Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Plug and Play Multimedia Speaker System by JBL
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Digital camera reviews of Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Plug and Play Multimedia Speaker System
Digital camera Review: "The eye sees (and hears) more than the heart can know"
Summary: 5 Stars
The quote is (mostly) by the most mystic of English poets, William Blake. The parenthetical insertion I'll accept responsibility for, but it's appropriate in the sense that Blake's best- known poems come from two collections with a musical title: "The Songs of Innocence" and "The Songs of Experience." The Harmon-Kardon speakers, if nothing else, validate and even illuminate the bard's proverbial statement. The form factor stops just short of being gaudy or a mere kind of gimmickry, instead underscoring the translucent, clear, absolutely pristine quality of the audio.
"SoundSticks" is perhaps an unfortunate designation, bringing to mind kids playing video games and using joysticks. But no doubt the makers of the unit sensed that a term such as "Twin Towers of Peace and Tranquillity" just wouldn't cut it in the marketplace. It does seem strange, though, that the most conspicuous of the three objects--the "woofer" component--isn't even mentioned in the name. With its eerie yet alluring blue luminescence, it's bound to strike some as a spaceship mock-up, but I prefer to see it as an "oasis" or "grail," a feminine mother-ship that magnetically attracts the onlooker to the music.
Be assured that the sound of these speakers is anything but "overwhelming," loud, or arresting. The operative word here is "understatement," but the emphasis on subtlety merely serves to bring out the faithful, utterly "natural" quality of the human voice, the piano, the orchestra without gratuitous spikes or artificial boosts. Formerly, I owned the woofer alone, and the only way I could be certain that it was working was to disconnect it now and then. It provides a rich and complex foundation to the mids and highs, yet never calls attention to itself. (Just be careful not to advance the bass control beyond the mid-point.) Not to become picky, but the touch sensitive, near theremin-like control of the volume, while a clever modernistic touch, seems no more practical than an ordinary rotary knob. Also, a jack for monitoring recordings would have been preferable to the Y-connectors I now must use to connect the HK speakers to a computer.
I hope I'm not being nostalgic, but I wouldn't necessarily view these as the kind of "audiophile" speakers that aroused endless comparisons and controversy among those of us who, in the '60s and '70s, stood passionately by our chosen transducer. I remember the thrill of hearing an AR2 speaker for the first time (I could afford only one), only to be challenged by the possessors of a KLH or Advent loudspeaker (the tones all the warmer because of the tube amplifiers that seemed made to bring out their inexhaustible vibrant potential). When I finally had saved up enough, I broke ranks with these overly fastidious and often snooty champions of hermetically-sealed East Coast speakers in favor of the brighter-sounding West Coast speakers make by JBL--first, the Lancer 100 speakers with the colored foam grills and next the Athena S99 model with its enormous 14" woofer.
I understand that Mr. Harmon, the founder of JBL/Harmon Kardon, is now in his 90s and still active, so even with these latter-day plastic creatures, there's a connection with a tradition which, like the beckoning azure light, practically sanctifies the space around the computer screen, transforming it into an altar as at this very moment I hear the sound of Sinatra singing "My Shining Hour" with choirs of angels (a controversial addition for a 1980's album) surrounding me on all sides.
[Practical matters: Like many other owners of desktop machines, I first went with the much praised Logitech speakers at a "giveaway" price. Unfortunately, the audio quality was inferior to the internal speakers of my iMac (not surprising, since Harmon Industries first worked with Apple in the early to mid-90s to come up with a complementary, stylish and sonically matched bass driver--the "iSub"--for the early iMacs). The present bass unit replicates the dimensions of the iSub, but (thankfully) the power transformer is smaller and lighter than the big "brick" that accompanied the original subwoofer. Attention to detail is impressive, from "locking" jacks for attached cords, to unmistakable right and left outputs for the satellite speakers, to generous electrical and speaker cord lengths, with perhaps the exception of the 3.5mm audio cable that connects the unit to the audio out jack on a computer. The length of this cord is clearly designed to encourage placement of the SoundSticks unit in a configuration beneath and straddling the computer. (Fortunately, this is the cable for which an extension is a non-problematic "add-on" should the user wish to place the entire unit at a further remove from his or her desktop machine.) Finally, I'm relieved to discover that the 2 vertical towers, unlike some others I've checked out, have enough weight to hold their place--no velcro or sandbags required (reassuring to those of us whose desktops tend to be in a continual state of turbulence.)]
[Further: Price-wise, Amazon is selling these for almost half their original retail price. Not a bad deal, especially compared to the Harmon Kardon GLA-55 pair of speakers (jagged moon-rocks going for a grand). Occasionally, users have experienced frustration at the dropping out of one of the channels. The cure usually consists of connecting the speakers directly to the computer (not a hub) and/or going to the "Audio MIDI Setup Utility" in the Applications>Utilities folder and making sure it's set to "2 channels 16 bits," not "1 channel 16 bits."]
Digital camera Review: 10 Years Old and still going strong!!
Summary: 5 Stars
These speakers are just amazing. I bought the original Harman Kardon Soundsticks in 1999 for use with my Grape iMac. Since then, I have gone through 3 Macs with the same speakers. They still sound amazing today on my 4-year-old MacBook Pro. I listen to them all the time - sound quality is great and they are built to last. You can't go wrong with buying these speakers.Digital camera Review: 312Capri
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been comments about the satellite unit cable lengths. The right channel unit contains the volume control and therefore uses a special cable and connector. The left channel satellite however uses a standard RCA phono jack connection so it's relatively simple to extend that cable. I used a female to female phono plug adapter to plug the left channel cable into and a standard single RCA phono cable to connect the channel into the sub-woofer unit. Very happy with sound and the system is very compact. We are using it in the living room with an MP3 player and our portable CD player as sound sources. Harman Kardon SoundSticks II Plug and Play Multimedia Speaker SystemDigital camera Review: 7 years... still is my best friend - Harman Kardon.
Summary: 5 Stars
i love harman kardon, all the product they made is crystal clear, their bass techonolgy is just amazing, i'm a speaker collector, i have a Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin, and a Bose Wave system. both $600 speakers' are amazing, but comparing to this one, the bass system is just not comparable, this speaker i bought is 7 years ago, when it first comeout, today, it works perfectly! 7years! what thing can stay amazing still for 7 years! the bass is great!Digital camera Review: A 14 Year old's Review on great speakers
Summary: 5 Stars
I am actually 14, not under 13, but these are great speakers. If you get them, it's best to let them play on songs with good bass, but not too loud for about an hour. Then, crank up your speakers full blast and bump your house with crisp booming bass!