Polk Audio React Sound Bar, Dolby & DTS Virtual Surround Sound, Next Gen Alexa Voice Engine with Calling & Messaging Built-in, Expandable to 5.1 with Matching React Subwoofer & SR2 Surround Speakers

I previously tried a different brand sound bar with Alexa that was less expensive and had issues connecting to network. I use a separate vlan for IoT devices and suspect that was the issue, but the bar may have been defective. Either way, this one connected through the Alexa app instantly and works perfect. Connected to TV at first without the subwoofer and was really impressed by the sound from this bar. Great sound and surprising bass overall for as small and inexpensive as it is. Connecting to the sub took maybe 30 seconds and it added a lot on the low end. Alexa works just like any of my other echos, listens well and responds accurately. When I change sound mode she speaks the mode but it is not loud and looks like they fixed that issue. Sound is pretty good for a sound bar, definitely built for vocals. Lots of mids which is not the best for listening to music if you are looking for audiophile quality but I have no complaints. TV dialog is much clearer than TV speakers and the sub adds great bass extension. Remote is nice, recessed buttons are a bit odd but it works good and doesn't feel cheap. Only wish I had was there was better settings control in the app that would match the ability of a regular echo. Limited but not limiting. Overall highly recommend and would definitely purchase again.

I'll start off by saying I generally done write reviews but I felt compelled with this system. Since forever I have always but a dedicated stereo system person but was looking for something more stream line for my living room. I did purchase the entire kit (sound bar, sub, surrounds). For the price point this system absolutely blew me away. For $189 this sound bar is AMAZING, the center channel can be a little muddy at times but that's virtually its only fallback. The sub punches WAY above its class comparable to the 10in sub I had in my tv setup before. The surrounds are probably the weakest link in this system. The fact they are wireless is the reason I got them. My setup only allows for wireless currently. The sound output is a bit underwhelming but they do get the point across. As for connectivity of the sound bar the Bluetooth works great. As for Alexa I can't comment as I don't use it.

I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my father who has some difficulty hearing. I saw that the Polk soundbar had a separate volume adjustment for voices, so thought this would be helpful. Setup was straightforward. I setup the bar on a stand directly beneath the TV that is wall mounted and connected it to the TVs ARC HDMI port. The TV immediately recognized the sound bar and switched audio from the TV to the sound bar. The original TV remote now adjusted the level of the soundbar perfectly so my parents don't have to use 2 remotes.I turned on some television shows and tested the voice volume control. It made a significant difference! Without increasing the volume of everything, it was able to raise just the level of the voices. I was expecting this feature to be more of a gimmick, but I was genuinely impressed! Playing a movie with some explosions, the soundbar did well. There was no audible distortion at moderately loud volumes and it produced significantly more bass than the TV speakers. It's not room shaking bass, but rather a full sound and not "tinny". Voices sounded natural and deep. The added subwoofer would undoubtedly make a nice addition though.The soundbar also has Alexa built in. This is not a feature my parents intend on using, but is there for those interested. I was able to mute Alexa so it doesn't talk, but to fully turn it off, it seems like you need to download the Alexa app which I did not do.The one thing I found slightly annoying was the light on the unit. There doesn't appear to be a simple way to turn it off. It might be in the Alexa app, but I'm not sure.Overall I recommend this soundbar and the voice volume feature in particular makes this great for those that are hard of hearing.

If you know how to really take advantage of this thing - if for example you want to tell your TV soundbar to check that your front door is locked, read an email while you're cooking, alert you about scheduled reminders, play multi-room sync music across your entire house, and behave like a normal TV soundbar, then buy this.This is an Alexa device on steroids and its the best value for an Alexa enabled soundbar. The microphones pick up from very far across the room - it's as good as the Gen 4 Alexa devices as far as mics. It has Hdmi Arc, Bluetooth if you need it. And the subwoofer works flawlessly and has much deeper subsonic levels than an equivalently priced Sony wireless sub I bought 7 years ago. Also - the sub syncs wirelessly to the soundbar *and* works with Alexa for multi-room sync at the same time.I bought this at launch and there was one significant software bug that was fixed by a OTA update that I and others reported. The fact that a soundbar is receiving OTA software updates at all, is impressive.You need know that you cannot change the prompt word from "Alexa" to anything else. This is pretty ridiculous if your smart home is setup well, but I was told that Amazon is blocking developers from programming for this.I promise you that the Bose and Sonos equivalently enabled smart soundbars do not sound "better" than this unless you also think that wine tasters can taste the difference between an expensive wine and a basic, respectable wine. The sound fidelity and separation on this soundbar is money well spent because this is the point at which spending anything extra begins to offer meaningless additional acoustic or practical software advantages.