Polk Audio I-Sonic Entertainment System 2

This was a "sideways" move for me -- it replaced my Kloss 88 from Cambridge, which was, and still is, a truly great, classy looking table radio. But, I needed an alarm clock function, so I picked up the Polk iSonic ES2.
Some observations:
I don't like...
1. The wall wart. This was not indicated in the packaging, and it's really huge.
2. Parasitic drain must be a factor. It stays warm (on the underside) even when powered down.
3. The AM antenna. I would have gone with a ferrite rod antenna myself; I think they work a lot better than the supplied primitive wire loop. I'm going to experiment with a 250-meter line out the window, which is the approximate wavelength of the AM band.
4. AM reception, which was horrible, and shockingly so. My 1956 tube-type Motorola clock radio is about 20 times superior in this regard. Now, one would think that a $500 radio manufactured a half-century later would be better at pulling in clear AM, but I guess I'm asking too much. I live in the NY metro area, so this shouldn't have been a problem. I can receive 4 AM stations sort of well, out of a possible 30 or so. In fact, this radio violates the FCC requirement that all FM radios have working AM reception, too. That's how bad it is.
5. Lack of a FM stereo/mono switch. This is very helpful when you want to shrink the bandwidth to improve the S/N ration of fringe stations.
6. Display far too bright for bedroom at night, even when turned down all the way. The display is like a little LCD TV screen, so it puts out a fair amount of light even at minimum brightness. At night, I have to block it with a handkerchief or something.
7. Styling. Not too crazy about how it looks -- too "plasticky." I don't think this thing will make it into MOMA anytime soon.
What I did like ...
1. Sound quality wasn't bad. Not great. But not terrible. I suspect that most customers never heard a decent hi-fi, so I guess they're happy. (I hooked it up with an external CD deck, playing CDs of known fidelity, to check this out.) They might have coaxed better sound out of the thing by scrapping the rear-firing drivers, which I believe are of dubious value, and using the money for better-quality front drivers. I suspect that the rear speakers were put there by the marketing people, not the audio engineers. The radio isn't very heavy, which is never a good sign with hi-fi gear. It won't do a very good job with symphonic material. Jazz, rock and folk sound a little better.
2. FM reception was OK. (I have an external FM yagi antenna.) But nothing to write home about.
3. Controls were good. It was easy to set the clock/alarm/etc. (One little glitch -- I had to disconnect and reconnect the power cord to get the clock to start.) It's also easy to turn off the alarm on weekends, and to reset the clock for DST, etc. I didn't think that scrolling through the presets was a problem. How many presets are you going to have, anyway?
4. I like the fact that the radio alarm volume and station settings are independent of your last listening session before turning in for the night.
5. I like the fact that when setting the alarm and clock, you can go backwards -- i.e. you don't have to cycle through 24 hours again.
6. It has separate bass/treble tone amps, a welcome sign. (The Polk accountants somehow missed that one.)
So, all things considered, the iSonic es2 was a keeper for me. But, as with too many products, the bean counters got a crack at the thing after the engineers had done their work, ruining what could have been a truly great radio. Would I recommend this? No, if you're serious about listening to the radio.

I received my Polk HD (Isonic Entertainment System 2) radio two days ago and had it set up within 15 minutes. It's a very nice machine and the sound quality compares quite favorably with the Bose Wave radio. HD signals come in just fine and it works seemlessly with my Ipod classic. The entire unit is very elegent looking and in fact looks better than the photos reveal. There are only two factors which would prevent me from giving this unit five stars: The lowest of sound volumes in sleep mode is still a bit too loud. And, when you do set the sleep mode function, the time does not display. Other than those two issues, I heartily recommend the POLK if you want an AM/FM/HD radio with Ipod docking capability.

Bought the entertainment system for my father-in-law because he wanted to listen to CDs. The review mentioned the CD quality was great but when I opened the box and looked at the unit, there was no place for a CD nor any control. Immediately shipped it back and received all my money back.

Great sound and easy to use but misses the mark with functionality. I order this unit and returned the unit a week later. In my research for a quality radio with an iPod dock for my office the Polk Audio I-Sonic unit had great reviews, much better than some other quailty names like Cambridge Sound Works. But, after getting the unit, which was easy to set up, use, had pretty good reception and very good sound, I was left wanting for more! With internet radio, internet music services like Rhapsody, satellite radio all the rage, and even a device to play my collection of music CD's and language CD's while at the desk, this radio left me with a number of big gaps. So, what do I do even though I like the sound and ease of use of the Polk Audio system? I called Polk Audio and see what options I had. They informed me they scraped a previous model that had a CD player because of design problems, then they scraped plans for a model yet to hit the streets that supported internet radio and XM. So they told me to buy something else if I really wanted those features. So, I took the their advice! I ended up buying the Dennon S-52 with sound just as good or better supports HD radio, internet radio which is great, CD's, XM radio, and streaming from your Rhapsody account. If you don't care about all these other mediums, and don't mind having two or more radios on your desk or self to support these other mediums, go ahead and get the Polk Audio unit. You will like it. But if your like me and want access to all music sources available today buy the Dennon S-52 like I have. Read my review on the S-52 for more information.

I was extremely impresses with their Polk Audio unit, the sound is amazing and the IPod functions correctly. The digital FM sounds awesome, but needs a better antenna or place the unit on an outside wall near a window to receive the best sound.