Polk Audio - Polk – Magnifi 2 Home Theater Sound Bar with 3D Audio, 4k Compatible, Chromecast built in, wireless subwoofer - Black

The Polk Audio MagniFi 2 Sound Bar & Wireless 8" Subwoofer... It provides connections via bluetooth, Wifi (Google Assistant & Amazon Alexa compatible), HDMI (3 HDMI inputs & 1 HDMI ARC), and optical. Bluetooth connectivity is very simple to setup and the radius of connectivity is pretty good; i was able to go down a floor into my basement with my phone and music was still playing with no noticeable lag or hitches. For Wifi connectivity, i was able to connect my Galaxy S10+ to get Google Assistant up and running. Asking Google to manage my devices throughout my house worked as intended! As for the HDMI ARC & passthrough ports, those worked as intended. Using HDMI ARC, i was able to control the volume with my TV's remote and having to avoid using multiple remotes. One thing to note about this is that only volume can be controlled by the TV remote and other features specific to the Polk sound bar can only be accessed via its own remote (e.g., bass, voice, etc.). Optical output also worked as intended and i was able to connect the sound bar to my computer to experience more immersive gaming sessions. This sound bar and subwoofer produces high quality mids and highs. The subwoofer is a tad bit underwhelming for bass heads like my brother, but for me it produces just enough lows to appreciate jump scare scenes and music. The voice feature of this sound bar helps to alleviate any issues with hearing inaudible voices when watching movies. I found this feature to be quite good compared to my LG SN6Y sound bar but not as good as my ZVOX SB500. Having this accessibility feature available is very much appreciated as now i do not need to use subtitles anymore to confirm what i cannot discern though audio. A few negative things i would like to mention are: -- The volume indicator and granularity... There are 10 white LED dots that represent the volume and each dot is given 10 individual levels, thus you can go from 0 volume all the way up to 100 volume. My issue here is that the visual indication for a dot are very indistinguishable (e.g., when going from volume 54 to 58 there is very slight noticeable difference in the indication of the volume). This experience makes it very hard to gauge whether or not i am actually changing the volume at all unless if i press the volume button multiple times to fine tune or just press and hold the button which often causes me to overshoot the intended volume by making it too loud or too low (thus causing me to resort back to multiple single presses on the button to fine tune)... The granularity is great for people with very acute hearing, however in my use case it causes the volume adjustments to be very tedious... -- The remote... Because it is not backlit, it makes for a tough experience if trying to manage other controls outside of volume which have a depressed shape that define what they are. I often find myself shining my phone's screen or flashlight at the remote in such settings in order to get the right sound profile when watching movies... -- When using Chromecast with Google TV connected into my TV's HDMI port and then the sound bar connected to via HDMI ARC, the sound bar's volume controls are not as responsive. Sometimes pressing the volume button multiple times does not register and i have to resort to pressing and holding the volume button on my Chromecast TV remote in order to get the volume to budge which then leads to me over/under shooting the intended volume. Not sure why this is the case, but with my other sound bars i do not encounter this issue. Overall, i would highly recommend this sound bar. Though i did list off a few negatives, the features and quality provided by the sound bar are quite a steal, especially when it is on sale!

This is my second soundbar, and has thus far became my favorite soundbar. My first concern was honestly how well the bass hit. Besides tv, I mostly use this to play music while working. While I listen to all types of music, when I'm working I tend to put on something that's a little more upbeat, and known for drops and bass. My old soundbar did ok, but the bass tended to "thud" for lack of a better word. This Polk system very rarely does that. Most of the bass comes out smooth and just flows. Only in very few cases at very high volumes does it have a "thud". Music is more than just bass though, and the sound coming out of the bar itself actually surprised me, in a really good way. It doesn't just come from the front of the bar, it sounds like it goes up from it also, almost surrounding you with the sound, even though it's not a true surround sound. It just fills the room. What about TV though. A lot of what I said still applies. I put on a couple movies from the Marvel and Star Wars libraries, and while they did sound really good, it's just not the same as a true multi-speaker surround sound system. This is a soundbar system though so its not really a great comparison. For what it is though, it does sound good and is great for a secondary room or when you just don't want to mess with a bunch of speakers. One thing that helps get you just the right sound is that there are 2 adjustments with their own buttons on the remote. Bass and Voice. Bass does what you expect, but its nice to not have to fumble through a menu. The voice button though, truly does amplify the voice. If the music or background sounds start drowning out the voice, just increase that level and you'll start to hear voices more clearly. Now let's get to setting it all up. This is actually one of the easiest setups I've gone through with any speaker. The biggest hiccup I had is that the subwoofer is supposed to come already paired to the soundbar, but mine wasn't, so I had to start the process myself. It's really simple to do though so it barely merits mentioning. Connecting it to WiFi is super easy too, especially because you don't have to download a proprietary app. All you need is Google Home, which if you have an Android phone you probably already have like I do. I just went in to it, selected to add a device and this Polk Magnifi 2 was already listed. And since my phone was already setup with my wifi, I didn't even have to dig out my password. Google just sent what it had to the soundbar automatically. Connecting to the sound source is just as easy too. For music, I connected my phone via bluetooth to play music. That connection happens fast and stayed flawless for hours while playing music. The TV connection, easy yet again. Especially with just a single cable using the HDMI ARC connection, which you'll want for best sound anyway. One cable and all I did was turn my TV on and change the speaker output and everything worked perfectly. Also good to note that this soundbar comes with a high speed HDMI cable as well as an Optic Audio cable. One thing that didn't work for me though, is that I couldn't use my TV's remote, at least not without going through a setup process. Polk says most newer major brand remotes should work out of the box, and since I have a newer Samsung Q70 QLed, I figured I'd be good, but it wasn't. Not at all a deal breaker though of any kind. Overall this is a great soundbar system that performed better than any soundbar I've owned before. With how easy it is to setup and just as easy to use, I can easily recommend this soundbar.

The Polk Magnify 2 is a great addition to your TV. I am impressed with this soundbar and wireless subwoofer system. I have a less expensive soundbar with a small built-in subwoofer that sounded pretty good but lacked a true low end. The Magnify 2 will give you a full sound stage that is crisp and clear with good separation. What it will not do is completely blow you away like a full 5 or 7.1 surround with a dedicated amp/receiver like some of my other systems have. I have several 5.1, 7.1 systems and a couple of soundbars. I am an audiophile type of person and I am impressed with the clarity of this Polk system. First, the unboxing and setup was fairly simple following the instructions that it came with. I mounted ours to my homemade bracket under my TV that is wall mounted with a fully articulating TV wall mount system in our bedroom. This is the only way to go folks. It lets you point the TV and soundbar in any direction you want at the same time. We watch TV in bed and sometimes on a couch that is on the other side of our bedroom. With this system since bass is omnidirectional, it works perfectly. I was able to easily set up our satellite receiver, TV and soundbar on our Universal remote without any issues. Besides drilling new holes in the mount everything was fairly easy. Once all set up we began watching some TV and were immediately impressed by the new sound we had in our bedroom. My wife said it sounds like a theatre in here. I also connected to the soundbar with the Google Home app and it immediately asked if I wanted to sync with my SiriusXM service which I did. Additionally, I chose YouTube music as the default music streaming service since we have the YouTube premium service. With that, you can connect to the Google Home app and can jump into the YouTube Music app from there. You can also cast from other apps like SiriusXM by touching the cast button from within those apps. What I did find somewhat disappointing though is that there is not a full-blown Google assistant built into the speaker like I thought there was. You need to have a separate Google Home speaker to enable a fully functional google assistant and a regular Chromecast is still needed to cast pictures and videos. The built-in Chromecast is just for casting music. Which to me is still a great feature but you can just use Bluetooth to do that as well which works with any app or source from your phone while the Chromecast feature is limited to certain apps. The only issue we have had with it so far is it seems to automatically turn off after a set amount of time. I will need to look into that and see if it is something I can disable so it does not go out of sync with our universal remote and the other hardware in our system. We do not want to have to be using the soundbar remote to turn it back on all the time when are just taking a break from watching TV and have it paused between shows. Another thing I would like to see is an app that goes with the system to give me more control over the sound settings to fine-tune it more with an EQ. I also have read an article that stated there is supposed to be some wireless Polk SR2 speakers coming out for this system in January of 2021. Overall, we are very happy with our new sound system it is a big improvement over our stand-alone soundbar that did not have a separate subwoofer. This system will give you a great soundstage and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a simple solution to creating a full range of theatre-like experience without having to run wires. Since the subwoofer is wireless and the Polk SR2 surround speakers that are supposed to be coming out soon are also wireless it is very easy to get set up!

I am comparing my experience with 4 different brands of sound bars that I currently own. The ones that I own are in price range between $400- $800. Polk MagniFi2 has lot more features compared to the one's that I have, which were released in 2018 - 2020. MagniFi2 one has a small footprint and delivers the same sound experience as the bigger ones that I own. I am not new to Polk as I do own their floor standing speakers in my home theatre room and can attest to their quality. If you are looking for a high performance branded sound bar with a low price tag, Polk MagniFi2 is the right choice. This soundbar delivers 200W power (peak power) and gives you the home theatre experience for small to mid-size rooms without compromising on the quality of sound. The wireless subwoofer performance is on par with the ones in the market that are in the same price range. I rate it 5/5 in terms of value to price given the features it offers and the number of inputs on this sound bar Physical appearance and installation (5/5): Small foot print, low profile, wall mountable with just one HDMI cable plugged into the TV and set-up was a breeze, just took me 5 mins to link-up all my devices and configure the inbuilt Chromecast. The soundbar has a low profile and doesn't obstruct the view if you decide to place it in front of your TV. It detected the wireless sub-woofer automatically at power up and I didn't have to worry about linking them manually. I didn't have any issues configuring the inbuilt Chromecast on my google app and I was able to stream music from youtube, pandora, and amazon music right away. Inputs (6/5): Not many soundbars offers that many inputs as offered by this sound bar. It has 3 HDMI inputs (4k compatible) with an additional TV (ARC) input along with TV optical input and a bluetooth option. I always struggled to have all my devices (Gaming, media, Blu-ray players, etc.) connected to my TV/AV receiver and Polk solved this problem with 3 HDMI inputs. I now have those devices routed through the Polk sound bar in my living room. The remote is pretty handy and has lot more options -you can adjust bass, voice, mode (movie/music/sport/night), switch HDMI inputs, etc. These functions are typically available on AV receivers buts it's good to see these functions on a sound bar, for those who want the same experience as a home theatre but want to avoid the bulky receivers and speakers. I also have the remote programmed to control my TV power as well. Audio (5/5): Polk boosts about its patented SDA (Stereo Dimensional Array), which is somewhat similar to the 5.1 surround system. I played the Dark Knight and Avatar 3D movie and did notice the 3D surround sound effect . I found their Voice Adjust function pretty interesting, it's like dialogue enhancer - lowers the background music volume and similar the night mode function on my AV receiver. The subwoofer packs a punch and I was amazed on its bass output given its small footprint. I did notice the voice was a little muffled when I turned on the volume and bass to max levels, but again this not an ideal setting for the living room. Overall (5/5) the soundbar offers high quality audio for a small price tag. I am impressed by the amount of bass this little sound bar delivers and definitely would recommend this soundbar for people looking for a budget soundbar without compromising on sound quality.

>> Summary Even though our main Vizio 65” TV built-in Speakers work fine for news and some TV shows, we really missed the experience that comes with a good Sound System, especially when watching movies and Netflix programs. We have an old 5.1 sound speaker system connected to our other older TV, and you can tell the difference in sound quality. So, I decided to go for the Polk MagniFi 2 as the sound speaker system for my main TV. Experience overall has been great, wife and kid are very happy now, the device can fill a big room with deep and clear sound and we have a blast watching movies and our favorite shows as well as listening to music on YouTube or from the phone through Bluetooth connectivity. Bass is superb, it beats hands down my old 5.1 which also has a subwoofer. Surround capabilities are great, but of course the lack of back speakers makes it feel not as “surround” as the 5.1 system we have, yet it is still very enjoyable. For a soundbar, I was pleased that it could deliver such sound. - Pros: amazing bass, surround feeling, voice enhancement (for most purposes), easy connectivity, easy to move around (if needed). - Cons: few equalization options (only some preset modes). >> Box Contents Weird looking package, box shaped like a small arcade machine. Fortunately, the contents inside were well protected and all came fine. Subwoofer is kind of heavy, but solid construction (heaviness justified on how deep the sound was). The soundbar feels of very good quality and well-constructed. I am happy with the Polk craftsmanship. Nice to have HDMI and Optical cables in the box, they allow for easy connecting the TV (TV-ARC or TV-eARC modes). >> Setup After unpacking, I recommend doing a quick (or slow) read of the Quick Start Guide that comes in the package, it will make you aware of what this device is capable of and help you decide your best configuration. The initial test I did, involved just powering, first the soundbar and next the subwoofer, next having the subwoofer connect to the soundbar, and then connecting the soundbar to a music source using Bluetooth (music source being a phone). What a powerful sound system this ended up being! We listened to a several songs enjoying the sound quality and, thanks to the bass, really “feeling” the music. After the initial test and as expected, since the Polk MagniFi 2 was destined for my main TV, I used the HDMI TV-ARC mode to connect the TV to my Polk MagniFi 2 (it can also do eARC mode, read the Quick Start Guide on how to do it). Sound coming out of the soundbar was quite an improvement to our experience. >> Connectivity It has plenty of connectivity options for a soundbar: 3 HDMIs, 1 HDMI ARC and 1 optical, as well as Bluetooth connectivity. Easy to move from one connection to another, and have multiple devices connect directly to the soundbar as opposed to connect to the TV and then to the soundbar. >> Voice enhancement Extremely useful feature when watching HD/4K content on Netflix and cable TV. I watched one Metallica concert on Netflix and if I wanted James’ (front man) voice to be more audible, this feature would make it, so I wouldn’t miss hearing, loud and clear, some of the most famous lyrics. In addition, voice narration in documentaries can be truly aided with this feature as it can make the description easier to understand, and if you don’t want to hear some annoying voice, you can even lower the voice as well and concentrate on the music. I am not sure how the technology works or how it does its job, but don’t expect YouTube music videos to be enhanced with this feature, something similar happened to a few songs we played while connected through Bluetooth. >> Bass What a blast to listen to it with its very powerful subwoofer. The first time we tried we did it with music coming through Bluetooth, we felt like being in a concert. We put the bass to the max to the point that all of us got sick of so much sound hammering our bodies were taking. We needed to rest for a bit before going back to more “normal” bass level. >> Portability Although it is intended to be used for our main TV, we see no reason to move the Polk MagniFi 2 soundbar to another room if we want to experience some music, for example. Next party (after the pandemic), we are planning on moving temporarily the soundbar and the subwoofer to the next room and have a blast of a party with some music videos projecting on the wall! >> Other thoughts The only thing it would have been great to have is more equalization options or control. It is expected that those options to be available more on the source side, e.g. a receiver. A couple of times in the past few days, and even with the Voice enhancing option, while watching some programs, the voice level would be lower than the surrounding sound making it a little hard to follow the dialogs. This is not an excuse to give this soundbar a 4/5, so I am keeping the 5/5 rating.

Polk Magnifi 2 Home Theater Sound Bar is a a good choice for a small compact sound bar. It has clear highs and the sub woofer captures all the low bass. My only complaint was that I had to attach the fiber optic cable to get sound to the sound bar. Attaching just the HDMI cable did not allow sound to process through.

I was desperately in need of a better sound option for my TV setup in my home office. The Polk Audio MagniFi 2 sound bar overall was a great option to fulfill my needs. Whether I'm watching a movie or simply need a quality speaker to stream audio from Spotify, the Polk Audio does a great job. PROS Inputs - While there are various inputs (3.5mm, HDMI, Optical), the HDMI port is the most relevant for connecting your TV to this device. The HDMI ARC is a real win here as I can simply use one remote to control the TV and the sound bar's audio. Compared to my previous setup before this sound bar, I cannot tell you how awesome this is. Wireless Connectivity - Bluetooth and Wi-Fi makes playing streaming audio on this sound bar convenient. While the Bluetooth feature works well, I ended up using the other third-party compatibility to play streaming audio from Spotify. It works well and sounds great. Punchy Bass - The wireless subwoofer is a great upgrade for me. The extra bass I can get when listening to music or watching movies is perfect. Though the bass is not as powerful as I would have hoped, it does a great job. Furthermore, the woofer is wireless. This means I was able to set it across the room next to a chair so it is not in the way or in plain sight. Nice Design - Overall, I like the way the sound bar and subwoofer look. I know it may kind of sound silly, but there are some pretty ugly sound bars on the market. This is one of the better looking ones. CONS Remote Control - I don't like that the buttons on the remote are basically all flush without real tactical buttons. Sure, there are some indentations like on the master volume toggle, but overall I think this is a bit of a cumbersome setup - especially when using in a dark room. Sound Bar Grill - I'm not much of a fan of the grill that wraps around the sound bar. I feel like it's easy for dust to get caught up on it and I will eventually have to use a small vacuum instead of a duster. Time will tell, but I much prefer a more metal casing like you find with some leading competitors. OVERALL This sound bar was an awesome upgrade to a cheapy that I previously had in my home office. It certainly provides better sound and the wireless subwoofer adds kick of bass with the flexibility of letting me place it anywhere in the room. If you are looking to upgrade a low-end sound bar or enhance your TV's sound if you do not have a sound bar at all, then the Polk MagniFi 2 would be a nice option.

I had the Polk magnifi Sr sold that and upgraded to the magnifi 2. . All I can say is the 3D feature they added to the Soundbar plus the added 200 watt with the new more powerful sub sounds incredible. Sound effects for adding height virtually in my opinion is much better than Sony's offerings that I've tried. When Polk comes out with the surround speakers for this system this is going to be hard to beat for the price. I'm not going to miss Dolby Atmos I've had three sound bars with that feature and I'm not impressed. The virtual height surround feature on this Soundbar blows it away. . Powerful and very loud. highly recommended.