Hey guys, just wanted to give you a quick mini-review of the Harman Kardon Aura wireless speaker system. The speaker seems to be relatively new to the market as there weren't many reviews when I was in the market for it. What makes this speaker unique is the design of course, and the fact that it is both an AirPlay and bluetooth speaker.
The speaker retails for $399 at the Apple store.
Pros:
Incredible design, looks more like art than a speaker
Good sound, I'll get to this in a minute
Versatility of having both AirPlay and bluetooth
Price. While not cheap, its comparable to its competitors
Cons:
-The sound, while good, is not great. I have a Bose SoundLink II that I really struggle to find inferior to the Harman Kardon Aura. The Aura is very powerful and can definitely shake the floor if you want it to, but the sound still just isn't as crisp as you'd expect a $400 speaker to be.
-Source switching/connectivity. Even after pairing your phone with the speaker, you have to manually go into bluetooth settings on your device and reconnect manually. The Aura doesn't automatically connect to the device when its turned on. This is a tragic flaw, IMO. This matter is further complicated by splotchy playback when paired. On more than a few occasions, I had to turn the bluetooth radio off on my iPhone and back in order to correct awful sound distortion. This was never an issue with the aforementioned Bose SoundLink.
-The buttons on the Aura are capacitive and require you to find them with your eyes each time. Turning the speaker on and adjusting the volume is needlessly complicated as a result.
In all, I'm a bit disappointed with the speaker. I was hoping the performance would match the great design, but I can't say thats the case. By no means am I an audiophile, but I still am able to recognize the sound is not as beautiful as the Harman Kardon name would suggest.
The speaker retails for $399 at the Apple store.
Pros:
Incredible design, looks more like art than a speaker
Good sound, I'll get to this in a minute
Versatility of having both AirPlay and bluetooth
Price. While not cheap, its comparable to its competitors
Cons:
-The sound, while good, is not great. I have a Bose SoundLink II that I really struggle to find inferior to the Harman Kardon Aura. The Aura is very powerful and can definitely shake the floor if you want it to, but the sound still just isn't as crisp as you'd expect a $400 speaker to be.
-Source switching/connectivity. Even after pairing your phone with the speaker, you have to manually go into bluetooth settings on your device and reconnect manually. The Aura doesn't automatically connect to the device when its turned on. This is a tragic flaw, IMO. This matter is further complicated by splotchy playback when paired. On more than a few occasions, I had to turn the bluetooth radio off on my iPhone and back in order to correct awful sound distortion. This was never an issue with the aforementioned Bose SoundLink.
-The buttons on the Aura are capacitive and require you to find them with your eyes each time. Turning the speaker on and adjusting the volume is needlessly complicated as a result.
In all, I'm a bit disappointed with the speaker. I was hoping the performance would match the great design, but I can't say thats the case. By no means am I an audiophile, but I still am able to recognize the sound is not as beautiful as the Harman Kardon name would suggest.