The Polk Audio Signa S1 is an affordable soundbar from the American brand. It is one of the few soundbars in the price segment up to 250 euros with a separate wireless subwoofer. Is sound for your home cinema finally becoming affordable, or is there a catch? We were allowed to find out.
Polk Audio Signa S1
Price € 250,-Frequency range 45Hz – 20kHz
Connections Optical digital input, analog headphone input, bluetooth
Sound bar dimensions 5.46cm x 89.99cm x 8.18cm (H x W x D)
Subwoofer Dimensions 34.06cm x 17.07cm x 21.22cm (H x W x D)
Storage 32GB (expandable with memory card)
Drivers 2 x 1.25" midrange, 2 x 1" tweeter, 1 x 5.25" subwoofer
Website www.polkaudio.com 6 Score 60
- Pros
- Premium design
- Speech amplification
- Price
- Negatives
- All bass via subwoofer
- Remote control not compatible with TV
to install
Both the soundbar and subwoofer of the Signa S1 are remarkably sleek for the price. From the silver Polk Audio logo on the front of the soundbar to the shiny surface on the subwoofer. The soundbar is also remarkably low and compact; it is almost exactly as wide as the 40-inch television we connected the Signa S1 to. The soundbar is particularly lightweight - making it easy to place - and flat enough not to block the infrared signal from your television.
On the top of the soundbar we find five buttons, an on/off button, a bluetooth button, a button to switch between the connections and two volume buttons.
Connecting the soundbar is easy. Using the optical or analog 3.5mm input, you can connect Signa S1 to your television and peripherals. The wireless subwoofer only needs to be powered; it will automatically connect to the soundbar. With the included remote you can control the volume of the Signa S1, as well as the amount of bass and the different sound profiles.
Night mode
The Polk Audio Signa S1 has three different sound profiles ranging from music, movie and night mode. The music mode gives a balanced sound reproduction, while the movie mode gives the low and mid range a boost. For example, special effects that rely mainly on the low area, such as explosions, get more effect. While voice in the midrange remains nicely clear. The night mode mutes a lot of bass and loud tones, so that the subwoofer practically loses its effect and the sound as a whole becomes a lot milder. When watching regular television programs, the music mode sounded the best - it's the only mode that doesn't involve a lot of tinkering with different frequencies.
Speech amplification
The Signa S1 has three positions to amplify speech. By default, the soundbar is in the first position, by pressing the second and third button you can choose the degree of speech amplification. When selecting the second mode, talk shows and programs such as the news were clearly a lot more intelligible than before. At position three, the effect became even more extreme, but there was clear distortion and it sounded unnatural.
Use and sound
The Polk Audio soundbar has a power-saving mode, so the soundbar turns itself off if you don't use it for a while. So you have to turn on the soundbar every time you want to use it. This should not be a problem, were it not for the fact that the Signa S1 does take quite a long time to start up. When you turn on the soundbar at the same time as your television, there is a good chance that you will have to do without sound for a few seconds. It is not possible to pair the soundbar with the remote control that you use for your television.
The soundbar already felt very light and this is clearly reflected in the sound. The soundbar itself doesn't sound much better than the sound of a regular television or laptop; it is at most a little louder. To give the sound the depth that we like to hear in home cinema, the Polk Audio soundbar is completely dependent on the supplied wireless subwoofer. You adjust this with the remote control, but on the soundbar itself there is no indication of the amount of bass or the volume setting of the set as a whole. After adjusting the volume and the amount of bass to taste, you have no idea what position these variables are in.
Distinguish
Because the soundbar itself can hardly produce any low tones, a dichotomy can clearly be heard between the sound. When listening to a conversation between a man and a woman, the woman's voice comes from the soundbar, while the man's voice comes half from the soundbar and half from the subwoofer. Lower voices even come largely from the subwoofer. If you do not place the subwoofer right next to the soundbar but, for example, in a slightly further corner, you can clearly hear that the sound image comes from two angles. We would have preferred that the soundbar itself would have a little more to offer, so that the switching point would be a bit lower and the subwoofer would only be needed for that little bit of extra bass.
Although the subwoofer is really necessary to give the sound an upgrade, the power of the subwoofer is not great for its size. We've seen plenty of smaller subwoofers that were a lot better at filling the room with bass. However, the Signa S1 is fine at playing quieter programs and many music genres. Action movie fans will be disappointed, however, as the set can't quite convey the energy of action scenes.
Divided
For its money, the Polk Audio Signa S1 has a very sleek finish. The remote control also feels sturdy and functions such as speech amplification, different audio profiles and adjusting the bass are features that you normally encounter in much more expensive segments. Although the soundbar is pleasantly light and compact, the subwoofer is quite large; especially for the power you get for it. All in all, the Polk Audio Signa S1 certainly gives you your money's worth if you mainly watch quieter programs at an average sound level and occasionally want to listen to music.
