"A Legend is Coming" [sic]

[mhardy6647]

So -- I cut my teeth in "modern" (relatively speaking) hifi with the wares of Matthew Polk & Company in the second half of the 1970s. As such, and in that context, I am -- ahem -- something of a Polk fanboy (and a proud member of their forum, despite the fact that I've had little interest in most of their products since the early 1980s).

This being said, there's a fair amount of excitement about a new line of loudspeakers coming from Polk (now a brand of DEI Holdings Sound United). The announcement of their new "Legend" series is nigh.



There has been some exposure of the new "Legend Series" ex-US, see, e.g.

New Polk Audio "Legend" Speaker Series shown at 2019 Hong Kong High End Audio Video Show

In case you have not seen these..... I don't have any details on them.

forum.polkaudio.com

"We" aren't sure if the models shown in HK are the entire "Legend series" -- lock, stock, and barrel, or if there's a top of the heap model still to be introduced.
We will find out soon. The unveiling is next week, although the actual time for the "live stream" is a bit... ambiguous.


(wonder if it is really "3:30 pm EST" on September 6, or is it "3:30 pm EDT", eh? 🧐

One is curious as to whether this announcement/unveiling is of interest to anyone else.

 

[S0und Dragon]

I’m just happy to see them producing something.....now if it sounds good, all the better!

 

[Audionut]

Neat, Polk was the first better than Bose product I’d heard (I thought Bose was amazing once upon a time). Had Polk as in ceiling surround speakers for years, very well built product!

 

[StevenZ]

I had the Lsim707 for a while. Fantastic speakers that I wish would have gotten more press.

 

[prime minister]

Very interesting to me. I've always had a soft spot in my heart, or maybe my head, for Polk. One of my dreams speakers is still a pair of SDS-SRS, but I've yet to have the space for them.

 

[TimF]

Back in the day I wanted the Monitor 10’s, but I could only afford the 7’s. Sigh, good times they were back then!

 

[mhardy6647]

Marky has a flashbulb memory of hearing The David Grisman Quintet on Polk 10s in 1976 at Soundscape in Baltimore. Soundscape was Polk's first dealer ( being located in the neighborhood of Roland Park, and just a couple of miles from Matthew's alma mater in the neighborhood of Homewood).

My other flashbulb speaker memories:
Quad ESL-57
Altec Duplex 604C

these three loudspeaker brands/models made the biggest incremental (or, if you prefer, differential) impression on me of all of the loudspeakers I've heard (nigh-on six decades' worth). 😎

Back in the day I wanted the Monitor 10’s, but I could only afford the 7’s. Sigh, good times they were back then!

Me, too. Forty-plus years in, though, I am convinced* that, overall, the 7s are the better of the two.
(and I still have 'em)

Polkmonitor7Asn4900 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

(full disclosure -- somewhere along the line, in the ensuing four decades, I did pick up an early pair of "Monitor Series Model 10" speakers, too -- figured I should have a pair, you know, for completeness)
____________
* or maybe "I have rationalized"

 

[TimF]

The Polk line at the time, somewhere around 1978/9 was pretty much a revelation for my ears, after being brought up mainly with the Pioneer or Technics type of Japanese speaker sound. The Polks were just another league in my opinion, and relatively affordable to boot.

My 7’s were paired with an Onkyo Integrated and tuner from the day, which even then, Onkyo wasn’t the most well known of brands. Was a nice start on this insane road taken! Fun stuff though!

 

[airdronian]

I had a pair of Monitor 10's for a few years. Some vendor had a pop-up sale at a Rec Centre and for whatever reason I came home with them. Complete impulse buy, must have been the "new audio gear" scent in the air.

 

[mhardy6647]

If you happen to be a closeted* Polk fanboy** I -- ahem -- have been leveraging (as they say) the phenomenal resources at THE HISTORY OF RADIO documented in thousands of free PDF books and magazines to curate a collection of vintage Polk Audio print advertisements

It's been kind of a slow moving project so far, but, if you're curious, you can see the fruits of my labo(u)r at:

A project for 2018: Compendium of Polk Audio ads, etc.

Lucky for you all that I am:

forum.polkaudio.com

The earliest massmarket media (so to speak) print ad I've found to date was in Audio from April, 1974.

A Legend is Coming! - Page 3

The earliest Polk Audio "mass market" advertisement I have found to date -- from the April 1974 edition of the late and much lamented Audio magazine.

forum.polkaudio.com

_________________
* Or if you've already come out -- not that there's anything wrong with that!
** or fangirl or fanperson or fanbeing; not trying to be stereotyping, here, even if this is as stereo type of forum. 🤭

 

[mhardy6647]

The Polk line at the time, somewhere around 1978/9 was pretty much a revelation for my ears, after being brought up mainly with the Pioneer or Technics type of Japanese speaker sound. The Polks were just another league in my opinion, and relatively affordable to boot.

My 7’s were paired with an Onkyo Integrated and tuner from the day, which even then, Onkyo wasn’t the most well known of brands. Was a nice start on this insane road taken! Fun stuff though!

I came very close to pairing my Monitor Series Model 7As with an Onkyo A-5 but I liked the local Yamaha dealer (much) better than the local Onkyo dealer. Interestingly, the "local Yamaha" dealer is still around; the "local Onkyo" dealer is long, long gone.

Onkyop5 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

 

[mhardy6647]

there was/is early/progressive revelation of these -- word on the street's apparently correct. The flagship re-introduces Polk's "SDA" thingy.

Polk Introduces Legend Series & L800 Stereo...

At RMAF 2019 Polk Audio introduced its Legend Series including the flagship L800 featuring Stereo Dimensional Array technology. Meet the new Legend, the L800. Indeed, meet the whole family! At Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2019, Polk takes the wraps off its new Legend Series lineup including the...

www.avsforum.com

 

[mhardy6647]

Irony...


(as seen at the Polk forums...)