110 MACWORLD FEBRUARY 2020
PLAYLIST REVIEW: POLK LEGEND L100Note the
“turbine”
dimples in the
woofer. It’s a bit
more difficult
to discern the
spire in the
middle of the
tweeter.during normal listening, at least with
high-fidelity material. That said, if you’re a
mid-range junkie, aka, a JBL fan, you
might find the L100’s frequency
reproduction a bit flat for your tastes. I’m
talking faint impressions here, but I had
that thought when listening, so I thought
I’d pass it along.
I could babble on about sound field,
isolation and so-on—so I will for just a
bit. I found it particularly easy to pick
out individual instruments in all sorts of
material (orchestral, rock, dance, etc.)
as well as hear what processing had
taken place.
Indeed, if you’re an EDM composer
and want to know when you’re over the
top with your side-chain compression
(using a signal from a second source to
modulate compression on the
primary material), the L100 will let
you know. You won’t find
anything much more accurate
outside of studio monitors. If all
that is meaningless to you, that’s
my very roundabout way of
saying the L100 are darn
accurate (in a musical way) in
their reproduction.
BOTTOM LINE
If you have the cash, I can safely
say you’ll enjoy listening to Polk’s
Legend L100 bookshelf
speakers, and they can handle a fair
amount of volume without spoiling the
party. Then again, I can say that for
significantly cheaper speakers—such as
Yamaha’s self-powered HS
studio monitors that I use.
But those don’t radiate sound
around the room the way the
L100 do, which is an important
consideration if you’re not
planning on sitting dead center
all the time—like when you’re
dancing around the room
because of the L100’s supremely
well-tuned bass (and an
appropriately catchy tune).
These are very, very good-
sounding speakers from Polk.
Give them a listen. ■mmmmh
Polk Legend L100
PROS- Great, well-rounded sound.
- Highly accurate
reproduction. - Rear-port dispersion unit
does great things for the
bass.
CONS - Oversized cabinets (largely
due to the rear bass
dispersion panel). - Pricey.
PRICE
$1,199
COMPANY
Polk Audio