The latest flavor of Polk Audio's popular SurroundBar might not feature a milk chocolate coating and layer of creamy caramel, but it's pretty tasty nonetheless. A boon for the mass market and targeting gamers, among others, the $499 SurroundBar SDA Instant Home Theater (IHT) offers that trademark high quality Polk sound in a package that can be set up in mere minutes.  The SDA IHT features an amplified sound bar with virtual surround plus a wireless subwoofer.  It's remarkably compact and stylistically ideal for a flatscreen HDTV.

The Polk IHT is unique in its combination of value and performance. Six drivers--four two-and-a-half-inch treated composite bass-midrange drivers and a pair of 13mm polymer dome tweeters, all in a housing less than 32 inches wide and five inches deep. Polk's patented Stereo Dimensional Array (SDA) Surround Technology creates a convincingly broad surround image without the use of rear or side speakers.

The Instant Home Theater system connects to the stereo audio output jacks of any TV and includes a matching wireless subwoofer in a compact six-and-a-half-inch downward-firing design with treated carbon fiber drivers, providing response that they claim extends all the way down to 40 Hz. The IHT begins shipping this month, for a suggested retail price of $499.

More Information:

• www.polkaudio.com