reviewer used the false assumption's to reinforce that the manufacturer was trying to fool buyer's.

This has no merit until you say which review it was.

not only did this reviewer make unfounded accusation's but he used them to help proclaim that particular brand of gear to be horrible sounding,im not doubting that the gear sounded bad but when any reviewer is going to give a scathingly bad review it smell's of retribution for not paying for advertising when he cant get the spec's or the fact's straight in the review.

What are you talking about? Audioholics doesn't advertise ANY products until they have been PROVEN to be of good quality. You havent been here that long, you don't know how their system works.

the reviewer in question covered his statement's by saying that there was a large crowd & he was rushed but i ask you this,would the reviewer had taken more time to cross check his statement's against hard nailed fact's if the manufacturer in question was an advertiser on this site?

Again, the advertising doesn't start until the company has been reviewed.

most reviewer's require that the manufacturer send them the product that they want reviewed for free & also require that the manufacturer allow them to keep the product after the review,there are many reviewer's who make their living re selling the gear that was submitted to them for review,this might not be the case with the reviewer's here but it's rampant in the industry.

imagine this scenario,Rowland Research send's a reviewer a brand new pair of their model # 9 t reference monoblock's for a review,that's a $30,000 set of monoblock's that the reviewer get's to keep after he has finished the review,what reviewer in their right mind is going to give a nasty review because if they do they will not be recieving any more gear to review plus the company that publishe's the review will lose all the advertising revenue.

If you read some reviews here you will see that Audioholics sends alot of their equipment back, or gives it away in contests.

anybody who blindly trust's ANY reviewer as having the best interest's of the consumer ahead of their own interest's is nut's,high end audio & home theater is an extremely cut throat business.

I trust reviewers that use measurements. Numbers don't lie.

SheepStar

 

[ltheis]

Amen brother! It's called marketing people some people buy it and love it others say It's marketed i hate it. You can not tell me that if brand x,y, or z was approched by the big-box chain stores that they would say sorry i have no interest in increasing my market penitration 100 fold.

 

[Rob Babcock]

It's not even necessarily that they don't want to be "exposed" by an truly independent reveiwer, although this is sometimes a factor. A company that truly spends on glossy pages in the rags probably can count on good reviews by them. If my speakers always got good ink in the rags, what incentive would I have to hang them out to dry against direct-sales competitors like Axiom or Onix/Rocket? I'd have very little to gain and a lot to lose.

That's not always the issue, of course. I imagine a company as large as Polk probably gets a lot of requests for review samples. Some are probably not on the up and up, too. Have they ever heard of Audioholics? If I was in the marketing dept, I'd probably have a certain amount of demo pairs to distribute among all those requesting them. I'd probably have to make the call based on which ones would do me the most good.

No knock on Polk, per se. It's just the way B&M brands do business.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Your name is appropriate. A sheep follows the herd.

JC

Uncalled for comment
You can and should disagree without such comments, right? No go forth and sin no more.

 

[shokhead]

Internet sale only companies have to use the internet magazines to advertise. we can all agree on that. Right??

I have a Hsu sub as i stated earlier. The only reason i bought it is because I read about it here and took Audioholic's and it's forum members' advice. I did not get to audition it first. I took somebody else's word for it. Many people assume Polk is junk because Best Buy sells them. They are in effect, assuming this. If one can not compare an intenet speaker , like Axiom, side by side to Polk with your own ears how do we know it's better? because Audioholics has done that work for us apparantly. my point is, their opinions can be influenced by advertising dollars and/or the fact they have never had a chance to review the Polks.

I in fact was being a "sheep" too. I was not insulting you directly Sheepstar, just saying how easily we can all be influenced and we need to take all reviews into consideration.

And yes, you said Polks were not reviewed her because Audioholics only reviews GOOD products. That is putting down Polk and saying they are not good. What else did you mean?

JC

I dont have a clue{and i dont think you do} where all this Polk bashing is coming from but i dont see it here. In fact i dont see it on any of the forums i'm on,a hell of a lot of people have them on these forums. Now if you call it bashing because one person doesnt like them,you have a problem.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Once i read that, i learned to take people's opinions here, including Gene's and Clint's, with a grain of salt.

JC

Would this mean that at other places you don't and accept theirs as gospel?
I think more skepticism is in order, by all.

 

[mtrycrafts]

If Polk hasn't been reviewed, before you cast aspersions you should check the facts. Many companies don't really want to be reviewed here. There are many popular peices the guys have tried to obtain only to be refused by the manufacturer. Some of their excused: we don't have an extra sample, we don't have time, we'll get back to you, etc etc.

Who in their right mind would want an objective review of their products??? Not too many out there. That is a no brainer. Especially when circulation is limited.

 

[highfihoney]

This has no merit until you say which review it was.

i have no interest in ever drawing negative attention to anybody on this site or any other site for that matter who make's their living from audio/video,i have no vendetta against the reviewer or anybody else for that matter,nothing good can be gained from me publicly naming the review without first giving the reviewer the chance to either tell his side or to correct the mistake's in the review.

if an administrator or moderator of this site wishes me to i can PM them with the name of the suspect review & i can tell them the correct specification's for the gear in question so they can double check my statement's about the review having much of it's content based on untruth's & assumption's.

if that is the case then the moderator or administrator can post any & all communication's between us if they see fit & also publish their thought's on the review but i really want to stress this point concerning the review in question,at no time will i ever post anything negative that can take away from the way any man make's his living.

once again if any moderator or administrator wishes i will comply & name the review but being that i was only trying to point out not to believe everything you read or dont read & not trying to hurt the reviewer's reputation i will only name the review to one of them in private for their review.



"What are you talking about? You havent been here that long, you don't know how their system works."

your statement is 100% accurate & i even said that that may not be the case with the reviewer's at audioholic's i was meerly pointing out how flawed the review process is within the industry.

"Again, the advertising doesn't start until the company has been reviewed."

see my comment where i say that just because polk isnt reviewed here that it does not mean they are a bad product it just mean's they dont advertise here & has not submitted anything for review.

"If you read some reviews here you will see that Audioholics sends alot of their equipment back, or gives it away in contests."

that's fantastic but i allready stated that i wasnt implying that business was done like that here but meerly pointing out that some gear will never be reviewed here for cost reason's alone & that all gear will not be reviewed here due to target marketing.


"I trust reviewers that use measurements. Numbers don't lie."

how about reviewer's who use several different model #'s to describe the same peice of gear & also give several different spec's for the same peice of gear,or who write a review that is barely coherent but they proclaim the gear being reviewed to be terrible,or how about review's with negative statement's based upon assumption's with comment's then being backed up by assumption's ahead of easily checked fact's.

as i pointed out i was not implying that any reviewer was trying to do anything dishonest with said review but i was pointing out how manufacturer's who are not paid advertiser's can easily get a bad review based on assumption's or not even get a review in the first place,any reviewer is less likely to be able to spend any amount of time with gear that has no affect on their advertising dollar's & is more likely to either rush through the review process increasing the chance's for a suspect review or just plain not have time to review everything.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

What does that say about polk? They have real wood, they must be good right? Maybe its because they don't want something found out about their speakers cause Audioholics takes them apart?

SheepStar

I've taken apart the RTi4, and I highly doubt any bookshelf reviewed here is made better than this.

 

[louhamilton]

I never base my decisions on a single review. I usually try to find a few reviews, see what similarities they had and what differences they had. I then look into why they may have had different results. What other gear was involved? Did they contact the vendor to see if they was a fix/update for the found issue?

I am a proud owner of Polk speakers. Why am I proud? Well, for one, I worked hard for the money used to buy them. Secondly, I spent over 6 months researching the purchase. I listened and re-listened to different speakers. I found music and movie scenes that I was familiar with, either because I had listened or watched them a lot, or because others suggested that they were good demos (which I only used after I knew them well enough on my current system to feel comfortable judging them).

Maybe I am the odd person for doing this. Maybe because I am more mature and cautious on how I spend my money. I looked at all types of speakers -- B&W, Polk, Klipsch, Paradigm, Martin Logan and Boston -- but in the end chose the ones that sounded best the type of music and movies that I listen to. Now, were there some that were better under certain circumstances? Yes, but I had to look at the majority of my listening and make the decision based on that. The Polks were perfect in the end for ME.

I hate people who bash products as well as those who feel that the products that they own are "holier then thou." I'm not saying that it is always seen here. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not, but there are other forums out there who have this type of attitude consistently and I feel it takes away from an honest review, whether professionally or amateurly.

BTW, this is only one of many sites that I visit and do not base anything solely on any one site.

Just my 2 cents.

-Lou

 

[gene]

I call on Clint or Gene, once and for all, to come clean and tell us what is so bad about Polk Audio? Please don't say you can't single out one manufacturer from another because you do. Constantly. This is all about the old mighty advertising dollar, and if it's not, prove it.

Yes we are brainwashing people, but only the weak minds that read the site Hopefully your mind can hold up and not be seduced by our brainwashing tactics.

Audioholics does not review products they don't get some kind of kickback from. I would bet anything on that. Wake up man.

Ah thanks for letting us know how we run our business. You seem really knowledgeable about how this home theater publication operates. NOT.

We don’t get kickbacks on any of our reviews, despite what you believe. We have had many manufacturers want to offer kickbacks for every sale a review generates but we refused that as I feel it is a conflict of interest to our reviewers and our readers.

As others have said here, we don’t accept advertising from companies who we don’t feel offer good products and/or services. We have declined many advertisers in the past including the big M, and have also fired advertisers who gave our readers bad service. Not bad for a FREE publication huh?

SO WHY ARE POLKS NOT REVIEWED ON AUDIOHOICS WHEN THEY ARE THE TOP SELLING SPEAKER IN NORTH AMERICA!!!!!!!!!

It’s a conspiracy. We are attempting to have Bose overtake their #1 position We have given Polk coverage in every major trade show we attended for the last two years. Perhaps check out our CEDIA, EHX and CES coverage rather than looking for conspiracies and you will see this. Each time we approached Polk to line up reviews, they didn’t seem all too enthusiastic. They are one of the few companies that still favor print magazines and/or publications such as Consumer Reports, CNET, etc who do press release style reviews. Hopefully in the future they will reconsider as we would enjoy reviewing their products. I personally feel they make some of the better mass market products you can buy at chain stores today.

 

[highfihoney]

please read

before anybody freak's out & start's thinking im running down this site or implying any act of wrong doing by a reviewer please take the time to carefully read all my statement's to this point.

my point's were this,dont believe everything you read in a review that you dont verify your self,at CES reviewer's are insanely busy with thousand's of peice's of gear to audition & that some gear being reviewed is meerly SQUEEZED into the reviewer's schedule as time allow's,paid advertiser's come first & all fact's will be double checked before a negative review is given,a review that was squeezed in & for a manufacturer that dont advertise or use the reviewr's are more likely to have the review submitted without double checking the fact's.

my comment's about gear give away's are a fact,i stated that i do not know this to be the case here in my first post,the whole statement was to show people how many reviewer's make a living by re selling high end gear,it's a fact that some of the biggest name reviewer's in the industry keep the gear they review but once again i never implied that to any reviewer here & i qualified that by saying that may not be the case here.

my statement's about the review in question were 100% fact based & not meant to slander or take away from the integrety of the reviewer,my statement was to point out that no review from any reviewer is without reproach for many reason's & i listed the reason's accordingly,advertising dollar's,target marketing,time constraint's,poorly written with un checked fact's & human error.

 

[markw]

Well, I gues s we're both odd then.

Well, for one, I worked hard for the money used to buy them. Secondly, I spent over 6 months researching the purchase. I listened and re-listened to different speakers. I found music and movie scenes that I was familiar with, either because I had listened or watched them a lot, or because others suggested that they were good demos (which I only used after I knew them well enough on my current system to feel comfortable judging them).

Maybe I am the odd person for doing this. Maybe because I am more mature and cautious on how I spend my money. I looked at all types of speakers -- B&W, Polk, Klipsch, Paradigm, Martin Logan and Boston -- but in the end chose the ones that sounded best the type of music and movies that I listen to. Now, were there some that were better under certain circumstances? Yes, but I had to look at the majority of my listening and make the decision based on that. The Polks were perfect in the end for ME. -Lou

Aside from the ML reference* this pretty much sums up what I went through when I purchased my HT system and wound up with Athenas. Polks (andthe others) were good but simply not suited to my personal tastes, and personal taste is what this is all about.

*but I did audition PSB and Paradigm as well.

And, this site should not have to purchase equipment to test. If the manufacturers want their product honestly reviewed and the potential publicity genertated from that, then they should simply provide, on loan, a test sample. To hold it againstthis site for the nmanufacturer to not supply a product fpr testing is wrong.