Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000 Home Entertainment System (Black) Review

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Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000 Home Entertainment System (Black) ReviewOriginally I bought a Boston Acoustics Soundbar (see explanation below for returning it) but now I have the Polk Soundbar and love it. I found one major problem with setup. I am a wi fi household and the wireless subwoofer had a conflict with my network wi fi. I am not terribly knowledgeable about routers but after going to Cnet forums got the answer which I would like to share with you. My problem was I have a Roku box and I was unable to stream. It would begin and then stop. If I turned off the soundbar it worked perfectly. I put the sub woofer in various places based on Polk's instructions, trying to shield it from the wi fi signal but nothing worked. The answer turned out to be very simple. (I had even gone so far as to buy a new router which also didn't work for reasons which will become obvious if you continue reading.) All I had to do was bring up my router's configuration screen and change the channel setting. The Soundbar was set for channel one as was my wi fi. I first tried channel five and it almost worked but after a few minutes, it stalled again so I then changed to channel 11 the farthest and last choice and bingo, it worked great and continues to work great.
I live in a 1400 sq ft house and the living room is about 12' x 20'. This unit is actually a little too much for the size of the room but when I made the necessary changes in my tv sound setup and the Dish remote setup, it made a big difference. Sometimes the sound was shrill so I changed the treble and bass settings on my tv and they do work for the soundbar even when you are not using the tv sound which I found I don't really need. For music this soundbar is astounding. For speech it is excellent. I do have a hearing problem and since Netflix has no subtitles yet, I do need some help. My tv is an LG 55" LED and the sound is ok but this soundbar has solved our problems when watching a streaming Netflix movie. I also stream Leo LaPorte which is TWIT.tv and for him I don't need the soundbar because the sound is so clear but I still use it. The other night we watched a very old, 61 years, movie called Impact using the Polk soundbar and could hear every word clearly!!
Programming my Dish TV remote was simple so I only use the Polk remote when I want to change the sub woofer if it is just too much bass.
All in all, I love this unit. I have it standing on the cabinet in front of my tv with the sub woofer on the floor beside it. You can get even better bass if you put the sw in a corner of the room. I think it would be great even for a very large room since I sometimes have to turn it way down for some programs. For music, again, fantastic. Of course, you will be forced to turn it down for commercials, just can't solve that issue.
When I was listening to the Boston A and the Polk bars, I really thought that the Boston A was better because I was unable to adjust the sub woofer on the Polk. The salesman told me it had no controls on it, well, he was wrong, I can control it so you can set it any way you choose. After having the Polk for a month I feel it is ALMOST as good as the Boston A and since the Boston A only has audio out RCA jacks I couldn't buy it anyway.
This brings me to another very important point when shopping for any soundbar which is to be sure what your tv accomodates. (I suggest you download your TV manual and take the pages you need with you, showing what audio out jacks you have.) My tv, the LG, does NOT accomodate RCA jacks for audio out, only optical out. Remember, I had originally bought a Boston Acoustics soundbar and had to return it. Because I had to go back three times Best Buy agreed to sell me the Polk for $301, the same price I paid for the Boston Acoustics bar. I also could not get the enclosed optical cord to work but fortunately had bought one years ago which works great. The enclosed one is very thin and the one I had is much thicker, don't know if that was the reason. Optical cables are very difficult to insert so don't lose hope, eventually you will be successful.
Since many people lambast BB, I want to say that when I returned the first Boston unit, (it had obviously been returned by someone and I thought it was defective) they apologized and said I should have been charged the open box price ($269) so brought out another open box, which was sealed and had a big label saying Open Box on it. He opened it up and set it up and thinking he had confirmed that I had a headphone jack I could use, I bought it. Well, as luck would have it, no headphone jack on my LG and no optical on the Boston unit, why I cannot figure out. He went to a lot of trouble for so low a priced unit and I appreciated his effort. When I returned it again, he actually tried to avoid me, knowing that I would take up a lot of his time. As I understand it, BB sales people get bonuses at the end of the month based on sales so even though they don't get commissions as many other electronics stores, if still in existence, pay, they do make money on their sales. The higher their number, the more they get. But he did come over, finally, when I tracked him down and once again, brought out the soundbar and set it up to check. So kudos to Best Buy, San Rafael, this particular sales guy and to Polk.
Eileen
Novato, CA
Polk Audio Surroundbar IHT 3000 Home Entertainment System (Black) Overview
There's an easy way to get great, immersive surround sound pumping from your new flat panel, widescreen HDTV--Polk Audio's SurroundBar Series speakers, which provide single-speaker surround sound from one slim speaker bar. The sleek, lightweight SurroundBar 3000 Instant Home Theater helps bring your entire home theater viewing experience to life without any hassle. It's a complete system comprised of a single self-powered speaker, a wireless subwoofer, an incredibly simple remote control, plus the SurroundBar 3000 IHT has the technology so you can program your existing remote.
Polk Audio Surroundbar 3000 Instant Home Theater.

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MA Audio MA5817 800 Watt Home 5.1 Powered Sub & Multi Speaker System Review

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MA Audio MA5817 800 Watt Home 5.1 Powered Sub & Multi Speaker System ReviewThe MA audio system is good for the price its listed for. I was skeptical at first about this system. I only use the Aux out put. Haven't tried the 5.1 surround sound. Works great. I use it for music. The bass is very nice, it can be turn up pretty loud with out distortion and the speakers are great. The things that aren't as great are the wiring that is sent with the system and the remote. But the wiring can be purchased at Wal-mart for a cheap price so not that big of a deal. The remote on the other hand only works at certain angles and doesn't reach that far. But other then that.. If you have a small budget and was huge sound.. This item is worth [...]..MA Audio MA5817 800 Watt Home 5.1 Powered Sub & Multi Speaker System Overview

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Onkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black) Review

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Onkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black) ReviewOnkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black)
Ownership - Day 10
I upgraded from an Onkyo TX-SR606 which I owned for about 3 years. I loved my 606 so I figured why not stick with what I know/like (Onkyo). I know about all of the problems people had with the 808 and Onkyo has stood by their product and honoring repairs even though a product may be out of warranty.
I have now had an opportunity to check out all of the bells and whistles of this receiver.
Setup - 5/5, very easy if you have had any experience in the past with any receiver (highly suggest banana plugs and 14 or 12 gauge speaker wire). The included calibration microphone really makes things easy - plug in the mic and the receiver will automatically switch to the onscreen GUI for speaker setup and calibration. Once the setup detects which speakers you have hooked up you can then setup additional "spots" in your viewing area. (can take as little as 10-15 minutes). Network setup is very simple if you are using a direct connection to the ethernet (DHCP will assign an IP address for you-also suggest assigning a static IP for avoid conflicts).
Sound - 5/5, currently using a 5.1 setup with Polk Monitor speakers I am very happy with the results. While the 606 was no pushover I feel the newer Audyssey MultEQ found in the 809 made things sound more "clear" (tough to describe)- Prior to purchasing I had started watching Lord of the Rings trilogy on bluray and saw the first 2 films and half of the 3rd on the 606 - ended up finishing the 3rd film on the 809 - easily heard the difference in sound quality.
Video - 5/5*, I put the * in because I had very little use with the upscaling features as all of my sources were 1080p (not including HD cable which is 1080i and I switched the input to "through"). I did use it for my Wii which is only 480p and was impressed with the quality (still no where near HD but saw an obvious improvement on a 52" TV). I am curious to know how the 4K upscaling feature would work (since there are no retail TVs on the market that can accept a resolution that high) but for now the Vida processor should be good enough to upscale and source that is not 1080p already.
Features - 4.5/5, LOVE! the network features. Using Pandora is just as easy as using it on my phone or computer (maybe not the typing part with the remote) but the interface is very clean and easy to use. The most recent firmware update added Spotify but I have yet to check it out. The DLNA feature was key to me as it can connect directly to my NAS and play all of my MP3s from there, no need to stream from the NAS to my PS3 first. I also purchased a 3rd party Ipad app to use as a remote and LOVE it! Big feature for me was the ability to rename all my sources (which I could not do on my 606). I currently have a PS3(hdmi), HD STB(hdmi), Xbox 360(hdmi), Wii(component), Sony bluray player(hdmi), and a 2nd Xbox 360(component/optical) so renaming was key for me (mostly for my wife).
Overall - SUPER happy with my purchase and would recommend this to anyone in the market for an upgrade (the 609 and 709 from Onkyo are also great with a few less features then the 809 that everyone may not need). At the time the 809 was the best price so I pulled the trigger. I took off 1 star (I wish I could have made it a 1/2 star) because of Onkyo support. I had an issue with the Internet functions where I could not connect to Pandora and after waiting 10 minutes to speak to someone the only option was to do a factory reset (I had to rename all sources again as well as do the Audyssey speaker calibration again). I would have been ok with this option if they would have told me what caused it, instead I got a very unclear "possibility" to what caused it. Since then I have had no issues with connecting but the support is lacking.
EDIT - 8/24/11 now past the 30 days of use.
I am now upping my review to 5 stars after the most recent firmware update. They have added two more internet radio options (I believe one of them requires a paid subscription). I am also happy to report the locking up issue I had with Pandora seems to be resolved as I have used it daily since the update with no issues. Onkyo also added a remote control app for the Android OS (I have a Droid X) initially the remote app was only for the iphone/ipad/ipod. The controls are limited but for a free app its nice to have as an option. Since purchasing this receiver Onkyo has released 3 firmware updates and that shows support for their products and customers. While I was not thrilled with the customer service I encountered I think taking off a whole star for 1 persons actions should not drop the product to 4 stars.Onkyo TX-NR809 THX Certified 7.2-Channel Network A/V Receiver (Black) OverviewWith its advanced processing and fabulous array of connections, the TX-NR809 is ready to lift the roof off. Eight HDMI inputs handle all your high-def content, from master-quality audio to up scaled 4K video. Home network capability lets you bring streaming internet radio and PC audio to your living room. And the drop-down front panel conceals a plethora of one-touch audio controls and A/V inputs. Video -whether standard or high definition- gets the royal treatment from a high-quality HQV Vida processor and independent ISF calibration for each source. Advanced audio options include bi-amping, 7.2 multichannel pre-outs, and distributed multi-zone audio. As you'd expect from a receiver near the top of Onkyo's mid-range line-up, construction is first-rate. A massive transformer, symmetrical L/R channels, separate power and pre-amp blocks, and a highly rigid chassis provide the bedrock for a superlative audio performance. Built with the serious home theater fan in mind, the TX-NR809 offers a class-leading mix of power, features, and performance.

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Snap-N-Store CD Storage Box, 13.25 x 5.125 x 5.125 Inches, Black (SNS01521) Review

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Snap-N-Store CD Storage Box, 13.25 x 5.125 x 5.125 Inches, Black (SNS01521) ReviewFor maximum archival life of CDs, it is a good idea to keep them both in a jewel case, and an outer container as well. After doing a fairly extensive web search, I discovered that the selection of boxes to hold CDs, while contained within a jewel case, is actually rather limited. And many of these cases are in the $30-$60 range, and actually hold fewer CDs than these cases do.
On the downside, these cases are rather plain appearing and business-like. But I didn't want flaming pink, anyway. Also, their style does not lend them to being portable. For files that will be used daily, or something you want to carry around with you, it may be a good idea to get something more durable with a carrying handle, made of metal or heavy plastic.
These boxes are made out of coated cardboard, a fact that is clearly stated in the description. But they are quite sturdy, and if used only occasionally, should last for many years. But these cases could be damaged, if they were accidentally soaked with water, or kept in an extremely damp environment.
For archival storage with occasional access, this is the best deal I could find, especially considering the almost-nominal price. If you have a lot of CDs, that will fill several-to-many containers, and will only access them occasionally; these boxes are a good choice. I will probably buy some more, as I continue to generate CDs that will need to be stored.
Snap-N-Store CD Storage Box, 13.25 x 5.125 x 5.125 Inches, Black (SNS01521) Overview

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