"For the price", it better give you eargasms.
My $80 (on sale) HK Onyx Studio 2 BT speaker has TONS of bass, is powerful, and sounds fantastic. It's not smart, but when I want to listen to music, I prefer to use my iPhone to browse and control what I listen to. It takes mere seconds and I save $270.
It does. I would honestly buy the HomePod even if it weren't smart. In fact I usually end up controlling it with my iPhone anyway, since I'm on my phone so much. I've never heard that particular Harman Kardon model, but looking at the specs/design I can guarantee you I would still prefer the HomePod despite the price. If you're happy with your setup, that's great. I won't knock it. Maybe the HomePod isn't for you. However, I will tell you some of why I love it so much.
1. The omni-directional tweeter array is simply beautiful. It allows a couple things that most other single-unit speakers can't match. First, you can walk around the room and always feel like the speaker is pointed directly at you. There is never a loss of clarity until you actually go into another room. This was very important to me since I have it set up in a wide open living room space with 4 different points of entry. Second, the ambient beamforming is legit. It will bounce background vocals and other non-central sounds to the sides and off the walls in a way that really opens up the music. It's not tacky, either, like some of the virtual surround sound effects I've heard before (which usually just blast extra treble upward and to the sides). I can actually hear the HomePod picking out different timbres and separating them, which is crazy. There is always near-perfect clarity with absolutely no harshness or sibilance.
2. The bass is also sublime. In fact its response range goes 15Hz lower than the Onyx (which makes sense given the larger woofer and greater excursion). The automatic bass correction is great too, because you can listen at full volume without distortion, but also because you can listen at low volumes without losing too much bass to the background noise of the environment.
3. The packaging scores very high on the WAF scale. It has a small footprint, a subtle mesh/fabric wrap, zero visible branding, and isn't very tall either. The siri/volume lights tastefully adjust to the ambient lighting. As I said, this is in our living room on an end table, and my wife is especially picky about how things look in this room. We don't have a TV there, and it has become a kind of serene sanctuary in our house where we like to read, chat, sip drinks, etc. However, we still wanted to be able to fire up some music for studying, parties, or whatever.
I could go on with a few more reasons, but suffice it to say, I think it's well worth the price. YMMV based on savings goals and what not.
