POLK COMMAND BAR

At first this seemed like an odd name for a home theatre sound bar: the Polk Command Bar. What’s ‘command’ got to do with anything? But it soon became clear why it is so named. This isn’t just a soundbar to reproduce audio. You can talk to it.

EQUIPMENT

For the last year or two everyone’s been talking about smart speakers — speakers to which you can give verbal commands. You tell them to do something (within their capabilities), and they go and do it. Often that means simply asking them to play some music. Sometimes it might be to control some other smart device in your home.

Mostly everyone has focused on the smart speakers from the main vendors of the competing technologies: Amazon (with its Alexa system), Google (Assistant) and to a lesser extent Apple. Their speakers aren’t too bad for what they are: compact all-in-ones. But we, who like our music, want more. So some home theatre