Polk Audio Signa S3 Sound Bar & Wireless Subwoofer, Low-Profile Design

First i want to say that I used to install home and car audio in the 90's and of course technology has changed substantially since then but the basic's still remain... the sound you get.Polk has always been a "premium" product that sounds good and just works, in fact i still have a pair of DB 12's for my home theatre with a 200 watt amp on each one, 27 years later they are still going strong and rumbling my home theatre.I bought this sound bar for our main living room as we just got a new TV in our new home and the sound from the TV sucked so i wasn't going to tolerate it.Install WAS SO EASY!!! I had this running in under 5 mins excluding opening the box which added another 5 mins. We have watched the usual streaming things and right now she's watching Avitar for the first time. Within no less than 1 min she said "babe ok this sounds so much better, i love it good call".I could go on about how easy the install was, the value and so on but honestly having a bluetooth sub is amazing... plug in the power and it just works!!!

Aug 30, 2020 Update: Still loving it ...We have, since first review, tried and succeeded in getting our Google speaker (Google Assistant) to cast its music to the Polk Signa S3 Soundbar/subwoofer - which is precisely why I anted up for the S3 model. (The secret seems to be to assign a name to the soundbar as a device, in my case 'Living Room Speaker', using the Google Home app (done on my phone) and then you can use a voice command to just tell Ms Google 'OK Google, play music on the Living Room Speaker'). Anyway, that wifi access is a feature of the S3 level of this Polk product - very happy with that feature. (If I have this correctly, this works because the Google Assistant device and the Polk device are on the same wifi router - I don't know that it works of you have one on 2.4GHz and the other on your 5GHz, just sayin'.)We stream a lot of music from YouTube on the Sony Smart TV, also, so having the Polk Signa for that is a big upgrade from the TV speakers. Love this soundbar, incl the bluetooth access and wifi access, and would definitely buy this Signa S3 again. I had in mind a $300 budget while shopping for such a device and I'm very happy to have come in under budget with a great audio outcome.---We haven't tried the access from our Google Assistant/Speaker yet, but very happy with this Soundbar/Subwoofer set. I first set it up on our LG Smart UHD with the ARC HDMI connection to try it out. It went so smoothly and easily (the LG TV setup has a selection to route audio to the ARC HDMI port) - this went so quickly that I decided to plug in the Subwoofer also to see how that went and bingo - came right on line (subwoofer has a button in back to press to sync with soundbar). But that LG system of ours normally is optical audio out to a stereo with our BIG JBLs (quad 10" :) so I then moved the Polk to our Sony Bravia, also using ARC HDMI for audio connection. For the Sony, no TV Setting selection change was required - Sony just routed the audio out ARC HDMI once the Polk soundbar was plugged in and powered up. Had the same quick success with subwoofer - came on line immediately after button push on the back of subwoofer speaker. The Sony TV and our Xfinity Cable/DVR remotes both cause the soundbar to power up/down when 1/0 pressed on remote. They also control the volume on the soundbar appropriately. (Of course, the Polk remote still controls audio properly, also.)Bluetooth came up and worked easily. Will update once we've experimented with bluetooth and Google Assistant access.I see in the manual, page 4, that there is a way to disable the auto-standby feature which many purchasers seem to complain about. I have not played with that (hold down Night Mode button for 5+ seconds).BTW, I love that for both the soundbar and subwoofer, the power cords plug right into the box with NO bricks - I hate bricks (aka, external transformers).

I got this for my mom as a mother's day gift. She loves it and I thought i would be a great addition to add to her google home speakers. It was fine for a few months and then the connectivity issues began to happen. Mainly google chromecast. Seems like every couple of weeks my mom is calling or texting regarding connectivity issues. It's annoying! I don't want to blame the soundbar because polk has made a soild and great sounding system. And I also have chromecast built-in speakers at home and I too have these issues occasionally, if not a lot, on my system as well. Clearly google is pushing out and imposing a mediocre, if not faulty, product on companies and consumers and we're just now suffering the concequences. The other problem that I have with this and other chromecast devices is that, while you are suffering with connectivity issues, you rarely see any updates to fix these problems. I have an LG chromecast built-in in my bedroom and it's been two years since its last update. meanwhile I am constatly deleating and adding it to my google home just to get it working again. This Polk system hasn't seen an update since i got it for my mom last year and it could probably use one. That being said, If you buy this equiptment, buy it for the sound quality. The remote is a little lack luster and I wouldn't recommend that you buy it if the chromecast is what's drawing you to purchase it, as it will leave you frustrated over time.

This was the 3rd soundbar I tried as the first wasn't compatible with my tv, the 2nd had great reviews but to me, had a very empty sound and added little value above the tv speaker. So when I connected this, I was skeptical. Not only does it have absolute fullness of sound, but I literally did not have to do any setup at all with the tv settings. It connected seamlessly via the HDMI arc. I appreciate that you have the option to select the level of voice clarity you want, as well as the ability to control the bass independently. I highly recommend this soundbar. The only change I would make is to include Alexa compatibility.The only disappointment was that I ordered the 2nd one during prime days and by the time I connected it and realized it did not have the quality I wanted, prime days were over and I paid a higher price for this one. But in the end, it was worth it.

I was unable to get any sound at all from this soundbar, with one unacceptable exception.When connected via HDMI using the HDMI-ARC connection on my 1-year-old TV, the TV could read the model number via HDMI-CEC, and recognized the Signa S3 as a soundbar. The TV remote should control the soundbar's power and the volume; the power worked, but there was no sound. Using the Polk Audio remote, the TV showed it was seeing the volume signal increase, decrease, and mute, but still no sound. Adding the optical cable also resulted in no sound. Power cycling everything, waiting patiently, doing a rain dance, etc., and still no sound. Unplugging the soundbar from the TV resulted in the TV speakers (which were still enabled) immediately coming on, showing that the TV thought the soundbar was working.Called Polk Audio Technical Support. After some discussion ("It is plugged in?"), I was told to try the soundbar using only the optical cable. This worked, and the sound was good. However, without HDMI support, it is necessary to use 1 remote to turn on the TV and the Polk Audio remote to adjust the volume. This is unacceptable to me, as it defeats the entire purpose of using a soundbar. (This is what HDMI-ARC and HDMI-CEC were created to do!)I informed Technical Support I would be returning the soundbar immediately. I own other Polk Audio speakers, but will not be buying anything else from that brand.

Awesome for the price! If you’re on a budget like me, this is a great choice!

This Polk Audio Signa S3 was the best purchased I made. After the bought my Sony Bravia HDTV. The sound from the TV sounded muffle and after I saw this Polk Audio Soundbar and set it up. It was the missing puzzle I ve been waiting. The music sound astonishing with the bass from the subwoofer. It's a good thing I decided to purchased my soundbar with a subwoofer, otherwise I will be disappointed with just flat loud sound and no bass. Great purchase, but the packing needs more improvement. The box was ripped and dented after arrived. Luckily it was protected from the included Styrofoam. Other than that, I have no complaint. I'm enjoying my movies and music. Keep up with the good work Polk

I bought this soundbar after a friend of mine triedto give me some very complicated-looking hand-me-down surround sound equipment, and I said, oh that # of speakers is way too many points of failure, can’t I just get a soundbar? The problem was, lots of A/V nerds don’t buy soundbars, or even TVs, so when I want just normal/simple setups, a tech-y friend who knows a lot about electronics can’t advise me, he lives in a world of complexity for complexity’s sake that makes smoke come out of my ears. I was on my own. I read dozens of reviews indicating that the Signa S3 was The One, there’s simply nothing else comparable for the price. I unpacked everything and connected it to my used Samsung TV of indeterminate age as instructed - obviously my TV had no HDMI Out port compatible with ARC standards, but the included optical wire worked just fine. The subwoofer connection via Bluetooth took quite a few tries, but It was thrilling to hear the subwoofer kick in the first time (I’ve never owned a subwoofer before). I used an AnyNet+Refresh feature on my Samsung menu to associate the Signa S3 to the Samsung TV remote - no problem.But then my A/V loving friend stopped by this weekend, and we tried a proof-of-concept Test Movie Night. I was sure he would enjoy helping me incorporate my cool new soundbar into the projector-laptop setup he prefers, but he took one look, shook his head and texted me a link to a different, $100 cheaper Samsung soundbar & told me to return this, because there is only one hdmi port, and you need more than one to use it with anything that isn’t a TV, that optical cable just isn’tgoing to cut it. We dug up an audio cable (not provided) added it to the laptop’s audio jack, we got everything working. He was disgusted but I thought it sounded great!However, I bought a soundbar because I don’t want to have to think about the complexities of differently-aged TVs/laptops/projectors, or learn about an ARC standard that I have never heard of, or fiddle around with a dainty optical wire, which I’ve only used once before, years ago! Maybe something device agnostic with at least two HDMI ports is a fantasy, but I am surprised that these *major compatibility warnings* are not mentioned at all in any review, product literature, etc. for soundbars.Finally, these Signa devices have an auto-shutoff at a frequency that *anyone* would find annoying; I read in the Q&A that it does this after 15 minutes of inactivity, which I wouldn’t mind if it were possible to just turn it back on when you return, but it *doesn’t turn back on* the vast majority of the time - if you use the remote that comes with it, you can tell immediately that it’s hit and miss, although it does seem to work pretty well when connected to a laptop. I saw a post inPolk’a support forums that claimed that pressing the Night Mode button for 15 seconds disables auto shutoff, but so far that has not worked for me. All very crazymaking, and very educational, I’m glad I bought it, proud that I got it up and running, and sad I won’t be able to keep it, but I’m writing this review in the hope that the companies who manufacture these items will hear the cry of A Normal Person: I can get audio devices to work with extra time and effort, but I shouldn’t have to, it drains away a huge chunk of the time I set aside to spend with my family and in relationships. Life is just too short to spend all this time twiddling around w/ A/V things and being frustrated. Please make things more user-friendly for everyone!

Polk Audio has been around even longer than I have! LOL. I expected great quality when I ordered this speaker. I was NOT disappointed! It was SIMPLE to install and the controls and sound are many times better than the TV speaker. I LOVE being able to lower the background noise of the program so that I can hear the dialogue. No longer do I have to have the subtitles on or the volume turned way up to know what the actors are saying. AWESOME!! Would definitely buy again and have no trouble endorsing this company and this product!

Google assistant works well, bluetooth works wells, sound is best-in-class for the price and the subwoofer is bassy and full sounding. The remote control is not very useful or effective, however I have never needed it as all of the functions work perfectly and there is no need to adjust. Use your TV remote, phone, or google assistant to set the volume and it will adjust the sound bar automatically.

I got this sound bar specifically because it doesn't have a built in microphone for Alexa/etc., which is becoming really hard to find.Good quality sound throughout the entire range. I don't use the subwoofer to its full abilities, but it can put out a good amount of bass without sounding strained. It does not feel like surround sound, but does give more depth than a standard 2.1 setup. I haven't been able to get the Chromecast to work easily, but that might have to do with my router. *Update* It was my phone being an older model that was causing problems with Google Home, but I have successfully casted audio through the app "HiFi Cast" and it worked great.There is a distinct three second lag between pressing the volume buttons and the volume actually changing, as others have stated previously. For impatient button pushers this could be a dealbreaker. I instead only use the Polk remote to turn it on and to use the voice amplification, which is excellent. For volume adjustments I use whatever player I am using (PC mostly).Overall, I am happy with the soundbar. I would recommend it, but only if you are okay with the above irregularities. If you don't care about the lack of microphone, there are probably other comparable soundbars with less quirks.

than the other brands we tried. You're not getting the quality and build you would get with a $1500.00 set .... but it better than what you would expect for what you are paying.

Outstanding sound. Nice esthetics. Very impressed!