Polk Audio React Sound Bar, Dolby & DTS Virtual Surround Sound, Next Gen Alexa Voice Engine with Calling & Messaging Built-In, Expandable to 5.1 with Matching React Subwoofer & SR2 Surround Speakers

I previously tried a different brand sound bar with Alexa that was less expensive and had issues connecting to network. I use a separate vlan for IoT devices and suspect that was the issue, but the bar may have been defective. Either way, this one connected through the Alexa app instantly and works perfect. Connected to TV at first without the subwoofer and was really impressed by the sound from this bar. Great sound and surprising bass overall for as small and inexpensive as it is. Connecting to the sub took maybe 30 seconds and it added a lot on the low end. Alexa works just like any of my other echos, listens well and responds accurately. When I change sound mode she speaks the mode but it is not loud and looks like they fixed that issue. Sound is pretty good for a sound bar, definitely built for vocals. Lots of mids which is not the best for listening to music if you are looking for audiophile quality but I have no complaints. TV dialog is much clearer than TV speakers and the sub adds great bass extension. Remote is nice, recessed buttons are a bit odd but it works good and doesn't feel cheap. Only wish I had was there was better settings control in the app that would match the ability of a regular echo. Limited but not limiting. Overall highly recommend and would definitely purchase again.

I'll start off by saying I generally done write reviews but I felt compelled with this system. Since forever I have always but a dedicated stereo system person but was looking for something more stream line for my living room. I did purchase the entire kit (sound bar, sub, surrounds). For the price point this system absolutely blew me away. For $189 this sound bar is AMAZING, the center channel can be a little muddy at times but that's virtually its only fallback. The sub punches WAY above its class comparable to the 10in sub I had in my tv setup before. The surrounds are probably the weakest link in this system. The fact they are wireless is the reason I got them. My setup only allows for wireless currently. The sound output is a bit underwhelming but they do get the point across. As for connectivity of the sound bar the Bluetooth works great. As for Alexa I can't comment as I don't use it.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my father who has some difficulty hearing. I saw that the Polk soundbar had a separate volume adjustment for voices, so thought this would be helpful. Setup was straightforward. I setup the bar on a stand directly beneath the TV that is wall mounted and connected it to the TVs ARC HDMI port. The TV immediately recognized the sound bar and switched audio from the TV to the sound bar. The original TV remote now adjusted the level of the soundbar perfectly so my parents don't have to use 2 remotes. I turned on some television shows and tested the voice volume control. It made a significant difference! Without increasing the volume of everything, it was able to raise just the level of the voices. I was expecting this feature to be more of a gimmick, but I was genuinely impressed! Playing a movie with some explosions, the soundbar did well. There was no audible distortion at moderately loud volumes and it produced significantly more bass than the TV speakers. It's not room shaking bass, but rather a full sound and not "tinny". Voices sounded natural and deep. The added subwoofer would undoubtedly make a nice addition though. The soundbar also has Alexa built in. This is not a feature my parents intend on using, but is there for those interested. I was able to mute Alexa so it doesn't talk, but to fully turn it off, it seems like you need to download the Alexa app which I did not do. The one thing I found slightly annoying was the light on the unit. There doesn't appear to be a simple way to turn it off. It might be in the Alexa app, but I'm not sure. Overall I recommend this soundbar and the voice volume feature in particular makes this great for those that are hard of hearing.

If you know how to really take advantage of this thing - if for example you want to tell your TV soundbar to check that your front door is locked, read an email while you're cooking, alert you about scheduled reminders, play multi-room sync music across your entire house, and behave like a normal TV soundbar, then buy this. This is an Alexa device on steroids and its the best value for an Alexa enabled soundbar. The microphones pick up from very far across the room - it's as good as the Gen 4 Alexa devices as far as mics. It has Hdmi Arc, Bluetooth if you need it. And the subwoofer works flawlessly and has much deeper subsonic levels than an equivalently priced Sony wireless sub I bought 7 years ago. Also - the sub syncs wirelessly to the soundbar *and* works with Alexa for multi-room sync at the same time. I bought this at launch and there was one significant software bug that was fixed by a OTA update that I and others reported. The fact that a soundbar is receiving OTA software updates at all, is impressive. You need know that you cannot change the prompt word from "Alexa" to anything else. This is pretty ridiculous if your smart home is setup well, but I was told that Amazon is blocking developers from programming for this. I promise you that the Bose and Sonos equivalently enabled smart soundbars do not sound "better" than this unless you also think that wine tasters can taste the difference between an expensive wine and a basic, respectable wine. The sound fidelity and separation on this soundbar is money well spent because this is the point at which spending anything extra begins to offer meaningless additional acoustic or practical software advantages.

All buttons on the remote are hard to push. When I take time and make sure buttons are depressed properly, the React Surround bar does not always respond. The sport mode is the only mode that supplies a definitive indication via a light that the listening mode changes. The other 3 can only be determined by the change of the audio. Sometimes the SR2 surround speakers worked. They were always connected via Bluetooth (no loss of pairing). I called support 4 times. At first they tried to say it was my source, Netfix, Youtube, the TV itself or other settings or connections. I complied with there requests to change / check these to no avail. Finally I insisted on talking to a supervisor. He seemed to listen as opposed to previous techs. He decided it was my SR2 speakers. Fine, except I experienced other issues with the sound bar itself. Loss of sound entirely and other unexplainable problems which I explained to him in detail. Based on these last issues with the sound bar alone (and my background in related disciplines) I believe that the sound bar itself is defective. I am returning my SR2 speakers (I just bought) and selling my React sound bar (past the return window, but there is plenty of warranty on the bar itself). Because I spent hours (literally) trying to resolve the issues and don't want to maybe have the same issues with replacements. I am reconnecting my old Samsung system which works perfectly In short if you like the Alexa feature, don't plan on adding speakers and feel lucky go for it.

1. First of all, with or without Alexa, this sound bar is worth it. It blows away the "tinny" empty sound of most built in TV speakers. The increase in bass is quite obvious, but so is the mid-range and treble and it has much more depth. Speech is much more clear. Great for everyone including 2 family members who have mild hearing impairments. Variety of adjustments available is excellent which should be capable of meeting just about anyone's needs. 2. I used the HDMI ARC connection. I had to switch my satellite input from HDMI ARC to HDMI 2. Once I did this everything just coordinated itself including switching my TV speakers off and using my TV remote for the soundbar. Very simple to hook up in a matter of minutes. 3. Almost instant connection to Alexa and my wifi. I had no problems mentioned in other posts. Tiny light in front of bar on is no distraction as far as I'm concerned and Alexa only speaks to me when I need. Great integration with Alexa. Needless to say, I am very pleased with this purchase and highly recommend it!

TL/DR: this product has so much great potential, and as an entry-level home-theater soundbar (HDMI/ARC) it is superb. Where it fails (badly) is in the Alexa integration. Sound quality is exceptional for a budget sound bar. I am using it with the React subwoofer (the only sub you can use it with), and the sound is well above average in this segment, and exceptional for the price, especially at Amazon Warehouse prices. Definitely punching above its weight in this price category. Sound is superior to the comparable Sonos and Bose (yes, really) units, which surprised me. This was also significantly less expensive than either, and would be very good value if it worked the way any Alexa-enabled speaker should, which it sadly does NOT. I picked it up from Amazon warehouse for under a hundred bucks. Scored the sub for a little over that. A very good deal. ...And now I know why. It sure would have been nice if somewhere in the product description they would have pointed out that this device DOES NOT SUPPORT APPLE MUSIC OR SIRIUS XM. The description states: "React enjoys the deepest Alexa integration in the sound bar category." This is simply not the case - common apps are disabled and do not function. This is not "deep integration". Commonly-used apps which work on other Echo devices are intentionally disabled by the manufacturer. Not cool, Polk. It is in fact, extremely uncool. All the returns resulting in lots of used purchase options make sense. I bought this to replace a dying Echo device with something with better sound. I did not purchase it for home theater purposes (I already have a home theater setup with polk audio floorstanding loudspeakers). I simply wanted an Alexa-enabled device to use like an Echo, but with more oomph for listening to music. This seemed like a great alternative solution. I love being able to use my voice to control Apple Music on other Alexa devices. Unfortunately Polk Audio seems to have a relationship with Spotify (they suggest using Spotify right in the user manual) which precludes allowing Apple music to function natively on this device, even though it is configured to do so in the Alexa app. The device issues an Apple Music-specific error when you ask it to play something from Apple Music: "Apple Music is not supported on this device". I have included a video of the device issuing this hard stop message. I am knocking 2 stars off because Polk Audio (of whom I am otherwise a huge fan), has intentionally configured this device's firmware to prevent it from playing Apple Music, and has stated in an email to me they will not enable it. So uncool. Here is Polk's official response to the Apple Music issue after wasting hours on the phone with several different "support technicians", and email correspondence with a senior tech. Note that NONE of them had a clue what they were talking about, and all initially expressed surprise it did not work. "As per further checking, the Polk React Soundbar is not compatible with both Apple Music on the Amazon Alexa Application Skilling and Apple Airplay. The only way it can play Apple Music as a source is through wireless bluetooth connection. It does support Spotify Connect and should play music content or source using the said application." (*Note: I do not use Apple AirPlay, but if you do, you are apparently also hosed.) It also cannot seem to play Sirius XM, despite relinking my account in the Alexa app twice. It tries and fails to play, resulting in about ten seconds of silence followed by another frustrating error message. These services both work on my other Echo devices. What good is an Alexa-enabled speaker that can't play Apple Music or Sirius XM stations? Polk audio just went down a notch in my books. The video I added demonstrates both errors, the XM error first, then the Apple Music error. Knocking another star off forgo XM Support. Lost another star for this. We're down to TWO stars now. I am knocking an additional star off for three unrelated technical issues: 1) Despite the fact that it *looks* like there is an Echo Dot nestled in the middle of the soundbar, this is NOT the case. Polk is simply mimicking the look of the top of an Echo dot. The microphone inside is NOWHERE NEAR near as good. Even a first-gen dot can hear me in another room 30 feet away when I speak normally. The mic in this device does not offer that level of performance. Standing in the kitchen, 20 feet from the React soundbar, I asked it to tell me the weather. It did not respond--but the first-gen Echo Dot in another room about 30 feet away did (it continues to surprise me with how well it works, 8 years after I bought it). This is a persistent issue. The mic in this soundbar just sucks. Disappointing. 2) Initial setup in the Alexa app failed the first time each time I had to do it, once when I first unboxed and set it up, and again when the Polk tech asked me to factory reset it. The second attempt worked in both cases. Be patient - it will work the second time. 3) The soundbar seems to occasionally have issues staying connected to my Wi-Fi, despite being located THREE INCHES from the router (see photos) . This has happened once per day for a short period of time since I got it. It self-corrects in a few minutes. Frustrating. Due to all these issues, the remaining one lonely star is all there is left, and it is solely attributed to sound quality: this thing sounds GOOD. When paired with the sub, it would make a fantastic entry-level home theater setup. If only it could actually play the only two music services I actually use... To be clear, you are able to stream to the soundbar from a phone or tablet via Bluetooth if you want to play Apple Music or Sirius XM that way - you just cannot use your voice to control it. Native Alexa functionality in the soundbar for these apps is simply disabled. I hope Polk Audio sees this review and makes the choice to issue an over-the-air update (this device is capable of receiving them) enabling Apple Music and Sirius XM. If they ever do, I will update this review and add the deducted stars related to this issue back in. At this time, Polk has officially told me they will not be doing this, so chances of this are essentially zero. In summary, this product has so much great potential, and as an entry-level home-theater soundbar it is superb. Where it fails (badly) is in the Alexa integration. If you are buying it for this, you will be disappointed. If you are looking for something to use with your home theater setup, and you do not mind streaming audio (music) to it from another source (or if you have Amazon Music, Spotify, or Tidal), you will be delighted at the excellent sound quality. In fact, this setup has so much potential giving it a one-star review just feels unfair, so out of sheer mercy I added a second star back in: two stars. Additional note: The React Soundbar certainly does react ...to other IR remotes. I have a Roku IR remote for a Roku TV, and when I adjust the volume on the tv, it also adjusts the soundbar's volume. I do not mean as a result of the volume in the TV changing, I mean the 0-100 volume setting of the soundbar is changed. The bar lights up on the front as though you were using the actual React remote. Thoroughly annoying. I know this is the case because I do not use the soundbar with the TV - it is not connected to it. Not recommended if you were hoping to stream Apple music or Sirius XM from it. Not recommended if you are expecting Echo-like far-field microphone performance--not happening. Otherwise great for home theater (HDMI/ARC) use.

I bought this soundbar expecting great sound, as one always expects from Polk. This soundbar does the trick but, frankly, about as good as any other no-name soundbar would. I have it installed in my home office and it works well for playing music in the background or watching TV from my desk. It's nothing special, though; the volume isn't loud enough, not rich enough. I do not feel like I satisfied my need to having a good sounding system to play Spotify with quality sound and the sensation I get is that I just improved how my TV sounds. For clarity sake, I'm not expecting high-end sound from a sub-$100 bar, but I am comparing this against an identical setup I have elsewhere with a similarly-priced Yamaha soundbar and the Polk sound like a Walmart-branded product compared to the Yamaha. So, it is definitely an improvement over my TV's speakers but by no means close to an engaging sound experience. I have debated on adding satellite speakers and a sub, but I think I'll cut my losses here, use this Polk bar in a bedroom or something and buy a better sounding system for my office.