Harman Kardon Sound Sticks 2 Review

I realise these are a bit old now, but given lots of people still buy them or choose believe highly of them, I thought Id write a few of my observations.
The soundsticks 2 are the same as the soundsticks 3 in most ways, so a lot about this review should still be of some relevance.

I also found my old video where I reviewed the Harman Kardon Sound Sticks speakers. so there was more reason to make this post.

The Verdict:

If you dont care about the details & just want to know what I think, then Save Your Monay & go buy something else.

If you dont want real 'hifi' sound, then a Creative Inspire T or P series speaker is great.
They are also much better than Logitech in my opinion, which again is a matter for a different blog post.

The Harmans want to look like they are 'HiFi', but they are not.
If you want real hifi, for that kind of money, it is easily possible to buy a set of used B&W or paradigm (or whatever 'real' hifi speakers you like) & attach them to a half decent used amp, & viola, you have real sound.

The Details

Overall presentation:

But naturally a HK product doesnt fail to impress when it comes to the looks n feel, the aesthetics, the little details such as the feather touch controls are pretty cool, but Im not paying you just for that.

There are more cables than needed, Im sure a simple wiring pattern like those used by everyone else would have been just as easy for HK, but no, we're HK, we'll do it different just so we can justify the $$

The Bummers:

No easy access to bass control, its behind the sub.
Main power switch is same as bass control, again behind the sub!
No head phone jack or front dock of any kind - what a shame.

Bullshit 'guaranteed to not crack at full volume' marketing:

Marketing gimmick telling you the speakers are desgined to not sound off even at full volume. Ie the bass will never ruble & always be clean.

This is a load of crock, all it does is that after a certain 'abolute' master volume level is reached, the 'relative' woofer is volume no longer increased, no matter how high you increase the master volume level.

So when they are loud, they sound very tatty & flat, because there is very little relative bass being pumped out by the system.

The peak bass level is achieved using the bass volume aka gain control, but it has a cut off limiter set at precisely the amount of bass the woofer will emit, so its doing nothing more than limiting your bass - under the pretext of 'rattle proof full volue sound'.

The Sound quality:

Above average but not great. And certainly not worth the money.

The Acoustic/Driver Design:

Not being an acoustic engineer, please take my thoughts with a grain of salt, but my experience hopefully should count for an informed opinion...

More coming up