Fresh out of Johns Hopkins with a degree in physics, a love of music, and a passion for high-end audio gear, Matthew Polk, along with college pal George Klopfer, founded Polk Audio. Matt made his mark inventing speakers that offered high-end sound at mass-market prices. By combining the great midrange of European speakers with the strong bass of their American counterparts, and by using small drivers to drive larger passive radiators, the company put its name on the map in 1974 with the Monitor 7. From there, the company's innovations have continued right up to the present. We recently sat down with Matt to talk about what he sees in audio's future.
When you started designing speakers, did you have any idea audio would be where it is today?
Well, I designed and built my first speakers when I was about 10 years old, so I guess the answer to your question would have to be no. But it's really not too hard to guess at what the technology landscape will look like. As my marketing professor said, anything that will be important 5 years from now has already started, so you just have to look around. But it's very difficult to gauge how people will react to new technologies and how they might change their behavior because of them. For example, before the VCR, it was easy enough to predict that sooner or later there would be a consumer device for recording and playing back video. It's just that no one was sure whether people would really want to do that at home.
Many speaker companies resisted designing surround sound systems because they thought they were a gimmick. What was your reaction at the time?
Our initial reaction was a little schizophrenic. We were among the very first to introduce dedicated center-channel and surround speakers, but we were a little slow on the powered subwoofers. And that was really my fault. I had seen so many systems with a pair of small bookshelves and a sub come to market over the years and fail. What I missed was that even though people didn't seem to want subwoofers for music, they did want them for movies. Remember: We started with VCRs and Dolby Surround — not even Pro Logic. The sound was pretty poor, particularly when compared to a good high-end system playing vinyl. So the early days of home theater were a big step backward in sound quality, and many high-end companies didn't want to get involved.
What's been the most significant home-entertainment innovation in the past decade?
It's not so much the technological changes themselves — and there have been a lot over the past 10 years — it's more about the collective impact of lots of technological changes, many just incremental, and how people have changed their behavior because of them. The thing that's had the most significant impact on home entertainment is the digital transmission and storage of media. We now have a host of content-delivery systems based on digital transmission: satellite radio, HDTV by satellite or cable, HD Radio, Internet radio, TV and movie downloads, podcasts, multiplayer online games, and so on. Interestingly, this is leading to a renaissance in two-channel music listening. With so many ways of accessing and organizing music, people are once again finding time to enjoy music.
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