Home > Consumer Reviews > Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2

I got the I-Sonic 2 just about a month ago and I am still amazed at how good this thing sounds. I got a Bose and a Cambridge at the same time, niether come close and are going back. It was great to do a comparision in my own home.

I read a lot of reviews on the first I-Sonic; best I can tell Polk has fixed all of the issues. It doesn't get hot, the display is easy to read, and the controls are so simple I have yet to open the manual.

The iPod dock works with my iPhone and my video iPod and my iPod has never sounded better. Really, you will be blown away by how good this system sounds. I have the unit in my bedroom and it is a perfect place to store my iPod when I get home; keeps it charged all the time.

The HD Radio works well with the single wire antenna provided with the system. I have tagged a bunch of sounds and bought a few from iTunes; very very cool feature even if you just use it to remeber a song.

I am very satisfied with the system and would highly recommend it to any iPod owner, its a perfect match.

I enjoy this system tremendously. Sounds great for such a small package. The firmware was outdated when I received it, and I quickly found out that Polk Audio no longer provides the firmware on their website for download. It seems too many people were having issues flashing the ROM. Basically because 1) they didn't read the directions and use a memory stick < 1Gb, and 2) if they had other files on the memory stick the I-Sonic would get a bit confused. I called Polk Audio and insisted they email me the firmware (They wanted to mail me a memory stick). I performed the upgrade without any problems using an old 128Mb stick I had lying around (made sure nothing else was on it). So you should be able to request the same from Polk Audio.

You'll have to look very hard to find a shelf unit with better sound than the iSonic ES2...I was blown away by the richness and depth of sound. When you hear companies use the words "room filling" when describing small stereos, you can believe it where this one is concerned. It can easily deliver high-quality sound to multiple rooms, and is helped by the separate bass/treble settings...that's a real plus compared to similar units that do not have them.

However, I was disappointed in the HD/FM/AM radio functions of this product. Despite multiple attempts and antenna placements, I did not have much luck in acheiving consistently clear sound from the FM band, even less luck with AM and the HD signal was only sporadic. One minute it produced fantastic sound just as advertised, but in the next it would revert to the standard FM signal making the iTunes tagging function useless (iTunes tagging only works in the HD mode). This flip back and forth from HD to FM on the same station was an annoyance, to say the least.

iPod playback was wonderful. The iSonic ES2 delivered a very clean transfer and I was impressed at the lack of noticeable volume loss between the HD radio and iPod audio (I had read about that complaint in other online reviews). That said, Polk needs to add a playlist toggling capability to the remote. As it stands, switching playlists requires manual adjustment on the iPod itself.

Finally, the clock function did not work. It allowed the time to be set, but upon hitting the time button to end the set function and begin clock operation, it stayed at the time that was entered.

Overall, I was as impressed as I could be with the sound quality of this unit...it's unsurpassed in this genre and exceeds the Bose Wave. But the shortcomings of its other features and functions left it a disappointment and $500 is simply way too much money to spend on nothing but superior iPod speakers. Polk would be smart to get rid of the HD radio and iTunes tagging and put the CD/DVD player back on the unit (the original iSonic had a CD/DVD drive but for some reason it was removed for the ES2 model).

First off, I would state that I am not an expert audiophile. Impressive sound for its size, however it does not sound better than a real home stereo system. I guess I was expecting a tiny bit more, due to some of the hype and other reviews. It plays fairly loud without distortion. I would say that the sound is clear, but lacking some fullness that would make it exceptional. It can easily fill a small room. The rear firing speakers do allow for less directional sound, so can sound ok from different listening locations, but of course you will not get great separation from a small box. Remote is quite small, but is ok.

I think the unit is a little pricy, especially since it does not include CD or DVD player. I bought this unit mainly to play music from MP3 player and will probably connect DVD/CD player. I wanted the best sound without having a big system to set up and take up a lot of room.

So, for someone who wants the best sound in a very small size, this would fit the bill. Again, just dont expect it to sound as good a real home theater system or stereo.

This is a really cool radio but it has too many bugs to be satisfying. After two weeks, I decided to return it.

I bought this radio to be used as a clock radio next to my bed. I intended to wake to music and often use the sleep function at night to fall asleep.

iPod Docking: The iPod docking is only compatible with certain iPods. When I spoke to Polk customer service, they said they had difficulty because Apple has changed to software several times. Polk has updated its firm ware to handle some of these issues but not all. I would visit the Polk website before purchase to be sure your iPod is compatible. Mine was not as it has a firewire interface. Also, the wake-to-music function does not support waking to iPod music - only radio or chime. The remote control intends to operate the iPod functions but this is flawed.

HD Radio: HD radio has many issues. When tuned to a radio station that transmits in HD, the radio first tunes to the analog signal then locks to HD when possible. This locking seems to be problematic even with a good analog signal. When in HD mode, the radio loses its lock often causing a momentary interruption of music if you are listening to the same programming on the HD and analog signal. If you are listening to HD 2 or 3 and the programming is different, the program switches from the HD 2 or 3 back to analog. This is annoying to say the least. It seems a cache memory would be helpful here as used on satellite radios, to smooth out the dropped signal and prevent momentary musical interruptions. I tried a couple of different antennas, powered and non-powered, but found the supplied di-pole to be the best. The overall HD reception needs work.

Clock Radio: This was the feature that seemed to be the simplest to get right and had the most issues. First, When the radio is on, the display for the clock is so small one can barely see it. Also, the display is very bright, even when set to the dimmest setting, it makes it hard to see at night. I had two instances where the radio did not come on to wake me in two weeks. This is simply unacceptable. The only option for waking is radio or chime. The unit does not wake to iPod. Setting the alarm is unfriendly (you have to go through many layers of button pushing) - this could be improved. Setting Sleep is also unfriendly as is is buried below several items on the scroll-through menu such as bass, treble, brightness, contrast and more. The remote provides direct access to Sleep but this function for some reason was inoperable on my unit.

Tag: This is cool if you are a marketer for iTunes. I see very little value in this function. If you do, know that this feature has certain prerequisites in order to function. First, the HD radio station must transmit the artist, album, and song info. Second, your iPod must be perfectly integrated with the iSonic to capture the information. Nice idea, but flawed.

Sound: fat and flabby. The radio certainly sounds nice in a bubble-gummy soft of way. The bass and spatial dispersion are both overemphasized to give the impression of great sound. Voices are hard to hear during newscasts.

Interaction with the unit features: Poor at best. Since this is a clock radio, one would think it would be easy to operate at night. It is not. First, the buttons are neither lighted nor glow-in-the-dark. Second, only the power button, source button and snooze/mute button have raised touch sensors. The remainder of the buttons are so smooth and close together, one cannot perceive any of them at night and are even hard to touch just the right button in well-lit conditions. The remote control seems to be the best way to interact with the radio but mine did work well.

Overall - this radio has so many cool and complex features but fails on many of them. Polk either should go back to the drawing board before selling to the public or simplify the design so that all of the released features work well then add more as they perfect them.

I certainly will not be Polk's guinea pig at a more than $300 price tag. Polk, let us know when you finish your R&D on this radio then maybe we can try again.