HK 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.

I'm one of those types of amazon shoppers who looks at and compares a lot of products when I want to buy something, look at a lot of the reviews, I often times ask Customer Questions, and I look at a lot of YouTube videos about the product. Or in other words, I spend a lot of time trying to choose the best product that works for me, and this product is EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR! 😄 Also, the PROs are... 1) Originally, I was looking for two portable Bluetooth speakers that I could pair together to produce right-left real stereo sound, but this is exactly what the two satellite speakers on this unit do. 2) These speakers get really loud, although, I can't imagine a situation where I would be turning them up to full volume. 3) I personally think that the speaker cords are long enough, even though I've read some reviews where some customers didn't think that they were long enough. However, when I extended them out, they look like they are around 3 feet long. Therefore, that's a 6-foot spread between each of the two satellite speakers. 4) The bass is great. However, of course they're not going to sound as good as my Polk Audio PSW505 12" 460-Watt Powered Subwoofer that I keep in my living room or something comparable, however, for a portable Bluetooth speaker, the sound of the bass is excellent! 5) Even though this is technically a desktop computer speaker, I think that this works great or even better than the average Bluetooth speaker. 6) It's very easy to use, and I don't think that the manual had instructions in it, but just pictures of the various parts of this speaker system and how those parts fit together. However, everything is very self-explanatory. 7) And I find it very beautiful and very unique looking. Also, I like the way the lights come on when you turn on the power, and how the light changes when you adjust the volume from your phone. But as far as the CONs go, for me there are no cons, however, maybe it would be for someone who likes to take their speaker on the go with them. Although, I don't think that an on-the-go Bluetooth speaker would have all these features in it, and probably wouldn't sound as good. However, if you're looking for a speaker that you would use for an indoor party or get-together, then I can't think of a better Bluetooth speaker. *EDITED!* Here are some additional pictures of the HK SoundSticks in my apartment building's Community Room.

I've always wanted Soundsticks for a Mac, ever since they first came out, and as I was no longer using a triple 27 inch monitor setup (thanks to the limitations of the M1), I thought now was a good time to try some tall satellites which formerly would have been hidden behind monitors. 1: The look I've always liked how soundsticks looked, but this new 4th generation I wasn't quite sure about; I just bought it because it was the newest version. Since I've had it, however, it's really grown on me. The satellites in particular have an organic quality that I find very appealing. They also take up very little desk space too since they're much taller than wide. They will not, however, fit underneath a monitor, so they're a bit limited in where you can use them. The subwoofer is the showpiece, and it is extremely eye-catching, but the lighting is limited in two opposite ways. Sometimes I want the light off so as not to have a glowing distraction in the corner of my eye, and there's no way (that I can find) to do that. Alternatively, if you want to use a wired connection (if you've got a ton of BT interference, for instance), the lightning can't be turned on. Bizarre. 2: The size The satellites are highly space efficient, which is in stark contrast to the absolutely enormous subwoofer. I had no idea it was going to be this comically oversized. There's a sense in which it's so large as to be almost a parody of a PC speaker system, like someone mocked it up as a joke. Don't get me wrong; I understand that subs can be enormous, but rarely are those intended to sit on your desk the way the HK's are. It will absolutely consume your desk, so you will inevitably put it on the floor, in which case, you won't get the cool looks you bought it for. I would be much happier if this were half the size or even smaller, which seems doable since my HomePod can match or exceed its bass at a fraction of the size. 3: The sound I'm no audiophile, and these sound fine to me. I suspect that for most PC/Mac speaker needs, these will do a very good job. I tend to use good (if not amazing) desk speakers, like the SBX Katana on my PC, and this can hang with those. Many reviewers have said that the bass is completely out of balance on these, and I find myself to be very sensitive to bass; I tend to like a lot less than most. Despite this, I'd say the sound is very balanced. It's a lot less "boomy" than my HomePod, for instance. I don't have any discrete bass control, which would be nice, but I've honestly never felt the need to adjust it, and I actually usually do turn bass down on new speakers. 4: The problems The biggest issue is the hum. The sub emits a moderately loud hum, basically the sound you expect to hear from aging fluorescent tubes. Underneath my desk, the noise is tolerable, and I only hear it in total silence. On my desk, it's very annoying, and any time there's a pause between songs or dialogue, I'm immediately aware of it. That's not to say it's loud; it isn't. It's just constantly audible in the background. Eventually the speaker goes to sleep and you suddenly feel this sense of relief because you realize that you've been tuning out this noise the entire time. The are some other very minor issues that I think most people will be able to live with. I've highlighted some small cosmetic issues; a weird mark on one of (and only one of) the drivers which is hardly noticeable, and you can see some regular drops of glue that are probably normal on the sub; these are a little more noticeable because your attention is really drawn to inspect this little piece of art. There's also a lot of fine hairlines that came on the speakers new; this doesn't bode well for long term usage, so you want to be super careful with these or they might look dull in 5 years, but again, I think I'm just extremely nitpicky. Most people would find this to be acceptable. It's really the hum that bothers me; I could live with the tiny cosmetic issues, and most people wouldn't notice. 5: The volume controls and sleep mode A lot of people complained about how this speaker automatically goes to sleep after enough time passes. I expected this to drive me crazy, but it really hasn't. It takes maybe 1-2 seconds for mine to resume playback, and it's just never delayed me enough to get on my nerves. I wish it didn't go to sleep, don't get me wrong, and it really ought not to, but it's not a big deal. People have also complained about the volume controls being on the sub instead of the satellite. I can definitely see how that would annoy you, particularly if you put it under your desk. But for my purposes, I just left it at default volume and controlled it with my computer, and that worked perfectly fine. I find that the volume controls become a lot more important if you use an aux cable, for obvious reasons (which I tested just for the sake of testing). I suppose I would say that, if you intend to use an aux cable, then you probably need to worry about the volume controls being reachable, but if you're on BT, it's no issue at all. 6: The support I jumped onto chat with HK about these things where they told me that chat support was only for "Harman Kardon Lifestyle Products" and that I had to e-mail their support system with a lot of information. This struck me as bizarre; why not support your most iconic product. Not a big deal though, I e-mailed them as instructed and two business days later I got a reply asking for a ton of technical information. Again, pretty ordinary stuff, but what struck me is this quote: "I see that your HK Soundsticks 4 has some damage, please be advised that physical damage is not covered under warranty." I really never claimed they were damaged; I was just asking if these things were normal or not. But what was really striking was that they claimed that physical damage wasn't covered under warranty; keep in mind that these are maybe 3 days old at this point. Physical damage isn't covered under the warranty? Then what is? Software damage? I don't know of any way to read that other than that nothing can ever be covered under the warranty. So at that point, I'd had enough and didn't bother replying. The e-mail implied that it wouldn't matter what I said anyway, I'd be buying replacement parts for the new speakers if the "issues" were abnormal. While the sound of these is good, you could say the same thing for iLoud Micro Monitors or AE A2+s or numerous other speakers at this price range; you're buying HK Soundsticks for their design. I don't mind paying extra for design, but if the whole point is to put this on your desk as an aesthetic marvel, you can't make it hum annoyingly loud, you need to give control of the lighting to the user, you can't take up a huge area of the desk, and you can't have numerous, albeit admittedly small, cosmetic defects. Any one of these things, other than the hum, would have been tolerable, but it really adds up. They don't feel like "beta" devices, but there are a lot of easy fixes on the table for a V2.0. I'm not saying that no one should buy these; they're competent. If you don't mind sacrificing the desk space and love how they look, then I think these are still viable. Most people aren't as obsessively detail-oriented as I am and aren't even going to notice the small cosmetic defects. But I wouldn't use these in super quiet environments like my office; the hum will very gradually drive you insane. In a moderately loud office or area where there's a constant low background noise, you might not even notice the hum, but I tend to work in total silence in my home so I'm admittedly more susceptible to this than a lot of people will be.

4/5 stars (rating bumped up from original rating of 3/5 stars because their customer service was prompt and semi-useful, and also bumped up because I've found a 3rd-party app to make the speakers sound much less bass-heavy) Pros: -After manual software EQ modification, they sound excellent, and the HK SS4 system can rival many larger, more ugly, and more expensive speakers -Can get very loud without distorting -Deep, powerful, CLEAN bass; so low you'd swear the woofer is much larger. -Frequency response on all levels of the spectrum are reproduced extremely accurately -Beautiful, striking and unique design; modern upgrade compared to past 3 generations -Blends well with many contemporary environments due to transparent design -System connectivity wiring is much cleaner, integrated and higher quality compared to previous 3 generations Cons: -Extremely over boosted bass frequency response; disturbs neighbors in urban environments -Unable to adjust bass volume (the 3 previous generations allowed adjustability) -Unable to adjust satellite speaker angles (the 3 previous generations allowed adjustability) -System's sleep mode experiences inconsistent wake durations; no ability to keep system constantly on (when I hit play on my Mac sometimes it can take up to 20 seconds for HK SS4 to wake up with wired connection) -System's lighted woofer component inconsistently works; sometimes it's on and other times it's off -System volume is adjusted by buttons on woofer unit, unlike the older generations which adjusted on satellite speaker, forcing anyone who wants to control volume to reach for the woofer, which isn't always conveniently located Background: I'm an amateur audiophile and I've built my first set of speakers back in 2001. I've owned probably 20 different sets of /quality/ speakers since then. I've been using Harman Kardon SoundSticks all the way back to generation 2, which debuted in 2004. I've reached out to Harman/Kardon support to inquire about the lack of bass adjustability, and it's been about a week of back and forth of helping them understand the issue about the delay in "wake time" and asking them what can I do since they've removed the adjustable bass knob from their 4th generation system. They've yet to provide any substantive solutions and this forces me to purchase a 3rd-party EQ app (Boom 2) for my Mac to allow me to adjust the EXTREMELY excessive low frequency response of the H/K SS4 system. BTW, Boom 2 is great. At least there is a workaround, and the speakers sound great after applying the EQ, once they wake up; and they look great on my new pandemic work-from-home den desktop setup. Update 2 Dec, 2020: Support told me that the system is designed to work in its current state (which, in my opinion, is extremely bass-heavy and unbalanced as such): "I just received word from our internal team There is no individual subwoofer control on the SOUNDSTICKS 4 speakers. The entire system is designed as a nearfield system, to be part of a computer, with the two speakers directly on either side of the monitor, and the sub right below, with the listener sitting at the desk only a few feet away. In that scenario, the speakers have been tuned to have a perfect balance between the sub and satellite speakers. Therefore there is no need for a separate subwoofer control. However, you may use a third party equalizer on your computer to play around with the bass control virtually. Hope this helps."

These speakers sound crisp, clean and high quality with just a little tweak to the EQ. Crisp, sharp electric guitar, very clear and crisp dialog, by far the best sounding desktop speakers I've ever heard that's for sure. Bluetooth always connects for easy setup and the size makes it easy to setup too. Very compact, but the speakers have a nice quality feel and weight to them.

Very good sound quality

So, my Soundsticks II finally died after almost 13 years of service. I figured, give these a try and see. Man, they sound great! Deep bass, though not at low volume, and clear as a bell. The problem and why I returned them? They go to sleep somewhere between 5-10 minutes. All the support sites say to get a low-level noise to run in the background to prevent them from sleeping. Every sound I tried at ever volume I tried didn't work -- in fact, they went to sleep in the middle of a song. So, I contacted Harmon Kardon support. I had even written an AppleScript to play a sound every 5, 7, 10 minutes -- I tried several different time frames, just didn't work. HK's support answer: "It's great to hear that you appreciate the sound quality, but I completely understand your concerns, especially given your positive experience with the Soundsticks II. If the low volume adjustment and script options don't resolve the issue, returning them might be a reasonable choice." So they are going back to Amazon today. I'll end up buying some pricier speakers in the end, but it was just a. deal-breaker with the sound cutting out. I mean, they're speakers. It shouldn't take another application or additional software to connect them and have them work. Pretty disappointed by the whole thing. Also, this issue was replicable over the AUX connection and Bluetooth. I had them primarily connected through the AUX, but it didn't work either way. So if you decide to get them, just know that because of the EU's requirement for power saving, these speakers go into sleep mode constantly. No firmware updates available (it's a connection not he motherboard) and no help from HK. They did give me discount on other speakers. No thanks. I wish there was a "rest of the world" version, but there's not. YMMV, but I had no luck.