Harman Kardon Top Shelf Wall Shakers
Any thoughts or experiences with these or other quality cost-effective speakers?
Richard, I bought the original Soundsticks 5 years ago, in 2006, and guess what? I still have them! Let me tell you, one thing I like is sound, and these are just as good as my Nakamichi sound system could provide.
I'll tell you, I never thought I would find anything to hook up to my computer that would match what I had in terms of a decent Nakamichi system, with specialty speakers.
However, one day I walked into MacEdge in Nashua, New Hampshire and heard this amazing sound quality. I turned and asked one of the staff what kind of speakers were making that sound and he told me about the Soundsticks.
Since I had sold everything I owned a few years earlier when I took vows in a monastery in India, I knew that buying a whole sounds system was out of the question, simply because I didn't want to have to sell or give anything else away if I decided to move to Asia, etc.,
I left MacEdge that day with a new laptop and a pair of Harman Kardon Soundsticks (which I like to refer to as my "Joysticks".
The great sadness, the inevitability of change, however, came when I tried to plug my Soundsticks into my new Mac Mini (late 2010) (what does that mean, anyway??) port, and found out it was a no-go!!!
How sad. I don't know why, but for some reason the connection is different on the back of the Mac Mini, and it just doesn't play sound. The only alternative is to plug my Soundsticks into the back of my HDPanasonic and use that for sound, which isn't bad but it's NOT the sound I get out of my HK Soundsticks.
In addition, I'm not one to play really loud music, but I love the rich tones I get from my speakers, and when the nasty next door neighbor, who has been terrorizing the rest of us with his loud music binges for the past 3 years, I can and have on two occasions strutted out my stuff and played a song or two for him, just to let him know that two can play at this game! And let me tell you, ever since that day, he knows he better not crank up his tunes because I can make the WALLS SHAKE!
Now, I know you don't have a neighbor just like that, and if you've asked him/her to lower their music and they are still acting like juvidesecrants, then this is the power tool for you. : )
In addition, today's version comes with USB ports, which makes me wonder why they d/c the other version, and why Mac Mini doesn't support the older sticks. It makes me wonder if maybe HK & Apple are in cohoots to get people to buy the new Soundsticks?
BUY them, I've yet to see ANY speaker out there with this kind of quality, and if you are in the US, you can get them now for 169.00!
