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Even on its own, without HD reception, the base is strong, the mids and trebles great. When the HD is added it, the sound is really awesome.
It doesn't keep me up at all.Would be even nicer for less money, but I am very satisfied even at the regular price. I appreciate the fact that is shows the alarm is on, and the time in small letters on the bottom of the screen when the time is displayed, and when the radio or ipod is playing.
The remote functions quite well, and makes the alarm very easy to use. The brightness of the display goes from very bright to what I thought was off, but in reality is very very dim, just right for nighttime use.
The Polk Audio I-Sonic system 2 with HD radio and Ipod dock is a wonderful system. I also own the Sony, but this is a far superior sound system.
The Ipod docks well and charges easily.
pause. CONS: Slow to find and tune stations. but you need to scroll through in sequence to get to your preset (Ugh). pause. Similar form factor to Bose that it was to replace. too confusing. Great Sound.
Received, tested, and now returned it. wait. found it. I think this is a function of the HD radio technology, not the radio (). but my wife wouldn't even turn it on. Also very SLOW to tune to HD radio stations. Also, buttons on top are small and layout is poor. In the end I decided to return this and buy an Internet Radio (Just ordered the Grace GDI-IR-3020 but haven't received or tested it yet).
OK for technophiles. PROS: Radio looks good in our kitchen. similar to Bose.
tune. We'll see. Figure I can get all the FM and AM stations + HD stations + Pandora + I Pod using the internet.
Ordered the Polk I-Sonic Radio with high hopes. Lots of presets. This wouldn't be so bad, except lack of direct touch preset buttons makes this a real pain to go to your favorites.
I called Polk Audio and they sent me an upgrade free of charge. I found the ES2's firmware level was backleveled. After installing the firmware my HD station locking improved on weaker stations and the interface with my IPOD ITouch was much better.Overall, I am very happy with my ES2, I highly recommend it. The sound quality of the ES2 is excellent. I love the HD Radio feature, I didn't realize there were that may HD stations available in my area. The firmware installation is simple and straight forward.
The remote control intends to operate the iPod functions but this is flawed.HD Radio: HD radio has many issues. Polk, let us know when you finish your R&D on this radio then maybe we can try again. Voices are hard to hear during newscasts.Interaction with the unit features: Poor at best. When in HD mode, the radio loses its lock often causing a momentary interruption of music if you are listening to the same programming on the HD and analog signal. Setting Sleep is also unfriendly as is is buried below several items on the scroll-through menu such as bass, treble, brightness, contrast and more. Second, your iPod must be perfectly integrated with the iSonic to capture the information. It is not.
When I spoke to Polk customer service, they said they had difficulty because Apple has changed to software several times. I had two instances where the radio did not come on to wake me in two weeks. I intended to wake to music and often use the sleep function at night to fall asleep.iPod Docking: The iPod docking is only compatible with certain iPods. This is simply unacceptable. Setting the alarm is unfriendly (you have to go through many layers of button pushing) - this could be improved. Also, the display is very bright, even when set to the dimmest setting, it makes it hard to see at night.
The remote provides direct access to Sleep but this function for some reason was inoperable on my unit.Tag: This is cool if you are a marketer for iTunes. Polk either should go back to the drawing board before selling to the public or simplify the design so that all of the released features work well then add more as they perfect them.I certainly will not be Polk's guinea pig at a more than $300 price tag. Second, only the power button, source button and snooze/mute button have raised touch sensors. Also, the wake-to-music function does not support waking to iPod music - only radio or chime. First, When the radio is on, the display for the clock is so small one can barely see it. It seems a cache memory would be helpful here as used on satellite radios, to smooth out the dropped signal and prevent momentary musical interruptions. The radio certainly sounds nice in a bubble-gummy soft of way. I see very little value in this function.
When tuned to a radio station that transmits in HD, the radio first tunes to the analog signal then locks to HD when possible. The overall HD reception needs work.Clock Radio: This was the feature that seemed to be the simplest to get right and had the most issues. I would visit the Polk website before purchase to be sure your iPod is compatible. I tried a couple of different antennas, powered and non-powered, but found the supplied di-pole to be the best. Since this is a clock radio, one would think it would be easy to operate at night. The remote control seems to be the best way to interact with the radio but mine did work well.Overall - this radio has so many cool and complex features but fails on many of them.
The bass and spatial dispersion are both overemphasized to give the impression of great sound. If you do, know that this feature has certain prerequisites in order to function. Mine was not as it has a firewire interface. The unit does not wake to iPod. The remainder of the buttons are so smooth and close together, one cannot perceive any of them at night and are even hard to touch just the right button in well-lit conditions. After two weeks, I decided to return it.I bought this radio to be used as a clock radio next to my bed.
First, the buttons are neither lighted nor glow-in-the-dark.
Polk has updated its firm ware to handle some of these issues but not all.
This locking seems to be problematic even with a good analog signal.
The only option for waking is radio or chime.
Nice idea, but flawed.Sound: fat and flabby.
This is annoying to say the least.
This is a really cool radio but it has too many bugs to be satisfying.
If you are listening to HD 2 or 3 and the programming is different, the program switches from the HD 2 or 3 back to analog.
First, the HD radio station must transmit the artist, album, and song info.
The iTunes tagging even works well. This will not replace your home stereo, but it is great for what it is. My only minor complaint is that it as well as the other high end iPod dock radios are still too high priced in my opinion. It lives up to the hype without a doubt. :) Easy to use, great sound, good remote.
I would like to see the prices come down a bit. I've had the I-Sonic ES2 for a while and put it through it's paces. It has such a full rich sound with the iPod docked and the HD FM stations are truly excellent. It's a feature I didn't think I would use, but it turns out that it's really convenient and makes it easy to store the songs you like for future purchase.
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