Polk Audio was raring to go at CES this year in their suite at the Venetian with a nice selection of new louspeakers guaranteed to satisfy just about any consumer. Let's start with the newest, and thinnest, of the bunch. Polk's CHT500, part of their upcoming Component Home Theater line, is a single-speaker, two-piece soundbar. At less than 1.5" deep and wall-mountable, it should match well with the latest ultra-thin LCDs and plasmas. Well, ultra-thin LCDs and plasmas 50" or larger. At 49" wide it's too big to match with tiny TVs smaller than 50 inches.
Behind the CHT500's grill you'll find nine 3.25" anodized aluminum-dome mid-range drivers. These feature Polk's Starfield dimples that makes them look more than a little like black golf balls. These are claimed to eliminate resonance in the dome's surface, smoothing out sound quality. For the high-end, there are three 0.75" ring radiator tweeters, similar to what is found on many high-end speakers, and on some of the models in Polk's own Blackstone series of satellite speakers.
The external SDA (Stereo Dimensional Array) Surround Control Module handles the virtual surround enhancement processing. This box connects to your receiver, and handles all the crossover duties. An included 15' cable connects the CHT500 to the SDA module.
The CHT500 and SDA Control Module will be available in April for $999, and will include a wall bracket, two shelf cradles, and a rack mountable connectivity module.
Blackstone TL
The top-of-this-line model, the TL3 will be available in March. Though on the outside the TL3s look very similar to their little brothers, the drivers are even more impressive. There's a 0.75" ring radiator tweeter, the same that's used in the LSi series of bookshelf/tower speakers. The 3.25" midrange has an Aerated Polypropylene Cone. The TL3c center channel has two of the 3.25" midrange drivers.
The full 5.1 system price for 4 TL3s and a TL3c center is $749.95.
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LSi M Series
Polk's LSi 9 bookshelf speakers are one of my favorite speakers I've ever reviewed. We got to hear the next generation of the LSi series at an event last summer, and they sounded great at the show too. Chris Boylan did a full preview on the LSi Ms here.
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