Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2

by Polk Audio

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 9.5 x 4.9 inches ; 8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0014HS938
• Item model number: AM1195-A
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The I-Sonic ES2 includes a second generation HD Radio tuner with full multicasting. With its advanced acoustical system, Digital Signal Processing, and new HD Radio tuner technology, the I-Sonic ES2 is one of the highest performing self-contained HD Radio products on the market. The I-Sonic ES2 accepts all iPod models with dock connectors in its top-mounted iPod dock, craftily hidden beneath a sliding door. S-Video and composite video outputs allow the user to connect a television or video monitor to the IES2 for viewing video content stored on a video iPod.

An elegant iPod dock with HD Radio and plenty more. Click to enlarge.

When not in use, the iPod dock is hidden under a sliding door.

Features S-Video and composite video outputs for enjoying your iPod video on TVs.

Four-speaker I-Sonic Technology means no matter where you are in the room, you'll get great sound.

Purchase songs you hear on HD Radio with the I-Sonic ES2 tagging feature and your iPod.

Four-Speaker I-Sonic Technology
Polk's engineering breakthrough changes the rules for small system performance. Conventional table-top systems "beam" the sound straight towards the listener, even those with two speakers. At best, these designs can create a stereo soundfield for someone seated directly facing the unit. It's not at all satisfying for any other listeners in the room. Polk's exclusive, patent-pending I-Sonic design lets everyone in the room enjoy the rich sound. The I-Sonic stereo soundfield is projected all around. No matter where you are in the room, you'll get the full I-Sonic experience.

Deep Bass from Patented PowerPort Technology
PowerPort venting technology belts out the kind of rich, powerful bass you'd expect from much larger stereo speakers. Bass ports redirect the sound created by the back of the speaker cone into the room. But conventional bass ports lose efficiency and create distortion because of air turbulence at the mouth of the port.

PowerPort vastly reduces air turbulence at the port mouth thereby reducing distortion and increasing bass output. This is the same technology used in Polk's legendary $10,000 Signature Reference Theater system. In the I-Sonic ES2 PowerPort delivers sound that is rich and warm, making all of your music and movies sound life-like and satisfying.

Advanced Digital Signal Processing
Built into every I-Sonic ES2 is a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with the processing power of a small computer. Polk engineers have programmed the DSP to ensure that you hear incredible sound at every volume level in every spot in the room. First, a Dynamic Loudness Contour automatically adjusts bass and treble response to account for your ears' frequency sensitivity at low volume. You'll hear rich, well-balanced sound even at late-night listening levels. The DSP also prevents distortion at high volume with its Dynamic Compression. Go ahead, crank up the volume and play air guitar to your heart's content. With I-Sonic the sound will always be crisp, clear and clean. Finally, the powerful DSP controls the time delay and frequency shaping that is behind Polk's exclusive and patented I-Sonic four-speaker technology. You'll hear full-bodied, huge stereo sound in every spot in your room.

HD Radio Technology
Radio stations all over the country are converting to digital HD radio broadcasting. The chances are very good that your favorite radio station is or will shortly be broadcasting in HD. HD Radio brings you a host of sound quality, convenience and programming choice benefits. Your HD radio listening will be free of the static and multipath distortion of old fashioned analog radio. You'll enjoy CD-quality sound from FM HD stations and FM quality stereo sound from AM HD stations. You will never want to go back to analog once you've heard the HD radio difference.

The I-Sonic ES2 also allows broadcasters to show information on the display screen--information like artist/program name, song title, sports scores, traffic information and stock ticker.

Conventional AM/FM Radio
The I-Sonic ES2 picks up all of the broadcast radio stations in your area. If your favorite radio stations are not yet broadcasting in HD you will receive standard analog AM and FM just like ay other AM/FM radio (only better sounding of course).

Sirius Satellite Radio (Optional)
Add Sirius satellite radio with an optional add-on plus monthly subscription from the provider. Sirius boasts over 130 channels of digital radio, including 69 channels of 100% commercial-free music, live performances, artist interviews, and talk shows. Sirius is home to the NFL and over 40 NBA and NHL games a week, plus college sports.

Big names on Sirius include Howard Stern, Tony Hawk, and Martha Stewart. The Sirius bundle has a separate screen to display channel, artist, and song names, and plugs into the auxiliary port of the I-Sonic for high quality sound.

Built-In iPod Dock
The I-Sonic ES2 has an integrated iPod dock on the top with a universal adapter for any size iPod, including the iPhone and iPod Touch. Listen to music or videos (Check Compatibility) through the dynamic sound of the I-Sonic ES2 speakers.

iPod Video with S-Video & Composite Outputs
Use the integrated iPod dock to connect your iPod to the I-Sonic ES2 and you can stream videos directly to your TV via S-video or composite connection. Now you can watch and listen to your saved iPod videos easily, let the I-Sonic ES2 handle the hard stuff, you just sit back and relax.

Hear it. Tag it. Download it. Never forget it.
Now it's easy to purchase songs you hear on HD Radio with the I-Sonic ES2 tagging feature and your iPod. Whenever you're listening to HD Radio and hear a song you love, simply hit the "TAG" button on the front of the I-Sonic ES2 to capture the song's information on your iPod. Then the next time you sync your iPod with your computer you will be able to download tagged songs via the Apple iTunes music store. It's that simple!

1. Tune into any HD Radio station with the I-Sonic ES2. When song information can be tagged, the tag button will light up. When you hear a song you like, press the tag button on the front panel or the remote (shown right). The TAG (song data) is stored in the I-Sonic ES2 and will store up to 50 TAGs.
2. Dock your iPod in the I-Sonic ES2 and TAGs will be automatically transfered to your iPod.
3. Sync your iPod with iTunes and your TAGs will appear in a playlist called "Tagged" in iTunes, ready for you to purchase directly from the Apple iTunes Music Store.

What's in the Box
I-Sonic ES2, Remote Control (batteries included), Power Supply, AM External Antenna, FM External Antennas (dipole and wire), Owner's Guide, Online Registration Card

Product Description

The new I-Sonic® ES2 includes a second generation HD Radio tuner with full multicasting. With its advanced acoustical system, Digital Signal Processing, and new HD Radio tuner technology, the I-Sonic ES2 is the highest performing self-contained HD Radio product on the market. The I-Sonic ES2 accepts all iPod models with dock connectors in its top-mounted iPod dock hidden beneath a sliding door. S-Video and composite video outputs allow the user to connect a television or video monitor to the IES2 for viewing video content stored on a video iPod. The I-Sonic ES2 introduces a new music discovery feature from Apple® called iTunes Tagging which makes it simple to buy songs you hear on HD Radio stations. The iTunes Tag button on the I-Sonic ES2's front panel and remote control allows you to "tag" songs broadcast by HD Radio stations. The I-Sonic ES2 stores information about the tagged songs to its memory and transfers the tags to an iPod* when docked. When you sync your iPod with your computer, iTunes automatically presents the songs in a new Tagged play-list for the you to preview, buy, and download. iTunes Tagging is a great way to discover new music and add it to one's collection.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!! Truely A High Performance System, April 23, 2008

By 

j krismer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2 (Electronics)

I got the I-Sonic 2 just about a month ago and I am still amazed at how good this thing sounds. I got a Bose and a Cambridge at the same time, niether come close and are going back. It was great to do a comparision in my own home.

I read a lot of reviews on the first I-Sonic; best I can tell Polk has fixed all of the issues. It doesn't get hot, the display is easy to read, and the controls are so simple I have yet to open the manual.

The iPod dock works with my iPhone and my video iPod and my iPod has never sounded better. Really, you will be blown away by how good this system sounds. I have the unit in my bedroom and it is a perfect place to store my iPod when I get home; keeps it charged all the time.

The HD Radio works well with the single wire antenna provided with the system. I have tagged a bunch of sounds and bought a few from iTunes; very very cool feature even if you just use it to remeber a song.

I am very satisfied with the system and would highly recommend it to any iPod owner, its a perfect match.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Superior sound; questionable HD/FM/AM performance, January 23, 2009

By 

Eric (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2 (Electronics)

You'll have to look very hard to find a shelf unit with better sound than the iSonic ES2...I was blown away by the richness and depth of sound. When you hear companies use the words "room filling" when describing small stereos, you can believe it where this one is concerned. It can easily deliver high-quality sound to multiple rooms, and is helped by the separate bass/treble settings...that's a real plus compared to similar units that do not have them.

However, I was disappointed in the HD/FM/AM radio functions of this product. Despite multiple attempts and antenna placements, I did not have much luck in acheiving consistently clear sound from the FM band, even less luck with AM and the HD signal was only sporadic. One minute it produced fantastic sound just as advertised, but in the next it would revert to the standard FM signal making the iTunes tagging function useless (iTunes tagging only works in the HD mode). This flip back and forth from HD to FM on the same station was an annoyance, to say the least.

iPod playback was wonderful. The iSonic ES2 delivered a very clean transfer and I was impressed at the lack of noticeable volume loss between the HD radio and iPod audio (I had read about that complaint in other online reviews). That said, Polk needs to add a playlist toggling capability to the remote. As it stands, switching playlists requires manual adjustment on the iPod itself.

Finally, the clock function did not work. It allowed the time to be set, but upon hitting the time button to end the set function and begin clock operation, it stayed at the time that was entered.

Overall, I was as impressed as I could be with the sound quality of this unit...it's unsurpassed in this genre and exceeds the Bose Wave. But the shortcomings of its other features and functions left it a disappointment and $500 is simply way too much money to spend on nothing but superior iPod speakers. Polk would be smart to get rid of the HD radio and iTunes tagging and put the CD/DVD player back on the unit (the original iSonic had a CD/DVD drive but for some reason it was removed for the ES2 model).

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great system, November 30, 2008

By 

M. Waite - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2 (Electronics)

I enjoy this system tremendously. Sounds great for such a small package. The firmware was outdated when I received it, and I quickly found out that Polk Audio no longer provides the firmware on their website for download. It seems too many people were having issues flashing the ROM. Basically because 1) they didn't read the directions and use a memory stick < 1Gb, and 2) if they had other files on the memory stick the I-Sonic would get a bit confused. I called Polk Audio and insisted they email me the firmware (They wanted to mail me a memory stick). I performed the upgrade without any problems using an old 128Mb stick I had lying around (made sure nothing else was on it). So you should be able to request the same from Polk Audio.