Adding a hands-free voice assistant to a soundbar seems like a natural step, considering any soundbar will likely be the main (or only) speaker system in your living room.
Sonos pulls it off admirably with the Alexa-equipped Beam, though it lacks an included subwoofer for real low-end thunder.
The Polk Command Bar also features hands-free Alexa voice assistance, along with a wireless subwoofer and a very reasonable $299.95 price tag.
It certainly sounds powerful for the price, and while it lacks the same level of audio finesses, Bluetooth connectivity adds some wireless flexibility the Beam lacks.
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Soundbar and Subwoofer
The soundbar literally looks like a simple black soundbar with an Amazon Echo Dot built into it.
It measures 2 by 43 by 4 inches (HWD) and weighs just under five pounds, with a very slight taper from its thick middle to its narrower side caps.
The front, top, and back are covered in black grille cloth, except for a plastic panel that runs over the middle and down to the back panel.
The top of the panel holds a circular control disc that looks and functions just like the top of an Echo Dot.
It holds four buttons (Volume Up/Down, Microphone Mute, and Alexa) inside a light ring that glows blue and points in the direction from which it detects voice commands.
The design is so indistinguishable from the Echo Dot that it's easy to imagine Polk simply cutting a circular hole into the top of the soundbar and shoving a Dot in.
This isn't the case, though; it's a permanent part of the soundbar's design.
The back of the soundbar holds all the wired connections in a recess cut out of the base, between two small rubber feet that keep the soundbar stable on any flat surface.
The ports include an optical audio input, two HDMI inputs, an HDMI output that works with any TV's Audio Return Channel (ARC) HDMI port, a USB port, and a connector for the included power adapter.
This recess also holds the button for syncing the soundbar with the included wireless subwoofer.
The second HDMI input faces sideways in the recess away from the other ports, providing plenty of clearance for a media streaming stick like the Amazon Fire TV Stick, the Roku Streaming Stick+, or the Google Chromecast.
The USB port is intended to provide power to any streaming stick plugged into the side-facing input; it doesn't handle data.
The included remote is chunky and simple.
It's a 6-by-1.9-by-0.7-inch plastic wand with a gray metallic band around the edge and a rubberized top panel covered in membrane buttons.
The Volume Up/Down controls are the most prominent, highlighted by a thumb-shaped indentation in the middle and flanked by separate Bass Up/Down and Voice Up/Down (presumably mid-high and treble control) buttons on the left and right.
Individual source buttons for the two HDMI inputs, optical audio (marked as TV) and Bluetooth sit above the volume controls, with Mute, Night Mode, and Alexa buttons above them.
Audio mode buttons for movies, sports, and music sit below the volume controls, with playback controls (for audio playback from a Bluetooth device) underneath.
The wireless subwoofer is a curved black block measuring 14.4 by 7.4 by 14.5 inches and weighing 8.7 pounds.
The back panel holds a port for the power cable, a sync button, and two status lights.
It comes paired with the soundbar out of the box.
The Polk Command Bar is a 260W sound system, split between 160 watts for the soundbar and 100 watts for the subwoofer.
The soundbar has a stereo configuration, with two sets of 1.25-by-3.25-inch oval midrange/woofers and 1-inch tweeters.
The subwoofer uses a 6.5-inch downward-firing driver with an additional downward-facing bass port.
Hands-Free Alexa
The Command Bar is equipped with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, which you can bring up simply by saying "Alexa," followed by a command or question.
The integration is similar to other third-party Alexa devices, like the Sonos Beam, the Sonos One, and the Ultimate Ears Megablast.
You can access most of Alexa's functions, including getting general information like weather reports and sports scores, playing music from Amazon Prime Music, controlling smart home devices, and accessing the many third-party Alexa skills that enable even more functionality outside of Amazon's scope.
Like the Sonos Beam, you can link the Command Bar to an Amazon Fire TV device and control it with voice commands.
You can search for media, open apps, and control playback in Amazon and some third-party apps.
You can't bring up visual information from Alexa (like weather reports) like you can with the Fire TV Cube or using Alexa directly through your Fire TV device with its voice remote.
Accessing live feeds and recordings from connected home security cameras through hands-free voice commands is also unavailable.
Still, it's a nice bonus for media consumption, especially with the HDMI input and USB port built into the back of the Command Bar specifically for use with Fire TV devices.
As a third-party Alexa device, you can't change the wake word from "Alexa" to "Echo," "Amazon," or "Computer." You also can't use Amazon's Drop In messaging feature; that only works with Echo devices or the Alexa app.
Music Performance
Thanks to the wireless subwoofer, the Command Bar can put out some powerful bass when playing music.
It handled our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," at maximum volume without any distortion.
The heartbeat-like drum beat in Massive Attack's "Teardrop" is also powerful to the point at overwhelming at the highest volume level, shaking the walls and floor.
It's plenty of bass for a 2.1-channel soundbar, though that bass gets a bit too much presence against the vocals and strings of the Massive Attack track.
It doesn't become muddy, but the higher frequency parts of the mix sit a bit further back than they should.
Yes' "Roundabout" shows a similar emphasis on bass and a lack of high-end finesse on the Command Bar.
The opening acoustic guitar plucks have some texture, but lack a bit of the crispness we like to hear, while the electric bassline gets plenty of low-end and low-mid presence in the mix.
After the bass kicks in, the guitar strums and vocals end up slightly in the background of the track instead of in the front, fighting for attention.
Even in Music mode, it's a bass-heavy sound.
Movie Performance
The powerful, bass-heavy sound of the Command Bar makes action movies sound large and imposing.
The opening to Terminator 2: Judgement Day is full of low-end presence, with the subwoofer making every stomp of robots and thump of the score's drums fill the room with rumble.
Linda Hamilton's narration comes through cleanly, as do the voices of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the bikers in the bar in the next scene.
Pacific Rim's booming soundtrack also comes through with plenty of low-end rumble on the Command Bar.
The crash of robots and monsters in the rain sounds thunderous, as do the horns in the film's score.
The soundbar doesn't offer much high-end clarity, however, and sounds like the roar of the kaiju and the pounding rain lack any texture or edge to help them stand out against the bass.
More understated scenes, like the poker game in Casino Royale, sound clear and benefit from good vocal detail.
The dramatic calls around the table can be heard clearly, with Daniel Craig and Mads Mikkelsen's voices sounding full and natural.
The soundbar clearly emphasizes midrange and high-mids more than higher frequencies, which can be heard in the clunk and clatter of the poker chips.
They rattle audibly, but lack the crisp edge that gives the smaller chips enough aural detail that you could perhaps count them individually as they fall on the table.
Movies sound powerful and booming, but don't expect much in the way of a surround sound experience.
The Command Bar supports Dolby and DTS audio, but as a 2.1-channel soundbar without a center channel or wireless rear satellites, it doesn't offer much in the way of simulated surround sound.
It easily fills a room with speech and action from whatever you're watching, but it's unmistakably a stereo sound that relies more on the subwoofer's directionless rumble than the soundbar itself to give its sound field a sense of size.
Conclusions
The Polk Command Bar offers hands-free Alexa and very powerful bass for an attractive price.
It's more powerful than our budget pick, the Polk Signa S1, but it's also $100 more expensive.
If you want Alexa built into a soundbar, the Sonos Beam is our current choice.
At $400, it's pricier than the Command Bar and doesn't come with a subwoofer, but it produces a very large sound in a much smaller, three-channel package that makes up for the lack of deep rumble with better high-frequency clarity.
Alternately, you can connect an Echo Dot to the Signa S1 to save some money, or spend a fair bit more for the JBL Bar 3.1, which offers the best overall bang for your audio buck between subwoofer-powered low-end and soundbar-finessed high-end.
The Bottom Line
The Polk Command Bar packs Alexa voice control into a soundbar/subwoofer combo for a very reasonable price.
