Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Plug and Play Multimedia Speaker System
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Plug and Play Multimedia Speaker System
Customer Review: Perfect for Classical Music!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been looking for a decent pair of speakers for my computer for almost a year. After going through many user reviews, as well as actually listening to some of them, I have to say the Soundsticks are one of the best computer speaker sets out there. You will be surprised that plastic speakers can sound this great! I have had the Soundsticks speaker for close to a month already. As with many others, I am very pleased with my purchase.
I primarily use Soundsticks to listen to classical music, which I believe is very demanding towards speakers. Due to the very dynamic nature of classical music, speakers need to perform well all the way from the highs to the lows in order to give a reasonable interpretation to the music. Because a lot of the speakers on the market now are geared towards the R&B / Rockn'Roll / Rap crowd, many of them only have some bass to shake the floor. Their inadequacy in reproducing the intricate details in classical music is indeed painfully obvious.
On the contrary, Soundsticks give a balanced performance across the spectrum, providing classical music fans the perfect solution to computer music. The highs are sweet and clear. If you try to play the "Voice of an Angel" album from Charlotte Church on Soundsticks, you will see what I mean. Midrange is a little bit on the tight side, probably because the tweezers aren't equipped very well to handle that. Nevertheless, Soundsticks still show considerable warmth and refinement. Bass is solid with good definition. The subwoofer won't shake the floor like other systems. What Soundsticks give you is quality bass, not quantity. Overall, the sound is very spacious and rich. You can try the Tchaikovsky piano concerto no. 1 on Soundsticks. The grand poetic opening of the piece will give you a very good idea what Soundsticks can do for you.
Of course, nothing is perfect. Soundsticks do have shortcomings:
1. Lacks a little bit of midrange.
2. Sound is very directional. Once you move away from the "sweet spot", the spaciousness of the sound disappears.
3. Bass adjusting knob is on the subwoofer unit, kinda hard to reach if you put the subwoofer under your desk.
4. Touch sensitive control will take some time to get used to.
5. Soundsticks cannot be turned off unless you unplug them. So, they are not very friendly to your electricity bill.
6. Relatively pricey.
However, I guess all the shortcomings mentioned is relatively trivial compared to the wonderful sound they produce.
I highly recommend Soundsticks to all classical music fans. You will get the biggest bang of your buck investing on Soundsticks! They will perfectly fill up your office / bedroom / dorm room and give you the most intimate experience with your favorite music ever! Amazon has been offering the Soundsticks at the lowest price on the internet as far as I know. For the record, I brought mine for $120.
One last point I want to draw your attention to is the pitfall of connecting the Soundsticks to computer. You may hear a good deal of statics noise in doing so, even when you are not playing any music. Chances are that it is the fault of your bad computer soundcard. You can verify this by connecting the Soundsticks to a CD player, preferably those with a dedicated optical lineout. If you don't get statics anymore after that, then it is definitely your computer's fault!
You may also want to check out the Bose Companion 3 speaker set. The Companion sounds at least as good as Soundsticks if not better. However, they cost twice as much as Soundsticks. And of course, they don't look quite as good! Is this a trade off you are willing to make? You will have to decide on your own.
Some good recordings to try on the Soundsticks:
Dvorak Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op.104 (Rostropovich)
Bruch Scottish Fantasy (Perlman)
Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 (Van Cliburn)
Voice of an Angel (Charlotte Church)
Classics (Sarah Brightman)
[...]
Happy listening to all the intellectually sophisticated classical music fans!!
Customer Review: Amazing Sound, Amazing Value
Summary: 5 Stars
Subsequent to reading about 200 reviews on Harman Kardon's Sounstciks II, one of which was written by a consumate audiophile who found this system hard to fault, I ordered my first set from E-bay but which I returned because they were not cosmetically as advertised ("perfect").
I then ordered a second set from Amazon which sounded sublime--for five minutes before my
room was as silent as a tomb.
No sweat. If a GPS system can cage over the North Atlantic on a fresh-from-the-factory $250,000,000 Boeing 777, I can't really expect Harman Karmon to flawlessly crank out tens of thousands of these things for less than $200 without one or two having a glitch.
But it gets better.
Less than five minutes after I had the unit unplugged Amazon had fired me off a "mea culpa" assuring me I would be sent a new set and that I would have it before I could box up and send back the defective one--and they did.
When the unit arrived I was sure to follow the extremely simple sound-systems-for-dummies set-up instructions. The moment of truth was here--again-- but when I cranked these exquisitely designed speakers up, my room was filled with the sound that would make angels weep, assuming there are angels, they can hear music, and they are capable of weeping.
I'm not an audiophile. I have been told that I have a very primitive, binary nervous system: I sense either pleasure or pain with nothing in the middle. I do not know what the "middle range" is for sounds produced by speakers or what would be a sufficient level of base produced by a subwoofer to justify an investment of about U.S. $120.00. I do know that when I listen to the astonishing Cherubini's "Requiem", I can feel the "searing heat" of the piece in a way I never did before from speakers that cost 10 times as much. I marvel at how
such an inexpensive peripheral could make me understand why Berlioz said that the final moments of Cherubini's masterpiece, ""surpasses anything of the kind that has been written".
All this for less than a really good pair of shoes?
I've heard the criticisms of insufficient volume and bass and, frankly, I don't get it. My guess is that such knitpicking comes from those who you see in bumper-to-bumper traffic tapping on their steering wheels while the base from their car radios makes you feel as though, even with the windows closed, your ribs are exploding in your chest.
I've also heard both vague and specific references to the absence of "middle tones" and "sonic whallop" produced by these speakers and find such criticism baseless, pardon the pun.
No matter what your taste, no matter whether you prefer Mahler to Mick Jagger or Rod Stewart to Rossini, Harman Kardon, by way of Amazon, gives you a terrific bang for your buck with Soundsticks II.
And for an added bonus, the super-slick, space-saving design with it's ethereal blue-lighted subwoofer is a can't-miss icebreaker.
Add it all up--the price, the sound, and Amazon's warp speed customer service if things go wrong--and one word describes it all: intoxicating.
Customer Review: Wow.
Summary: 5 Stars
First let me say that I am not associated in any way with Harman/Kardon, JBL, or any of its affiliates.
Next, you should know that I am an audiophile. In terms of speakers, I own the Klipsch RF-62 II home theater system (obviously with the home theater), and these Soundsticks II, and then for headphones I own the Bose QuietComfort 15, the Klipsch image s4i, and the Sennheiser HD650.
Now into the Soundsticks.
Before I start, you should also know that I am a complete basshead and listen to these with the subwoofer bass volume turned all the way up.
I listen to all sorts of music, but mostly rock (pretty much everything from 1970 to the present) and hip-hop (not cheesy radio songs like "Like a G6" and such but real hip-hop, like Eminem and Dr. Dre). The first thing I will say is that the bass response from the subwoofer is incredible. I also use these with my electric drumset and the hip-hop kit on it is really well defined. But back to music: in terms of rock, the highs are incredible in guitar solos, the mids are well rounded and warm and the bass is great. Some songs like "Losing Touch" by The Killers sound absolutely incredible. That song was my measurement point for testing the rock. The guitar solo at the end was incredibly satisfying. The bass guitar is absolutely huge, my windows rattle. And all the saxophones and horns are very accurately reproduced. All in all, INCREDIBLE.
Now for hip-hop. My three references were "Teach Me How To Dougie" by Cali Swag District, "Cinderella Man" by Eminem, and "Still D.R.E (feat. Snoop Dogg)" by Dr. Dre. The soft (tone-wise not volume) bass in "Teach Me How To Dougie" is definitely accurate, and it actually sounds better than my Klipsch image s4i's (which I honestly did not expect; the s4i's have mind-blowing bass), and the voices were clear. Cinderella man is an oddball. The bass in that song isn't a standard hip-hop bass, listen to the song before you read on. However, something that went previously undetected for me (except with the HD650's), under that "bass" there was a very low rumble that came out through these speakers. I haven't heard it through the image s4i's, the QuietComfort 15's, and I have never listened to music through the RF-62 system. These speakers actually BEAT the HD650's, which was totally unexpected. Through the HD650's, it was a small rumble that I only heard if I paid attention to it. Through the Soundsticks II's, it was a big vibration that shook my desk. Like I said, that little subwoofer puts out some extreme power. Moving on, the somewhat rock-ish bass drum of "Still D.R.E" came out perfectly. A short, sweet thump that was accurately reproduced and sounded spectacular. Snoop Dogg's voice, although sometimes quiet through other speakers, came out clearly and audibly.
All in all, the SoundSticks II are everything you possibly would want in speakers.
One last thing, when you listen to a song with lots of bass (all four of my references are good examples), put your hand on the air hole on top of the subwoofer, and wait for a bass thump. Kept my sister entertained for a while, and is also a display of the sheer power of that thing.
Customer Review: Nearly Perfect Speakers, but not for everyone...
Summary: 5 Stars
I rarely write reviews, and by rarely I mean never.
However, I thought the Harman Kardan Sound Sticks II were too interesting of a productive to not write a review on.
For the price that Amazon is charging, which is a good 50 - 55 dollars less than what the Apple Store charges, these Speakers are an absolute steal. I have used a large variety of speakers for my computer - ranging from the Bose companion 5 to the JBL creatures. The Harman Kardon Sound Sticks easily deliver the best sound quality out of any speaker set I have own, for more than half the price of the Bose companion 5. The sound quality takes advantage of every little sound in all types of music, and makes them sound (the only way to describe it) REALLY good.
These are plug and play speakers which can be an advantage and a disadvantage. Setting them up to a television, which was what I planned on doing, takes effort and extra cords. Plugging them into a computer is extremely easy as long as a usb port is open.
I personally love the design, but it isn't for everyone. The speakers themselves are very space consuming. The Subwoofer is quite larger, and it is also serves as the power source. That would most likely have to go under a persons desk if they were trying to create a computer setup. The speakers themselves are beautifully constructed, and feature a very solid feel and look. The design could definitely pass as a crystal design, but don't expect to fool many people with that lie. I myself have a large setup - I have a microphone, my macbook, a stand for my Ipad, a webcam, a lighting system, and a pulse smart pen. The Subwoofer is definitely larger than I would have liked it to be, considering my computer area looks a little cramped now. But overall, the design is striking, but it is not conservative, so if you are looking for something a bit more casual and more professional looking, I would recommend the Bose Companion 2 - which are around 80 dollars.
For 116 dollars, these are the best speakers you can get. The price is an absolute steal and is a worthy investment for all computer users, novice web browser to heavy duty audiophiles. Its such a treat hearing music and videos with such quality, for such a great price. Like I mentioned before, the design is excellent in my opinion, but could easily be a little too flashy for others preferences.
I highly recommend this product
Customer Review: Harmon/Kardon Soundsticks will impress any critic
Summary: 5 Stars
I have purchased other Harmon/Kardon products in the past, and they have all impressed me, everything from the looks, the price, to the sound. SoundSticks II are no different. Two years ago I wanted to get my sister and her husband a set of new computer speakers for Christmas, so naturally I was pleased to find out that Harmon/Kardon also made a product for this mission of mine. After extensive online research, I decided these were the best when considering price, quality, reputation.
I was deployed so I couldn't look at a floor model until I returned home. Anyway, my sister was more than ecstatic with this great product! When I had a chance to see compare this at Bestbuy with other, more expensive THX-certified computer speaker systems, I was astound that these sounded better than any other system they had there. The crisp, clear highs, the robust natural mids, and the deep-*distortion free* lows. Other systems may have a bigger subwoofer and my go lower, but the bass will not sound as realistic and clean. The "20watts" this system runs on is a reflection of Harmon/Kardon honest power measurements; this will sound as if it were at least a 50 or 100 watt system if measured by other manufactures.
The satellites are on weighed ringed-bases so they sit sturdily; the rest of the construction is built to the same expected quality. The bass knob is on the back of the sub, and small soft touch buttons control the overall volume on the right speaker. Some complain about the lack of big knobs and other convenient extras. What makes this system unique, is its elegance; Harmon/Kardon intentionally wanted to eliminate unnecessary "fluff", so every penny you spend on this product is it's realistic, high quality sound and the elegant appearance. The tactful logo "harmon/kardon" is labeled on the front of the subwoofer and the upper portion of each satellite which complements the overall look.
When I had the chance to listen to this at my sister's apartment, I was so pleased by it's performance, that I now entertain the thought of buying one for myself!
For whoever is interested in this product, and even those who are not, will be universally surprised with the quality and will enjoy this unique product for years to come.