Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

38 OCTOBER 2019|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 380

POLKAudio

CommandBar

★★★★★

£229•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

SOUNDBAR AND SUBWOOFER

DRIVERS (^3) • RMSPOWEROUTPUT260W•DIMENSIONS
51x1,091x102mm(soundbar),367x188x368mm(subwoofer)•
WEIGHT2.3kg(soundbar),3.9kg(subwoofer)•DOCK
CONNECTORNone•NETWORKINGBluetooth,802.11ac
Wi-Fi•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILS
en.polkaudio.com•PARTCODECOMMANDUK

SPECIFICATIONS

THEÛOAERNËOl·NpEis inundated with

remotecontrols. Remotes foryour TV,

remotes foryour speakers, foryour set-top

box, home theatre receiver,Blu-rayplayer,

robot vacuum and streaming sticks. And, no

matter what you do,theynever seem to be

where you need them when you want to sit

down, kick back and relax.

This is aproblem that the

Command Bar aims to solve.It’s a

soundbar with built-in Amazon

Alexa support, so you can ditch

the remote, including the one

that comes in the box, in favour

of voice controls.

SMARTEN UP

Essentially,the Command Bar is agiant Echo

speaker that just happens to resemble a

soundbar.Itmeasures 1,091mm wide,sois

suitable forTVs from 49in in size,and its

low height of 51mm means that it can

comfortably sit on your media unit without

obscuring your view of the screen. It can be

wall-mounted, too.

In the box is aseparatewireless

subwoofertodeliver explosions and in-

movie rumblings, and this is reasonably

small and neat, too–around the size of a

wastepaper bin. Connectivity is decent.

In addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have

all the connections you’d expect asoundbar

to have.Atthe rear of the bar,inasmall

cutout, is apair of HDMI 2.0b inputs, plus

one HDMI ARC-enabled output, an optical

input and afull-size USB port capable of

powering accessories up to 9W.

Handily,one of those HDMI inputs is

mounted sideways, and there’s enough

space next to it to accommodateaTV

streamer,soyou can fit and power an

Amazon Fire TV Stick without needing

cables dangling all over the place.

As asmart speaker specifically,itworks

great, and not solely forregular Alexa

requests. Youcan use it to turn on smart

light bulbs, set timers and add items to your

shopping list –asyou

can with all Alexa-based

speakers –but the big bonus is

that you can also use your voice as a

regular remotecontrol when watching TV.

Youcan ask Alexa to turn the volume up

and down, pause and play, skip back and

forward, and switch inputs; most of what you

can do with the soundbar’s regular infrared

remotecontrol, in other words. It’s afantastic

thing to live with, and you quickly get used to

using your voice to do everything you would

normally do with the remotecontrol.

SOUNDANDVISION

As aregular soundbar,the Command Bar is

simple but effective.It’s a2.1 unit, so it can’t

deliver true surround sound like more

expensive soundbar setups, but it has all

the tools to deliver significantly enhanced

sound compared to built-in TV speakers.

There’s 160W of Class Damplification in

the soundbar,driving apair of 3in-wide oval

mid/woofers and two 1in tweeters. In the

subwoofer, there’s a100W Class Damp

driving a6.5in woofer.

Together,itall sounds rather nice –

perhaps not as detailed as Samsung’s

selection of high-end soundbars, nor as

musical as the Cambridge Audio TV2

(Shopper353) or the QAcoustics Media 4

(Shopper373), but forjust £229 it’s pretty

good. Voices come through clearly in the

centre even though there are no dedicated

centre channel drivers and, when you’re

struggling to make them out, you can boost

them using the Voice Adjust feature.

Youcan tweak the bass up and

down, too, and there are three presets to

choose from: Movie,Sports and Night modes,

the latter of which reduces the bass intensity

so you can watch lateatnight without

disturbing the neighbours.

The subwooferisalso surprisingly

proficient. Although it’s relatively light and

feels insubstantially constructed, it delivers

low-end material with gusto. Almost too

much, in fact: we had to reduce the bass

level significantly when listening to music, or

risk drowning out everything else.

There are afew negatives. First, the

buttons on the remoteare abit spongy,and

second, the wireless subwooferwould

occasionally fail to hook up with the soundbar

when powering up the system. Most of the

time this would rectify itself within aminute

or two (and re-pairing is asimple process),

but it’s asmall annoyance to be sure.

Finally,while the Command Bar supports

most Alexa features, it doesn’t support every

single one.You can’t, forinstance,use it for

calls or Drop In and, although it supports

Alexa multiroom with Tune-in and Amazon

Music, it won’t work with Spotify just yet.

BEST BARNONE

Forthe money, however,there are few

soundbars that come close to the Polk Audio

Command Bar forvalue.It’s practically

unbeatable at its price: while the Media 4

sounds superb and costs £187,itdoesn’t

come with aseparatesubwooferorAlexa

compatibility,and the Sonos Beam (Shopper

370) –which does have Alexa support –isa

lot less affordable at £399.Since nothing else

on the market offers this much forsolittle,

it’s our new favouritelow-cost soundbar,and

thoroughly deserves its Best Buy award.

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VERDICT

Partsoundbar,partsmartspeaker,and

amazinglygoodvalue,theCommandBarwill

beanexcellentadditionto yourlivingroom

The big bonus is thatyou can also use your voiceasa

regular remotecontrol when watching TV