HK Audio’s POLAR MK2 range started in 8, 10 and 12 inches. It now gains its most muscular variant with the POLAR 15 MK2, a portable column built on a fifteen-inch subwoofer. More low end, more pressure, and a simple promise for mobile operators: cover a wider audience without rolling out the line array.
A fifteen-inch sub under the column
The principle stays that of a two-part active column. The subwoofer holds a fifteen-inch driver in a bass-reflex load, which gives the model its name and carries the bottom of the spectrum. The mid-high section, housed in the column elements, lines up six three-inch transducers and a one-inch compression driver on a constant-directivity horn, in a closed cabinet. The amplification, Class D and bi-amped, delivers two thousand watts peak.
The figures place the beast: one hundred and thirty decibels SPL peak, a response from thirty-five hertz to twenty kilohertz at minus ten decibels, and a dispersion of one hundred and twenty degrees horizontal by thirty vertical. HK Audio targets stereo setups for up to three hundred people. To grasp what those angles mean when you place the column, revisit our guide to speaker directivity and dispersion.
Onboard mixer and connectivity
The POLAR 15 MK2 carries a small mixer on the subwoofer panel. You get two combo XLR/jack mic-line inputs, a high-impedance 6.3-millimetre instrument jack, and an RCA stereo input. The main output runs on an XLR mix out, with mains power on an IEC socket. Bluetooth 5.0 handles audio streaming and the wireless pairing of two systems for true stereo, with TWS support.
Internal processing offers five user presets, a delay, a three-band EQ with a semi-parametric mid, and Music, Voice and DJ filter presets. The system mounts on the new M20 FlexMount, which simplifies the sub-to-column assembly. Nothing revolutionary on paper, but a coherent package for working fast in a compact setup.
Transport and use
Total weight comes to 38.1 kilos, split between the subwoofer at 30.5 kilos, the mid-high element at 4.75 kilos and the spacer at 2.8 kilos. It stays a one-person load, though the fifteen-inch sub asks a little more of your back than a 10 or a 12. HK Audio recommends the POLAR 15 MK2 for DJs, bands with a separate drum kit, clubs and medium to large stages. Among portable columns, it joins rivals such as the Electro-Voice EVOLVE G2 and the RCF EVOX JMIX9, and tops HK Audio’s own modular ELEMENTS MK2. On placing the low end, our article on subwoofer placement still holds, even on a compact format.
My take
The portable column format has found its audience, and going to fifteen inches answers a real demand: operators who want a bit more punch without stepping up to a flown system. The wide dispersion and onboard mixer make it a practical field tool for a DJ or a band running light. The heavier sub costs you at load-in, and at this pressure you keep an eye on how the low end holds up outdoors. What remains is a well-sorted column, cut out for medium rooms and stages where you set up and tear down in one go.
