u/b0rsht

Yesterday, Polyend has targeted me with Drums via instagram ad. I knew nothing about Polyend and their devices (seem like a pedal company to me at first), and when I saw performance it blew my mind. I Went through all the review videos on youtube, read all the comments on reddit (feels like 90% negative, 10% positive). I'm a noob producer and a bedroom techno dj, I tinker a bit with my NI Machine+, play some private parties for taste crowd. And here's my take on Polyend Drums:

UX. The main concept of a 'no menu interface' seems the most appealing selling point to me. I hate when the friction kills creativity. Drums interface looks the most simple among all the drum machines. This is major for me. Tiny displays look as afterthought (placement), but it's actually not a bad choice. Imagine having one for all, or no display at all. This will ruin it.

Functionality. It got all I want, and a bit more. The analogue stuff is the major value here. Along with synth and advance sequencer I feel like this is the best live jamming/performance device you can have. Memory allows up to 48 songs, not forever huge, but seem more than I have time to tinker with it.

Aesthetics and build. Aluminum chassy, knobs, butterfly keyboard - it clearly trying to bring a feeling of a long-term high quality ownership experience here. Or justify the price. I think its amazing, I like minimalistic look.

Price. Drums was priced with a look at the Teenage Engineering's approach. It's in the same bucket. The build quality, the amount of hardware and software needed in order to make it work. But 2700? No way this device will be popular with this price. If it's below $2k it has chance. But $3k with taxes in the US - we are in territory of high end mackbook pro prices.
Many compare it to TR1000 giving a vibe that Roland's legacy cost more, but I think this is wrong, the novelty of UX and features in Drums are much more. With this price, your audience shrunk dramatically to aspiring producers with insane disposable income.

Fears. Launch bugs, no firmware updates for long time, company's abandonment history. With this price point, I expect this device to be supported actively for at least 3-5 years. If company won't deliver it, reputation is at stake.

It's tempting, but I still haven't put my preorder. I want to see more in-depth reviews from people I follow on youtube.

I see tabletop Genelec's, but what are those chunky ones on a sides?

Scarbo SV Rover