![]() Like other Polk's before it, the React is able to tap out a tune very convincingly. Maybe it could be worth the extra $100 for movie watching, but not if you want to listen to music. With this and other material I found that the Polk offered the best compromise of sounding full for a reasonable sum, but the JBL was the better home cinema speaker. There was also plenty of bottom end for the shells that exploded around our friends as they approached the German line. With the JBL's Smart Mode turned on, dialogue was still clear but bullets whizzed around the room in a way that they didn't with the other two bars. It simply felt a little underpowered for this scene, even with the oft-reliable DTS Virtual:X processing employed.īut it was the JBL Bar 5.0 which sounded the most majestic in this test. In comparison, the Vizio wasn't as clear and didn't have as much bass. The Polk was able to capture the movie's epic sweep, the soundtrack swelled and bullets zinged, but I did miss some of the oomph and immersiveness a larger system could bring. Bullets fly as our hero strides confidently through the mud before bracing herself with the help of her shield for a machine gun assault. I started my testing with one of the most memorable sequences from a superhero movie - up there with Superman flying around the world backwards - which is Wonder Woman going "over the top" of the World War I trenches (1:14:00). Sadly, I did not have the Sonos Beam on hand for direct comparison, but I did have two subwoofer-less soundbars, the Vizio M21D-H8 ($150) and the JBL Bar 5.0 Multi Beam ($350), that bookend the Polk in price. ![]() The array of quickly-changeable sound modes means that you can ask Alexa on the fly if you want to boost intelligibility (voice volume) or bathe in pseudo-surround sound (movie mode). A night on the couchĪs with the excellent series of TV speakers before it, the Polk React is equally at home with movies as it is with playing music. Hopefully the company can fix this for its May release, but if you're stuck you need to press the sync button on the soundbar for 4 seconds, then the synching device's for 4 seconds, and then touch the soundbar's button quickly again. In a related fashion, the only thing that irked me during setup was that neither the soundbar nor the subwoofer manual tell you how to sync the peripherals. If you don't want to use the remote you can also use your voice for all of the controls, including the ability to alter the sub and rear volumes. At the time of publication the React is available for $200, and if you want to improve the sound you can add an optional sub ($180) and/or the SR2 surrounds ($180), providing a nice upgrade path for the future. ![]() And the React is a better value than the $400 Sonos Beam, another Alexa-powered soundbar, although it lacks Sonos' multiroom chops. Then again, you might prefer an all-in-one solution, in particular if you don't already have an Alexa speaker in your living area. ![]() That can be annoying, especially when you have to interrupt your The Nevers session to ask a related question. Ask Alexa a question on a hybrid device like the React and the audio grinds to a halt while the assistant does your bidding. Honestly I prefer keeping my assistant in a separate, dedicated speaker. The result is a well-rounded package for your money.īut back to that essential question. The React sounds very good and is equally comfortable with movies and music, and its integration with Alexa is even slicker than before. The React differs from the Command because it doesn't include the wireless subwoofer - it's just a single bar. The new React follows up Polk's original almost-but-not-officially-an-Echo soundbar, the Polk Command Bar.
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