[fredgarvin]

$3000 a piece, dual 10" woofers dual turbine cone midranges and two ring radiator tweeters and the bottom firing enhanced power port.





https://www.polkaudio.com/products/l800

[G.Michael]

My guess:  Bigger sound , tighter bass, than the old SDA.  And the all-important spec: 118 lbs!

[Yomaha]

Is Polk back in the game for real?  Has anyone heard these?  Polk S6 was the first speaker I ever had. I still have them but haven’t played for a decade. Would be interesting to see what they sound like now connected to higher quality front end components.

[JLM]

A friend is a huge fan of the original SDA's (he likes big sound).  I've heard them a couple of times.  Coming from monitor speakers thought the left to right soundstage was highly exaggerated (extremely wide, with most of the sound coming from beyond the speakers left and right).  And you had to sit in the middle sweet spot to hear the full effect. 

[fredgarvin]

They've been blowing out their previous top of the line models at half price to make room for the new line. Apparently they are not going consumer grade.

[WGH]

AVS Forum has some photos of the Polk L700 SDA at RMAF but unfortunately no listening impressions
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions.html#post58522828

[srb]

I would need something with a slightly wider sweetspot 

[WGH]

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions-2.html#post58526820

"I sincerely feel that at $6K per pair the Polk Legend L800 towers are the best value true high-end flagship tower speakers at RMAF 2019."

"After-show listening to tracks of my choosing cemented it... The imaging these speakers are capable of is mind-blowing, easily putting sounds way far outside their physical separation. Blaze Mountain from Sounds from the Ground's new album Binary had sounds that seemed to literally be to my sides, that's how far the panoramic imaging stretched! But the speakers themselves are conventionally positioned."

"Nothing else I heard here imaged like these."

[SET Man]

Hey!

   "By acoustically isolating the two stereo channels, each ear hears only the correct stereo channel. The left ear hears left channel, and the right ear hears right channel"

    The above is from their site. And from the look of the from the show above. Sound like they are super beamy speaker. So, they are made for only ONE listener.

    I have Single Driver speakers based on 6" Fostex driver and they are pretty beamy. If I move my head just a few inches neither side or back and froth the sound will change. But look like Polk is taking this to the extreme with those two 5.25" and two 1" tweeter, I believe their canceling out any sound projected out to the sides and only a narrow beam of sound between them can be heard when you are sitting in the right spot. This is pretty much the opposite of what omnidirectional speakers like Bose 901 and etc try to do.

    Very interesting. Would love to hear them just to see what is like.

Buddy

[FullRangeMan]

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions-2.html#post58526820

"I sincerely feel that at $6K per pair the Polk Legend L800 towers are the best value true high-end flagship tower speakers at RMAF 2019."

"After-show listening to tracks of my choosing cemented it... The imaging these speakers are capable of is mind-blowing, easily putting sounds way far outside their physical separation. Blaze Mountain from Sounds from the Ground's new album Binary had sounds that seemed to literally be to my sides, that's how far the panoramic imaging stretched! But the speakers themselves are conventionally positioned."

"Nothing else I heard here imaged like these."

I have listened the original big SDA in the 1990s and these quotes above are according what I have listened, it was one of a few speaker that impressed me, the soundstage was highly good and the transients were fast, soundstage was not real as Carver Amazing but close.

[Early B.]

A friend is a huge fan of the original SDA's (he likes big sound).  I've heard them a couple of times.  Coming from monitor speakers thought the left to right soundstage was highly exaggerated (extremely wide, with most of the sound coming from beyond the speakers left and right). 

Agreed. I had a pair of SDA's back in the day and got rid of them quickly. Artificial soundstage. Maybe they got it right this time. 

[FullRangeMan]

Agreed. I had a pair of SDA's back in the day and got rid of them quickly. Artificial soundstage. Maybe they got it right this time.

Hi End home audio are 100% artificial, there is any more artificial sound than a speaker with a xover?

If one like ''natural'' sound must look a single FR driver.

[dB Cooper]

I suppose this is what having friends over to listen to some music would look like.

At the 'sweet spot', great imaging and soundstage; everywhere else, the same or maybe not even as good. Might as well just get some planars and be done with it.


[/quote]

[Bemopti123]

I for one, still remember those huge SDA Polks yore.... and while it might not be everyone's cup of tea, specially for not being that soundstage friendly for more than one person, I am keeping my fingers crossed that some manufactures now return to their audiophile roots.  I mean what happened to Energy?  What happened to Mirage Audio?  What happened to all the daring manufacturers with bold ideas?  Personally, most average consumer audio has gone to really mass produced, race to the bottom stuff and while things are more accessible because they are made in the Far East, I feel much of the excitement is missing.  The only stuff that still has some cache and attractiveness is really priced way above what the average Joe can afford today.  I say, Polk, welcome back.   

[FullRangeMan]

The only audio market I see growing today are headphones, loudspeaker market are dead silent.

[Letitroll98]

I remember listening to the SDAs when they came on the market.  There were several different models in the lineup, the lowest priced one had only the two mid-range drivers delivering the spacial effects IIRC.  I would suppose there'll be additional models released.

[fredgarvin]

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions-2.html#post58526820

"I sincerely feel that at $6K per pair the Polk Legend L800 towers are the best value true high-end flagship tower speakers at RMAF 2019."

"After-show listening to tracks of my choosing cemented it... The imaging these speakers are capable of is mind-blowing, easily putting sounds way far outside their physical separation. Blaze Mountain from Sounds from the Ground's new album Binary had sounds that seemed to literally be to my sides, that's how far the panoramic imaging stretched! But the speakers themselves are conventionally positioned."

Another observation from an attendee-

The Elac room and the Polk rooms were the highlights for me. The Polk Legacy had phenomenal imaging, vocal clarity, and the midrange was smooth. The suite they used was much larger than a standard room and I could walk all around the room and the sound was still fantastic. The ironic thing was that they only had one row of seats (four total) right in the sweet spot and they really didn't need them. I walked almost 45 degrees to the left of the left speaker until the sound quality started to degrade. I've never been a Polk fan, but the Legacy series was seriously impressive.

https://www.avsforum.com/forum/173-2-channel-audio/3089080-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019-pictures-impressions-4.html

"Nothing else I heard here imaged like these."