Single components. Singular home theater
Now that you've taken the leap and invested in a flat-panel LCD or plasma HDTV, you might be thinking "Gosh, now I've got to buy a bunch of other stuff — five or more speakers, a receiver, a subwoofer, and a DVD player — so that I can have that immersive "home theater experience" I've been reading so much about." Well, not quite. Presenting the SurroundBar 360 DVD home theater system from Polk. With just two home theater components, you are able to achieve a complete home theater experience. While a single loudspeaker unit featuring eight full-range 2.5" drivers and SDA technology reproduces an enveloping 360° audio experience, a single-disc, progressive-scan DVD player with a generous helping of A/V connectivity serves up DVD video and provides a versatile hub for the rest of your A/V components.
One speaker . . . 360° of sound
You might be used to thinking that to achieve enveloping, surround sound audio, you need five or more speakers arranged around your home theater area. With the SurroundBar 360 featuring SDA technology, the folks at Polk ask you to try thinking in a whole new way. Polk's Stereo Dimensional Array (SDA) technology is able to produce a 360° soundstage by taking advantage of the way in which humans perceive sound. We humans are able to determine from which direction a sound is coming based on subtle differences between when that sound reaches each of our ears. For example, a sound coming from the right will arrive slightly sooner to the right ear than to the left. Among the SurroundBar 360's eight drivers, dedicated SDA drivers complement the five-channel audio reproduced by the other drivers, thereby controlling the imaging of that audio, precisely "steering" and projecting it into your living room for a three-dimensional, 360° sound field.
More than just a DVD player
The demands of the modern home theater system simply won't allow that an audio or video component have but one function. Good thing the SurroundBar 360 DVD home theater's single-disc, progressive-scan DVD player does a lot more than play your favorite DVDs. Way more. This DVD player sports an immense range of audio and video connectivity options, making it a powerful and versatile hub for your home theater system. Diverse rear audio and video connections — including HDMI output, composite-video input and output, S-video input and output, and digital optical and coaxial audio inputs — deliver multiple options for connecting a variety of components, including your TV, set-top cable box, DVR, VHS player, and AM/FM antennae. Side inputs such as S-video input, composite-video input, L/R audio input, and a USB port make it easy to hook up anything from a gaming console to your MP3 player to a flash drive with all your digital photos.
Bass, if you like
As is the case with most home theater surround sound speaker systems, it is generally recommended that a soundbar be accompanied by an independent subwoofer for a rich audio experience complete with full low-frequency reproduction. For this reason, the Polk SurroundBar 360's DVD player has been designed with a subwoofer audio output, ideal for integrating a powered subwoofer into your system. Whoa! Don't start thinking that the SurroundBar 360 is skimpy on the low-frequency audio, though! The SurroundBar 360's bass performance is enhanced by Polk's PowerPort vented enclosure. Vented systems use the sound produced at the rear side of the driver's diaphragm to increase the efficiency of the system at low frequencies by taking advantage of the resonance of ports or vents designed into the enclosure. The air mass in the cylindrical ports resonates in response to the movement of the air behind the diaphragm within the enclosure, similar to the way that the air in a glass bottle resonates when you blow air across its mouth. The result? Dynamic bass performance.
Feed Forward™ thinking delivers proactive audio
Okay, here's a riddle: What do charades and your new Polk Audio SurroundBar 360 have in common? Answer: For both, complex or confusing signals can cause a lot of mayhem. Regardless of how well a power source and a driver might be matched, mechanical distortion and damage can occur almost instantaneously. The reason? Well, complex signal combinations can cause over-driving of a cone at low-frequencies, resulting first in mechanical noise and then in permanent damage. Most current systems that attempt to protect drivers while also reducing distortion can do so only by limiting the driver's output to far below its theoretical maximum. Note: we said "Most current systems" . . . Polk's Feed Forward™ distortion suppression technology uses digital processors to monitor input signals and respond to complex signals with minimum intervention, thereby minimizing distortion and the chance for damage while also maximizing output without compromising dynamics. Virtually undetectable in operation, the SurroundBar 360's proactive Feed Forward technology delivers all the excitement and impact of your source material while maintaining lower distortion and higher output levels.
HDMIncredible
Bringing you the absolute best in connectivity, the Polk SurroundBar 360's DVD player features an HDMI connections. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the only interface in consumer electronics that can carry both uncompressed high-definition (HD) video and uncompressed multi-channel audio in all HD formats including 720p, 1080i and even 1080p. Your incoming media content comes in a variety of sizes, resolutions and formats, and with that in mind, HDMI systems automatically configure to display that content in the most effective format. Since HDMI carries all channels on video and audio, there is only one cable to plug into any HDMI-enabled source and display device. No more complicated cable set-up when installing your home theater system, and no more ugly cable mess behind your components. HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on this single cable. Also, HDMI is fully backward-compatible with DVI. (Please note that a physical adapter, sold separately, is needed to make the conversion from HDMI to DVI.)
Included with purchase
The following items are included with the purchase of the Polk SurroundBar 360 DVD home theater: SurroundBar 360 speaker, DVD console, Remote control with batteries, 2-piece high cradle, 2-piece low cradle, wall-mount template, 15' speaker cable, 6' optical digital audio cable, 5' 3-way analog audio/composite video cable, 9' power cord, AM loop antenna, FM dipole antenna, Quick Start guide, Owner's Manual, product registration form.
