Polk Audio I-Sonic

Polk Audio apparently set out to create the Swiss Army knife of tabletop radio’s when it designed its new I-Sonic. In addition to standard tabletop radio fare—AM, FM, CD, of course, an alarm clock—the I-Sonic is the first to spin DVDs, meaning it can hook to a TV in the bedroom. And it’s one of only two tabletops that can tune in HD Radio and satellite radio, in this case XM. It also has more speakers (four) than any of its competitors, but it also has the highest price, by at least $40. And it’s the biggest and heaviest of the tabletops.

That’s not to say that it’s big and bulky. The I-Sonic is actually quite compact considering all the sources and features it offers and the big sound it produces. And it’s semi-circular design, elegant silver and black fascia and cool-blue display make it the best-looking tabletop of the bunch. The top-mounted controls are minimal: power on/off and volume up/down buttons, a large snooze/mute bar and six “soft keys” that change their function depending on which source is playing. Use of the soft keys can be a bit confusing until you get the hang of them, but I found the included remote very handy. It worked flawlessly not only across my large living room, but also in the adjacent dining room, as long as I was in sight of the infrared eye.

The back-panel layout is straightforward. It has an input for an optional XM Satellite Connect & Play antenna, S-video and component video outputs, RCA audio inputs (for adding, say, an iPod) and outputs, a coaxial connection for an external FM antenna (which has to be activated internally via a menu on the I-Sonic) and screw terminals for adding an external AM-antenna and a switch to manually select the AM-antenna mode. Because I live about 50 miles outside of Portland, Ore., I couldn’t tune in HD stations using either the internal or external FM antenna. But standard FM sound was good and I was impressed with both the quality of the reception and the sound. Bringing the radio into the city, I was able to experience HD Radio, though as a fan of satellite radio all I could think was, “Wow, all those commercials sound great.” But HD AM and FM does indeed sound noticeably better than their analog counterparts. When the receiver tunes in an HD broadcast, a small HD icon in the display flickers and then remains steady once the station is locked in.

XM sound quality was superb. In another example of the I-Sonic’s more-is-better approach, it stores up to 30 radio presets, which can be any combination of XM, FM or AM. CD sound was also excellent. Listening to John Hiatt’s classic Bring the Family, for example, the sound filled my living room and had very good tonal detail for such a compact unit. My only complaint was that the bass sounded distorted at times.

Hooking the I-Sonic up to a 32-inch Sony Trinitron CRT television, I popped in a favorite music DVD, Sessions at West 54th Street, Volume 1. Shawn Colvin’s stripped-down version of “Diamond in the Rough” always gives me goosebumps on a good system. Listening to the track on the I-Sonic—while not as pristine as with my B&W floorstanding loudspeakers—still managed to give me that familiar chicken-skin sensation.

So is more better? If you want all the sources that the I-Sonic offers—and are willing to pay extra for them—the answer is yes. And if it means getting all this technology into a small box that can sit on a nightstand, the answer is most definitely yes.