Polk Wifi Speakers – Although many audio writers have questioned the need for smart speakers, the public seems to have no doubts. Estimates are that more than 80 million of these voice-controlled products will have been sold worldwide by the end of 2018. Amazon and Google dominate the market, but none of the brands are equal to good sound. Fortunately, mainstream audio companies are incorporating voice-command technology from Amazon or Google into their speakers. The Polk Assist ($199.95 USD), which includes Google Assistant, was one of the first of this wave.
The 7.5″-tall, 4.7″-square Assist is built the same way Polk makes a compact desktop speaker: with a 1″ dome tweeter, a 3.5″ woofer, and 40W of amplification. There’s no reason it shouldn’t sound good – especially since, like most wireless speakers, Assist’s internal digital signal processor can hone its designs more precisely than an air-powered speaker.
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The controls on the top panel are simple: volume up/down, play/pause, and a button that activates Google Assistant — though you might prefer to wake up Assistant with “Hey , Google”. A button on the back pops up the microphone array to pick up your voice commands. Assist also has Bluetooth, if you want to connect to a smartphone or tablet that isn’t connected to your network. Because Assist works with Google’s Chromecast, it can be used in a multi-room system with other Chromecast products.
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Like other smart speakers, Assist streams its content from the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection, using the streaming services of your choice. Whether you want to stream your music through a smart speaker or not, it’s undeniably convenient.
There’s not much in the box, just the Helper and the wall AC, and some papers: a poster explaining what the five buttons do, a quick start guide for the length of this unit, and a plate just pot for validation and Flintshire Council Accountancy Certificate.
A good indication of Assist’s ease of installation and use is the fact that its main operating manual is a small sticker on the top panel. You’re told to plug in the speaker, download the Google Home app (available for Android and Apple iOS devices), and follow its instructions. I have a Google Home speaker, and I’ve reviewed about a dozen Chromecast-compatible speakers, so I’ve forgotten what I did for the initial setup – but I remember it being easy. . All I had to do to add Help to my system was name it to the speaker (most of the room in it). If you’re new to Google Home, you’ll need to connect to your Wi-Fi network and specify what music services you’re using.
All Google-compatible smart speakers have two microphones on top: one on the left and one on the right of the speaker. It’s the cheapest way to build a microphone array—all of the Amazon Alexa products I’ve tested are seven-mic arrays. Technically, the Assistant can’t cancel the ambient noise at home based on your voice and some of the competition. However, I found the Assistive voice command system to work reliably even when I was yelling from the other side of my house. It can be dangerous in a noisy environment.
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I won’t go into the details of using Google Home, because that’s covered elsewhere, other than to say that I asked Assist to play an album, and it was happy I know how to go to Spotify. With my Amazon speakers, I have to add “from Spotify” to most music applications, if I’m not lucky, the audio is also available in Amazon Prime Music. I haven’t found a way to get my Amazon speakers to default to Spotify — and Help, I haven’t.
One nice touch is that Assist reportedly works with the free version of Spotify – something I can’t confirm as I have a paid subscription to Spotify Premium. Last time I checked, all of my Amazon products require Spotify Premium.
Many people worry about being “spyed upon” by smart speakers. While these results can sometimes be confusing and confusing, I’ve had many experienced speakers that I’ve been playing eight hours a day with for the past two years and never had a problem. These speakers can’t work without sending parts of your voice back to Amazon and Google farms, and if that bothers you, don’t buy it – but you probably won’t be buying a smartphone, anytime soon. or now. computer model, which includes two voice commands.
While the Assist is clearly designed to produce better sound quality than most Google- and Amazon-branded smart speakers, Polk doesn’t claim it’s an audio product. It’s not stereo, it doesn’t output anything in the lower octave, and everything it plays runs through some sort of audio codec, MP3, AAC, or Ogg Vorbis. Designed for casual music listening, Internet Radio, and news.
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One of my favorite ways to test a wireless speaker “shoot” is Holly Cole’s cover of Tom Waits’ “Train Song.”
(320kbps Ogg Vorbis, Blue Note/Spotify). The opening, deep dual bass channels tend to overwhelm the small drivers of most wireless speakers — and even some of the largest drivers in subwoofers — but Assist’s 3.5″ woofer manage these notes without any signs of stress, very clear and crisp. bass at normal listening level (about 82dB average). Turning the speaker to full blast makes the bass a little less and less the sound is fuller, but all i had to do to get good sound quality was to turn the volume down from 10 to 8.
I thought The Assistant did a good job of portraying Cole’s voice, which sounded warm and clear. I could only hear the sound quality and color of the very simple box, but the sound reproduction was better than I’ve heard from most $200 plastic wireless speakers.
I was amazed to hear how well the Assistant arranged all the different instruments in “Rose,” by jazz musician Martin Wind’s.
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(320kbps Ogg Vorbis, Laika/Spotify). In addition to Wind’s double drums, “Rose” features brush drums, piano, organ, trumpet, and tárogató (literally a clarinet and a cone), all woven in and out. of music. The Help provided an overview of each device, making it easy to select each device in the mix. Most cheap wireless speakers will turn such a complex mix into mush, obscuring the differences between the devices.
Walking around the Help while playing “Rose” and other tunes, I was pleased to hear that the treble didn’t change much as I moved; It sounds really good from behind. Front-firing drivers can’t produce the omnidirectional dispersion that some smart speakers offer, but Assist’s small drivers and smart transitions create a dispersion that’s really wide – sounds good to me. room.
More technically demanding recordings, such as Drake’s single “Good For What” (320kbps Ogg Vorbis, Premium/Spotify), pushed Assist closer to its limits. While the deep electric bass sounds on this record are clear and powerful, as are the deep double riffs on a Holly Cole track, the electric kick drum — which is higher than the bass notes — – by Help. a compressor and/or strap to kick in and hug the drum sound so we can hear it. It probably bothers me more than an experienced speaker, because I can hear this effect when measuring the output of subwoofers, but of course you need something else if you want to throw a party.
The only song I thought Assist could work with as a background music speaker was a well-recorded piece of music – like the second movement of Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto No. 1 in F, RV 433, “La tempesta di mare,” performed by Emmanuel Pahud and Richard Tognetti conducting the Australian Chamber Orchestra (320kbps Ogg Vorbis, Warner Classics/Spotify). Overall, the recording sounded good, none of the instruments were too colorful or out of place — but I missed the detail, atmosphere and space I felt from the recording on this one. through a proper stereo system.
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A serious competitor to the Polk Assist is the Sonos One ($199), a two-way speaker with Amazon Alexa built in (Sonos says it will add Google Assistant later this summer). I don’t have a Sonos One, although I have used it at a friend’s house. I think it sounds great, but its microphone and processor are a bit lacking; I found that many times I had to get within 6′ of the One before he would respond to my voice commands.
I have a Sonos Play:1 wireless speaker ($149), which is the same size and configuration as the Sonos One but not
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