Harman KardonHK SoundSticks 4-2.1 Bluetooth Speaker System with Deep Bass and Inspiring Industrial Design (White)

I freelanced for Harman in the 90s and they were a great client for about 20 years. Over that time I got to experience all of the wonderful sound systems from the various Harman brands. I'm still a Harman fan even though I no longer work for the company, but this iteration of the Soundsticks didn't wow me like I hoped.First the cons:- Out of the box, the sound is flat (note that I said "out of the box"). This will bum out anyone that expects plug-and-play convenience.- Previous Soundsticks that had a nice mid and high range with bass that you could adjust in just the way you liked it. I find that every other song that I listen to requires adjusting the EQ. This is especially aggravating if you listen to a wide variety of music. If you're a whole album type, then you'll find that the speakers are great once you get them dialed in.- The cable length from the sub to the satellites is very short compared to old models. I was really surprised at how short they are and how annoying this was when setting the system up.- The satellites are fixed in the angle they point as opposed to the old models that were adjustable. If you want the sound pointed in your face, you're good. If you have a high ceiling and want to bounce the sound upward, you're stuck. A minor complaint, but I felt it worth mentioning.- At lower volumes the sound is noticeably flat...The pros:- ... but at loud volume, these speakers thunder like speakers three times their size - and they maintain their warmth and brightness without getting tinny. The flatness of the audio goes away and you will get room shaking power. If you love it loud, just hit that add to cart button and get your credit card out now.- The sound fills my office nicely and can be heard on the other end of my house at even a moderate volume. While this is a good thing, I'm not always cranking music when I'm at my computer. Sometimes I just want some light ambience and that's where these Soundsticks fall a bit short.- The design is nothing short of outstanding and they look great on my desk. Being able to get the satellites away from the sub is worth the price alone. And since the sub is so gorgeous, putting it on the floor under your desk would deprive you of seeing how cool it looks every time you walk in the room. I keep mine at desk level. And since all the buttons are on the sub, keeping it on the floor is simply not an option. A control dial would be nice for future models, but that kind of thing isn't Harman's style.- The sub can be very powerful if you're into that sort of thing. Oh, and the sub has a nice LED light. It's too bad that it's only one color and doesn't do anything but illuminate.- Others are complaining about the Bluetooth connectivity for some reason. It works fine for me. And you can connect with cables if you're old school.Of all the speakers I have in my house, I rank the Soundsticks at or near the top. Only my old Design Acoustics floor standing speakers can compete. The Soundsticks beat my Pioneer towers and trounce my JBL and Bose bookshelf speakers.If you're the type that doesn't consider yourself an audiophile, but also take music seriously and know good speakers when you hear them, the Soundsticks are tough to beat. Vastly superior to the all-in-one options.

These are a great entry into the SoundSticks line of speakers. As my title states, these were originally designed by Apple for Mac back in 2000, with subsequent iterations in the last 21 years. I love that these harken back to Apple's product design of the first half of the 2000s with the clear high quality plastic encasing a nice design internally with white accents; very Apple-like! I use these everyday with my Mac mini and they haven't disappointed: just like with Apple's products, they "just work" where Harman Kardon has factory-tuned the sound profile for what they think is the best experience that you can get with these. Now, if you want to customize the sound to your liking, you can search for and install an app that lets you do so.The unit is made up of two satellite speakers with built-in left and right RCA cables, the subwoofer, and power cable, which are all connected to the subwoofer. Although not included, if you're like me and plan to use this with a stationary source (Mac mini), I purchased a simple white-colored 3.5 mm audio cable to plug in and have lag-free audio. These speakers also have the option for bluetooth so, if you have an iPhone or any other bluetooth-enabled device that you want to stream audio from, you're covered.As for the most important aspect (the sound), these sound AWESOME! Very clean with no emphasis on any one aspect of sound: simply well-rounded. The bass on these sound REALLY GOOD as well: you can FEEL the bass whenever you listen to a bass-heavy sound effect or song. Speaking of sound, in order to adjust the volume, the subwoofer has touch-sensitive buttons on the front face towards the bottom; a departure from previous generations that had the volume control on one of the speakers itself. However, as with all external speakers, since I set the speaker volume on the physical unit itself to around halfway and then adjust on my Mac itself, this is a non-issue for me. What's also cool is that, if you do decide to adjust the volume, the center of the subwoofer's interior lights up in a number of rings: when you lower the volume, the number of rings decreases towards the center; when raised, the number of rings increases radiating out from the center. What a nice touch!You never have to worry about turning these speakers off as they have an auto standby feature that kicks in when there's no sound after a few minutes. Whenever it does go to sleep, you'll know by the subwoofer's center light inside the dome lighting up and staying lit for a few minutes finally turning off. The only downside about this is that they don't always wake up right away when sound starts to play; I've had these wait as long as around 20 seconds on occasion before finally hearing what I want! However, this was with the previous unit that I replaced with the one that I'm reviewing now, so it may have been just a quirk with that particular unit (one of the reasons why I returned the old one, just in case).Overall, I would DEFINITELY recommend these beauties to anyone who wants the combination of great aesthetics and sound, with that Apple-like ease of use and "just works" balanced sound.