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13 out of 14 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"the one to own!"
Pros: rich, room filling sound, does everything but slice and dice
Cons: tricky remote and interface, but i am an expert now
Summary: This is a simple value proposition, these high end radios are expensive, but I figured if I was gonna shell out $500 for the Wave Radio, I should at least take a look at this beauty. I was intrigued because Polk speakers have always sounded so good. It is a handsome unit for sure and I can tell you, the sound is just exquisite. The 360 degree soundstage offers much more flexibility on placement, and when you add DVD, HD Radio, and XM capability(I am a Sirius guy myself), the $100 premium over the Bose is well worth it. I mean...I freakin' took it on vacation with me, my wife is now convinced I am nuts!!!! It sounds better than the Bose, hands down. I've had Queen and REM and Who DVD "concerts" in my kitchen with more than enough room-filling sound to rock the house. I thought my guests would pull out their lighters. We sang and danced and had a great time. With the included FM antenna, I was able to pull in most HD broadcasts easily. Cruising up and down the dial finds the unit searching for the digital signal while playing the analog, once it latched onto the digital signal you find out what you've been missing in the anlaog broadcast. I won't listen to analog FM anymore. The HD broadcasts truly are CD comparable. My iPod was easily amplified without distortion and I actually no longer listen to my Sony Bravia audio, I pipe the TV audio through one of the two I-Sonic auxillary inputs. My wife loves it, the dialogue from her TV shows is deeper and more understandable through the I-Sonic in our sonically unfriendly kitchen. She was amazed when I hooked it up for her, and pleased to find out the TV remote actually controlled the I-Sonic volume, she wondered how they did that? The remote is a little quirky and the preset scrolling is a pain but at least if I misplace it or my 4 year old steals it (which happens often), I still have full functional control over the unit through the buttons. The menu interface is not initially intuitive, but after a day or so, I was able to command the unit easily, not too bad. CD's, once again, no problems, they just sound great. The Bose seems so boring now. For a hundred bucks more, I am able to enjoy the famous Polk sound and entertain myself and others so much more. I highly recommend it.
Polk Audio I-Sonic:
