Polk Audio Signa S2 Sound Bar for Smart TV with Subwoofer, Wireless – Exclusive VoiceAdjust Technology, Ultra-Slim Design, Works with 4K & HD TVs, HDMI & Optical, Bluetooth, Wireless Streaming

RBUnited States

Easy to setup, easy to use, great sound

This relatively low cost sound bar has remarkably good sound for such a low profile. Setup was easy. It came with HDMI and optical cables for attachment to the TV. I attached the HDMI to the ARC (Audio Return Channel) HDMI connection of my flat panel and just turned it on. The TV recognized the sound bar by turning off its internal speakers and playing sound through the sound bar. Additionally, it shows the audio level bar on-screen whenever the TV or sound bar remotes are used to adjust the audio level. I plugged in the wireless subwoofer and it connected automatically to the sound bar, but there is also a manual process if necessary. It is also easy to use. There are various adjustments that can be made with the sound bar remote, but once these were made we only use the TV remote. The sound bar appears to go into sleep mode when the TV is off and comes back on when the TV is turned on. It is compatible with Dolby 2.1 content, but it cannot be upgraded with additional speakers. There are five inconspicuous buttons on the top of the sound bar: on/off, source selection, Bluetooth on/off, volume down, and volume up. Bluetooth is used for playing sound from other sources like a smart phone. These buttons also appear on the sound bar remote along with other buttons for mode selections. There are three sound buttons: Movie, Night, and Music. We use the Movie mode mostly as it “expands” the soft and loud sounds as if in a movie theater but with 2.1 speakers. The Night mode “compresses” the sound levels, making “quiets” a little louder and “louds” a little lower. This mode is good for late night listening with the sound turned down so that others aren’t disturbed by loud explosions and you can still hear the “quiet” portions. The final sound mode, Music, is for listening to music with the frequencies set at a more equal distribution. There are also three buttons for Voice Adjustment. These adjust the voice frequencies to make voices easier to understand. At the highest level, number 3, we can tell that voices are much clearer but they sound somewhat unnatural. Consequently, we normally use level 1 and occasionally level 2 when necessary. There are a series of lights on the front screen to indicate operation and when modes are selected. The main light comes on when the sound bar is in operation and goes off when it goes into sleep mode. This is a soft light and I do not notice it when watching the TV. The color changes whenever the Dolby 2.1 signal is received and being used. Other lights on the front will turn on momentarily whenever a new mode or source is selected to indicate that the signal has been received and the change made. There is also a light that comes on when Bluetooth is turned on. This goes off when Bluetooth is turned off or when Bluetooth goes into sleep mode if it is not in use for more than 15 minutes. Note, the auto sleep mode is not the default and this option has to be manually selected to be in use. This sound bar produces much better sound than the TV speakers and requires little attention once the adjustments are set; we mostly use the TV remote. My only criticism regards adjusting the subwoofer levels. The subwoofer has bass minus and plus adjustment buttons on the remote but, unlike the other mode adjustments, there is no visual indication that anything is happening when this is used. There isn’t even an indicator that it is wirelessly linked except for the lights used when manually connecting it. The bass can be adjusted up to the point that deep voices and drums rattle items on the shelves in the room. When adjusted down to reduce such rattles we have no way of knowing if we are at a mid or lowest level. The bass can be adjusted to what is being listened to, but it would be nice to know the actual setting so that a “standardized” level could be selected for particular circumstances.

GauravIndia

This can surprise you

I basically bought this for watching BBC nature documentaries since my TV's inbuilt speaker had hard time delivering clear dialogues but I think this Signa S2 is overkill for that purpose. I should have gone for Signa Solo which was selling for 8k during sale (including bank discounts). Now coming to it's capabilities. FORMAT IT PLAYED : Dolby digital, Dolby digital plus, DTS, DTS-HD (Master Audio) and many other formats except Dolby TrueHD & Atmos where TV displayed something like "audio not supported in this video". My biggest concern was if it can play DTS files and it plays them brilliantly. I felt DTS sounded better than Dolby but it may be due to higher bitrate of dts files. VOCALS are amazing. Super clear. Actually whole sound speactrum is too clear with great instrument separation that you will be able to distinguish between different sounds/instruments being played. High notes tone (Tweeters) are just pleasant to listen to. Polk's Voice adjust feature is extremely beneficial and works as advertised. But since soundbar produces such crisp and clear sound I never felt to use that feature but I tried just to test it out and it worked great. It easily fills 15x20 room with just 50% volume that you would feel like sitting in a theater. Now coming to BASS: It's the most controversial part with Signa series soundbar. When playing dolby movies (I played Batla House and Justice league) the rumble was so huge even at low base level setting that it literally felt like being in the scene of the movie. The rumble penetrated 3-4 walls in my house and could be felt beyond 30 feet. When Polk says "Deep Bass Technology" they are truly honest with their claim. Bass felt like Sub-bass most of the time than normal Bass. Bass is what you can hear, Sub-bass is what you feel in your whole body. I also noticed there was no down firing driver in the sub. When you place your hand near sub you will barely feel anything even while producing THAT deep Bass rumble in action scene. Bass effect is more like 3D and feels like PVR cinema at home. These guys (Polk Engineers & Scientists) know the science of sound and are Master of acoustics so they have done something there in the Bass department. Now the controversial part of NO BASS. It occured mostly during streaming music via Bluetooth or even while playing directly from TV. Bass was so loose & non existent (70% of the time) that one would easily get disappointed. Only thing about the bass present during music is some "air pressure type" loose Bass ,which you can only hear, without having any body,depth, weight or punch. But when you watch dolby/DTS movies Bass will just shock you in many ways that you won't be able to believe yourself. One can easily feel that Super deep Punch and weight with 3D effect. So there's definitely some improvement to do in that Bass department but it won't affect your experience during watching any movie. For music lovers I would suggest to go for Magnify Mini rather than Signa S1/S2. It was very easy to install and I used HDMI Arc to connect to my TV. Using Polk's remote I can turn on Bluetooth ,connect with my OnePlus 7 and stream. I actually enjoyed listening to music since I rarely listen to Bass heavy songs ,so Bass issue never bothers me. I got it for around 14k so it's Value for Money for me and actually delivers more than what I paid for. I received 4 power cables (2 two-pin & 2 three-pin). Received all other accessories like optical cable,HDMI cable, remote, batteries. Thanks for reading my review. Cheers ;)

Jan StrnadUnited States

Surprisingly good sound, easy to set up, you can turn off auto-off

Lots of reviews here, and many complain about the "auto-off" feature that turns the soundbar off if there's no audio input for 15 minutes. YOU CAN TURN THIS FEATURE OFF. Hold down the "TV" button on the remote for about 5 seconds; a light will flash on the soundbar and the feature will be OFF. Repeat the process to turn it back on again. Now that that's out of the way: I've been using an A/V receiver and hi-fi speakers for a 3.0 (front right, left, center) experience. The problem is, with an over-the-air antenna with TiVo DVR, Roku, smart TV, and disc player, it's gotten very complicated. I turned to the Polk Signa 2 soundbar to help simplify things. Setup was easy. I used the supplied HDMI-ARC connection on my TV, plugged in the soundbar and "sub-woofer" to the wall, and that was that. I was really impressed with the quality of the sound, even at high levels. It plays much louder than I expected and still delivers clean sound. The dialogue enhancement settings give me clearer dialogue on modern movies than my previous center channel speaker delivered. The soundbar comes on automatically when the TV is turned on and it goes off when the TV is turned off. Any remote that controls the TV volume will automatically control the soundbar volume. Couldn't be easier! The "sub-woofer" is really a powered woofer. The speaker is 5.25" in diameter, powered by a 60-watt built-in amp. It delivers good bass at satisfyingly loud levels but calling it a "sub-woofer" is stretching the definition. Still, the sound is much better than you get from a television's built-in speaker and plenty good enough for this hi-fi enthusiast. The soundbar is quite short, barely more than 2" high, which means it fits very nicely under my LG television on legs on a shelf. It looks as if it came with the TV. The wireless woofer can sit about anywhere but sounds best on the same wall as the TV. Anybody can make a soundbar but I chose Polk because of their hi-fi reputation. I'm very happy with my choice. Now, some notes for those who have had trouble getting the soundbar to work. Make sure you're using an HDMI-ARC connection on your television. That "ARC" is critical. Not every HDMI connection is "ARC," which means Audio Return Channel. It should be marked as such. If you don't have an HDMI-ARC connection, you can use an optical connection or Bluetooth, but you'll lose some features like auto-on. Use the supplied high speed HDMI cable. Don't use an old HDMI cable. They've gotten better over the years. Remember to change the "sound output" setting on your TV. It must be set to output sound to the HDMI-ARC connection, or to the optical or Bluetooth outputs if that's what you're using. It works from your TV, so it doesn't matter what sources you use for programming. However, the soundbar will take up one HDMI connection on your TV. If you have a lot of sources plugged into your TV, you may come up short on HDMI inputs.

ColinUnited States

Good sound, clear dialog, turns on/off automatically

June 2020: still functioning perfectly. I think once or twice I’ve had to unplug the subwoofer to get it work again. Very rare occurrence. The remote can be slightly difficult to get to work (needs the right angle) but I almost never have to use it because the TV controls it. Great sound bar, 100% recommend. December 2019 update: still working great. Original 2018: I got this speaker a couple weeks ago and it's been working great so far (November 2018). I plugged in both the HDMI ARC cable and the optical cable, per the instructions and it started working after I turned the TV off and then on. It turns on instantly along with my TV when I press the Apple TV remote. The volume changes through my TV remote (or Apple Remote). There are three different buttons for levels of voice clarity, but I haven't had to use it at all which is a huge plus. The bluetooth syncing works very easily, again a problem that many other sound bars have. There is no Alexa integration, but that probably helps keep the price low (no mics or networking hardware, a plus in my opinion). The wireless subwoofer has totally satisfactory sound for a semi-large living room, and was completely plug-and-play. I just plugged it in behind the couch and it works perfectly, no syncing needed. This model also doesn't have any problems that affected the last generation (namely turning off after 30 seconds if no audio input), which is great. The price is fair, and it mounted to the bottom of my TV easily. I was not able to figure out what the two "spacers" are that were included in the package. The instructions didn't seem to say what they are.