Polk Audio React Review

Polk Audio React is a surround sound system from Polk Audio. I picked one up for a couple of hundred bucks and thought it was a pretty cool system.

To bring Amazon Alexa into the TV room, the Polk React soundbar is presumably the most economical soundbar you’ll find with Alexa worked in. Amazon’s advanced right hand is accessible on Sonos Beam and Sonos Arc, as well as some Yamaha soundbars, however those all cost above and beyond $300.

The React has different things making it work, as well, including a thin plan and noteworthy bass reaction even without a subwoofer. However, you’ll have to make penances in return at a lower cost, as the React can’t match those further developed soundbars on sound quality or in general elements. If you figure you should take the risk, continue to peruse our Polk React audit.

Specs

• Speakers: 2 x mid-range drivers, 2 x tweeters
• Ports: Optical in, USB in, HDMI ARC
• Wi-Fi: Yes
• Size: 2.2 x 34 x 4.8 inches
• Weight: 6.4 pounds

Price and accessibility

• Decreased from $249 to $199
• Selection of retailers accessible

The Polk React has a rundown cost of $249, however as of this composing is selling for $199 from Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H. You can add a remote subwoofer for $179 and remote encompass speakers for $179 too.

Design

• Smaller aspects
• HDMI ARC support
• Fundamentally utilizes voice controls, however the remote is useful

The React is a thin soundbar that seems to be an Amazon Echo Dot dropped into it. It’s additionally fundamentally a refreshed rendition of Polk’s Command Bar, however smaller and without the included remote subwoofer.

At 34 x 4.8 x 2.2 inches, it’s more modest than numerous soundbars and ought to slide underneath most TV stands. Inside the soundbar, Polk put two midrange drivers, two tweeters, and two inactive radiators.

On the front, there’s a light bar that shows you the volume level and lights up when you draw in Alexa. Then, there’s a little LED status light beneath the light bar that changes tone to demonstrate the sound information and different capacities.

The top has Echo-like controls, including buttons to actuate Alexa or quiet the amplifiers. Principally, however, you’ll be blissful utilizing Alexa voice orders to change the sound. There are four mouthpieces spotted around the React, which helps make Alexa receptive to your voice.

On the back, you’ll find an HDMI port with a sound return station (ARC) for simple association with your TV, or you can utilize an optical computerized sound link. The React likewise incorporates a USB port and a button for matching with Polk’s remote subwoofer and remote encompasses, which are sold independently.

The remote has enormous, very much divided buttons. You can actuate Alexa, switch between TV sound and Bluetooth, change the volume, change the bass and voice levels and pick a sound mode. Assuming that you add the remote encompasses, you can likewise utilize the remote to change the equilibrium and volume of those.

Setup

• The quick and simple beginning cycle
• Discretionary yet advantageous EQ changes are accessible by means of Alexa

Respond is easy to set up and utilize. After you interface it to your TV with an HDMI link, the establishment is finished. Then send off the Alexa application to get it on your organization and work with Alexa. The React has a QR code on the back to make that cycle simple.

You can change the bass and voice levels with the remote. I didn’t have to siphon up the bass, yet I needed exchange at a more significant level. You can likewise utilize the remote or your voice to switch among three sound modes: Music, Sport, and Movie. I viewed the Movie mode as the most energetic, in any event, while paying attention to music.

If you have any desire to additional change the sound, you can go into the Alexa application and track down a three-band adjuster. I needed more high pitch and midrange in the sound, so I knock those up. Be that as it may, the impact was negligible on the general sound.

Sound Performance

• Shockingly strong bass
• Little soundstage, however really great for music

The React sounds great by and large, yet the flourishing bass is the unforeseen pleasure — particularly since there’s no subwoofer and given its thin profile. Discourse is straightforward too. But since the React needs virtual to encompass sound or Dolby Atmos support, it makes a much smaller sound field than numerous soundbars accessible today.

Whenever Thor got the lightning in Avengers: Infinity War, the bass shook my TV stand and made the impact material, while the rude talk between Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in Hacks was clear (and cutting).

During the “96,000” scene of In the Heights, the vocals were rich and the bass aided drive the melody. Be that as it may, this scene additionally exhibited how the absence of encompass sound, even virtual, made the experience less captivating than it very well maybe.

Rather than occupying the room, the sound was bound to the space directly before me. Furthermore, when Thor tossed Stormbreaker in Infinity War, the React couldn’t cause it to feel like the hatchet moved around me, as numerous soundbars with virtual encompass sound will.

The React is as yet a strong music machine — while paying attention to two-channel music I didn’t miss having a wide soundstage so much. The theme of Lorde’s “Sun-based Power” sounded large and full, while the played guitar on Billie Eilish’s “Your Power” was reasonably warm.

The layers of sound on St. Vincent’s “Pay Your Way in Pain” got a digit compacted emerging from the 2.0 framework, yet the React’s bass again radiated on the crazy synths.

The React can likewise get bounty noisy, in spite of its somewhat little size. It arrived at around 95 decibels at full volume, however, the sound became cruel and contorted at that level.

Recognizable and solid savvy help

However, just fundamental playback control, Alexa’s savvy usefulness is reliable whether you’re utilizing a soundbar or shrewd speaker, so React’s execution of the advanced aide fills in as you’d anticipate. Not at all like the Command Bar, which was one of the first soundbars to accompany Alexa, the React rushed to answer my orders. It played music, turned on a Wemo switch, and let me know the weather conditions estimate quickly upon my prompts.

Alexa is fairly restricted with regards to controlling the React itself, be that as it may. I could utilize my voice to change the volume, information, and sound mode, yet I was unable to turn the TV on or off.

Final Thoughts

By joining reasonableness with worked in Alexa usefulness, the Polk React figures out how to stand apart among also evaluated soundbars. The somewhat reduced plan and significant bass further add to its allure.

Yet, as sound in motion pictures and TV shows progressively exploit Dolby Atmos and another vivid sound tech, the React’s soundstage feels disappointingly limited. You can add remote encompass speakers and a remote subwoofer, however, that brings the value near more than $500 — and you can get a superior across-the-board soundbar for that, similar to the $399 Sonos Beam.

On the off chance that you needn’t bother with Alexa in your soundbar and need to hold it under $200, the TCL Alto 6 Plus makes a lot greater sound than the React and just expenses about $100. In the event that you can bear to spend more, the JBL Multibeam 5.0 brings Atmos support and noteworthy virtual encompass sound for $350 — however once more, without Alexa.

Yet, on the off chance that what you need is a reasonable Alexa soundbar with a decent generally speaking sound that won’t occupy an excessive amount of space, the Polk React will be a decent decision for you. Simply don’t sit excessively far to the sides.

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