Polk Audio N1 Sound Bar – Tech Review

As the gaming industry continues to evolve into a multi-billion dollar industry, we are seeing a technological boom in the accessories department. Now the folks at Polk Audio have given us the N1 Gaming Sound Bar, which was developed with Polk Audio’s engineers and the folks at Microsoft, Turn 10 Studios (Forza 5), and 343 Industries (Halo 4). The colloaborations was intended to bring to the life the sound quality that the developers imagined when they were developing thier games. Through this partnership spawned what Polk touts as a truly customized gaming sound bar that features built-in gaming immersion modes for optimized audio. We were lucky enough to get our hands on the N1 gaming sound bar and we quickly set it up to our Xbox One to check out the results.

Key Features:

• Customized, optimized audio built in: Tailor your audio experience with four Immersion Modes (Forza Racer, Halo FPS, Music and Cinema).
• Gold-plated 3.5mm connector is designed to fit through the opening on all i-gadget cases
• Includes Home Audio Receiver Adaptor, Airplane Adaptor with specially designed attenuator to optimize airline system performance
• Dual binding posts allow bi-amp or bi-wire connections, for the ultimate in customized high performance audio
• Innovative no-tip hex-head floor spikes make speaker leveling easy on any flooring
• Dimensions: 4″ H x 39 1/4″ W x 4 1/2″ D (10.16 cm x 99.7 cm x 11.43 cm)
• Easy connections: optical, coaxial, 3.5mm analog, Bluetooth with aptX
• Easy shelf mounting, with built-in keyhole slots for wall-mounting
• Works with your current remote thanks to SmartBar ™ programming

Setup:

The Polk Audio N1 Gaming Sound Bar is one of the simplest setup’s we have encountered. Designed to be plugged directly into your gaming console you are ready to go within minutes. If you want to mount the unit on your wall, it does have very easy shelf mounting capabilities, with built-in keyhole slots for wall mounting. If you want to just rest it on a shelf or an entertainment center you will be ready for an audio experience with a setup of time of less than 10 minutes.

Design:

The Polk N1 Gaming Sound Bar is a single-speaker gaming audio system that is designed and engineered in collaboration with Microsoft and the developers of the incredible sound design of best-selling games like Halo and Forza. The N1 Sound bar is not your typical looking sound bar as it features an inverted trapezoidal frame which provides a very stylish and sleek design that looks great either mounted or resting on a stand. The front has horizontal plastic slats that serve as the sound bar’s grille. The N1 is held up on two small, stable legs that can be removed if you choose to go with a wall mount.

The control panel holds the Power, Learn, Source, Bluetooth, Mute, and Volume Up/Down buttons. The Learn button is a nifty feature that will put the N1 into learning mode so you can program it to recognize your HDTV’s remote commands. Even though the N1 is simply tuned to augment the Xbox One experience with Kinect voice control and sound profiles, it is also compatible with PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, PCs, cable boxes, stereo receivers, and pretty much any audio device capable of outputting Stereo sound, Dolby Digital, or 5.1 Surround via an Optical cable, Coaxial cable, or 1/8″ standard audio jack. To add some bass to the audio quality, Polk included their exclusive built-in Full Complement Sub Bass Drive technology so you do not need a separate subwoofer. However, Polk does recommend adding a PS10 or PSW110 subwoofers if you are looking to pump up the bass, which is easy to do with the built in sub jack.

Audio Quality:

Designed with the gamers in mind, Polk built the N1 with four “Immersion Modes” or EQ presets: Halo, Forza, Cinema, and Music. Our first test was with the Forza Motorsport 5, Madden 2015 and NHL 2015 on the Xbox One. We rotated between switching between Forza and Halo modes to determine what type of differences each encountered. Halo mode is a surround-sound-simulating mode that seemed to produce a larger sound field, which really filled out the room with an all-encompassing sound. Forza mode is a more stereo-sounding mode, which highlighted the audio effects of the games and had a finer attention to detail with the more subtle sounds the games had to offer. We found Halo mode to be the one defaulted to more often as the overall sound quality seemed more immersive than Forza. The Movie and Music modes work similarly. Movie mode produced a good rich surround sound that you are accustom to with a traditional sound bar and music mode gave a real rich stereo sound that played nicely when paired with your bluetooth device. Overall, the sound quality was very good but the system does lack that rich bass feeling that you might expect with a more traditional sound bar.

Value:

Priced at $149.99 the Polk Audio N1 sound bar is a great addition to any gaming system. The functionality and compatibility with the Xbox one make it a perfect partner in crime for your gaming adventures.