Polk Audio Command Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer | Alexa Voice Control (New Update - Multi-Room Music Built-In) - Black

Polk, a known maker of quality audio equipment, has created a kit for the home that is both simple and fully featured. Most of us want high-quality sound without having to also buy multiple cables and spend lots of time setting up a complex system. Amazon’s Alexa has been added to the Polk Audio Command Sound Bar. The small limitations it has now, should be fixed by Amazon in future software updates. One feature I noticed which was not ready was sound bar to Echo messaging. I enjoyed that my experience with movies, TV series and Bluetooth audio devices have all been impressively upgraded with a sound bar and subwoofer. 260W of total output power pumps out high-quality sound, which is very important to me. Placing it below the TV on a table or mounting it on a wall gives this sound bar versatility that other more complicated home audio solutions do not have. Its 2” design is enough to leave a small gap between where my TV is in my living room. A pair of HDMI ports on the back, a slot for an Amazon Fire TV unit, a USB port, and an HDMI out for the TV, all help to keep down on cable clutter. Polk placed the tweeters in the sound bar at either end with the more powerful center channel drivers in the middle, where they belong. Most audio from movies and TV shows are center channel heavy. This single sound bar produces an impressive home theater like experience. I am happy with both the audio and Alexa voice assistant experiences. Getting them to work correctly on the first try was impressive. Polk understands how we need to keep things simple.

This really is the speaker, you have always wished Alexa was... Big bass, crisp highs, and room filling sound, all voice controlled. The Subwoofer really cranks during the action scenes. The built in Alexa works just like a stand alone echo, and controls all the Wemo light switches and the ceiling fan in my room. It is a great marriage of a high quality sound bar and Alexa functionality. Insert your Amazon Fire stick into the dedicated slot on the rear of the command bar, and now Alexa will search your favorite Netflix or Prime video with just your voice. You can also tell Alexa to increase or lower the volume, bass, etc. Right out of the box, with no programming, I was able to control the command bar volume with my Verizon Fios remote. Highly recommended.

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. Years ago, before we lived in our current house, we had a sound system in the living room. It was nice, having a booming speaker presenting crystal clear audio. And then we moved, and like all things when you move, parts go missing. A few months later our daughter was born, and it just didn’t seem like we had time to find all the wiring for a complicated surround sound system. We were just listening to TV audio again. Now don’t get me wrong, most TVs these days have decent speakers. But they just don’t compare to the quality of a dedicated speaker. Five years passed before we finally got another dedicated speaker system for a TV in our house. The Polk Command Bar’s quality as a speaker is worth its price alone. Yet, it does more than just act as a speaker for your television. The Command Bar has Amazon Alexa built in. We have set up our Command Bar in our bedroom, allowing us to control the volume through Alexa. It also allows us to do other things like turning off WiFi enabled lights downstairs without the need to make an extra trip at night. These cards come with the Polk out of the box, and provide a good primer on how to use the speaker. The Polk Command Bar features a 220W speaker along with a subwoofer that gives a nice bass sound. It also has Bluetooth enabled, allowing us to play our music through our phones if we want. If you happen to have a FireTV you can do even more by using voice commands to watch your favorite programs. (Like the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! Just a suggestion.) It also features a far-field microphone. What is a far-field microphone? Well, to put it simply, it is a microphone that has been designed to pick-up noises from a distance greater than what a typical microphone could accomplish. Because of this, you don’t need to shout across the room! The on-board Alexa will activate just by speaking in a normal voice. The set-up was simple, using HDMI and a supplied optical cable to connect to the television. The speaker has a low-profile form factor which is perfect because it doesn’t block our screen at all. It also looks sleek, fitting in nicely in our bedroom.

I love the sound and details but the most I like is the remote control, I can choose a special sound to movies, sports and music and if you are watching or listening music at night, press a button and the sounds are getting smooth. The only thing I fighting every single day is with the Fire TV Stick in the back of center speaker, sometimes I can watch 6 hours of tv thru the apps in the stick attached and sometimes in 20 minutes, show overheat (the Fire Stick, not the speaker) and sometimes reboot all the time.

This soundbar has great highs and mids with smooth lows oozing out of the subwoofer, as well as a nice thump of the bass drum. The Bluetooth connectivity is easy to switch between devices and it has an awesome remote with volume, bass, and voice controls. I love voice adjustment the most, it surprised me on how much control I can get over the sound.

Setup for the Polk Command Bar was simple and done in less than 15 minutes, by far, one of the easiest setups I've ever dealt with. The soundbar and subwoofer offer 260 watts of power and provide awesome clarity and bass! We felt like we were at the football game while watching our favorite team play. It even freaked my cat out as she tried to figure out where all the voices were coming from. We love the hands-free Alexa feature and refer to our Spotify playlist often. We are still learning the commands and questions we can give/ask but we're getting the hang of it! So far, we have enjoyed it for movies, music, sports, and asking about our weather. We'll be adding our Fire TV to it soon!! It also comes with a remote that offers simple functions like turning the Alexa mic off or increasing/decreasing the voice or bass sounds. So far it's a big hit and I can't wait until we have friends over to show them. Our family highly recommends it!

This Command Bar is easy enough for everyone in the family to interface with. The other features of the Polk Soundbar are impressive: - 260W total output power provides quality sound for our favorite movies, shows, games and music. - The four-speaker enclosure features two 1-1/4″ x 3-1/4″ mid/woofers and two 1″ tweeter drivers. - Music streaming is available through a compatible Bluetooth-enabled device. - The design is slim and streamlined. The bar sits only 2” tall so it won’t block your TV screen. - Along with the 2 HDMI inputs, there is a Toslink and a built-in USB port. The HDMI ports are designed and spaced to fit Fire TV and other wide HDMI streaming devices. The USB port also powers original and 4K versions of Fire TV. Outputs are also HDMI. - A remote is included for easy operation from a distance.

I first got this about a year ago, it was decent sound for the price but not the quality of the other high end sound bar I have. The Alexa connected to multi room was a nice feature for music through the house. Then the Arc connection stopped working and I have to use optical. Finally there were updates sent through Alexa that wouldn’t ever end or complete. It made the sound bar almost always stuck in update mode and useless if not annoying. To make matters worse there is no follow up support. Polk cannot help you alone there is a special line. You can never get through, a call back or email. To summarize it’s enticing junk.