Baltimore – Polk Audio plans to
add to its personal audio collection with a series of devices
that will include desktop audio products, including a successor to the
company’s discontinued I-Sonic tabletop entertainment system.
The company’s personal audio products
currently consist of its first six headphones
.
The I-Sonic 3 tabletop audio system is due
soon, the company said without elaboration. It will replace the
out-of-production I-Sonic 2, which was a tabletop single-chassis HD Radio with
iTunes Tagging, embedded iPod/iPhone dock, video output, and 360-degree stereo
soundfield. The I-Sonic 2 was launched in 2007 at $499 and replaced an earlier
model that incorporated CD/DVD player and is also out of production.
Also in 2007, Polk unveiled its
first portable AC/DC iPod dock, an AC/DC dock for a wearable iPod-style Sirius
tuner, and a tabletop HD Radio/CD shelf system under the Polk Audio Designs
subbrand, which was later discontinued.
To expand the company’s personal
audio collection, Polk hired Joe Phelps as director of sales for personal audio.
Phelps’s career includes a stint at Sennheiser and 15 years at Bose. He was
also a Polk rep for 11 years.
Referring to Polk’s entry into headphones,
senior sales and marketing VP Ben Newhall cited the need to adapt to a changing
market in which “consumers have radically changed the way they choose to listen
to their music.” Headphones out-sell all types of traditional loudspeakers,
including car and home theater, he noted.
